=== Jack Hannahan, SS ===

Lookout Landing with a great op-ed on Hannahan's ability to play shortstop.  LL's essential position seems to be that if Hannahan had to play 30 or 45 games in a row at short, it would be nothing to throw ourselves off the view balcony over.  In this view, they seem to coincide with Zduriencik's and Wakamatsu's.

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=== Dumb Question Dept. ===

Before I lay out a cheap rebuttal, let me begin by saying if Hannahan can back up at shortstop, why not Matt Tuiasosopo?  Or Jose Lopez?  Lopez actually was a shortstop when he first came up, in 2004, playing 57 of his 58 games at SS.  He played a lot more than that at SS in the minors.

Lopez is, as we speak, a major-league 2B with average-solid lateral range.  JLo doesn't look like a quick second baseman, but he does function effectively as a quick second baseman.

Hannahan's ability to play as good a 2B as Jose Lopez is not only questionable, it's unpossible.  Lopez is the better middle infielder here.  You know and I know that Jack Hannahan would post far worse numbers in 155 games at second, than JLo does.

So, if you need a backup SS, why not Lopez SS, Tui 2B.  As opposed to putting Hannahan out there? 

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=== 3B playing SS dept. ===

Now, you're aware that I:

1. Think Jeff Sullivan is as good as it gets
2. Love outside-the-box thinking
3. Beam with gratitude at the UZR-dogma iconoclasm
4. Think it's no big deal for a guy to play out of position, even WAY out of position, for a few games
5. All of the above
6. None of the above

After all of the years hearing that it was not feasible to play Jose Lopez at short, even as a backup, it's a cool spring rain to hear an argument that Jack Hannahan would, in principle, be okay at SS. :- )

However, on this one I gotta go my own way, Lindsey.

I've got nothing at all against putting a VERY questionable fielder into the lineup IFF his bat justifies it, except at two positions, those being SS and (maybe) CF.   Over the course of 20, 30 straight games, you're going to see a LOT of balls scoot over 2B and through the hole, if you've got a mediocre SS there.

It says here, you put Adrian Beltre at SS and you very well may be talking about 1 hit per game, 100+ per year, going by him that Rafael Furcal snags like nothing.  SS's get 5+ chances per game. 

It's very, very feasible that a freakish ML shortstop -- of which there are 30 or 40 in the world -- would get to 5.1 balls a game where a non-freak gets to 4.3 a game.  If that doesn't matter, no need to keep track of UZR at all, at any other position.

........

In general, I don't believe that third basemen can play short, part time.  Well, they could, but ML shortstops have those inhuman first steps.

The difference between a legit ML SS and a lesser infielder is a racketball difference.  Literally, a ball that would go by Adrian Beltre in the hole, would hit Jack Wilson in the chest.  ML SS's disappear, and then appear, where the ball is, like Goku transporting in Dragonball Z.  

It's hard to grasp how freakishly quick some of those SS's are.  And that's the bar you're up against in the modern game.

Part 2