Monday, November 7, 2011

A Few Good Men: 20 - Hairston Jr.

Jerry Hairston Jr - Age 35 - 11 years MLB Service

How he became a Nat: Signed a 1 year contract for $2 million dollars this past off-season. He was traded to Milwaukee on July 30th for minor-league OF Eric Komatsu.

The Raw Numbers:
Avg - .268
OPS - .727
WAR - 0.5
SO % - 11.6

Positions played - 5 (CF, LF, 3B, SS, 2B) in addition to pinch-hitting and pinch-running. He gave the Nats (and later the Brew Crew) a ton of versatility and veteran leadership. By filling in for Zim, spelling Espi, and taking semi-platooning in left and centerfield, he proved to be quite valuable to the ballclub.

Best game: April 19th against the team he would be traded to later that year, the Brewers. Jerry went 3 for 3 with a HR, a 2B, 2 runs scored, an RBI and a Walk. He played both third-base and left field that day. Honorable mention to June 17th against the rival O's, flip the HR to a double and he had almost the same performance.

Worst Game: April 13th against the Phillies. He struck out in each of his 3 ABs before being lifted for a PH (Matt Stairs, who also struck out), once with a runner in scoring position. The Nats lost a heartbreaker 3-2 to Roy Halladay and the Phils.

Capball Grade: C: He filled in admirably for Zim and gave the Nats some valuable innings at quite a few positions. But he was decidedly average in almost every facet of the game. Sub-zero dWAR and nothing spectacular at the plate, the Nats were lucky to get a semi-prospect in return for someone who was always going to be a rental player. He has an Alex Cora-esque future, perhaps breaking into coaching sooner rather than later.

2012 Nats Status: How about no. The Nats are getting younger and have a glut of 4th outfielders and three young studs around the infield who will play all the games they can handle in 2012.

1 comment:

  1. His playing time for us when Zim went down directly led to his role with the Brew crew. I know we are done with him, but will they want to keep him?

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