Knorr - If the Nats had signed DeJesus, he would have been our leadoff hitter for 2012 and likely performed well enough. Even last year's .323 OBP would have been better than what we ran out there in 2011.
Here is
some discussion of his 2011 off numbers. Note the BABIP and the maintenance of his career walk rate.
Why did DeJesus have such a poor year offensively? When you dig into his numbers, it becomes apparent that DeJesus hasn’t suffered a skill degradation at the plate. His walk rate (8.9%) was the highest its been since 2007, and he didn’t lose any power either (.136 ISO, .137 career ISO). His strikeout rate spiked up a considerable amount to 17% (normally sits around 11-13%), but his plate discipline statistics haven’t gotten noticeably worse. He swung at 39% of pitches overall and only 24% of pitches outside the zone, both of which are considerably better than league average and very similar to his tendencies over the previous two seasons.
Instead, DeJesus’ “slump” seems to have been a product of his .274 BABIP – the worst of his career. That may not seem low, but DeJesus has a .316 career BABIP. I didn’t watch the Athletics consistently, so I don’t feel comfortable commenting on why DeJesus’ BABIP was depressed last year. Was it a product of bad luck? Was it him not making consistent solid contact? Did injuries play a role? It’s likely a little bit of all three reasons. Regardless, though, it still remains quite likely that he’ll improve in 2012 and have a better overall offensive season.
Between him and Werth, we probably had a passable CF, and I would have liked to have seen him in left with Morse at 1st and LaRoche sleeping with the fishes (Rays). FWIW, Bill James projects a bounce back year in terms of OBP - .349 - which is still off his career avereage of .356.
figures it'd be and Linty who be saying he could be an adequate leadoff guy.
