FanPost

Chris Carter's Left Field Defense

Apologies for this being a brief, underdeveloped fanpost, but I would like for this to be a place were can aggregate our collective knowledge about Chris Carter's defense.

Here's the update:

Through July 27th, Chris Carter had played first base almost exclusively for the Rivercats, with 94 appearances at first out of a total of 101 games played. On July 28th, Chris Carter played left field for the Rivercats. Since then, he's DH'd once and played left field in five other games. It would appear that he has, for the time being, been moved exclusively to left field.

Like many ANers, I'm excited by this development. Carter projected as a poor defensive first baseman anyway, and the team already has a sold first baseman that I don't think could be traded for anything much of value, anyway.

If Carter does well in the month of August, he could conceivably get a September call-up and the opportunity to start in LF every day for the A's during the season's final month. The A's 2011 outfield is pretty much wide open, and Carter has a chance to assert himself.

Carter's defensive stats:

You can look at Carter's minor league fielding record, including games played at each position and errors, here.

But I would be grateful if the community could chime in with the following info below:

*Have any of you seen him play left field in Sacramento the past week? If so, how did he look?

*Do you have any relevant scouting links on the Internet to recent reports about his defense?

*How is Carter's arm?

*Is he slow, fast, or average as a runner?

(My perception has been that his "tools" defensively are fine, and that he can't play infield because he struggles fielding ground balls and taking throws, but that those tools would play better in the outfield).

Thanks for contributing!