i9s

Carlos Morán is a conundrum. Decades ago, we all thought he was a speedy CF who drew a lot of walks, stole a lot of bases and never, ever (well, hardly ever) hit homeruns. He was the best of the 3 Morán brothers, and a member of the Cuban Baseball HoF, and all was right in the world.

Turns out he had over 500 appearances at 3B and only 5 in CF. And he was left handed. So that doesn’t make a lot of sense–there have been fewer than a dozen lefties to play 3B throughout baseball history, and fewer than a handful that played there with any regularity.

So his defensive record is puzzling, and likely to have some future research reveal that either he fielded right-handed or in fact played OF a ton.

So let’s focus on his offensive production.

Morán was a singles hitter with exceptional speed who drew a ton of walks.

That’s it.

Despite rarely being a full time player (through a mix of injuries and production), he is projected to be near the top of the league leaders in walks and steals a few times in his career between 1905 and 1911. His walk rate was absolutely phenomenal, which is essentially how he preserved value. His OBP projections breach .400 roughly half his seasons, despite a batting average rarely over .270.

I think he could easily see some reshaping in future revisions, most likely in his usage: it seems odd to me that other MLE’s see Morán as never really holding down a fulltime position. And, of course, the defense issue has to be resolved (and, of course, maybe he just was a unicorn, playing most of his career as a lefty at 3B).

Name	Carlos Morán (Chino)
ID / Status	moran049car / Draft
Pos	OF
DOB / i9s Career	1878 / 1899 - 1915
Birthplace	Matanzas, Cuba (Cuba)
Height / Weight	5'7" /
B / T	L / L

 

Batting Projections

Year	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1899	230	79	8	4	0	70	24	24	7	0.343	0.497	0.413	0.910
1900	350	100	6	1	0	76	17	31	5	0.286	0.413	0.309	0.722
1901	392	137	12	4	0	79	35	51	11	0.349	0.459	0.401	0.859
1902	375	103	10	3	0	57	35	30	5	0.275	0.370	0.317	0.688
1903	263	77	9	3	0	63	32	38	6	0.293	0.429	0.350	0.779
1904	386	87	8	4	0	57	30	32	5	0.225	0.325	0.267	0.592
1905	550	173	13	2	1	79	54	63	11	0.315	0.401	0.351	0.752
1906	518	135	13	5	0	112	54	66	15	0.261	0.392	0.305	0.697
1907	274	66	7	2	0	85	38	39	7	0.241	0.421	0.281	0.702
1908	468	111	11	4	0	82	42	50	11	0.237	0.351	0.278	0.629
1909	499	155	11	4	1	91	37	79	13	0.311	0.417	0.355	0.772
1910	480	121	12	5	0	94	44	70	12	0.252	0.375	0.298	0.672
1911	551	155	16	6	0	119	41	100	22	0.281	0.409	0.332	0.741
1912	525	138	17	7	0	96	36	77	16	0.263	0.377	0.322	0.699
1913	449	107	11	3	1	63	37	28	9	0.238	0.332	0.283	0.615
1914	362	92	10	4	2	45	38	15	6	0.254	0.337	0.320	0.657
1915	186	37	5	0	1	39	31	8	5	0.199	0.338	0.242	0.580

 

Pitching Projections