If La Stella is in the lineup, there’s probably a reason for Flores not to be. You probably won’t see the Flores-at-first permutations unless Belt is unavailable. Two of them can be eliminated because there isn’t a shortstop in one (Belt/Flores/La Stella/Longoria), and there isn’t a first baseman in another (Dubón/Crawford/Longoria/Solano). If I’m using this permutation calculator right - and I’m probably not - there are 35 different possible combinations of these seven players.

It isn’t ideal to have Flores in against a right-hander, or La Stella in against a left-hander, but it’s not something that gets a manager called into the GM’s office.

Mauricio Dubón, a right-handed hitter, who can play a fine second and a somewhat sketchy shortstop, but is also the starting center fielder for now.Īll of the above players have expected platoon splits, and you can play all of them against same-side pitchers without being complete drags on the lineup.

Wilmer Flores, a right-handed hitter, who can play a rough second and third, while being mostly OK at first.

Tommy La Stella, a left-handed hitter, who can play second, third and first somewhere between “competent” and “pretty OK.”.

Donovan Solano, a right-handed hitter who can play a solid second base, a below-average third base and a poor shortstop.

Brandon Belt, a left-handed hitter who can only play first.

Brandon Crawford, a left-handed hitter who can only play short.

Evan Longoria, a right-handed hitter who can only play third.They’ll ostensibly have these players to choose from: The Giants will need a third baseman, shortstop, second baseman and first baseman on any given day. How? How can the Giants maximize La Stella’s potential contributions and balance them in 2021?

No, they’re counting on him to be a substantial part of the lineup for the foreseeable future. They aren’t thinking about him like a Johnny Fill-In, someone they’re happy to have around in case a starter gets hurt or disappoints. The surprise is that the Giants wanted La Stella so badly, they reportedly went out and gave him a three-year deal, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

Tommy la stella