Another Saturday night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by Jose Cuervo, Henry McKenna and Evan Williams

Elijah: Fellas, tonight we are going to talk about the lost position of shortstop in our league.

Jose: Why do you say it's a lost position ?

Elijah: Only one guy in our Hall of Fame is listed as a shortstop.

Henry: You really can't claim Jeimer Ortega as a shortstop. He was mostly a left fielder. He never played shortstop in the majors. Shamrocks signed him as a free agent and played him 5 games at shortstop in low-A before he retired. So our Hall of Fame really has no shortstops. We have some guys who played a season or two at short.

Jose: If I remember correctly Scot Sexton started at short before moving to third base where he put up most of his numbers.

Henry: Another guy in the Hall, Alfredo Diaz , played 472 games at short before moving off the position. He played over 500 games in center but was mainly a second baseman.

Elijah: I brought this up because the last two seasons a shortstop has been drafted with the first and fourth picks.

Evan: Elijah you can expand that to season 57 and you have 6 high picks being shortstops. The 57 draft took shortstops 1st and 5th. And 4 of those guys are still playing short.

Jose: That doesn't compare to the international class of season 52, when the four highest bonuses were given to shortstops. 77.1 million paid out to the 4 guys. Down in the islands they call them "Gloves of Gold" for all the money they got.

Henry: If I remember correctly the 51 season had a high bonused shortstop and 53 had two.

Elijah: Only Stolmy De Paula is still a shortstop.

Jose: You're looking at this all wrong Elijah. These guys are moved off shortstop for defensive specialist. Their bats are still in the lineup and the defense is not only improved buy the specialist at short, but when you move them you improve the defense at whatever position you put them.

Elijah: Well I think some team should keep a big bat at shortstop. The competitive advantage of a guy hitting .275 over guy who hits .225 seems important to me.

Henry: Elijah, who taught you baseball Abner Doubleday? Your big bat can play anything except pitcher and catcher. The bat is still in the lineup.

Elijah: You're missing the point about competitive advantage. This is the one position where you can be much better than the other team. If an average player gets 500 at bats it's a difference of 25 hits for the season. How many of these defensive specialist are a positive 25 on plus or minus defensive plays. We play this game way to defensively.

Evan: I understand your point Elijah and I'm happy you're a drinking scout and not a manager.