Nyjer Morgan said on Friday he didn't expect to be a National by Opening Day, and the team didn't waste much time validating that prediction. The Nationals have sent Morgan to the Brewers in exchange for Cutter Dykstra, reports MLB.com's Bill Ladson. The Brewers will also send $50K to the Nats in the deal, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Morgan, 30, was unlikely to crack the Nationals' roster, and told Ladson earlier this weekend, "Maybe I'm not a fit here anymore. It's time to move on." The Brewers, meanwhile, were keeping an eye on Morgan after trading Chris Dickerson to the Yankees on Friday. GM Doug Melvin had denied interest, saying the club was willing to enter the season with in-house options Brandon Boggs and Jeremy Reed, but suggested today that the Nats changed their asking price (Twitter link). Morgan will now take Boggs' spot on the roster, according to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy (via Twitter).
Dykstra, the son of former major leaguer Lenny Dykstra, was selected by the Brewers in the second round of the 2008 draft. The 21-year-old hit .312/.416/.411 in 353 plate appearances at Class A Wisconsin in 2010.
Ok, anyone want to take odds on how long it takes for him and prince to duke it out in the dugout? Horrible move dm
I could see that happening, but I don’t agree that the move is horrible.
Prince would eat him for lunch.
I’m having trouble figuring out which joke to make… a fat joke or a vegetarian joke.
what hasn’t Prince eaten for lunch?
A burger?
They have veggie burgers these days
I thought we were talking about food.
weak
A salad
Prince will keep him in line, just like he keeps Manny Parra in line.
I think a better, more positive influence is going to come from Rickie Weeks. Do not underestimate the comfort level a player like Morgan might find on a team that has two prominent black players. Like him or not, Fielder is a leader on this team. Like him or not (and I’m going to have words with you if you say you don’t like him!) Rickie Weeks is the epitome of hustle, work ethic, grit, and outstandingly awesome human being.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Morgan has a reasonably decent, and mostly quiet season with the Brewers. They took him knowing the issues. I predict they will do the work with him to get him back under control. If you look back over the years, Morgan didn’t really have problems until last year.
No, the horrible move was/is installing a guy with ZERO on base skills like Gomez as your everyday CF’er. THAT guy is a complete stiff and has shown nothing in what has become an extremely disappointing career.
Sorry, but finding a guy with a .344 career OBP as your fallback option to a guy with a career .292 OBP isn’t a horrible move at all. It’s a smart move.
Why are they going to fight? I think they would make a great tag team. Prince the power guy and Morgan flying off the ropes doing stupid things. Sounds like great television.
Cutter Dykstra? Jesus, that is a name I would not want to screw with.
Cutter Dykstra
All new episode
this Thursday,
SPIKE TV, 9 pm. Eastern
Cutter gets involved with the woman he’s hired to investigate
This moves makes sense, right now the lineup is top heavy and needs balance. A platoon of Nyjer and Go-go gives you a better option in the 2 hole, moves Hart to the 5th and McGhee to the 6th. Betancourt’s low obp but occasional power plays decent in the 7 hole, but would have left a lot of runners on base if he continued to bat 6th.
Betancount’s low obp but osccasional power wouldn’t play decent in the Pirates’ 9-hole.
I agree he’s terrible, i’m just saying the further you push him down the better.
A shame there’s no 10-hole, then, huh?
It’s called the bench
A shame there’s no 26-th hole, then, huh?
i can’t see mcghee going that far down in the lineup, he needs to stay behind prince. go go’s still a bottom of order hitter. i see the potential for a problem with a power,power,power,power,power batting order but how can you take at bats away from any of these guys and give them to gomez and morgan?
Maybe i’ve grown too accustomed to the Ron Gardenhire philosophy where you put your scrappiest hitter in the 2 hole regardless of actual results.
I’ve always thought of the 2-hole as a place to “hide” an average hitter with good speed. They’re obviously not going to pitch around him, so it’ll help his stats all go up. I call it the Jeter Effect.
lineup protection is not a real thing
speed is a virtual non-factor at the top of the lineup
putting a poor/average hitter in the 2 spot is just about the worst thing you can do in terms of lineup optimization
ideally the second-best hitter on your club should hit second
I think Matt Holliday proved that lineup protection IS a real thing
you are mistaken
I would absolutely disagree with you about line up protection. You can’t possibly argue that Ryan Howard would probably see less quality pitches w/o Werth hitting behind him?
Ask Ortiz if he missed Manny. Ask Bonds if he missed Jeff Kent (on the field that is).
i liek ur sample, but the work has been done for you
If a pitcher is trying to avoid pitching to a hitter, the hitter is significantly more likely to draw a walk, and moderately more likely to strike out. Specifically, a good, unprotected hitter in a good intentional walk situation is about 25% more likely to walk than the same hitter in a bad intentional walk situation, as well as about 10% more likely to strike out. Even an average hitter, with an average hitter on deck, is 20% more likely to draw the walk if the situation is a common one for intentional walks, and about 5% more likely to strike out. However, if the ball is hit into play, the pitcher’s approach (pitching to him, versus pitching around him) has no significant effect on the hitter’s statistics.
Batting Stats For Good Hitters, In Likely IBB Situations (Scaled To 600 PA)
Status 1B 2B 3B HR NIBB HBP RBOE SO Other Out
Unprotect .380 83 32 3 16 91 10 6 108 251
Protected .376 83 31 3 18 83 10 6 104 262
google hardball times pitching around batters more of that work & the briefest of primers. research like it has been done a few different times by a few different folks to the same end
c/p fail. the stat after status is wOBA
I doubt Bonds missed Kent much. He won the MVP the following two years. He averaged .310, slugged .689 and had an ops+ of 203. The two healthy years after Kent he averaged .351, slugged .780, and had an ops+ of 247. Rich Aurilia would definitely tell you he missed Barry Bonds though
dammit, you just had to take that display picture that i was going to use 🙁
Bad comparison. Aside from last year, Jeter has been an above average hitter. HisGB and DP fallin line with the fact that he has 700 PA a year. Some of those hits are going to be turned into an out with that many appearances.
Maybe i’ve grown too accustomed to the Ron Gardenhire philosophy where you put your scrappiest hitter in the 2 hole regardless of actual results.
Ninja Nishioka will reward that philosophy, mark my words. Best two hole hitter the Twins have had in a long time if not ever.
without even playing a single mlb game.
I remember when the Yankees had one of the best pitchers in the game in Kei Igawa. And when the Red Sox had the same in Dice-K. Then when the Cubs had the best outfielder in Fukodome. Not to mention Kenji Jojima. Even Taditicho Igutchi and Akinori Iwamura had some hype to them. Are you seeing a trend here? Ichiro and Hideki Matsui are the only two hyped Asian signings that worked out in the long term.
I still find it hard to believe teams give this cancer a chance. He’s really not even good enough to be worth even half of the trouble that he presents. Of course, the same can be said of one Milton Bradley…
Brewers just got ripped off.
Plays into Ron Roenicke’s claim of being much more agressive on the base paths. and I think it’ll be good for GO GO to have competition. I’m wondering if Melvin made this move with thoughts of moving Weeks to the 3 hole and Braun at clean up in 2012.
Much more aggressive – 2011 Brewers: 187% increase in outfielders punching out unsuspecting catchers.
if he didn’t come with a muzzle brewers got a raw deal
As a Nats fan, ecstatic about this move. The behavior stuff is overblown, I think, but more importantly Nyjer hasn’t shown the ability to get on base consistently, nor has he shown the ability to steal bases at an acceptable rate. Dykstra’s no great prospect, but he could have value as a good bench player down the road.
Well, if Morgan can’t get on base consistently with his .344 career OBP, what does it say about incumbent CF’er Carlos Gomez with his career .292 OBP?
Good move for Morgan but I think Dykstra was an overpay. He may not appear on anyone’s top 100 list but he’s only 21, only in his 3rd season and has a decent eye, great abiliy to carry ahigh OBP and good speed.
An overpay? They could’ve traded Dykstra for Evan Longoria, Mike Stanton, Jesus Montero, and Clay Buchholz! He would just play 1/4 of the season for each team. That’s how good he is, and you know it!
(he forced me to write this, lest he crush me with a 1950s television set)
NO. I see Dykstra as a real prospect and it looks like Morgan was on the verge of being released that’s all.
Honestly I agree with you, Dykstra looks like he could be pretty good somewhere.
I just wanted to reinforce the whole rogue superhero thing Cutter Dykstra has going for him.
From a Brewers fan perspective. Dykstra played in A three times, the first and second year was a total bust. He couldn’t play second base, he couldn’t play CF and now he is a smallish 3b prospect going into his 4th pro year.
Here is a breakdown of his potential.
Cutter made strides in 2010 toward proving that he wasn’t another bad Dykstra investment, but he’s already failed at two positions and didn’t impress anyone at third base either. Who knows where his future lies defensively, but as long as he keeps getting on base, he’ll be okay.
The Brewers are trying to win today and traded a guy who has a coin flip chance of ever making a big league squad for a backup outfielder who could be a starter depending on how the season goes.
I realize Morgan has negative value to some but to a team with 2 holes, SS and CF they need to have capable backups available.
morgan only has negative value because of his attitude. on the field he has legit upside
What is this upside you speak of? The guy has a terrible arm, refuses to hit cut off men, gets thrown out stealing A LOT and also can’t read pitchers and gets picked off on a regular basis. He also is dreadful against lefties and is a very poor bunter..
are you aware that he played baseball before 2010? he posted 5 WAR in 120 games in 2009. that’s a 7.5 WAR pace
he has plus to plus-plus range in centerfield, enough discipline to keep his OBP up, and can hit for average. and if someone teaches him how to steal bases, he’s got enough speed to steal 50+
Nyjer Morgan is a joke. Maybe he should go back to playing hockey.
old-time hockey, coach!
This is a great move for the Nationals. Morgan has been a nuisance and just taking up a roster spot. Its great they got something for him, i would have just taken the 50k if that’s all they offered, actually, i would have taken a bucket of baseballs for him.
For the Nats this is addition by subtraction.
Morgan had an initial good year and then last year was awful on the field and in the clubhouse.
The Brewers will likely regret the distractions this underperforming player will cause. And from what I read they’re already haveing a disappointing spring in a year they were expected to win.
If by disappointing, you mean they’ve been banged up. Not a whole lot you can do about that except wait it out. Other than injuries, I’m really damn excited for Thursday to get here. For all the talk about Greinke and Marcum, I think Gallardo might be the best pitcher in the rotation and one of the best in the NL this year. He’s had a hell of a spring.
Morgan’s defense took a huge nosedive last year, a fact of far more concern than his anemic OBP and base stealing percentage. His Tony Plush and Elvis Wig act was cute when the Nats didn’t have any veteran presence in the locker room. As Rizzo has transformed the makeup of the roster, Morgan became more of a liability than an asset. Hard to say how he’ll do in Milwaukee but even with a pathetic Ankiel/Hairston platoon in CF and a likely non-starter prospect in Dykstra, the Nats would appear to have accomplished the classic addition by subtraction. One less distraction to worry about.
Remember Nyjer, when the cubs throw inside to you it’s not because they want you to rush the mound…..it’s just our natural pitching
I’d actually kinda like to see Zambrano bodyslam this little cretin. It’d make for great TV.
Haha…..I know you don’t honestly believe that. I am no fan of Nyjer but I find it staggering that ppl blame HIM for what happened in Miami. Let’s review what happened.
-In the 10th inning of a 0-0 game Nyjer attempts to score and bowls over the Marlins C who’s blocking the plate while wearing full gear. Unfortunately, as in many other home collisions, the C is hury and misses some games. Did anyone protest when Carlos Santana had his leg broken at a play at the plate? No.
-The very next day…….
Score 0-0
1st AB in the 1st INN -Nyjer vs Volstad- KO
Score 5-1 Marlins in lead
2nd AB in the 2nd INN-Nyjer vs Volstad- Sac Fly Run Scores
Score 14-3 Marlins in lead
3rd AB in the 5th INN-Nyjer vs Volstad- HBP on the 1st pitch. Nyjer takes 1B w/ no incident. He then steals 2B and then 3B and eventually scores on a pop fly.
Score 15-5
4th AB in the 6th INN-Nyjer vs Volstad- Volstad throws the ball BEHIND Morgan. Morgan charges the mound.
Exhibit A- Marlins were upset that he bowled over their C the night before.
Exhibit B- Volstad waited until the Marlins had a huge lead at 14-3 before he takes retribution by hitting Morgan.
Exhibit C-Marlins made comments that Morgan “wasn’t playing the game the right way” by immediately stealing 2nd and 3rd and scoring on a Sac Fly when the game was already out of reach because the Nats were down by 11 in the 5th inning.
Exhibit D- On his very next PA after hitting him the 1st time Volstad throws the ball BEHIND him. The pitch was around his rib area/elbow level. So this idea that Morgan was overreacting to being pitched inside is stupid.
Comments:
Wes Helms of the Marlins,Miami Herald article:
What set the Marlins off Wednesday, though, was Morgan trying to steal bases with his team down 14-3 in the fourth.
“It gets under everybody’s skin,” said Wes Helms, who drove in five RBI on three hits. “There’s only one way to play this game — with integrity. I cannot stand when somebody shows somebody up. There’s just no place in baseball for that.
“In my opinion, you’re going to get what’s coming to you if you do that. [Wednesday night], I think was a time we had to show him that we weren’t going to put up with the way he was treating us. [Not only] after last night, but also the way he tried to take the bases down 10 runs. After he got hit, you know why we did it. I can’t really say anything good about a guy that doesn’t play the game the right way and doesn’t play with the integrity of the game.”
Nyjer Morgan: “I thought it was over after (the fourth inning), but once I saw the ball go right behind me, it’s time to go,” Morgan said. “Once is good enough, but twice, no, it’s time to go.”
Nats Manager Riggleman: “They made the decision to throw at Nyjer – they did and then the question is do we throw at them,” Riggleman said. “I got some of my veteran players together and said, ‘It’s your ballclub, if you want someone getting thrown at, I’ll order it right now,’ and everybody said, ‘No, it’s over.’ That being the case, when they threw at him a second time, then it’s not over.”
I agree with what you’re saying, but Morgan could’ve attempted to handle the situation with more class than he did. You don’t have to charge the mound.
I find that aspect of the sport vile.
i think if the charging the mound aspect is to be considered vile, the throwing-at-guys in the first place aspect has to be considered vile too. it might actually be riskier (in terms of serious injuries) than mound charges
personally i kind of like to see these guys get fired up – even when it comes to bench brawls. nobody’s gonna die or even get very seriously injured probably – and all of the people involved willingly put themselves at-risk, so
obviously fighting isn’t the only way to express it, but i’ll always prefer teams to be fired up. rivalries good
If your stance is that ANY and ALL fights are deplorable in your opinion then fine. That’s your opinion and I respect it.
This is the real world however. What recourse did Morgan have? He can’t suspend anyone. He can’t assume that Selig is going to anything either. Keep in mind, the 1st time he was hit, he did NOTHING. He put the bat down, put his head down and took 1B w/o incident. He even said he expected it and took it as part of the game. The 2nd time he rightfully did what he was suppose to. History is filled with hit batters taking exception to being hit and charging the mound becauase they felt or knew it was personal.
NO ONE ever said “What if VOlstad, in efforts to hit Morgan someplace “soft” instead accidently threw it too high and hit Morgan in the head or on his hands”. What then?
I do find any and all fights deplorable. They are rarely ever necessary or justifiable.
I mean, come on, this is sports. I know it isn’t realistic to expect it to never happen, I just don’t enjoy that part of baseball. If I enjoyed that sort of thing I’d be watching boxing, MMA, or hockey.
I do feel that fighting, in some instances, is acceptable.
Contact sports like FB, BK and Hockey are violent sports and sometimes some players resort to cheap shots. Fighting is one way of protecting your teammates and sending a message that you won’t allow your teammates to be taken advantage of.
In baseball, a hitter has the right to attach a pitcher if he’s “habitualy” being thrown at like in the case of Morgan. The fights that I find stupid is when a batter wants to bark or rush the mound because he was thrown inside and the ball didn’t even hit him. Also, in some cases pitchers must protect their hitters and in those cases fights will occur.
The fights that I can’t stand are the ones stemming from players policing each other for not “playing the game the right way” or “showing up a player”. There’s an absolute and valid reason for throwing inside at a batter. But if you get tagged for HR(s) and get pissed off for any reason then that’s your ow macho attitude getting in the way. Throw better pitches.
certainly that incident isn’t the only one that has earned morgan his reputation, but i think you’ve got the right view of what went down there. entirely defensible decision on his part
didn’t work out too well tho
I wasn’t trying to defend him overall but clearly the most mentioned was the brawl.
Other indidents though, I’ve heard plausible excuses.
Cardinals situation-Clearly his fault. This ain’t hockey.
Throwing the ball at (or to) a fan: They interviewed fans in Philly who said the ball wasn’t thrown in anger. They said there were fans who were riding him and he was laughing with them. They said there was a young kid there with his dad who was asking for a free ball and that Nyjer soft tossed it to him and it sailed over his head and hit an unsuspecting fan who was on his phone and didn’t see it. It CLEARLY wasn’t a Albert Belle vs fan situation.
Throwing his glove tantrum- Nyjer’s fault and he definetly displayed immatrity but it was born out of disgust for himself. He made a play on the ball, botched the play, didn’t see the ball bounce off the fence and thought he had caused it to go over the wall for a HR and thought he had just cost his team some runs. In disgust w/ himself he threw his glove down. It wasn’t like he knew the ball was in play and just said “Screw it”. Immature? Sure? Did he know the ball landed on the field? No.
Had this been another player and his rap wouldn’t be what it is.
He DID act like a fool after the fight though. It was sort of funny to watch but it’s never a good idea to curse and interact the crowd like that.
Write a blog. That’s longer than the article itself.
I’ve already voiced my opinion on the Brewers, but fandom aside, I think this is a good baseball move for the Brewers, even though the prospect they gave up sounded pretty interesting. Milwaukee has a very strong core, but they also have huge weak spots in their lineup, and Morgan is a MUCH better player than Gomez who’s not a major league quality player. Easy way to add a win or two if he bounces back.
Great Move.. Hes like Carlos Gomez but not allergic to On base skills.
Well he might get on base more than Go Go but he will just get thrown out stealing (17 times) or picked off (7 times).
The Brewers could do a lot worse for a backup outfielder. The sad thing is that it looks like Mark freaking Kotsay is starting in RF until Hart is healthy.
Some people need to stop looking so hard at his OBP and realize there were 17 times he was thrown out stealing and an additional 7 times he was flat out picked off. He got whiped off the bases 24 of the 169 times he actually got on base. Add that into a guy that can’t bunt, hit lefties or hit a cut off man even though his arm is awful and you have a very flawed player.
Is he a starter? If yes, all your points are valid. If no, then NO ONE FRIGGING CARES
Real baseball fans know how good of trade this is for the Brewers! Doug Melvin is not kidding about trying to win this year. We have 3 Aces in our Rotation and our 5 OF are as good as anyone’s in MLB. I’m glad that there’s allot of National pundits that are underestimating this team. This is the most talented roster in the history of the Milwaukee Brewers, and yes I was here and saw the ’82 team with my own eyes. Even with the toughest inter-league schedule in baseball, the Brewers will be playing in November!!
isn’t it awesome how this trade worked out? gotta love baseball