From Tony Plush to Angry Nyjer: The Confusing Journey of Nyjer Morgan

(Inside Pitch photo Courtesy natstown.mlblogs.com)

When the Nats acquired Nyjer Morgan from the the Pittsburgh Pirates, many were impressed with Mike Rizzo's trade that brought the center fielder and Sean Burnett to the team for Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan. Rizzo simultaneously unloaded a chronic underachiever and bad attitude guy in Milledge and got another speedster with a seemingly jovial personality and above average fielding skills in Morgan. What could go wrong?

Well in 2009, nothing did. Morgan, or Tony Plush as he was known back then, put together stellar numbers in the final 49 games of the 2009 season: a .351 batting average, a .396 on base percentage, and a .435 slugging percentage. The Nats thought they had finally found the cure to what had been ailing them since 2005: a center fielder and lead off man.

On top of his on-the-field successes, Nyjer was a fun interview. At several points throughout the season, he did funny, witty, interesting interviews with members of the DC media. It showed an interesting side of the quirky, yet passionate Nationals center fielder.

But 2010 was the year of Angry Nyjer. Morgan's batting average peaked at .293 on April 26th, and it was all downhill from there. As Nyjer struggled to keep his batting average above .250 or to do the only thing that kept him valuable, steal bases, his friendliness and quirkiness became anger and frustration. He was no longer the life of the clubhouse, he was the guy you treaded lightly around.

(Photo Courtesy Nationals Enquirer)

It started on May 22nd when the Nationals were facing the Orioles in the "Battle of the Beltways." In the 4th inning, Morgan jumped at the wall, and he thought the Adam Jones hit had become a traditional outside-the-park home run. So, he threw is glove down in anger. Meanwhile, as you see above, the ball was sitting on the warning track. Then-LF Josh Willingham came over to retrieve the ball and throw it in, but it was too late. Adam Jones had notched one of the most embarassing inside-the-park home runs in baseball history.

Next came the August 21st incident where Nyjer threw a ball into the stands, reportedly at a fan, in Philadelphia. A week later on August 28th, Morgan plowed into St. Louis Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson in the 8th inning, which resulted in Morgan being removed from the lineup by Manager Jim Riggleman the next game.

Finally came the incident that very well may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. It came in the 6th inning of the September 1st game between the Nats and the Marlins. Morgan was hit by a pitch in the 4th frame with the Marlins up 14-3. Then, he stole 2nd and 3rd before scoring. The Marlins didn't take kindly to that, so Volstad threw behind Morgan in his next at bat. For those of you who want to reminisce and hear the Marlins broadcasters take on the brawl, the sequence can be seen here at MLB.com.

As Nyjer left the field from the brawl, he was seen taunting Marlins fans and yelling obscenities. After serving his suspension, Morgan was back in the Nats lineup to end the 2010 season.

Entering camp in 2011, I was among those shocked to see Nyjer still competing for the center field job. He had put his teammates in a precarious situation multiple times in 2010. Baseball is a game of retribution. When Nyjer shows up other pitchers, his teammates get thrown at. It's just part of the sport, whether you agree with it or not.

But the Nats acquisition of Rick Ankiel in the offseason was, to me, the ultimate signal that Nyjer may be on his way out. Despite Riggleman saying that Nyjer would be the team's CF on Opening Day, we just couldn't believe that was true. Nyjer would have to have insane spring numbers for him to compete, and well, he didn't. He struggled at the plate and in the field.

Last in the long list of atrocities that led to Morgan's demise was when he told reporters he didn't expect to be with the team come Opening Day. Well, Nyjer and Nats fans got their wish. He's now an outfielder in the Milwaukee Brewers organization (a team that Commissioner Selig is closely associated with and owned before becoming Commissioner).

That marks the end of this interesting, confusing, and disappointing history of Nyjer Morgan's history with the Washington Nationals organization.

We hope this has been an interesting look back at the Tale of Two Nyjers. Have you made it this far? Do you have any great (or terrible) Tony Plush/Nyjer Morgan stories that you'd like to share? Leave them in the comments.

Ryans and Nyjers and Strasburgs: Oh my!

Happy Memorial Day to all of you out in Natstown, especially to the individuals and families that have dedicated their lives to protecting our wonderful country. It would be cliché to say this if it weren't so true, but every one of the 300 million of us owe you a debt of gratitude for your selflessness in service. Now I try to tackle the big news of the weekend without losing my cool (see disclaimer at bottom for an explanation).

My initial idea for today's post was going to be about how the Nats were seeing Roy Oswalt before the Nats offer some prospects (Chris Marrero and Chris Duncan, anyone?) and an obscene amount of guaranteed money for the Astros ace behind closed doors. Because let's face it, the Nats need starting pitching. But Oswalt got tossed in the 3rd inning for showing his displeasure for the home plate umpire's strike zone a bit too excessively. In fairness to Oswalt, it did appear that he was squeezed on a pitch to Adam Dunn, who rocked a 3 RBI double to right center later in the at-bat. He may have had a legitimate gripe. But after his short and unimpressive 4 run outing before the ejection, I was panicked thinking of a new blog post idea. But thanks to a 9 run 7th inning in a blowout and Mike Rizzo's Strasburgeriffic news, my job was pretty much done for me.

In the afternoon holiday game, the Nats simply exploded offensively, scoring 14 runs over the Astros, with 9 of them coming in the 7th inning. The Nats haven't scored that many runs in one inning since the team returned to the District. They did it on the efforts of Ryan Zimmerman and... Nyjer Morgan? What?

Coming into Memorial Day, Tony Plush (he earned the name back after this outing) was 2 out of his last 23. He acknowledged he was swinging a bat of ice and he needed to fix it. Everyone that watched him play saw his desperation to recover, which was making him even worse and more frustrated. A vicious cycle. So Jim Riggleman, like Nostradamus, said, Let's try Nyjer batting 2nd behind Guzzie. Well, it resulted in a 3 for 4 day, plus a walk, and 4 runs scored for Nyjer in that 2nd spot. This may be a fairly permanent change for the Nats in the coming weeks. Why change a good thing?

And then: Gentleman Zimm. Zimmerman had an OBP of 1.000 today. Basically, that pretty much sums up Zimm's night. 2 walks, plus 2 hits, including a big fly that landed him 3 of his 4 RBI. The stats speak more loudly than I can at the moment.

Then there's the news. STEPHEN STRASBURG WILL START JUNE 8TH! I would make that flash and blink and stuff, but I mean, every sports organization on the planet has already broken that story, so I won't beat it to death. But he probably is the best pitcher ever, right Curt Schilling? Of course, the game sold out in about an hour. Most of the tickets probably went to Phillies fans because of Stan Kasten. Or maybe not, I'm just speculating.

As a note of disclaimer: I'm fully aware that this post is unusually sarcastic, but my brain is still trying to process a Flyers loss, putting them down 2-0 in the series against the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals after an incredibly dominating 3rd period performance. The frustration is working its way out in rancorous form. I'll get back on the wagon tomorrow with a legit post along the lines of "Seriously, why isn't Cristian Guzman the Nats every day 2nd baseman? I mean... really?!" Until then...

Who do we get today? Tony Plush or Nyjer Morgan.

Yesterday's two remarkable situations in the Nationals game both involved Nyjer Morgan:

• The first inside-the-park home run at Nats Park


• An unusual (and questionable) triple play

The inside-the-park home run was certainly a result of shotty fielding. When a player is at his home park, he should know how far he is from the wall at all times. Nyjer should have known that the hit by Angel Pagan wasn't going over the wall and relayed it in to keep Pagan to a triple. But he didn't.

This is only the most recent of mistakes by Nyjer in the field. He has overthrown cutoff men. He has as many errors this year (3) as he had all of last season with the Pirates and the Nats. That's tied for worst among enter fielders in the NL with Andrew McCutchen (PIT). He's also 25th out of 26 in fielding percentage among NL center fielders. Both dismal stats, indeed.

Then, there is the baserunning. And those of us that watch the team on a daily basis know, it's been pretty awful so far. Morgan started out hot, stealing his way from 1st to 2nd and then 2nd to 3rd in the same at bat. And then the other team figured him out. I don't know if they're reading signs or just know when he runs, but they know at least half the time.

In 16 attempts this year, Nyjer has only successfully stolen a base 8 times. That's a wasted baserunner more often than not. I know that Nyjer is probably the fastest guy the Nats have (maybe Bernadina?), but he hasn't figured out how to make that speed into smart decisionmaking. I'd like to say it looks like Riggleman has put up the stop sign for now, but Morgan has attempted stealing 4 times in the last 10 games, and was caught twice. These are not quality numbers for your fastest player.

His at bats have been so-so lately, but certainly better than his fielding and baserunning numbers. Morgan is swinging a bat of ice, batting just .162 in his last 10 games. Not exactly the numbers you're looking for from a leadoff guy. To give him his due credit, he has a respectable .351 OBP in that same 10 game span. So he's getting on base, but getting thrown out in too many chances to advance on his speed.

In a conversation with my very good friend Craig at Jim Bowden's Segway, I complained about Nyjer's regular attempts to bunt for hits. I am regularly frustrated by his lack of willingness to swing the bat, while Craig supports the efforts if it will get Nyjer on base and turned into Tony Plush once again. What are your thoughts, blogosphere?