What Happened to Nyjer Morgan: Revisited

Even on many playoff bound teams. You’re not going to have a guy like Braun waiting on your bench. I would go so far as to say that Kotsay is good for the role he is playing now.

It makes sense to “slice and dice” his stats because at the start of the year he was not being used properly. He’s an old man and could not perform with that much playing time wearing him down, or maybe he was just off to a slow start. Kotsay has shown an overall trend of improvement in his performances, not a short-lived spike like Yuni, (Kotsay was pretty good in July, and has been definitively good in August and September).

Split          G GS PA AB R  H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
April/March   17 13 57 49 1 13  1  0  0   5  0  0  8  4 .265 .368 .286  .654 14   1   0  0  0   3   1  .289    91    88
May           22 12 56 50 2 11  4  0  0   2  2  0  6  6 .220 .304 .300  .604 15   1   0  0  0   0   0  .250    75    72
June          14  6 31 31 1  6  1  0  0   2  1  0  0  8 .194 .194 .226  .419  7   0   0  0  0   0   0  .261    21    19
July          20 11 54 52 6 14  0  1  2  11  0  0  1  6 .269 .278 .423  .701 22   0   0  0  1   0   1  .267   100    93
August        16  4 29 26 5 10  2  0  0   4  0  0  3  1 .385 .448 .462  .910 12   1   0  0  0   0   0  .400   163   150
Sept/Oct      12  2 18 18 2  7  4  0  1   6  0  0  0  2 .389 .389 .778 1.167 14   1   0  0  0   0   0  .400   230   212

Gamel probably has more power, but that doesn’t make him a better bench option overall.

Compliment in the subject line, dissenting opinion in the post. Interesting tactic.

I’m not sure I see where you say I am “slicing and dicing stats” here – I quoted his full season numbers, his numbers as a PH, and his numbers since July. All are directly relevant to the argument I made. That’s not exactly like quoting OPS versus RHP whose last name starts with H during day games.

Yuni’s hot streak was a few weeks long (granted, in lots of ABs since he starts nearly every day) – Kotsay’s “hot streak” is 3 months long (granted, in sporadic usage, but that’s the definition of “bench player”). Not the same thing at all.

I think it’s entirely possible that Mat Gamel is a more talented hitter than Kotsay. He has not proven, in numerous chances, that he can hit worth a lick at the Major League level. I still believe that, unless a better option or a resigned Fielder is available, Gamel should be given a shot to be the everyday starting 1B in 2012. However, as a bench bat in 2011, he has not proven that he can be any better (and in fact, could be significantly worse) than Kotsay. What any of us BELIEVE regarding Gamel’s talent or ability is immaterial to a team going into the playoffs. I think that had Gamel done ANYTHING when the team brought him up in June and not obviously turned off people in the Brewers management (Don Money, maybe others), he’d be on the roster right now as a bench bat. However, he did not take advantage of that opportunity, so the team looked elsewhere (Taylor Green, etc).

Finally, I’m glad that you don’t want to settle for average. That fits in well with my point that Kotsay has been well above league average. Other than that, though, it strikes me as a great motto for a Dilbert cartoon or an Upper Management training course, but not very practical in a real-world sense.

He’s hit better than Counsell this year and he’s been slightly better in the field (by UZR/150) than Braun was a 3B his rookie year???

Yeah, that’s all I got….

OK, more than slightly better than Braun’s rookie year at third: -41.5 UZR/150 pretty much breaks the scale.

I can’t wait! It’ll be like getting a gift from someone for doing absolutely nothing!

el NARF