Top 5 Defensive Team?

[MentalPowerHouse]

Was thinking about the fielding of the team today I started to feel that this team will be strong defensively.

Our infield should be much improved with Hill focusing on 2B where he's great and Clayton at SS compared to Adams last year. Overbay is one of the best defensive 1b, and Glaus impressed me with solid play at 3b last year. I had thought he was going to be a bit of a liability but that never happened. Zaun is mediocre, not great but not terrible. I don't know much about Phillips.

Our outfield seems rather strong starting with perennial gold glover Wells. Rios is another strong fielder with good range and a strong arm. Reed doesn't have the strongest arm but can also cover alot of ground in LF. The only concern is the bench where Stairs, and potentially Lind, are both weak.

How do we compare to other teams in the infield, outfield, and overall?

If there is an injury to Overbay does Glaus move to first? Or is Lind or Thomas put there?

[Rance Mulliniks]

I think the Jays have a fairly solid D, but I'm not sure I'd call it top-5. Our outfield D looks great - Vernon is a gold glover, both Rios and Reed can cover a lot of ground and have good arms.

On the IF, I think we're still a bit shaky - Hill is getting better and showing range, but he still has 3 errors already this year. Clayton has looked solid if unspectacular. I agree that Overbay is a good defensive 1B and Glaus looks pretty good - still wouldn't say he's a top-10 defensive 3B. I think Zaun is great at handling the pitching staff but isn't a top defensive C - has only thrown out around 23% of base stealers the last couple years.

Haven't given it too much thought, but I'd think there are definitely NL teams with better D (Mets, Marlins, Cards plus lots more) and there must be AL teams too (Angels and Tigers come to mind, but again I haven't thought it through).

If Overbay were to go down, I highly doubt that Thomas would play 1B - I don't think he's played in the field since about 2004 and there's no reason to move him out of his DH spot. Stairs, Smith and Phillips all played some 1B last year, so I'd assume that one of them would fill in.

[MentalPowerHouse]

yeah I jinxed them, went on to have 3 errors after I posted this.

Hill came up a SS and split time at SS/2B last year, so this is really his first full year 2B? He should get better as the year goes and has gold glove calibre defensive talent there.

Clayton hasn't impressed that much, would almost rather just have MacDonald in there even if he can't hit.

[mrider]

Was thinking about the fielding of the team today I started to feel that this team will be strong defensively.

Our infield should be much improved with Hill focusing on 2B where he's great and Clayton at SS compared to Adams last year. Overbay is one of the best defensive 1b, and Glaus impressed me with solid play at 3b last year. I had thought he was going to be a bit of a liability but that never happened. Zaun is mediocre, not great but not terrible. I don't know much about Phillips.

Our outfield seems rather strong starting with perennial gold glover Wells. Rios is another strong fielder with good range and a strong arm. Reed doesn't have the strongest arm but can also cover alot of ground in LF. The only concern is the bench where Stairs, and potentially Lind, are both weak.

How do we compare to other teams in the infield, outfield, and overall?

If there is an injury to Overbay does Glaus move to first? Or is Lind or Thomas put there?

Reed actually has a good arm.

[mweir145]

I actually think we have a very strong defensive team when everbody is playing (Matt Stairs cannot play in the OF, and Phillips is not particularly good at 1B either). Our OF defense with Wells, Rios, and Johnson is among the best in the league. Hill is one of the best defensive 2nd basemen in the game (as shown by his numbers last year), and Overbay, Glaus, and Clayton are all very steady defensively. Zaun is the only weak spot as he has no arm, but other than that I think we're fairly good in this area.