The American Association for the Advancement of Science presented a paper on defensive analysis.  Among the results, and the focus of that article on Sportsline, is the fantastic conclusion that A-Rod is one of the best defensive shortstops in the game -- and Captain Clutch is one of the worst.  Awesome.    Apparently making a running catch in foul territory and then tripping into the stands just isn't enough to get over that statistical hump.

An unexpected result shows that Jason Michaels is one of the best defensive outfielders in the game, so maybe this whole thing is a bit inaccurate.  

So I'm prefacing this by saying that I'm sitting in Copyright class and just got called on.  I was pretending to look through my notes to remember what Baker v. Selden is about, but my computer screen was actually Swerb's Blurbs.  Halfway through faking my way through a semi-intelligible answer (I'm a 3L who had 8 years of Jesuit education; if there's anything I can do, it's BS like a champion), this thought popped into my head as to the Indians infield.  That's a long way to say this may be a terrible idea, so tell me if it is.

Asdrubal is clearly a better defensive SS than Jhonny, or at least that seems to be the near-universal presumption.  Jhonny may or may not be able to play third at a high enough level to justify sticking him there, though that creates the problem of what to do with Andy Marte (Marte may suck it up this spring and make that a non-issue, but I'd at least like to give him the chance to suck).  Why can't we just switch Astro Cab and Jhonny until we find out what we have at third?

I played enough baseball to reasonably think that 2d is an easier position than short; is it less important?  I don't know enough about defensive statistics to know the answer to that.  And I'm not assuming that just because Jhonny is an adequate to above-average shortstop he'll automatically be as good at 2d.  But I've never seen the discussion and the idea just popped into my head.

This one might be too good to be true.

MLBTR is reporting that the Jays and the Indians are talking about Alex Rios.  They mention Rios for Gutz and Cliff Lee.

Not sure what Rios's contract status is exactly; looks like he's under contract until 2010, but will cost more than Gutz.  With Cliff Lee in the deal, though, the money doesn't hurt.  Is it worth losing our outfielder with arguably as much upside as Rios and a pitcher that may burn us for an All-Star Right Fielder?  I think I'd do it, though it doesn't necessarily address our "needs." Update [2007-12-4 11:1:20 by CU Adam]:Sorry, should have a run a search through the Winter Meetings thread, this is already there. I flipped through but didn't see it. Jay or Ryan, you can delete. Thanks.