Can (and should) Schumaker move right on the defensive spectrum?
Rightward shifts along the defensive spectrum* almost never work.
– Bill James
Just when we thought that it was safe to stop talking about Skip Schumaker converting to second base, the heretofore crazy idea has resurfaced, this time in no stranger a place than an online chat with the Cardinals’ General Manager, John Mozeliak, who responded Wednesday:
Schumaker was drafted as an infielder but has not played there since making the move to the OF. I have spoken with Tony on this and we have included Oquendo in these talks as well. Skip may get a look there this spring to gauge how comfortable he would be with trying to move back to the infield. He had a good offensively and we always look for creative ways to get players more playing time.
Despite Schumaker’s own denials earlier in the week, if the famously close-to-the-vest Mozeliak is asserting publicly that Schumaker trying out at second base is a possibility — so legitimate, in fact, that La Russa and Oquendo are involved in it — it has to be taken seriously, doesn’t it?
To be sure, Schumaker moving into the infield would solve many roster botherations, mainly like what to do with the glut of outfielders and how to get offensive production from second base, where the putative starter, Adam Kennedy, figures to provide only five weighted batting runs over replacement. And now, with the news of Troy Glaus’s ill-timed shoulder surgery, the team now suddenly needs players to play innings at third base, a possibility for Kennedy and others.
But it’s one thing for Carlos Guillén to play shortstop on your fantasy baseball team (he played zero games there in 2008 but qualified in many leagues); it’s another for a major-league player to move to a more difficult defensive position in reality baseball. Just how realistic is it to expect that Schumaker could pull it off?
In short, not at all. Schumaker, who was drafted as a second baseman, hasn’t, according to him, "taken ground balls in six, seven years." He has played 296 major-league games, all as an outfielder (or pinch-hitter). Only a handful of players in major-league history have played at least 100 games in the outfield before playing more than one game at second base and finished with 100 games at second, most notably Cardinal Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst:
- Howie Shanks: Played 362 games in the outfield in his first three seasons, then played 10 games at second and then became a shortstop/third baseman.
- Schoendienst: Played 118 games in LF in 1945, played 128 games at 2B in 1946 and played outfield only three more times in 19-year career in which he totaled 1834 games at second base.
- Vic Power: Played OF first two seasons, then played 47 games at 2B; eventually settled at 1B, playing 1304 games there.
- Steve Lyons: Broke in as outfielder, where he played two seasons before becoming part-time utility man, playing mostly at 3B before playing 70 games at 2B in his age-29 season.
- Harry Niles: Played 108 games in OF and 34 at 3B rookie year; played 116 games at 2B his sophomore season.
- Alan Wiggins: Played 177 games in the outfield in his first three seasons before playing 157 games at 2B in 1984. Finished his career with 342 games at 2B, his most common position.
And only one player in history has played as many games as Schumaker in the outfield and then played as many as 100 games at second base: Shanks. Shanks is probably Shumaker’s best analog, having exclusively played outfield the first three years of his major-league career (114, 109 and 139 games, respectively), then mixing in 10 games at second in addition to 80 game in the outfield in his fourth season. Within two years after breaking into the infield, he played 94 games at shortstop. But two big differences remain: Shanks was only 24 when he moved to the infield. And it was 1915.
So it’s technically possible, at least from a broad historical perspective. But is it even advisable? People may not appreciate just how hard it is to move rightward on the spectrum, and one of the reasons is that playing defense can be mentally tough, something Schumaker knows from experience. In an April 2001 article in the LA Times, Schumaker commented on his move to the outfield when he transferred from Loyola to UC-Santa Barbara:
"There’s a lot of pressure at shortstop," Schumaker said. "In the outfield I’m able to think about my hitting more. It’s been an easy adjustment."
In light of that, then, a full-time position switch to the infield might just counteract any gains the teams expects to get from an offensive upgrade. If Schumaker’s offense — projected as an outfielder to be 11 weighted batting runs over replacement — suffers even a little bit from the mental drain of playing infield, he’s not going to offer anything more than Adam Kennedy would.
In the final analysis, it seems unlikely to happen. As Schumaker himself said last weekend at the Winter Warmup, "I played infield before. There’s a reason why I’m in the outfield, I think … obviously if [Cardinals manager] Tony [La Russa] wants to throw me in that fire, I’ll try it. But I don’t know how realistic that is." We may see Schumaker wear the second-baseman’s glove this year for emergency cases, as Albert Pujols and So Taguchi have done, but anything more than an inning or two here or there isn’t going to help anyone.
*The defensive spectrum looks like this:
[ - - 1B - LF - RF - 3B - CF - 2B - SS - C - - ]
with the basic premise being that positions at the right end of
the spectrum are more difficult than the positions at the left
end of the spectrum. Players can generally move from right
to left along the specturm successfully during their careers.