Monday, June 6, 2011

No Reason to Trade for CF or Change Bernadina's Nickname

The Nats won last night in dramatic fashion after Drew Storen blew the save in the ninth and Mako Morse hit a grand slam to cap off their extra innings comeback.  Roger Bernadina was 3-6 with 2 runs.  He had a sweet bunt and continues to show off his Shark Speed on the basepaths.  He also would have had another amazing catch in CF in the 9th if he hadn't been moved to left when Ankiel came into the game.

I am a little sick of people saying that the Nationals don't have a center fielder or a leadoff hitter.  For excellent coverage on this topic head over to Federal Baseball, for the Sharkadina opinion, keep reading.  Why are we saying that we are willing to overpay for B.J. Upton right now, possibly giving up Jason Marquis or Todd Coffey?  Just because he was friends with Ryan Zimmerman as a kid is not a good reason to trade for him.  And to those articles like this one that give the average batting stats for the CF position or the leadoff position- that's not fair!  Bernadina has been decent at both and Ankiel and Desmond sucked at both of them, so averaging them together does not give an accurate picture of the situation.  This biggest error in judgement covering this story though, comes from none other than Bill "Bad Nickname" Ladson who writes here:
Although Ankiel is 17-for-57 (.211) with a home run and four RBIs entering Tuesday's action, the Nationals love his work in center field. Ankiel is considered the team's best defensive center fielder since Brad Wilkerson in 2005.
WHAT? There is so much wrong with those two sentences. Did you even see The Catch? Yes, Ankiel has a good arm, but that does not mean he is the best defensive center fielder.  In addition to this affront to The Shark, Mr. Ladson continues to ignore his chosen nickname and keeps calling him "Speed Racer."  He tweeted this nickname 3 times yesterday including:
Well Mr. Ladson, when you start dressing up as Speed Racer and going to Nats games, meet Roger Bernadina and get his blessing, start a blog dedicated to the nickname of Speed Racer, get Federal Baseball and Ben Goessling on board with the nickname, then MAYBE someone will start to notice this nickname.  Until, then please stop using it and just call him The Shark.

If you keep calling Roger Bernadina "Speed Racer," or you think it is a good idea to trade him, you will end up like this girl:


More to come.

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