Nationals Farm Authority

The Brandon Watson experiment has been scrapped. After today’s debacle at RFK, the Nats sent Brandon Watson and Wiki Gonzalez to New Orleans and recalled OF Ryan Church and IF Brendan Harris.

Watson was given a grand total of 9 games to prove if he was ready for a full time spot.

He wasn’t.

In 28AB, Watson had 5 hits (all singles), walked once, and stole no bases (but was caught twice). His defense was sketchy as well. He mispositioned himself on the GW SF in Houston and took a really bad angle on a flyball double last night. It was abundantly clear that he was frustrated and was pressing.

Replacing Watson in CF will be Ryan Church (likely platooning with Marlon Byrd). Church was surprisingly demoted to New Orleans at the end of spring training with rumors of a questionable work ethic/conditioning. Thus far in New Orleans, he has not hit the ball with much authority, 130/256/261 in 7G (23AB) with the Zephyrs. His only 3 hits came in the same game. It apparently comes down to the Nats inserting a struggling guy who has a history of performing for a struggling with no history of performing. It was only a matter of time until Church returned to DC.

The more interesting aspect of the move is the promotion of Brendan Harris.

This has a twofold effect.

First, it means Brian Schneider is going to be catching practically every day. His only backup at present is Matt LeCroy, not the first guy you think of when backup catcher comes to mind. Hopefully this will not have any long term impact on Brian Schneider, who like most of the Nats, is struggling with the bat (194/286/194). The Zephyrs now have three catchers in New Orleans (Gonzalez, Brandon Harper, and Alberto Castillo). Expect a ripple effect of moves to clean that up. Second, now that Harris is up, the question of his role comes up. Harris has spent half of his eight games in New Orleans playing SS and the other half at 3B. While his BA is only 231, he has an OBP of 355 (3BB).

Is Harris in Washington to assume the starting SS role? Current SS Royce Clayton is among the cavalcade of Nationals not hititng so far in 2006 (200/194/200). Word from the organization this spring was there was concern with Harris defense. Granted it is a small sample size, but Harris has made 1 error in 18 chances at SS (his other error was at 3B). Harris would likely be an offensive upgrade to Clayton and the risk defensively may not be as big as the organization fears.

Or, is Harris in Washington now to spell rookie 3B Ryan Zimmerman? Zimmerman has shown flashes at the plate so far (237/326/342 with 4RBI) but has also been striking out at an alarming rate 12K in 38AB (prorate that to a 500AB season is 158K). I would hope the panic button was not pushed there just yet. I’d give Zimmerman more time to feel comfortable before even considering any sort of platoon at 3B.

What’s most likely? Harris is in Washington to give Frank Robinson more flexibility off of the bench. With LeCroy and Daryle Ward as nothing more than DH/PH, the only IF options Frank has are Marlon Anderson and Damian Jackson. Anderson has assumed the role of primary LH PH so Frank is hesitant to use him in the IF and with Alfonso Soriano’s on-the-job training in LF, Jackson may have more value as an extra OF. Harris can now allow Frank to platoon Byrd with Church in CF and use Jackson as a super-sub in the OF, knowing that Harris can reasonably fill in at any of the IF positions (a la Jamey Carroll from 2005).

It’s too early to push the panic button, but the Nationals believe they need to do something to kickstart the 2006 season. Perhaps Harris and Church can provide the impetus.