Comments on: Nationals likely to start Jayson Werth in center field

By: tjg25

tjg25 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:59:18 +0000

Is that the dude from the Geico commercials?

By: deepstblu

deepstblu — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:56:09 +0000

I used to have visions like that, until I stopped eating the moldy rye bread.

By: shaggytoodle

shaggytoodle — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:12:21 +0000

You beat me to it, I was going to say its amazing that he has all that money and stil has to do commercials with Orakpo.

By: MightyMoonWorm

MightyMoonWorm — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:53:38 +0000

On the bright side, he may just be able to bowl down the walls in order to steal some home runs without leaving his feet.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:22:28 +0000

I have this vision of the Nationals signing Prince Fielder and starting him in center field. It would be a sight to behold.

By: dcfan4life

dcfan4life — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:16:19 +0000

Whenever Harper comes up can prove curious as how different the Nationals lineup will be. Right now Michael Morse plays left. If they bring up Harper and sign a new center fielder, where is Morse gonna play. The Nats made it clear there going with Laroche at first but Michael Morse was there best overall hitter last year. Laroche is in the last year of his contract though. Like i said, with such a good young team there are a lot more questions than answers.

By: explosionsauce

explosionsauce — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:12:30 +0000

Don’t usually post here on on the baseball blog but that guy looks like a Geico caveman.

By: thetruth1313

thetruth1313 — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:44:03 +0000

I wondered what happened to Edge when he left the WWE. Hes going to be playing centerfield for the Nationals!

By: akismet-e6748cca3a16ea6e8283008d25583adc

akismet-e6748cca3a16ea6e8283008d25583adc — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:40:28 +0000

He wasn’t *awful* in CF in 2011. 3.0 uzr/150 in 151 innings. Yes I know uzr fails with small sample sizes so you have to take that with a grain of salt.

I guess the Nats direction depends on how quickly they think Harper can come up; if he breaks camp with the team (with the severe financial penalty that comes with guaranteeing a 4th arbitration year) then the issue is a lot clearer; Harper has been playing CF at times in the minors and could switch back and forth with Werth between CF and RF. If the Nats decide to hold Harper til late June, they’ve got more than a couple of outfielders on minor league contracts that could serve as stop gaps (Mike Cameron being the leading candidate). Not the best alternative (since Cameron really can’t hit anymore) but serviceable.

One unspoken possibility; get a one-year RF solution like J.D. Drew, a veteran looking to regain some value on a one-year deal, have him start til Harper is ready, then flip the veteran mid-season to clear room. This gives the team some insurance if Harper struggles to open 2012 in the minors or gets hurt, and could give us a bit more offensive production.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:31:27 +0000

It’d be interesting for the stat geeks to come up with an answer to how much he gets paid for every ball that carries over his head.

By: seanmk

seanmk — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:20:57 +0000

as an everyday cetnerfielder, probably not. Part time sure he’d be fine.