Bleacher Bums Forum

Wow.  If I said 6 years, and it was actually 7 years in the outfield, then obviously that disproves everything I said, and it is now obvious that 23 year old infielders lose their ability to play the infield after two years in the outfield.

Sarcasm aside, I doubt that you would find any baseball person that would accept that a 23 year old would lose his skills for a particular position due to playing the outfield for 2 years.  Of course, you are more intent on defending the indefensible than in conducting a rational discussion.

Rose was never a good infielder.  But after playing the outfield for SEVEN years, he was able to fill a team need and return to the infield while in his thirties.  He didn't do it well, but doing it helped the team and he was able to accomplish it in an acceptable manor.

And in the interest of accuracy, I never said that Rose only played the outfield for only a couple of years.  I specifically said that he played there 6 years.  I was merely pointing out that YOU said that a player would lose his skills after a couple of years, and gave an example of someone that surpassed that time.  Unless you somehow believe that a player would lose his skills after two years, but get them back after seven years, your argument is deteriorating quickly.

And it is you that is misstating Epsteins position.  What sense is there to draft a player because he can play other positions if you never intend for him to play other positions even if it would improve the team?  That is as silly as saying that you would deliberately degrade the defensive ability of your team because somehow you lose hypothetical value of one single player.  You say this even in the face of evidence to the contrary.  Do you actually believe that the Cubs will keep Castro on the bench because Russell is playing shortstop.  They moved him to a less valued position because he is better there than the other options.  And he will continue to play there until his hitting declines or until he is traded.  No GM or manager would cut off his nose to cut his face, as you seem to advocate.