Who should leadoff against RH pitchers?

When Gleyber was traded to the Yankees, I predicted he would eventually become a second baseman. I was definitely in the minority on this opinion. His physique and heavy-legged type of movement were my main concerns. Moving to shortstop for the New York Yankees is not easy for anyone, even if it is their best defensive position. I did not want to see that move. As Martian mentioned, Gleyber's lack of quality defense at shortstop appeared to affect him mentally with the bat. Though we have no way to prove this empirically, I agree with the assessment.

Trading Gleyber in his walk year will not bring much of a return. The time to have traded Gleyber was after 2020, when his clock still had many revolutions prior to free agency. Moreover, Gleyber is the third best offensive threat on this Yankee team. For a team that struggled to score runs last season, why trade him now when the addition of Soto just lengthened the lineup? Removing Gleyber's bat at this point will simply dilute the offensive gains made from acquiring Soto.

At this point, the best defensive shortstop on the Yankees is Peraza, but he has not proven to be able to hit fastballs with consistency (the exact opposite of what young players are supposed to be able to do). To me, Volpe could be a gold glove second baseman, as well as one at shortstop, but he does not have the arm strength for third base. Peraza has a rifle for an arm that can play anywhere on the diamond. I am not sold on Gleyber's arm at third, but all scouting reports (thanks, Inger) indicate that his arm strength is above average. I agree with Bob that if Gleyber was confined to a position that required reaction and arm strength rather than focus and decision making, third might be able to fit Gleyber better as he ages.

By the way, as someone who has played all around the diamond, third base was the easiest for me to play. Shortstop was the most fun, though. First base takes a ton of footwork to play it like Anthony Rizzo, much less like Keith Hernandez and Donny Mattingly - the two best at the position in my opinion. You can hide a player like Luke Voit at first, but he costs you lots of extra bases and base hits and steals...and forget about any continuity plays from a defender playing behind the runner.

Gleyber's arm strength was doubtful to my eye test, but then Inger shared some ratings on here a few weeks ago purporting otherwise.  You may be correct that they were from Gleyber's earlier years in the minor leagues.  That 75.9 MPH is not what you want at third.  

Yeah. I tired of it and just dropped out… And the thread topic is about who should lead off. I enjoy a good off topic journey as much as anyone, but enough is enough…

When Gleyber was traded to the Yankees, I predicted he would eventually become a second baseman. I was definitely in the minority on this opinion. His physique and heavy-legged type of movement were my main concerns. Moving to shortstop for the New York Yankees is not easy for anyone, even if it is their best defensive position. I did not want to see that move. As Martian mentioned, Gleyber's lack of quality defense at shortstop appeared to affect him mentally with the bat. Though we have no way to prove this empirically, I agree with the assessment.

Trading Gleyber in his walk year will not bring much of a return. The time to have traded Gleyber was after 2020, when his clock still had many revolutions prior to free agency. Moreover, Gleyber is the third best offensive threat on this Yankee team. For a team that struggled to score runs last season, why trade him now when the addition of Soto just lengthened the lineup? Removing Gleyber's bat at this point will simply dilute the offensive gains made from acquiring Soto.

At this point, the best defensive shortstop on the Yankees is Peraza, but he has not proven to be able to hit fastballs with consistency (the exact opposite of what young players are supposed to be able to do). To me, Volpe could be a gold glove second baseman, as well as one at shortstop, but he does not have the arm strength for third base. Peraza has a rifle for an arm that can play anywhere on the diamond. I am not sold on Gleyber's arm at third, but all scouting reports (thanks, Inger) indicate that his arm strength is above average. I agree with Bob that if Gleyber was confined to a position that required reaction and arm strength rather than focus and decision making, third might be able to fit Gleyber better as he ages.

By the way, as someone who has played all around the diamond, third base was the easiest for me to play. Shortstop was the most fun, though. First base takes a ton of footwork to play it like Anthony Rizzo, much less like Keith Hernandez and Donny Mattingly - the two best at the position in my opinion. You can hide a player like Luke Voit at first, but he costs you lots of extra bases and base hits and steals...and forget about any continuity plays from a defender playing behind the runner.

         I spent a couple of hours floating around the internet trying to get a good idea of the value the SABR community assigns to each position. There are some variations, but I think it is fair to say that the value attahced to defense at 2b and 3b is very comparable. As pointed out at Fangraphs:

(https://blogs.fangraphs.com/position-adjustments/)

Tom Tango has developed the most commonly accepted set of positional adjustments out there right now, based on historical data of how players perform when they move from one position to another. His scale is as follows:



Catcher: +12.5 runs

Shortstop: +7.5 runs

Second Base: +2.5 runs

Third Base: +2.5 runs

Center Field: +2.5 runs

Left Field: -7.5 runs

Right Field: -7.5 runs

First Base: -12.5 runs

Designated Hitter: -17.5 runs



Essentially, the width of the spectrum of major league players being used at their best positions is about 30 runs – if you have a league average defensive catcher and you make him a full time DH, you’ve whacked about three wins off of his value.



These positional adjustments match up with common knowledge pretty well – catchers are scarce, shortstops are the best non-catcher defenders, and the immobile stiffs get hidden at DH/1B/LF/RF, depending on how just how immobile they really are. It’s the middle part of the spectrum – second base, third base, and center field – that cause some disagreement. We’ll get into those three positions specifically this afternoon.

              Therfore there is no reason to move Torres to get Peraza's glove at 2nd. If you want to improve the infield defense, move St. Anthony of Flemington to 3rd and play Peraza at SS. 

I'm not moving Torres to get Peraza's glove at 2B. I'm moving Torres to keep his bat in the lineup. You gave only Peraza as the option to replace him at 2B.

As I said, I don't care if it's Peraza or someone else from within the organization or acquired via trade or FA.