Bryce Harper 2018 and beyond

[NJ Ave]

Why the hell is MICHAEL TAYLOR a guy who gets automatic starts in CF when people make future lineups? He cannot hit. He had one fluke season. He's great defensively but I'm not cool with punting on offense from CF for good defense.

First of all, he isn't a backup OF. He is either a starter or shouldn't be on the roster. He is OPSing .689 as a starter, .472 as a sub. He has a 200 point OPS swing for his career. Second, the last 3 months he's hitting .285/.342/.442. It seems extremely likely to me that if placed in CF full time he'd slash something like .300/.400.

It's not ideal, but it's not the worst thing in the world. He's still likely an average 2-win player like that. We have him for 2 years and then he's gone. If Robles takes over next year or the year after, so be it.

[HalfSmokes]

Why not move Harper to 1B and let the guy who still might learn how to play OF stay there?

Zimmerman can field the ball and hand it to harper to throw to second or third

[imref]

Move Soto to 1B. Play Taylor in CF. Eaton in LF and Harper in RF. If any of the outfielders go down, move Soto back out there. If Zim stays healthy, then sit Taylor and play Eaton in CF. This is all for next year, of course.

Zimmerman isn't going anywhere in 2019, so the best you can hope for is another year of Adams forming a R/L platoon.  Robles is the CF of the future.  Eaton hasn't been able to hit lefties this year so he'd be the odd man out IMHO.  So you go with Soto/Taylor/Harper to start the year, with Robles eventually supplanting Taylor.  And you hope that either Kendricks is healthy, or you sign a RH OF to backup the corners.

[Slateman]

First of all, he isn't a backup OF. He is either a starter or shouldn't be on the roster. He is OPSing .689 as a starter, .472 as a sub. He has a 200 point OPS swing for his career. Second, the last 3 months he's hitting .285/.342/.442. It seems extremely likely to me that if placed in CF full time he'd slash something like .300/.400.

It's not ideal, but it's not the worst thing in the world. He's still likely an average 2-win player like that. We have him for 2 years and then he's gone. If Robles takes over next year or the year after, so be it.

Taylor will never be a .300 hitter, but I do agree that he's good enough to start in CF on most teams. Even playoff ones.

[imref]

Taylor will never be a .300 hitter, but I do agree that he's good enough to start in CF on most teams. Even playoff ones.

maybe ones that don't also have an offensive black hole at catcher?

[varoadking]

maybe ones that don't also have an offensive black hole at catcher?

As the Master of Small Sample Sizes...shouldn't you be pointing out that Wieters is hitting .375 over his last 11 games?

BTW "Master of Small Sample Sizes" should be the text below your avatar...

[UMDNats]

First of all, he isn't a backup OF. He is either a starter or shouldn't be on the roster. He is OPSing .689 as a starter, .472 as a sub. He has a 200 point OPS swing for his career. Second, the last 3 months he's hitting .285/.342/.442. It seems extremely likely to me that if placed in CF full time he'd slash something like .300/.400.

It's not ideal, but it's not the worst thing in the world. He's still likely an average 2-win player like that. We have him for 2 years and then he's gone. If Robles takes over next year or the year after, so be it.

That's fair, but I also just don't really buy into a full-season commitment to him. I think he has a spot on the roster but his ability off the bench is awful. I think as a starter he can get hot and look great for 2-3 months but if he's cold he's unplayable.

tl; dr i got no idea

[imref]

As the Master of Small Sample Sizes...shouldn't you be pointing out that Wieters is hitting .375 over his last 11 games?

BTW "Master of Small Sample Sizes" should be the text below your avatar...

You seem to be fixated on small sample sizes.  I wonder why that is.....

[varoadking]

You seem to be fixated on small sample sizes.  I wonder why that is.....

6-10 over his last two games, raising his average from .211 to .250.

[Baseball is Life]

You seem to be fixated on small sample sizes.  I wonder why that is.....

 

[spidernat]

As the Master of Small Sample Sizes...shouldn't you be pointing out that Wieters is hitting .375 over his last 11 games?

BTW "Master of Small Sample Sizes" should be the text below your avatar...

The Ryan Zimmerman helping/hurting thread is full of imref's small sample size posts.

[imref]

The Ryan Zimmerman helping/hurting thread is full of imref's small sample size posts.

Maybe you and Var could get together and create a list of acceptable posts.  It seems that the both of you have serious issues with what gets posted on this site.  If you could let us know what is appropriate to post, for instance, the minimum amount of games / plate appearances one needs to have before we can comment on their hitting, I'm sure it would make this forum far more enjoyable for everyone.  Of course, we should probably do away with the GDTs since the discussion on them is typically related to single games, at bats, pitching appearances, etc..  For instance, many are writing Koda Glover off on the basis of a couple of bad games.  Yours and Var's, insight, guidance, and intelligence could prevent those sorts of posts.  And, once you are done, please call Mike Rizzo and ask him to bring back Trevor Gott.  It's a shame that he was sent down after one bad appearance, don't you think?

Thank you to the both of you for all that you do to keep this forum enjoyable for all of us.

[NJ Ave]

Taylor will never be a .300 hitter, but I do agree that he's good enough to start in CF on most teams. Even playoff ones.

.300 OBP, .400 SLG.

[blue911]

.300 OBP, .400 SLG.

ala Devon White.

[NJ Ave]

ala Devon White.

Kevin Pillar, Ender Enciarte, JBJ, Billy Hamilton, Manny Margot...there are a lot of guys who make it work with similarly challenged bats if they can play a plus CF.

MAT career has about 800 PA batting 7th/8th and 550 PA batting 1st/6th. His 7/8 OPS is about .735, while his 1/6 OPS is around .600. He's not a guy you "challenge". Just put him out there in a spot where he'll get pitches to hit, and don't have high expectations.

[imref]

Kevin Pillar, Ender Enciarte, JBJ, Billy Hamilton, Manny Margot...there are a lot of guys who make it work with similarly challenged bats if they can play a plus CF.

MAT career has about 800 PA batting 7th/8th and 550 PA batting 1st/6th. His 7/8 OPS is about .735, while his 1/6 OPS is around .600. He's not a guy you "challenge". Just put him out there in a spot where he'll get pitches to hit, and don't have high expectations.

so again, if you put MAT out in CF next year, and keep Harper, you have to move Eaton.   And when Robles is ready, you cross that bridge.  If Harper goes, you start the season with Soto/MAT/Eaton and then figure out a plan for Robles.

[Baseball is Life]

Maybe you and Var could get together and create a list of acceptable posts.  It seems that the both of you have serious issues with what gets posted on this site.

Spoken for truth. And, of course, they're the first ones to accuse others of being the Nats Fan Police.

[varoadking]

Maybe you and Var could get together and create a list of acceptable posts.  It seems that the both of you have serious issues with what gets posted on this site.  If you could let us know what is appropriate to post, for instance, the minimum amount of games / plate appearances one needs to have before we can comment on their hitting, I'm sure it would make this forum far more enjoyable for everyone.  Of course, we should probably do away with the GDTs since the discussion on them is typically related to single games, at bats, pitching appearances, etc..  For instance, many are writing Koda Glover off on the basis of a couple of bad games.  Yours and Var's, insight, guidance, and intelligence could prevent those sorts of posts.  And, once you are done, please call Mike Rizzo and ask him to bring back Trevor Gott.  It's a shame that he was sent down after one bad appearance, don't you think?

Thank you to the both of you for all that you do to keep this forum enjoyable for all of us.

Stoopid post... 

[spidernat]

Maybe you and Var could get together and create a list of acceptable posts. 

Spoken for truth. And, of course, they're the first ones to accuse others of being the Nats Fan Police.

And imref's lapdog weighs in.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Trevor Gott being brought up in this context reminds me of the great WNFF neologism, "bruney".

[Slateman]

so again, if you put MAT out in CF next year, and keep Harper, you have to move Eaton.   And when Robles is ready, you cross that bridge.  If Harper goes, you start the season with Soto/MAT/Eaton and then figure out a plan for Robles.

But we're not keeping Harper ....

[imref]

But we're not keeping Harper ....

As I posted a few days ago, I'm not sure the Lerners are going to let him leave.

[Elvir Ovcina]

As I posted a few days ago, I'm not sure the Lerners are going to let him leave.

What are they going to do, chain him in the basement with a dog bowl, a bucket, and an instructional video called "How to hit the Cutoff Man" playing on an endless loop with a thundering "Where's my ring?" interspersed at every fade to black?

[imref]

What are they going to do, chain him in the basement with a dog bowl, a bucket, and an instructional video called "How to hit the Cutoff Man" playing on an endless loop with a thundering "Where's my ring?" interspersed at every fade to black?

wave a massive contract in front of him.

[Elvir Ovcina]

wave a massive contract in front of him.

We'll see.  They're already forking out a heck of a lot of payroll and not seeing results.