Bench: Offensive vs. Defensive

[butsch16]

Reading through the "Old Red Guard," I was wondering was is the maximum you would give up defensively for a bench player (role player)? One poster said and I'm paraphrasing, so I may be missing some of the point, but OBP is more important than defensive flexibility. While I agree OBP is important, I do think it is important if a player has to play a position they're not accustomed to or do not play well at all. We need OBP and our starting defense is fantastic, but bench players do play a decent amount of games in the field (a lot play out of position). My opinion is that a quality bench guy that sees a lot of innings should be able to play multiple positions at an at least average level and have an acceptable OBP. While I'm not sure a guy like this exists on the roster (maybe Skip if healthy, don't beat me), but this is what we need in all reality. Not a huge power bat, because games are won by getting on base and getting hit around. What do you guys think about the matter?

[RedlegJake]

I do think you can sacrifice a bit of defense for hitting skill when your starters are defensively outstanding. You need a guy who can play CF/MI (and third) acceptably (Negron), and a guy who can play 1B & the OF corners acceptably (Satin/Boesch?) but "acceptable" in my thinking is a bit less than league average if they can get on base at an above average clip. Justin Turner is the kind of guy I'm thinking of - you don't want him as the starting 2nd baseman but for a week or two he'll do, and he hits. The problem with Negron is his pedigree says he cannot hit (looking at his record and you have to say last year was an aberration for him hitting wise.). The problem with Satin and/or Boesch is their milb numbers are good but they've been less than stellar as major leaguers. Skip is the closest to ok defense/above average OBP skills on the bench who has a proven track record. Of course, he had a terrible 2014 so once again we are hoping for a player to return to prior norms. That has become a theme for the Reds - we can win if all these guys return to norms and/or are healthy. If Skip does return and Boesch or Satin hit pretty well the bench will be okay. As it stands, though, its a huge question mark. Can Negron repeat his hitting of 2104? Can Skip return to his hitting before 2014? Can Boesch or Satin or maybe Perez, hit well enough not to be a liability?

[Old school 1983]

Normally, Id want a mixture, but with this teams starters being excellent defensively, Id try to find some bats but still adequately cover every spot defensively.

Bench prediction:
Pena
Skip
Boesch
Satin
Negron

[dougdirt]

This team needs hitters on the bench. The starters are almost exclusively strong defenders. They aren't going to be switched out for guys late in the game because of defense. If you need gloves, stash them in the minors and call them up when needed. The bench should compliment the starters weaknesses. That means don't fill it with glove first guys. As RedlegJake said, you need someone that can play shortstop/second/center adequately, but other than that, put guys with some sort of bat on the bench.