A Trade That's Helped Both Teams So Far

The trade that sent Nyjer Morgan to the Nationals and Lastings Milledge has been great for both teams so far.  Morgan is hitting .388 in 103 ABs for the Nats since the trade, and he’s playing some of the best centerfield defense in the NL.

Meanwhile, the Pirates’ 22 year old centerfielder (six years younger than Morgan) Andrew McCutchen hit three homeruns today and is a perfect nine for nine in stolen base attempts.  Also, the Pirates have now called up Lastings Milledge, who they are playing in left field.  Milledge’s centerfield defense was poor, but his left field defense will probably be great.

It’s a question of whether he’ll hit enough, but Milledge is still only 24, so there’s still plenty of up-side potential.

The question with Morgan is whether at age 28, his 2009 is for real, and he really has improved as much as it appears right now.  In Morgan’s favor is the fact that he is fast (he’s got 32 steals and six triples so far in ‘09), so he’s got a good chance to be the next Dave Roberts and then some.   One thing’s for certain, Morgan’s CF defense is better than that of Roberts, Milledge or McCutchen.

The Giants have a player like this right now.  Andres Torres is 31 this year, but he’s up there with Freddie Lewis and Eugenio Velez as the fastest players on the Giants.

Torres is only only hitting .247 in very limited opportunities (89 ABs), but he has an .809 OPS, mostly on the back of eleven extra base hits, including 5 triples.  He’s exceptionally good at driving the ball into Death Valley and running like hell.  He’s provided great defense in center and left when he’s played there; and in very limited playing time over the course of his major league career (approximately 87 full games) he has five outfield assists, which suggests he has an accurate arm.

Torres also has five steals in five attempts this year.   When I’ve seen him play on the idiot box this year, he carried himself like a real professional, and I haven’t seen him make any mental mistakes or poor choices, which Eugenio Velez, for example, does all the time, hitting or not.

Torrez had a terrific year playing for AAA Iowa (the Cubs’ top farm team) last year.  He had an .892 OPS over a full season.  An .892 OPS in the Pacific Coast League is not exceptional, but for a player who can give you major league centerfield defense, that’s a major league player.

Because Torres runs so exceptionally well, even at his advanced age, he’s still got a chance to have a real major league career and even become a regular if someone gets hurt and he gets hot at the same time.  He’s very quietly been a big help the Giants this year.