fwiw, I remember Dan Driessen as a terrible third baseman (I was young, though). Apparently that was an experiment that began in the minors, but didn't work out. I always liked his bat, though, and was happy he was much better at first base.
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fwiw, I remember Dan Driessen as a terrible third baseman (I was young, though). Apparently that was an experiment that began in the minors, but didn't work out. I always liked his bat, though, and was happy he was much better at first base.
IIRC, Driessen was so bad at 3B, it caused Howsam to get John Vucovich, who was great defender at third but couldn’t hit a lick. Sparky hated that move so much that he pinch hit Driessen for Vucovich in the second inning of a game early in the season.
Of course, we all know that that lead to Sparky moving Rose to 3B allowing Foster to start in LF, and the rest is history.
larry biitner could not play anywhere
I have a vague memory of Javier Valentin playing at 3B at Yankee Stadium.
And I remember one season where 5'9" Brayan Peņa started more games at 1B than C. (I think he set some kind of club record for most games at 1B by a player under 5'10".)
Nice recall, I'd blocked that Dusty experiment
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...&t=f&year=2008
Johnny Bench played 3rd base fairly regularly for a couple of seasons IIRC. He was a true statue at third as all the years of catching had made him non mobile. I know he played some CF and RF in his younger days to give him a day off from catching. But I"m sure he was much better at those positions that 3rd. Mainly by being just younger.
Driessen was horrific at 3rd. He a true scatter arm and anyone sitting behind 1st base had better be on guard.
ncik castellanos is no deft fielder
I always thought that the Reds traded the wrong player away when they acquired Cesar Cedeņo prior to the 1982 season. (Of course, whether they should have traded for him at all is another question, and a fair one to ask.) But after they had purged the roster of the entire starting outfield of George Foster, Ken Griffey, and Dave Collins, they had to get someone to play out there. Dick Wagner decided to trade Ray Knight to the Astros for Cedeņo, and open up 3B for Johnny Bench (while also opening up C for Alex Treviņo, who had been acquired from the Mets in the Foster trade). The funny thing is, the Astros ended up playing Knight a lot at 1B, since they already had Art Howe at 3B.
I always thought they should have traded Driessen for Cedeņo (and maybe they could have gotten a prospect as well, since Driessen probably had more trade value than Knight), which would have opened up 1B for Bench.
On a somewhat unrelated note, Eddie Milner should have been starting somewhere in the OF Opening Day in 1982. He was clearly a better player than either Clint Hurdle or Paul Householder -- he just didn't have their pedigree.
on a positive note the epic rafael landestoy fielded 1000 for the juggernaut that was the 1982 reds
wow some of my all time favorites along with tom lawless and the heralded wayne krenchicki
I actually liked Larry Biittner. He was a solid bat off the bench, and his 1978 Topps card was in the first pack of baseball cards I ever bought, when I was 8 years old.
https://img.beckett.com/images/items...4436/front.jpg
Funny thing, back then, I would've and did put a premium on 3rd Basemen over CFers. I was furious that Wagner let our whole outfield go and then replaced one piece by getting rid of the first decent fielding 3rd baseman(except for Menke) we had since I followed them. My thought was if they could live with Bobby Tolan there through two world series appearances, they certainly could find a CFer easier than a 3B. And back then I think it was the truth. Forward 40 years and 3rd baseman seem to be a dime a dozen while I now would put a premium on CFers.
Also, just a hunch, but they didn't want to trade Driessen because they would be admitting letting Perez go 5 years earlier was the biggest screw-up since Frank Robinson.
they got dale murrey he was fantastic!!!!!!!! he reminded me of Ben Hayes, and a bit of Milt Hill and Ray Washburn tossed in