Nats Swap Langerhans For Mike Morse

Hey Steve Adams why did you delete my comment?

One of the cooler stories I've read. Langerhans plays great defense and can be a good hitter. Morse was playing solid as well. With all the issues the Nats have in the outfield, how was Lang not manning center?

I dislike this move if this steals time from Balentien or ebbs a move for a better player. Langerhans is 29 he's not exactly young, he's shown no staying ability in the major leagues, and Balentien has responded favorably to not having some LF in his shadow ready to steal at bats.

I am worried that adding another LF will put unnecessary pressure on Wlad and make him press at the plate to produce results. As an insurance policy it makes sense to have him at AAA instead of running LaHair out there, but for the big club I think this is a recipe for disaster.

All I can hope for is that Zduriencik makes clear he is only a 4th outfielder and nothing more. He made promises to Balentien that LF was his to lose and he responded with 2 HR in 3 games before leaving on the road trip.

I like a lot of what Zduriencik has done with the ball club, but Endy Chavez was over used and I'm worried that they look to Langerhans as more than a 4th outfielder because he swings from a certain side of the plate. In reality Balentien doesn't need a platoon he hits almost exactly the same against LH & RH pitchers if you check out his splits.

The guy that suggested Langerhans was a good idea is a questionable person intellectually. Let's consider that he can't crack the MLB roster on the worst team in baseball, how is he going to possibly help us? I think they should have went for Lastings Milledge if they wanted to pick up something from the Nats, at least he has upside and would have cost what? An extra low level minor league arm with a 50-50 chance of sniffing the majors?

I don't have a problem with Morse going because he didn't fit in the big picture for the club, but depending on how Beltre's 60 day DL trip goes, it might have been nice to bring him up and throw him at 3B if they refuse to move Branyan across the diamond. I guess best case scenario is Langerhans does some damage for a bit and plays over his head and then is packaged for a piece that really helps the Mariners.

They're about to win their second in a row against the Dodgers in L.A., which should finally shut up the naysayers that think two horrible pitching staffs and a team that can't hit water falling out of a boat, are going to take the division from Seattle.

A couple bats and the Mariners are the team to beat in the AL West if not all the AL. Their pitching is almost a half run better than anybody else in the AL. Seattle's offense is already moving up the ladder of team stats and Griffey is close to a 900 OPS this month and I think it has to do with getting him into the field (he's horrible as a DH historically).

The Braves won't trade Jordan Schafer. The Braves are hoping to have a young, cheap, productive outfield of Mclouth, Schafer, and Heyward.

This is a deal for SEA that once I heard it I didn't have any real reaction.

The timing seems a bit odd since Beltre will be out for awhile & Morse might be able to play 3B.

I guess SEA wasn't comfortable giving up defense with a Junior/Balentin platoon in left.

As a Nats fan I really like this deal. Rather than get strong armed for an aging OFer in Morgan they turn around and get Morse from the Ms for a guy not remotely in their plans.

It appears Morse hasn't had a full season at the pro level since '03 (age 21, A+ ball). After a little more than a cup of coffee at age 23 at the MLB level, he had little opportunity to shine. After age 24, it seems he's done nothing but hit.

Nats will find a spot for him. And if his range can become Nick Green-Jason Bartlett, then it'll be worth every ounce of Ryan L.

Nice move, Rizzo.

Yanksallday...

Just because your $200MM a year team is a joke, doesn't mean you have to act like an idiot. Right now the Mariners are one of the hotest teams in baseball and not over just the last 10 days. They have won 8 of their last 9 series. The only team to win a series, Colorado IN Colorado, and there were two games that they should have won in that series. Am I making excuses? Nope, just saying that they haven't been out played by anybody.

Now they beat the Dodgers with Erik Bedard, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Chad Cordero, Cesar Jimenez, Ryan Feierabend, Shawn Kelley, Carlos Silva (might be more of a plus than a minus), Yuniesky Betancourt, and Endy Chavez, all on the DL. So everyone can talk all the crap about their injuries hurting their teams but the Mariners minus a pitching staff their LF and SS are still better than the best team in baseball this weekend.

While they won all these series (8 of 9), Russell Branyan got days off and went to bury his grandfather, Jose Lopez said his goodbyes to his sister who died of cancer and then they buried her (gone a week), Rob Johnson went to the funeral of his mother-in-law, Kenji Johjima was also on the DL, Roy Corcoran came off the DL a week ago, Ronny Cedeno missed some games with a hamstring, Beltre has played through a bone spur that will sideline him for 6-8 weeks, and yet they still had one of the best records in baseball over the last month (.646 winning percentage).

So yeah, this teams pretty good and they have already overcome adversity. You look like more of a homer for not knowing just how hot the Mariners have been, it's not like you won't find out in a couple days! If you are offended about Mariners fans having faith in their own team, then try not posting in a Mariners article you tool!

By the way, the core players of the Rangers lineup is hitting around .220 collectively with around a 700 OPS this month and they are a team without any pitchers aside from Kevin Millwood and Frank Francisco. So yeah that's why the Rangers are playing like crap. If you thought they had a chance to be great because they rolled up a bunch over overrated Yankees than you are sorely mistaken. Pretending their great so your Yankees didn't look out classed by a .500 team is pretty sad.

The Angels went from Tex to Morales, from Anderson to Rivera, from Guerrero to Abreu, from Morales to horrible Guerrero, which means a little better defense (Tex to Kendry was a downgrade), but a much worse offense. They traded one of the best (while still very annoying) closers in baseball for a guy that's a situational lefty (Fuentes) with an inflated title, sure he has a ton of saves, but he's also looked very hittable at times and his delivery looks like a 12 year old on the mound, the rest of their bullpen has fallen apart, Speier is gone for the season, and their rotation?? Well where to begin... Santana falling on his face post long-term deal, hmmm, sounds like he's the pitching version of Gary Matthews Jr. with his 7.47 ERA (how appropriate with how balls have been flying off bats with him throwing), the trio of 5's, Lackey, Soux, and Palmer... The ever amazing Weaver who is a 4.00 ERA pitcher masquerading as an ace, and when he regresses to the mean he'll have a 6.00 ERA in the second half, Saunders is maybe the only guy close to his potential, but I'm guessing he finishes with a 4.00+ ERA, meaning a 4.50 ERA in the second half. They actually have a team very equal to the Mariners offensively, but their pitching is a joke. Only Lackey has upside to rebound but coming off major surgery, I wouldn't place bets.

The A's? 10.5 games out are sellers. So what team was the one better than the Mariners?

So you are saying that with Teahen at 2B, Jose Lopez moving to 3B, and Freddy Sanchez going to SS that it wouldn't make this team devastating to face if their pitching continues to hold up? I said if they added a couple bats and that's not an Perennial All-Star, HOF, or even an elite regular, just a couple solid bats in Sanchez and Teahen.

Yeah, I'm a "homer" for thinking that while the AL East teams hide their aces on the DL (see Matsuzaka, Wang, Kazmir) with mental issues, that the Mariners are a couple small trades away from being the team to beat in the AL West.

You're right, I'm a horrible homer, for thinking 8 of 9 series wins with almost the whole 25 man roster injured or gone on bereavment at some point over that time period is a sign that there's depth to trade from and enough left over to make it through injuries, after the new pieces get here from the trades we make.

Mark Teahen and Brayan Pena would cost something like Olson, Betancourt, Clement, and we could have Pena backup Johjima, so Johnson can go to AAA and fix the hole in his swing.

Freddy Sanchez could play SS and would cost Cedeno and a couple low level fringe prospects, maybe Jacob Wild and Donald Hume. Woodward, Josh Wilson, or some other guy could be thrown into the utility role with Teahen being flexible enough to cover the corner IF and OF plus 2B.

So this horrible team would have a lineup like this...

Ichiro
Sanchez
Branyan
Griffey
Lopez
Balentien
Teahen
Johjima
Gutierrez

and after Beltre returns in August/September...

Ichiro
Sanchez
Branyan
Griffey
Lopez
Beltre
Teahen/Balentien
Johjima
Gutierrez

and these trades leave all the top prospects in the system and a rotation of...

Hernandez
Bedard
Morrow
Washburn
Rowland-Smith

yeah, horrible team, just horrible...

disclaimer: Teams with 100MM payrolls and who have won every series not played at 5000+ feet above sea level in the last 5 weeks are not homers, they are just lucky enough to reside geographically in the correct region to cheer such a team. Fans who use the homer term out of control for similar things said by fans of Tampa Bay last year should come to terms with the fact that money doesn't guarantee championships (curse of the A-Rod is in it's 6th season and the Evil Empire is going to be without a championship for the 9th straight year, makes me happy!)

Thr33nil,

Morse has average to plus speed, he was actually used as a pinch runner and has 55-60 speed rating on the 20-70 scale. It's his fielding and throwing that is the issue. Some how he can hit, but his power in AAA was deceiving, you're general assessment is correct and he's probably a Ryan Garko duplicate.

Iknowalilsomethingaboutbaseball,

Dude you really need to chill out, and damn you type a lot.

Anyway I never said anything about the Yankees being a superior team to anyone, and I don't have anything to do with the Yankees payroll, I honestly can't help it that they spend more money than any other team, of course that could have something to do with making boatloads of money, but thats for another time.

And congrats, the M's are hot right now, but it still doesn't change the fact that they've scored the 2nd fewest runs in all of baseball, so you really shouldn't hate on any teams offense, if the M's didn't have that pitching staff they'd be a sub .500 club right now. Plus their run differential is still -15 and if my team is a joke what does that make your team who is 4 games back of the Yankees in the wildcard, and in 5th place in the wildcard.

And you really should't say "Am I making excuses. Nope..." and then proceed to give a long list of excuses about how your team has been injured and players have been gone for bereavement (I'm sorry for their losses and hope their all doing well btw) because every team has injuries.

What exactly were the Yankees supposed to do with Wang? He couldn't get through 3 innings without the game turning into a blowout.

And even after all those downgrades with for the Angels and Texas' offense being anemic as of late they're both still looking down at the Seattle in the standing, albeit not by much.

O and Freddy Sanchez has played only 55 games at SS in the majors, posting a UZR/150 of -4 so yeah...

I really, really hope you remember this argument because I would love to tell you I told you so when the M's are sitting at home in October, which I still think will be the case, even if they make the proposed trades you suggest. (O and if the M's win the AL pennant then I will fly up to Seattle to personally tell you that I was wrong)

O and the Angels didn't trade K-Rod, he was a FA and the Mets signed him while the Angels didn't get a chance to match or beat the offer. And using ERA to judge the pitchers is not fair at all. Not saying the Angels pitching staff has been good since Weaver is the only one with a sub 4 FIP, but none of the others have a FIP north of 5, so at least use the proper stat if your gonna bash.

How is this a stupid move? Having watched Morse in Seattle and Tacoma, he's a AAAA player at best -- and as most have noted, his lack of defensive skills (or concentration, as I believe was the case in the Chicago system) puts his best position at DH. In other words, he's the sparest of spare parts.

Langerhans, on the other hand, provides plus defense on a team built to rely on such things in the outfield. Balentien? Interesting skill set, from a power perspective. Best used as trade piece -- but he needs to show some value at the MLB level or AAA before that trigger can be pulled.