Nationals Baseball: Simple Rule

Friday, February 04, 2011

Simple Rule

Any minor league deal for a guy around 30 or younger with some sort of major league talent / success is generally a good deal.

Hence - good for the Nats signing Laynce Nix.

I'm busy today so quickly - he's a good field, can't hit lefties batter. Which spells trouble for Roger Bernadina or would spell trouble if Roger was really a major league starter - which he isn't, so I guess it spells "reality check" or something like that.

Don't be fooled by last years stats, he had some crazy luck with his batting average for balls in play. His career numbers are just under .300, and this usually falls a bit as you age and lose speed. Last year he had like a .360. Not going to happen. 2009 is more of what you can expect, and what that is is a guy with decent pop against righty pitchers. A platoon of him and Morse could be extremely interesting.

As the Nats keep putting together a traditional bench - my view of the Hairston signing becomes dimmer and dimmer. Because he can play infield and outfield well enough, he offers a National league team flexibility to use a bench spot on a pure hitter - let's say a Russell Branyan type. A guy that can't play a position but can slam a homer in a pinch. If you aren't going to use that flexibility to your advantage then Hairston is just a poor, old, kind of expensive MI bench player

3 comments:

Basil said...

National league team flexibility to use a bench spot on a pure hitter - let's say a Russell Branyan type. A guy that can't play a position but can slam a homer in a pinch.

That's Matt Stairs, in theory.

Nix is sort of Ankiel, except without a guaranteed contract. I dunno.

Harper said...

Stairs? You're hung up on a guy born in the 60's man!

Ankiel - hype = Nix

as you can see Hype = dolla dolla bills y'all.

Anonymous said...

Depth is rarely a bad thing. The Nats are heavy on number 6-7 hitters and 4-5 spot pitchers, but it beats a couple of seasons ago when they didn't even have that.