Yet at the same time he gets quite possibly the worst jumps in baseball, so in essence he's not getting to any balls that noone else does because he's getting later jumps. He constantly miss plays balls and has 0 arm. Pods is nowhere near average, he's a DH.

You dont put someone with his range at DH.

The play in KC where he's standing in foul territory waiting for the ball to come down in fair territory and it goes for a triple and error for a virtual inside the park home run on a play that is made in the Pony league sums it up for me. Carlos Lee wasn't very good defensively, but you are really stretching it if you say Pods is a defensive upgrade.

You dont put someone with his range at DH.

Range means nothing when you get s*** jumps.

 

Alex Sanchez is faster than Pods yet appears to be a DH if he ever makes it back to the AL. Speed means nothing if you can't read the ball off the bat.

for the statheads in here, pods' fielder RAA (runs above average) in left is 9. for comparison to some other LF, garret anderson's was -5, manny's -12, and shannon stewart's 2. i forget carl crawford's but his was also a negative. i remember reading a baseball prospectus piece when pods was on the shelf talking about how, judging just from his offense, pods was the worst LF in the AL, but that his defensive value raised him to the middle of the pack overall among everyday AL LF (can't remember by what measure, though i imagine his VORP is s*** by this point). i can probably dig up the quote if anyone gives a s***, which i doubt you do, so i won't since i'm at work right now.

 

note that this isn't me endorsing or dismissing pods or BP or stats or scouting or the importance of LF defense or anything else; just seems like a relevant point that should be raised in the discussion.