On Brad Nelson and the Tacoma Logjam

by ~ May 19th, 2009 at 12:54 pm

If you haven’t heard by now, Seattle has signed 1B Brad Nelson to a minor league deal after being cut loose by the Brewers.

Dave at USS Mariner lobbied hard for Seattle to trade for him this offseason, but that was before the acquisitions of Russell Branyan and Mike Carp.  At this point there just isn’t room for Nelson at the big league level and his presence exacerbates the 1B/DH logjam at Tacoma.

You’ve got Jeff Clement who is showing signs of life with the stick but his ailing knee will keep him from catching in the short term and quite possibly the long term.  Carp continues to swing a hot stick with a line of .301/.415/.566 through 37 games.  Bryan LaHair, who is playing out of position in the outfield, is even getting it done at the plate with 10 homers and a .885 OPS.  And don’t forget the only righty of the group Chris Shelton who is getting playing time at third base in Matt Tuiasosopo’s absence.  Where does Nelson fit in to this?  He could join LaHair by playing out of position in the outfield, but then you’re squeezing the playing time of Prentice Redman (1.012 OPS), Jerry Owens or Mike Morse and severely hindering your young AAA staff’s ability to record outs.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens.  Either someone is going to get called up, a trade sends a couple bodies away, someone gets cut or manager Alonzo Powell has a massive headache of a situation to deal with.

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  • moethedog

    He has a total of 2 major league hits….both doubles last year. Was certainly overmatched this year at the major league level. Zip for 23, or something like that.

    On the other hand he has “Carp-like” #’s (not quite as good…especially in walks, where Carp walks .100, Nelson .080) but with more AAA experience. Two years older.

    I think I love Carp as a ballplayer. I love that high OBP, decent homer power, lots of doubles type of player.

    Soon as we can I want Carp up…..and Branyan getting some DH AB’s. Doesn’t Junior have a pulled hamstring or a bad quad about to happen?

    Nelson is a low cost move…..but Tacoma is now loaded with 1B/LF/DH types. Somebody has to go…And I wonder if there may be a Beltre+ trade coming up. We would need a real SS if that happened. Imagine how crappy the left side defense would bewith a minus type of fielding 3B.

    The horror, the horror!

    Keith

  • http://www.marinercentral.com Lonnie

    There are a couple of things that are apparent to me.

    One is that Mike Morse needs to be release. He has zero value to the club and no one, I believe, feels that he can contribute to the big club in any meaningful way. He is too big and has limited range to stick at SS and he doesn’t have the eye nor the experience to do a credible job in the outfield. Good bye Mikey.

    Two is that for reasons that I cannot fathom, way too many folks think that LaHair is a defensive liability in LF. I’ve seen him play there a couple of games, and he took great routes to the ball, has decent speed, and his arm is adequate for the job. The fact that he is also tearing the cover off of the ball helps him a lot and makes him somewhat interesting.

    The entire Nelson signing makes no sense if something isn’t done about the outfield logjam in the next few weeks to a month.

    Lonnie

  • GarForever

    As big a fan as I have been of most of the moves of the new regime, I have to admit that this one puzzles me, unless it is part of a plan to package some of the other pieces at Tacoma in a trade, such as LaHair, Morse, and/or Clement (though since Morse cleared waivers earlier this year, I would have to think he would be at best a throw-in to sweeten a deal of which someone else was the centerpiece). Not only is there now a stockpile of 1B/LF/DH types at AAA, but you also have guys like Dennis Raben and Johan Limonta in the system, too (I’m not sure what to make of Limonta — there are those who don’t see him as a prospect, although many scouts see him projecting ultimately as a lefty platoon LF/1B at the big league level). I doubt Carp is going anywhere, since he apparently was one of the pieces Zduriencik really wanted in the three team deal this off-season. And if there was any demand for Nelson, someone besides us presumably would have picked him up. It seems to me that we should probably expect a trade in the near future involving someone from Tacoma, but along with whom and for whom, I have no idea.

  • ernier

    I’m not too surprised from the M’s perspective because they seem to be taking the approach of stocking up on talent even if it is not at a position of need. I’m more surprised Nelson would sign with a team where he appears to be blocked at the major and minor league level and I can’t beleive we were the only team interested in him.

  • CT10

    I think the M’s need to start making some moves for some middle infielders. Currently we only have 3 middle infielders on the 40 man roster. In my mind that is a problem because we all know Yuni is worthless and even with his talk with Wak he still will never evolve into a decent shortstop. Then Lopez is just too slow to play 2nd base and is a huge liability in the field (i’m sure you all saw the botched DP last night) and he too is undisciplined at the dish. And then Cedeno. Quality backup but he’s not the guy you want up the middle everyday. In the end we need to get some fresh faces on the 40 man roster. Hopefully maybe we can make a Texeira like trade with one of the guys we will unload and get an Elvis Andrus type player in return.

  • moethedog

    Minus two gawd-awful Morrow blow-ups, this team is basically at .500…and we’re all in a bit of better mood.

    Pitching staff has been just fine. Balentien has been much better than I certainly expected. He’s solid. Branyan has been superb, in fact WAY superb. Ichiro has been is usual impressive self. Between Gut and Chavez we’ve had decent performance much/most of the time. Lopez is Lopez. A hacking hacker of a 2B. An undisciplined, free swinging hack who looks good for three games then completely crappy for seven. If he fields better than a 4th grade T-Ball player you can tolerate him..buts thats about it.

    Junior is about what we all expected. Kenji is alousy hitter..but we all should have expected that. Johnson handles pitchers great, handles the bat not great!

    So that leaves Beltre and Yuni. They stink. If you didn’t expect that from Yuni you missed the most obvious thing in Seattle…but Beltre…I think everybody expected some bat…and a glove (per usual).

    But neither of those has showed up. So…think what this year would look like if we actually had a left side of an infield.

    Trade Beltre now…Ship Yuni off to anywhere but Safeco.

    Then we might have a chance…

    Keith

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Jon Shields

    First of all, I didn’t know 4th graders played tee ball. ;)

    Second, what’s with all the “trade beltre now” stuff? It’s not usually wise to try and trade a supposed asset when their value is at rock bottom. Let him get into the swing of things first.

  • moethedog

    Beltre lst year was essentially the league average starting 3B guy, offensively. Using Baseball-Reference you can find that his OPS was 109…7 starting 3B were bove that, 6 were below that….(avg of the 14 was 108.3)

    He did have a bit more PA’s than some…but with thebat, when in the lineup, he’s the league average.

    With the glove he’s significantly better than that….But he’s got to hit like last year to bebetter than the avg. starting 3B. He would have to hit .320 over the next 40 games to get to a .260 average at the All-Star Break.

    Can you see that hack of a swing and the lousy pitch selection he has hitting .320 over 40 games? I can’t…

    He’s been paid for 4 years for a single year that looks more and more suspect….

    If somebody will take him…..

    Let him go….

    Keith

  • Keith

    First off, whatever we can get for Yuni, we take. Unless he really turns it around between now and then. I think Beltre’s glove justifies holding on to him until close to the deadline, unless someone offers us a deal or he drops below the Mendoza line and stays there. If we get no good offers around the deadline hold him till the end of the season and get the draft pick(s). We really have no other viable 3b options right now. I think we try to resign Bedard but take any GOOD offers if we get any. Washburn we trade and get anything we can because I think he’ playing over his head right now. I’d have to say we’re stuck with Batista til the end of the season, but who knows. Now back to Yuni—trade him now!

  • GarForever

    Interesting…Brad Nelson played 3B for the Rainiers last night, despite Morse also being in the game (Morse played 2B). I wonder of they’re thinking of seeing if he can hack it over there in preparation for trying to move Beltre, and that’s why they picked him up despite the “logjam”? I notice Erick Monzon is back down at AA, although he was hitting .300 with a .364 OBP at Tacoma, though the power numbers were anemic. Does anyone know if this was or what was the reason for the demotion? He’d been playing quite a bit of 3B as well.