1. He does not hit for any power, never will and this team lacks power.
2. He does not walk all that much and strikes out a ton. See Austin Jackson.
3. How do you know whether a player is an injury risk?
4. Went from being a SS, to one year in CF and you want to make him the LFer?
5. So far, defense has not been part of his game.
All the scouting reports talk about is his insane speed. Great. Some people drool over speed guys (Quintin Berry). But stealing bases is not that valuable in today's AL game. It is valuable, just not like it was back in the 70's and 80's.
Bottom line, with the recent position change, he is at least another year away from the big leagues. Even if we made him the starting 2B he would be a year away.
Scherzer should net a starting position player (maybe not an All Star), a solid reliever and a mid-level prospect, at a minimum.
1. He doesn't need to hit for power, he just needs to get on base, .350 OBP in 2258 plate appearances(5 years). This team has plenty of power Tied for 7th in all of baseball in HR'S with 176. Also finishing 2nd in all of baseball in total bases and RBI.
2. Hamilton walks 0.43 times a game to Jacoby Ellsbury's 0.31 and strike outs are 2013 season Hamilton 0.83 to Ellsbury's 0.68 a game. Austin Jackson's walks per game 0.38 and 2013 strike outs per game 1.0 (I used Ellsbury cause he is supposed to be the best lead off man in the game)
3. Hamilton is not an injury risk he has had a season stealing 133 bases in 135 games.Also 395 SB'S in 502 games The wear and tear of stealing that many bases means he has the body and the toughness and make up of a big time base stealer. A la Ricky Henderson, Vince Coleman, Tim Raines.
4. He did have a lot of errors at SS but his range factor was in the 4.50 range. The logical choice was to move him to move to CF. Billy did have 7 errors this year in CF, but he also had 8 OF assists which is excellent. 2nd base is not an option, keep him in the OF
5. My school of thought is if a guy can play CF he should be able to play LF with out any hiccups. With the cannon arm he has he could develop into an Alex Gordon, Carl Crawford type LF
The difference between Berry and Hamilton is - Berry is a Jorneyman piece of cannon fodder (one trick pony type). Hamilton is a highly touted blue chip top 10 prospect. He has speed to burn, can take a walk, and get base hits.
With austin jackson only stealing 8 bases last year we are desperate at the lead off position.
The tigers were dead last in SB'S WITH A PATHETIC 30. I personally think the day of the SB is back. There is a huge demand for it. The problem is there are hardly any bigtime base stealers out there. That is why I put such a huge premium on Hamilton.
