Moves

The Nationals front office has been busy this weekend. We should probably look at the moves one by one to try and guess what each means.

Ryan Langerhans for Mike Morse

On the surface, this looks like the Nationals are trading one of their surplus major league outfielders. Lastings Milledge had been rumored to be going to Pittsburgh, which probably would have been the preferred move, as Langerhans has more ML value. However, Langerhans has been stuck behind the glut of corner outfielders in the system, and was clearly behind Justin Maxwell in terms of age and Corey Patterson in terms of... ugh. Good for Langerhans, though. He hits well enough to fit into their ML plans, and he fits into Safeco's ginormous outfield so he will see playing time.

What does Mike Morse's arrival mean? The Nats have been running a rotation of Guzman, Gonzalez, and Hernandez through the middle infield, and Belliard is on the roster as well. Belliard isn't going anywhere until the end of the year, and if anything, he is done as a pro. Hernandez just got to the Nats and really hasn't shown much to be considered a bargaining chip. That leaves Alberto Gonzalez and Cristian Guzman, both of whom have been playing their asses off the past month. Gonzalez has been great for the Nats, though his glove has been suspect in 2009. Guzman is signed through the end of next season and is playing the best baseball of his career, despite the erratic defense and free-swinging.

Are the Nats getting into a position to leverage one of their two shortstops, using Morse as short-term insurance until Danny Espinoza is ready?

I give the move C+ for now, with a chance to upgrade, depending on how they can improve their defense up the middle before the trade deadline.

Nationals Baseball

Where Anderson Hernandez goes deep!

What is that, 285 to left?

All Star Picks... NL 2B

Second Base: Tough decision, and I really wanted to find a way to work Orlando Hudson into the conversation, but defensively he has regressed since getting off the turf in Toronto. Hudson has been awesome at the top of the Dodgers lineup, a product of his .400 BABIP. Rickie Weeks may have been able to steal the vote, but he is hurt, leaving Chase Utley and only Chase Utley at the top of the list. We all know what Utley does, providing a .300 average with 30 homers and 100 RBIs... and he's pretty solid with the glove too. He's basically Ryno with better tools around him in the lineup. He is almost a lock for a fourth straight Silver Slugger and will likely join Ryno in 15 years.

Where do the Nats second basemen fit in? Well, Ronnie Belliard has been so bad the Nats have turned to Anderson Hernandez, who is batting a mildly acceptable .280 with no power. This is actually shocking, considering in a full season of AAA he dropped a ghastly .568 OPS at Norfolk (Mets) for an entire season. In most cases, this would put you right out of baseball... with the Nats, immediate promotion to the majors. Honestly, I don't even know how to appropriately criticize this, since I wasn't scouting the International League last year. Soft hitting middle infielders can play if they can field well, but he looks like an average fielder and he is already 26. He seems to also be picking up some bad habits from Mr. Guzman. The Nats should be in the market for a major league second baseman this off-season.