Can you get motion sickness from Joe Maddon’s defensive fiddling?

When we were younger, my wife and I went camping quite a bit. We had different philosophies about the best way to enjoy it.

She liked to stay at a campsite for a day or two, then pack up and go in search of a new experience. There was always something on the other side of the hill.

I liked staying in one spot, enjoying the unhurried pace of life and taking in what the area offered. If there was something on the other side of the hill, it involved taking down the tent, which was like a geometry problem from hell, and then setting it up again.

Watching Joe Maddon move his players from position to position reminds me of those tug-of-war camping days. Something’s obviously working because the Cubs have had one of the best records in baseball the entire season. But sometimes I find myself looking at that day’s lineup and saying to the nearest person, “Is it possible for somebody, anybody, to stay in one position for any length of time?”

Are the Cubs better off by having so much mobility?

Maddon has said he thinks moving players around helps make a long, sometimes tedious season a little more interesting for them. I think it impedes players from becoming really good at one position. Even though Javy Baez is the best third baseman, shortstop and second baseman on the team, he and the Cubs would be better served if he were allowed to play one position. We’re talking a perennial Gold Glove here. Put him at shortstop, move Addison Russell to second and leave them there for good. Watch a great double-play combination make life miserable for the National League.

Instead, Baez has started 25 games at third base, 22 games at second, 11 at short and one at first. Kris Bryant has started 59 games at third, 27 in left field, 11 in right and three at first. All of this means that lots of other people have played musical chairs this season.

Obviously, injuries have had a hand Maddon’s card shuffling. Kyle Schwarber would have played a lot of left field if he hadn’t blown out his knee early in the season. And centerfielder Dexter Fowler missed significant time with a hamstring injury.

But sometimes the field looks more like Maddon’s personal playground than a baseball diamond. Ben Zobrist, the Cubs’ most-of-the-time second baseman, has had a nice career in the super-utility role, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that Baez is the same guy or that the Cubs are better with Baez as their handyman.

It’s a little like camping. Can’t we just stay put for a while?