That you are a offense first kind of guy.

But if youre going to build a team around certain key positions, first base would be one of the last places I would build around.

With the defense, Tulo has to be considered the best all around SS in the game right now.

But probably a bit lower. 15th? 20th? Unless he’s any lower, doesn’t that mean he should at least make your top ten list of NL MVP candidates?

Based solely on this year’s numbers, where he’s no better than the average shortstop (remember positions count, though) Fangraphs has him at 5 WAR, somewhere between 20th and 30th in MLB. If you’re a clutch kind of person, he’s been the third most unclutch hitter based on WPA. Much less unclutch based on RE24 (which ignores inning and score).

And at least 3 shortstops.

Mainly because their starting rotation has been the best in baseball? And their bullpen’s been great and they have received good contributions from part time players. Put Tulo on the Padres and see what happens, they’ll still suck.

The point about position and defense in nullified by using WAR. WAR, by definition, takes into account positional scarcity. If Tulowitski is a 5 WAR shortstop with good defense, he’s no more valuable than a 5 WAR first baseman with bad defense.

For you to try and prove that Tulowitski would be a cornerstone type player, IE, a guy who if you had a leaguewide draft, you would take in the top 10; you would have to show that he projects to be better by WAR than at least 10 other players. As I’ve shown above, unless he improves a lot AND other players decline, that’s not going to be the case.

That if all teams were erased, and every player was thrown into a giant pool, as a GM you would take Tulo over Pujols?

Your argument makes little sense. I could also say, “Without Pujols and his ridiculous contributions, the great pitching staff would be sitting at home.” Obviously it takes more than just offense to make the playoffs, but it takes more than pitching and defense too. Braves and Giants had great pitching but poor hitting and didn’t get the job done.

with the use of Pujols as an example of your point. He’s proven to be a “cornerstone” of quite a few pennant caliber teams. All players need a team around them, so I’m not sure how floating out the “without…” argument works, especially when you even caveat the Sizemore pick.

For a point of comparison, if you take Pujols and pair him with a 1 WAR SS (of which nearly all of MLB trotted one out there) you have to find a 4 WAR 1B to pair with Tulo (of which there were 8, or 9 if you count Youk). If you pair him with a 2 WAR SS (of which 19 teams had one of those) then you need to go out and find a 5 WAR 1B (of which there were 6).

I’m not necessarily trying to prove your general point of building up the middle wrong, it just seems difficult to make that point when one of your examples is tenuous at best.