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Merks axs a very good question:
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....
SSI is all about creative thinking, but .... Let's start with an understanding how how most ML teams view reserve infielders (which is, like it or not, how they would view Nick Franklin if he were on the 25-man roster).
They view it as a VERY difficult, you could almost say near-impossible, assignment: Your Willie Bloomquist, or your Mark McLemore, that guy is there to raise the manager's comfort level. He has to sit on the bench, and be ready to play:
- Second base, maybe
- Shortstop, maybe
- Third base, maybe
- Other things too, maybe (pinch-run, fill in a double-switch, etc etc)
And he has to do so at a time when the manager is frazzed out. The regular third baseman is drunk and hung over, let's say, and you got CC Sabathia in New York, and he looks down the bench, he doesn't want to see a kid with eyes like saucers. Willie is there to jump into SS for one day and -- say it with Dr. D, now -- Not. Hurt. the. Team.
The reserve infielder is there to FEEL very reliable -- and to do so as a second baseman. Then to feel very reliable as a third baseman. Then to FEEL very reliable, as a shortstop.