He Can Play Anywhere!

Rafael Furcal has been the Atlanta Brave's starting shortstop for the past six seasons. He has an outstanding throwing arm and he cut his error total in half in 2005. He also features an above average middle infield bat and an impressive 78% career stolen base rate.

Furcal's arm is what draws much of the attention to his game and it's easy to harken back to the 1980's when Chicago's Shawon Dunston rifled baseballs from the shortstop position for the Cubs to look for a comparable arm.

The twenty-eight year old is a free-agent for the first time in his career this off-season and there are several clubs expected to pursue him. One is the New York Mets who appear to be interested in moving him to second base to take over for the disappointing Kaz Matsui. With Jose Reyes at short and Furcal at second the Mets would have two power arms with very nice range up the middle. They'd also have two legitimate speed threats at the top of their lineup (three if Carlos Beltran hits third).

Over at Camden Chat there's the idea of throwing Furcal out in centerfield or second base or third base or.... Just get his bat and speed into the lineup anyway you can.

Camden Chat has the same idea as many Met fans in wanting to team Furcal with another speedster (this time Brian Roberts) at the top of a lineup to create runs the old fashioned way - by stealing bases. Hmmm, do the Chicago White Sox winning the World Series have anything to do with this line of thinking?

In an overall weak winter of '05-'06 free agent class Furcal should earn a nice four or five year contract with a club who envisions using his speed to its fullest extent.