Giambi has always been more productive at the plate when he plays in the field. His career O.P.S. is 1.008 as a first baseman, and .861 as a designated hitter. The problem is that when he plays in the field, he breaks down.

That's still an above league average OPS for a DH.

...for a cool $20 million per.

Which way does the arrow go? Giambi plays the field when he's healthy enough to do so...

Hmmm...maybe Giambi's OPS was much higher was he was younger and didn't have to play DH (circa 2000, '01, '02) as much. And now maybe he's old and not so good. Maybe, just maybe, the whole "must play 1b to hit well" argument is bogus. Just maybe.

Well, frannyzoo, we can just look at his year-by-year splits since coming to the Yankees.

2002 1B - 1.135, DH - 0.886
2003 1B - 1.033, DH - 0.829
2004 1B - 0.688, DH - 0.765
2005 1B - 1.135, DH - 0.771
2006 1B - 1.051, DH - 0.904
2007 1B*- 0.762, DH - 0.790

*Only 60 PAs.

It's clear the split is real, not a time-based illusion. Personally I subscribe to Danny's theory in #3, but who knows, maybe it's become a psychological thing?

It's often a psychological thing. Some players suck as pinch-hitters and are good in regular roles (Wily Mo Pena). Some pitchers can't pitch relief even though they have the endurance to do so and should be better if they only have to face batters once (Jon Lieber). When you change one aspect of a player's regular routine, you can't assume that everything else he does will be unaffected.

If Giambi is playing first, all of the other infielders darn well better learn how to aim real good.

Giambi's actually quite a good receiver at first base. His problem is in the actual fielding of the ball and especially in making throws.

It's often a psychological thing. Some players suck as pinch-hitters and are good in regular roles (Wily Mo Pena).

Didn't MGL and Tango find that there's no special pinch hitting ability, and that everyone suffers the same large penalty?

Some pitchers can't pitch relief even though they have the endurance to do so and should be better if they only have to face batters once (Jon Lieber, Derek Lowe).

Lowe has a 2.95 ERA in 381 IP as a reliever. Lieber has a 3.78 ERA in 66 innings as a reliever, compared to 4.29 as a SP.

But I agree that some pitchers gain more from moving to the bullpen than others.

When you change one aspect of a player's regular routine, you can't assume that everything else he does will be unaffected.

Sure, but should we assume that any split is real and predictive? Players get moved to DH when they're at less than full health. Isn't that the likeliest answer?

Giambi's actually quite a good receiver at first base. His problem is in the actual fielding of the ball and especially in making throws.

I knew that. But my way was funnier.

"Giambi's actually quite a good receiver at first base. His problem is in the actual fielding of the ball and especially in making throws."

I agree, in the sense that he catches the ball if it's thrown right to him (not a knock, so much; really bad 1Bs can't catch a damn thing).

I agree, in the sense that he catches the ball if it's thrown right to him

He's good at scooping the ball, as well.

If they go with Giambi at first it will let them fit all of the stars(Matsui, Damon, Giambi) in the line-up at once. With Ensberg or Betemit at 1B one of them(or Melky) will have to sit. Considering the age/recent injury concerns with these guys I doubt it will end up being much of an issue. As a Yankees fan I'm really hoping Ensberg can make it obvious he belongs at 1B in spring training. He was good at third so I would hope his D at 1B would be a significant step up. We all know what he is capable of with the bat if everything clicks and he is healthy.

Didn't MGL and Tango find that there's no special pinch hitting ability, and that everyone suffers the same large penalty?

Technically, what MGL and Tango found is that you cannot use pinch-hitting statistics to measure pinch-hitting ability. Statistical analysis tells us things about statistics, not necessarily about people or the real world - or, better, it requires second-order analysis to figure out how what we've learned about statistics teaches us about the world.

I see very little reason to draw from the fact that pinch-hitting statistics have very little underlying unity the positive conclusion that all pinch-hitters are the same. That seems extremely unlikely. What we learn, rather, is that we can't use statistics to measure pinch-hitting ability, most likely due to sampling issues.

really bad 1Bs can't catch a damn thing

Now, now...there's no reason to bring up Ronnie Blomberg here.

Personally, I think it's just a demonstration of the generally toxic effect the DH has on baseball. You'd get the same kind of numbers if he split his time between playing first base and mining uranium without protection.

In fact, now that I think of it, I bet the DH is what gave him cancer in the first place.

Good point, Matt. I oversimplified.

I think MGL and Tango have been pretty clear that their findings on RHB platoon splits are findings about statistics, not (necessarily) about baseball players. Or, at least, they should be.

The finding really is interesting. What is says is that the statistical measures of how well a random major league right-handed batter hits against right- and left-handed pitchers are basically useless for determining what his platoon split will look like in the future.

This, again, doesn't mean that Jonny Gomes and Manny Ramirez have the same expected platoon split - they might, though I doubt it - but that we can't use their statistics to determine what the expected difference between their platoon splits will be. It means we need other evidence, typically observational, to make such judgments. (Batter/pitcher splits are another great example - anyone who's played baseball knows that individual matchups vary widely, but the statistics are compiled too haphazardly and over too small a sample for them to measure a very real aspect of baseball.)

EDIT: clarity

Good point, Kevin. Clearly, we can quantitiate platoon variation by head size.

The Yankees are kidding themselves if they think that

a) Giambi can play anything close to a competent first base and

b) that he can stay healthy enough to even play there regularly.

Normally, a first baseman's defense is something I'd be able to excuse, but Giambi is absolutely brutal there. He combines Steve Garvey's arm with Dick Stuart's agility. His hands are OK, but that's negated by his inability to stretch on throws that are a little off. And, to think, he was once a third baseman.

Even a platoon of Duncan and Betemit, or Ensberg and Betemit, would be a big improvement over what they had there last year.