When the Florida Marlins traded CF Cameron Maybin to the San Diego Padres this offseason, many wondered who they were going to put in center field to replace him? The obvious choices were moving either Logan Morrison or Mike Stanton to center.
But as we all know, the Marlins don’t always do the obvious things.
Instead of moving Morrison or Stanton to center, the Marlins currently plan to play Chris Coghlan in the middle of the outfield in 2011. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see it.
This is the same Coghlan who was hasn’t mastered playing left field in his two years in the Major Leagues. He has a career -8.0 UZR in 213 games in left field. Now he is going to move to center where he has to cover more ground and cover ground in one of the biggest center fields in baseball? No thanks.
Usually, it’s the other way around. Usually, it’s a player moving from center to left or right, not the other way around.
Listen, the San Francisco Giants won a World Series with Pat Burrell playing left field and the Boston Red Sox accomplished the same feat with Julio Lugo playing short, so it can be done.
However, the difference between what appears to this year’s version of the Marlins and those World Series teams is that those teams had dynamic pieces (Giants with their pitching and Red Sox with their overall talent) to help counter their deficiencies.
Over the past three seasons, the Marlins have had one of the worst defensive teams in baseball. I look at the 2011 Marlins and see a team that will once again struggle defensively.
Putting Coghlan in center won’t help the situation.
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