Give Me Laynce Nix!

According to Dusty Baker via Reds.com:

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“I called Dickerson in and talked to him,” Baker said. “I said, ‘Hey man, you’ve got to go back to work and get it back together.’ Nix is going good right now. We have to win ballgames. I’m not saying it’s all his fault, but Nix is doing his thing.”

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Last night, I said that the baseball gods must have forced Dusty Baker’s hand in starting Laynce Nix in Left Field. After today’s news, I believe it was Walt Jocketty that forced Dusty to now place Nix in LF on a regular basis. 

Reds fans can now collectively breathe a sigh of relief and hope that the former Rangers top prospect will step up and take ownership of his new starting role. 

If he continues to perform the way he has in his pinch hit and substitute appearances, things should be just fine.

Nix gives you a quality at-bat nearly every time he comes to the plate, working the pitcher deep into counts and forcing them to throw his pitch.

I can’t say that I’ve seen him enough in the field to comment on his defense, but what I have seen hasn’t caused me to worry. 

Let’s compare the two left fielders, shall we?

In 24 fewer at-bats, Laynce Nix has scored more runs (7-6), hit more doubles (7-1), and has more total bases (25-19) than his counterpart. He is even with Dickerson in hits (13), triples (1), and RBI (5). 

Their lines are (AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS): Nix: 351/.390/.676/1.066. Dickerson: .213/.338/.311/.649. I will say that these numbers can be a little deceptive since Nix hasn’t had much playing time. But if you’re going to go by the numbers, you can’t deny Nix the opportunity to play every day. 

Apparently the fans and Walt Jocketty are in agreement on this one. That just goes to show you how intelligent Reds fans truly are.