The Teahen's D At Third thread

[Jordan4life_2007]

Is he, now? I think people throw around the word "average" too much, possibly taking it to mean "what I find acceptable". Without getting into more advanced statistics, average is about a .750 OPS. Teahen's career OPS is .750. He's pretty much the poster boy for average offense, though, as has been noted before, he's played in Loserville his entire career.

 

I mean, clearly this is a lukewarm defense of the guy, but let's not mischaracterize him as a bum offensively.

 

+1. You see this all the time. X player is "below" average at whatever. Yeah, he's below average offensively compared to Evan Longoria. But what about vs EVERY other 3B in the AL or MLB?

[southsider2k5]

Well, I'm willing to extend such a discussion to say 'how much better of a ballplayer is Mark Teahen than a guy like....Jayson Nix'? Seriously! What does Teahen do that Nix can't do? He's not better defensively than Nix is at third. As bad as we might think Nix is at third, hey - is Teahen really better? I haven't seen any evidence that would convince me that he is. Teahen's defensive stats at third base to date in his career have been rather abysmal.

 

Meanwhile, offsensively, I would submit to you that over a 150+ games season (the number of seasons that Teahen has had the priviledge of playing with the Royals over the past five years), I think Nix would hit more than 20 homers and 70 RBIs in those seasons, while stealing upwards of 20-25 bases. Teahen has yet to meet those accomplishments. Yes, Nix would still strike out way more than we'd like, but I think his production would still be more productive than anything Teahen has accomplished over his past five years. I remind you: Teahen has yet to eclipse 20+ homers and/or 70+ RBIs in a season in his five full seasons in the big leagues. I think this is an issue where I'm only suggesting that Jayson Nix is a better player than the guy we've apparently we've handed third base over to for the next three years.

 

Nix is not better defensively. Nix is a nightmare at 3B

[MattZakrowski]

Nix is not better defensively. Nix is a nightmare at 3B

 

He's played 16 MLB games there. It's kind of early for that considering he shows some nice defensive tools.

[southsider2k5]

He's played 16 MLB games there. It's kind of early for that considering he shows some nice defensive tools.

 

He shows things at second base. At third he was a disaster.

[fathom]

Something that gets overlooked is that 3rd base is a very important position when Buehrle is on the mound.

[ScottyDo]

This is true. How much better of a ballplayer is Mark Teahen than a guy like Geoff Blum? Is he 3 times the player? Blum has never made more than $1.5 million in a season. The White Sox inexplicably guaranteed Teahen $15 million.

I think we all know that pay scale doesn't progress in a linear fashion. You pay large sums of money for just incremental value. Teahen may not be "three times as good" as Blum, but Blum IS below average whereas Teahen is average. Average ML salary is between $3 and $4M. By that standard, Teahen might be slightly overpaid, but mean dollar value is also not a great number to use here. I pulled it out of my butt.

 

Point is, why are we bashing Teahen's brains in by saying things like "Nix is a better option"? That's totally excessive. Teahen is AT MOST a tiny, tiny concern. Sure, if we could get an upgrade at 3B, that would be great, but 3B has just a tiny bit more talent than 2B around MLB at the moment, and that ain't much.

 

Here's a brief list of ML 3B's who are not outperforming Teahen by a notable degree:

Brandon Wood

Pedro Feliz

Kevin Kouzmanoff

Jose Bautista

Chipper Jones

Aramis Ramirez

Casey Blake

Jhonny Peralta

Jose Lopez

Michael Young

Brandon Inge

The Minnesota Twins

 

So quitcher whinin'!

[ThunderBolt]

He shows things at second base. At third he was a disaster.

How the hell was Nix a disaster at 3b? He graded and looked just fine at 3b, he was a disaster at SS.

[ScottyDo]

How the hell was Nix a disaster at 3b? He graded and looked just fine at 3b, he was a disaster at SS.

He looked REAAAAAAAALLY bad there in spring training. Not relevant necessarily, but I think that's where the perception comes from.

[ThunderBolt]

He looked REAAAAAAAALLY bad there in spring training. Not relevant necessarily, but I think that's where the perception comes from.

I know i'm his biggest supporter on this board, but i think people are a bit to eager to slag off on the guy for things that aren't his fault. He's been perfectly fine at 3b, even despite never playing their prior to last year.

[ChiSox_Sonix]

I know i'm his biggest supporter on this board, but i think people are a bit to eager to slag off on the guy for things that aren't his fault. He's been perfectly fine at 3b, even despite never playing their prior to last year.

 

No he hasnt been perfectly fine. Watching him at 3B and SS told me that. You are just about the only person who doesnt see that. Does that mean he couldnt be good there? No, but from what he has shown at this point it doesnt point to that being the case.

[ScottyDo]

I know i'm his biggest supporter on this board, but i think people are a bit to eager to slag off on the guy for things that aren't his fault. He's been perfectly fine at 3b, even despite never playing their prior to last year.

I'm with you on Nix's defense. I even think he could be a pretty serviceable daily player, possibly, but he's a riskier play than Teahen is. And it's not really relevant in this conversation because we CANNOT field a team whose only LH bats are Pierre and Pierzynski.

[ThunderBolt]

I'm with you on Nix's defense. I even think he could be a pretty serviceable daily player, possibly, but he's a riskier play than Teahen is. And it's not really relevant in this conversation because we CANNOT field a team whose only LH bats are Pierre and Pierzynski.

I know. I don't think Nix is at the point where he can be an everyday starter in the A.L. My only argument is that is versatile, that he can hit LHP's, and he really should be one of the first options off the bench, and get a lot of the play that Vizquel has been getting. If we're not going to play to his strengths (or play him at all, for that matter) we should just let him ride the waiver wire and see if anyone bites.

[southsider2k5]

He looked REAAAAAAAALLY bad there in spring training. Not relevant necessarily, but I think that's where the perception comes from.

 

He was really bad there last year too. Maybe if he went back and played everyday at AAA it would be one thing, but what I have seen him do over there is ugly.

[tonyho7476]

He ole'd one pretty good last night.

[Balta1701]

He was really bad there last year too. Maybe if he went back and played everyday at AAA it would be one thing, but what I have seen him do over there is ugly.

And he has no minor league options left.

[southsideirish71]

His big issue is that Teahen backs up on the ball and lets it play him. The minute he starts to back peddle you can just wait for him to get eaten up. The minute he starts to get more aggressive and play the hop better he will be fine. The problem is, he keeps on making the same mistakes that should of been corrected a long long time ago.

Edited May 5, 2010 by southsideirish71

[Disco72]

His big issue is that Teahen backs up on the ball and lets it play him. The minute he starts to back peddle you can just wait for him to get eaten up. The minute he starts to get more aggressive and play the hop better he will be fine. The problem is, he keeps on making the same mistakes that should of been corrected a long long time ago.

 

Honest question then since I've seen almost no Sox games on TV this season... Teahen has some fixable issues (like the above) that would make him at least average at 3B?

[DBAHO]

Small sample size, but Teahen currently has a UZR of -5.9. He had a -6.9 at 3B for the Royals last season.

 

For comparisons sake, Beckham had a UZR of 0.4.

 

So obviously, Teahen's not giving us what Gordon gave us at 3B last season, so he needs to pick it up, and hopefully being stuck in the 1 position, he will improve at the season goes on.

[BigSqwert]

So let me get this straight. We traded for a third baseman who can't hit or field and then extended his contract? Brilliant!

[fathom]

So let me get this straight. We traded for a third baseman who can't hit or field and then extended his contract? Brilliant!

 

Not only that, we took a guy who's versatility was his best asset, and we put him in a full-time position at probably his worst position on the field.

[fathom]

His big issue is that Teahen backs up on the ball and lets it play him. The minute he starts to back peddle you can just wait for him to get eaten up. The minute he starts to get more aggressive and play the hop better he will be fine. The problem is, he keeps on making the same mistakes that should of been corrected a long long time ago.

 

It's so true that he lets the ball play him. If anything, he needs to be playing in more. He plays so far back, and this just creates all sorts of bad angles and hops. I'm shocked he hasn't had more throwing errors, as every play seems to be closer than it should because of his footwork and how far back he plays.

[elrockinMT]

Teahan looks to be a below average (not horrible) 3rd baseman defensively. If he can hit the way the Sox seem to think he can, he'll be alright as the Sox starting 3rd baseman. If he hits to his career averages, he will be a liability as the starting 3B.

 

 

We can't afford defensive liabilities

[Steve9347]

So let me get this straight. We traded for a third baseman who can't hit or field and then extended his contract? Brilliant!

Hahaha.

 

It's sad because it's true.

[MattZakrowski]

He was really bad there last year too. Maybe if he went back and played everyday at AAA it would be one thing, but what I have seen him do over there is ugly.

 

But enough about Mark Teahen...

[South Side Fireworks Man]

The more I watch Teahen, the worse he looks defensively at 3B. And his hitting hasn't been very impressive either.