cheeky said:
aeroag14 said:
cheeky said:
.
We don't have a pure first baseman, again (can't remember when last we did)
Ummmmmm……Jack Moss?
With all due respect, the uneducated have checked in.
Right handed defender with below average glove, arm and speed with a plus bat. Assigned to play single A ball this year and I'll wager never makes it to the show. Great college hitter no doubt. But that's not even remotely close to a pure first baseman; it was plugging a hole. Same thing we're doing this year. Ideally you have a left handed defender with a plus glove, at least average speed and arm with a plus bat and plus power. Name the last guy we had who checked those boxes?
Caglianone (UF) is a pure first baseman. Tre' Morgan (former LSU) the same. Left handed, great defense, and a plus bat with tremendous power. If we've ever had that it was before my time.
What a bizarre hangup.
Mark Grace wasn't Mark McGwire, but he still made multiple All Star games and played pro baseball for 16 years.
Second, Mark McGwire hit from the right side. Right handed major league first basemen are not some kind of an anomaly. There are plenty of them, occasionally a majority, on a yearly basis.
Third, Will Frizzell was the 1st baseman a year before Moss. He would be a stock image for a traditional 1st baseman in stature and was All-SEC in 2021, hitting .343 with 19 homers and slugging .686. He only had 3 errors on the year, fielding .992. And he was left-handed. So we did have one all of 3 years ago.
Finally, Moss hit .380 and .355 in his 2 seasons with the Aggies and wasn't a defensive liability at first. If you don't have a traditional first baseman but the person "plugging the hole" hits like that, especially in college ball...who cares?