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Photo of the Day: November 9, 2009
Austin Kearnsa defensive liability most of the time acceptable defensively, but strikes out nearly a third of the time he comes to the plate. Player B is also generally understood to be grossly overpaid.
Judging by these statistics, who would you send to the minors to make room on the roster for two new players you acquired in a trade? Well, if you're the Nationals, you've opted for Player A -- Elijah Dukes -- to Triple-A Syracuse, and left Player B, Austin Kearns, up with the big boys. Go figure.
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Oh, the Nats, rarely 1 step forward, always 2 steps back.
Now hold on a minute...I'm no Austin Kearns apologist, but he is definitely not a "defensive liability most of the time." In fact, I'd say most consider him to be a fine right fielder defensively - and he's easily the best defensive outfielder on the team.
He just can't hit for shit. He used to be an alright hitter, but something happened and now he can't seem to get out of his funk.
And I'm sure you know this, but Dukes had options left so the Nats could send him down to AAA without losing him. If they sent Kearns down, it'd be DFA time and he'd likely pass through waivers and opt for free agency...at which point the Nats would have to pay him his total $8M salary anyways.
In fact, I'd say most consider him to be a fine right fielder defensively - and he's easily the best defensive outfielder on the team.
Agreed
Okay, after a more thorough review of his statistics, I've edited the post to note that he's hardly a "liability."
But he's not the second coming of Clemente in right field or anything, guys. Sure, he's got a solid arm and he hasn't made an error this season, but check this out: having but played in two-fifths of the games Kearns has played in right (16 for Dukes, 40 for Kearns), Dukes almost has as many assists (5 for Kearns, 4 for Dukes).
Let's be honest, in order to look away from his terrible offensive statistics, he'd better be providing a "wow, what a play by Kearns!" moment in a majority of games -- and I just don't see it.
I agree - he's an overall liability - no question. Comparing his arm/assists to Dukes is unfair - since they both do those things very well. I'd say Kearns is way above par defensively for a right fielder - bordering on excellent. But he can't hit a lick, so it's really a moot point.
Baseball talk is fun - discussing minutia while the team is on pace to lose 114 games. American as apple pie :-)
To echo DE - in a perfect world the Nats would be able to ship Kearns down, but the way the MLB player system is set up they really can't do this even though they likely want to, not unless they're willing to give up Kearns for nothing and still pay him.
With all credit to the SportsBog twitter feed, um, well, Friday is domestic violence awareness day at Nats Park.
Jus' sayin'.
I agree with Aaron. Kearns may not have absolutely awful stats or get too many actual errors, but he sure doesn't seem to try too hard or make very many good plays. He plays like he knows they can't get rid of him and is sittin pretty.
Both are underwhelming -but the only reason Kearns has an MLB job these days is he's a better than average presence in the outfield. His offense has totally disappeared. Comparing straight up assists isn't necessarily the metric-- as once an outfielder proves himself somewhat by gunning guys down he can be challenged less go-forward so less ops to get assists.
Dukes has not come close to living up to his early hype and I'd say a liability on defense near the wall -misjudges balls etc. But this is really a decision on who will be the 4th or 5th outfielder though...
Can we produce a symbol of some sort, for Austin, or as I like to call him; "the Major League Baseball Player Formerly Known As Austin Kearns"?
Is there some way to pictorially represent the concept of "Professional Rally Killer?" His symbol should be that.
well Morgan is also a Centerfielder, like Dukes.
Also, there might be another deal in the pipeline that will answer the questions. And/or they need to showcase Kearns a bit more so that they can trade him.
They'd be lucky to get two cases of Bud Light Lime for that guy.
I don't think Austin's a major defensive liability, but, DE, best defensive outfielder on the team? That'd be Willie Harris, right?
Me thinks Mr. Morrissey is a Player hater.
Kearns may be out of "options" to the minors...after a certain amount of time in the Majors it is nearly impossible to option a player back to the minors and I would bet that Kearns might be getting to that point. The only way is if the player is "injured" and they DL him for 15 days and them put him in the minors for rehab...but considering that Kearns seems to always be "on the trading block" maybe he is hoping that he gets picked up as a bet for a playoff team?
Thank you DE for making many of my points for me already, some of that original post simply ignores or misrepresents many factors that went into the decision.
I do have one very important one to add that hasn't been mentioned yet.
What you are seeing here is Mike Rizzo sending a message to the Nats players and to players around baseball. Gone are the Jim Bowden days of being enamored with tools, potential and high ceilings. Washington will be a place where you have to perform and prove yourself at the major league level to have a job. Look at what he's done with the bullpen - all the guys he brought in may have had some rough times here and there but they all have power arms with a track of big league success. You're seeing more of that happening to the position players now. Dukes never did a thing to prove he's an everyday MLB player, he was just given that position. Rizzo won't tolerate it. Over the next couple of years, the Nats will be better for it.