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Ogasawara at the Hot Corner?

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Ogasawara at the Hot Corner?
The following excerpt from Jim Allen's latest Daily Yomiuri article caught my eye:

Fighters third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara gave the opposition a boost in the top of the fourth inning, when he let a double play ground ball go under his glove with no outs and runners on first and second.

How often does Michihiro play third? And since when? If he's at least competent defensively at the hot corner, he'd be one of the best all-around third baseman in the world.

Comments
Re: Ogasawara at the Hot Corner?
[ Author: Guest: Basebill | Posted: May 20, 2003 8:11 AM ]

1908,

This caught me by surprise, too. I haven't been checking boxscores this season as I have in the past and found out Ogasawara was playing third when I went to the all-star voting page and saw him listed there.
Re: Ogasawara at the Hot Corner?
[ Author: 1908 | Posted: May 20, 2003 10:39 AM | HT Fan ]

In hindsight, this move helps to explain why Ogasawara has seven errors on the season already. He had six all of last season at first base.
Re: Ogasawara at the Hot Corner?
[ Author: PLNara | Posted: May 20, 2003 11:32 AM | HT Fan ]

I went to a Nippon Ham vs. Daiei game the first weekend of April, and Ogasawara played third then. So I guess he's been playing there all year. He looked pretty good out there, but I didn't pay special attention to his defense. He was probably the best defensive first baseman in Japan, so I think he can handle third.

If I remember correctly, DT Cromer played first in that game.
Re: Ogasawara at the Hot Corner?
[ Author: Guest: Gary Garland | Posted: May 21, 2003 2:32 PM ]

Ogasawara has been at third since late spring training. Yukio Tanaka was injured, thus the move.

There are bound to be growing pains (especially since Ogasawara originally joined the Fighters as a catcher), but it hasn't affected his batting average (.350).
Re: Ogasawara at the Hot Corner?
[ Author: Guest: darron | Posted: May 21, 2003 4:05 PM ]

I've seen quite a few Fighters games this season.

Ogasawara has been at 3rd since spring camp and is the starting 3rd baseman. Hillman thought he could add some punch to the lineup by opening up first base for a "power hitter" while keeping Ogasawara in the lineup.

Cromer, as you may have noticed, has been a huge bust so far.

Ogasawara has been charged with 6 or 7 errors, but he's committed at least twice as many. I've noticed that scorers in Japan always give the benefit of the doubt to the hitter. I think fielding percentages in Japan are very misleading. A guys has to make an incredible mess of a play to be charged with an error.
Re: Ogasawara at the Hot Corner?
[ Author: CFiJ | Posted: May 22, 2003 7:47 AM ]

I'm actually cool with that. Errors are the silliest part of baseball. As Bill James has said, it's the only part of the game decided on one person's opinion of what should have happened. If you are going to take away a hit from a player because a fielder muffed up a play, then you should give a hit to a player who was clearly robbed by a fine play.

I wouldn't mind if errors were done away with all together. Range factor has it's problems, but it's much better a fielding statistic than fielding percentage.
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