PHOENIX — Mike Moustakas has played 8,070 defensive inning

PHOENIX Mike Moustakas has played 8,070 defensive innings in his majorleague Alex Bregman Jersey career, and an additional 3,057 in the minors. Hes not spent a single moment as his teams second baseman in the regular season, but that will soon change.On Monday afternoon in his office at Milwaukees spring training facility in Maryvale, Brewers manager Craig Counsell made it official: Moustakas will be his clubs starting second baseman this season. Its not a surprise, of course.That was the intention when the Brewers brought the man known best as Moose back to Milwaukee on a one-year free-agent deal, and its not like the career third baseman had done anything this spring to show he wasnt capable of making the switch to second base.MORE: Hes handled the game action flawle sly, Counsell said.Moustakas hasnt done much of anything with the glove during spring games, actually. Hes played 40 innings at second this spring, and the balls been hit to him only 14 times. Hes made three putouts and has 11 a sists so far this spring. Carlos Beltran Jersey In four innings Monday, a couple of hours after he was officially named the starter, he didnt have a single defensive opportunity.And then theres this nugget: He has yet to see a double-play opportunity this spring. Think about that. Milwaukees starting second baseman on Opening Day has, with about two weeks left in spring, never attempted to turn a competitive double play as a second baseman.And please dont take this as any sort of criticism of Moustakas or Milwaukees defensive vetting proce s. Its far from that.Counsell made the observation that Moustakas lack of opportunities at second this spring are more of a reflection of the state of the game than anything else.So we decided to dig a little deeper.As you surely know, strikeout numbers have soared in recent years. MLB batters struck out a record 41,207 times last season the record was only 29,937 heading into 1998, as a point of comparison and for the first time major league history in 2018 there were more strikeouts than hits. Home runs are up lately, too. Three of the four highest season homerun totals have come in the past three years.So Jose Cruz Jr. Jersey with those two true outcomes (walks being the third true outcome) skyrocketing, the number of chances for a second baseman such asMoustakas are dwindling. The days of just trying to make contact andhit the ball on the ground are, for the most part, long gone."That goes into the equation, Counsell said. The balls not being put into play a ton. Its just not.Lets take a look at the numbers. Here are the average chances for a second baseman per nine innings by decade going back to 1968.1968: 5.281978: 5.511988: 5.271998: 5.082008: 4.992018: 4.29That 4.29 number Houston Astros Jersey is easily the lowest in MLB history. And it might not seem like a huge drop at first glance on average, second basemen saw roughly one fewer fielding chance per game in 2018compared with 1988 but thats a significant percentage drop. Second basemen last year saw 18.6 percent fewer chances than 30 years ago.MORE: Another way to look at this: In 1998, Fernando Vina led MLB second basemen with 5.75 chances per nine innings and 884 total chances in 1,382 2/3 innings. In 2018, Scooter Gennett led MLB second basemen (with at least 1,000 innings at the position) with 4.95 chances per nine innings and 665 total chances in 1,210 innings.Its the same thing for shortstops. Theyre seeing fewer chances per nine innings than at any point in MLB history.1968: 5.081978: 5.081988: 4.811998: 4.762008: 4.532018: 4.01So Milwaukees vetting proce s on Moustakas has had more Evan Gattis Jersey to do with what they know of him and what theyve seen on the practice field than what has happened in games thus far.Hes got very good feet. Hes got very good hands. Hes not going to have high-end range, Counsell said. But hes got very good feet and very good hands, and that can accomplish a lot. And hes very instinctual as a player.But the lack of spring opportunities?There are, Counsell admitted, going to be things thatll happen during the season that happen to him for the first time.But only 4.29 (or fewer) chances for something new to happen to him for the first time during the season, which is le s concerning than the 5.27 chances that would have been coming his way in 1988.