Nyjer Morgan traded to Brewers

[Tyler Durden]

Morgan was a terrible leadoff hitter last year.  Strikeouts, pickoffs, caught stealing.  He pretty much was the worst of all worlds.

He was good in 2009 for a few weeks and then broke his hand because he wouldn't slide feet first like coaches have probably been telling him to do for several years (mindfact).

[Baseball is Life]

Haha thanks guys, been getting a lot of that already and hasn't been an hour, I really couldn't resist.  Was hoping to find a big version of it for a background, but no success.

I have the shirts the Nats gave out last year with the same graphics. I get lots of nice comments on it.

[Evolution33]

Average OBP for a lead-off hitter in the NL last year was .328. Desmond is projected to be at .328 by Bill James projections, and Nyjer is projected to be at .347. But here is the question. How much are those .20 points of OBP affected by being picked off and CS? also is it worth the headache of having Nyjer missing cut-off men and causing other problems on the diamond by his lack of baseball IQ.

[blue911]

Yeah - I got that - but how does that happen?  Did he never have plus speed and they judged him wrongly to begin with (the Brewers, I mean, and the scouting reports from when he was drafted)?  Did he have some kind injury? 

I don't get how someone can be fast at 19 and 20 years old and then at 21 not be fast anymore.  He did steal a few bases last year and got caught a fair amount too - I wonder if the guy was referring to the CS numbers in some fashion when referring to the speed being gone.

Lower body muscle gain. i.e. butt and thighs.

[Baseball is Life]

Dave Nichols has posted a nice blog entry on why he thinks Rizzo made a mistake getting rid of Morgan.

http://natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2011/03/morgan-trade-leaves-more-questions-than.html

I tend to agree with this article. I think they should have let Morgan and Ankiel compete into the season.

You just don't give up on speedy leadoff CF that easily. I know Morgan was a headache but it's not like they upgraded at the position. I would actually feel better about Bernie being out there.

I am now ready to duck all thrown objects.

[Lintyfresh85]

Nope - not only is he not in the Top 30 - he isn't shown anywhere in their organization depth chart which shows 40 position players and 41 pitchers.

As a 22yo playing rookie ball, I'd say that he was a little old for the level. But batting .425 is impressive for anyone.

That's cool. He played with my brother through their early years. I wasn't expecting much... but his massive Rookie Ball season made me wonder if he could get at the bottom end of a prospect list.

My brother's All-Star team had Cerreto (Cardinals) and Evan Bronson (Nationals) on the same squad. Funny to see two kids you knew way back when eventually find their way to minor league ball.

[blue911]

The problem with Morgan is he has zero value hitting anywhere but lead off. If you bat him 8th, the seventh place hitter will never score a run, so you've just killed a third of your offense. At least Ankiel gives you some thump and an arm that is rated above piss poor.

[Kevrock]

I don't get how someone can be fast at 19 and 20 years old and then at 21 not be fast anymore. 

In some cases, body types just change. Not all 19 year olds are fully grown.

I don't understand whether he is referring to his speed in general or his speed on the base paths. If we are just talking about speed on the base paths, a lot of other factors come into play: reading pitchers, getting good jumps, situational decisions, etc. Not to mention the speed of the game increases at every level.

I tend to agree with this article. I think they should have let Morgan and Ankiel compete into the season.

Then we get into a numbers game. Which of our other outfielders would you dump just to let this competition drag out? I'm glad they made their decision early.

[imref]

i guess there's no way we trade for angel pagan?  he's in a one-year, $3.5 million deal (arbitration in 2012) and the Mets have to be looking to shed salary.  .340 OBP, 37 SBs last year.

[Lintyfresh85]

What's in it for the Mets?

[imref]

What's in it for the Mets?

Detwiler?  Flores?

[Kevrock]

Not Detwiler, please.

[Evolution33]

What's in it for the Mets?

Salary relief. I have heard that they are doing somer serious analyzing and if they don't think they can win before Wright is a free agent they might trade him. They are already looking to trade Reyes and Beltran at the deadline and it might be that very few guys are safe from the Mets trade block. So if they don't think they can win before Pagan is a free agent they likely look to move him.

[PebbleBall]

Honestly it seems to me that if the team released him there'd be less debate.  The fact that they got a marginal prospect just gives people something to argue over.

Also, I think Morse/Ankiel/Werth > Willingham/Morgan/Werth

[The Chief]

I basically stated in my blog that I think trading Morgan is a lot like selling crap you dont' want in an old RPG video game. You aren't really getting much for it, but it is better than throwing it in a dumpster.

[Tyler Durden]

Honestly it seems to me that if the team released him there'd be less debate.  The fact that they got a marginal prospect just gives people something to argue over.

I agree.  I would have fine with releasing him way before this point after his ridiculous antics last year on top of his miserable performance.

[machpost]

My collection of ex-Nats bobbleheads just keep growing.

My collection of ex-Nats player t-shirts keeps growing, as well.
Guillen
Lopez (probably should've taken this one to Goodwill a long time ago)
Guzman
T Plush

With that history I'm a little nervous about the Bryce Harper player tee that I bought a couple months ago 

[PC]

From Dave Nichols:

This move makes the Nationals a worse team.

Absolutely wrong.  This is one of the more extreme cases of addition by subtraction.  Nyjer Morgan was such a huge negative just replacing him with someone who knows how to be a professional, makes the team better.  The better alternative would have been to get rid of Morgan in November and aggressively look for a centerfielder when they had the full offseason to do it.

I don't get what Rizzo's thinking was this offseason about Morgan, to be honest.  He couldn't have expected Nyjer Morgan to get appreciably better.  His baseball IQ is almost negligible and that's not ever going to get better.  It's so bad that it completely negates his one asset, speed.  And this completely ignores his other deficiencies, which are numerous.

Getting rid of Nyjer Morgan back in November was an easy decision and if he (Rizzo) can't make the easy decisions, I can't trust his judgment in making the difficult ones.

[Lintyfresh85]

I don't think one's opinion can be proven absolutely wrong.

That's why it's an opinion.

[The Chief]

I don't think one's opinion can be proven absolutely wrong.

That's why it's an opinion.

Only if you had a machine with which to visit alternate universes so you could compare the results

[PC]

I don't think one's opinion can be proven absolutely wrong.

That's why it's an opinion.

Ok, then.

Absolutely wrong.  I disagree absolutely. <fill in the rest>

[Nathan]

I basically stated in my blog that I think trading Morgan is a lot like selling crap you dont' want in an old RPG video game. You aren't really getting much for it, but it is better than throwing it in a dumpster.

So, [Nyjer Morgan] was just vendor trash.  At least we have a better OF with [Michael Morse] in left and [Jayson Werth] in right.

[Obed_Marsh]

So, [Nyjer Morgan] was just vendor trash.  At least we have a better OF with [Michael Morse] in left and [Jayson Werth] in right.

[RL04]

Lenny Dykstra's son is a Nat!   Wow.  My past is catching up with me.

Do Gooden, Carter, Hernandez or Strawberry have any kids playing baseball?      

[wpa2629]

Lenny Dykstra's son is a Nat!   Wow.  My past is catching up with me.

Do Gooden, Carter, Hernandez or Strawberry have any kids playing baseball?      

Darryl has a son DJ that plays basketball. He was a Terp, SICK athlete, we loved him. He's playing overseas now I think.