Opening Day line up

Aside from the fact that Ross is a strong fielder (at a hitter’s position), whereas Cantu is either a decent fielder at an extreme hitter’s position or an atrocious fielder at a moderate position?

I’ll admit that Ross’ fairly average contact hitting and lack of skill at drawing walks mean that he has more room to fall short than he does to improve. (Unless, of course,he improves at drawing walks.)

But if you look at the stats for outfielders these days, there’s a surprising lack of really amazing hitters. They’ve all gone over to first base. (Or DH.) 61 outfielders had enough at-bats to qualify for the title last year. Ross’ .790 was good for 37th of 61 — almost the definition of league-average. (Okay, slightly below… but then again, slightly above, when you factor in the 29 spots that weren’t regularly filled by ANYONE.)

Whereas Cantu’s .788 — aided by a suspiciously high BABIP — was 21st of 24 among first basemen. Count him as a third baseman, and he’s 13th of 20 — almost exactly the same location relative to his position as Ross with outfielders. But Ross is a strong defensive outfielder, and Cantu is a terrible defender at third. I’ll take Ross in right over Cantu anywhere.

Also, remember that RF is a position which is basically being held for Stanton at this point. So Ross doesn’t have to be our permanent solution. Until/unless Matt Dominguez makes the majors, which is neither an impending situation nor a sure thing, we don’t have an answer at third base.

If we’re going to have a problem, and it doesn’t involve the question marks surrounding Maybin/the first basemen, it’s clearly Cantu first.