Breaking: Ben Revere is the #Nats new leadoff man and lefty CF

As we say, once Rizzo says he loves the team he has, you better get ready for a trade!

A day earlier:

Rizzo was asked if his roster is now set, “If there’s a value out there that can help the ballclub, then we would certainly look into it, but we like our depth and we like our talent level.  I like the roster. I think we’ve achieved a lot of our goals going into it. We’ve balanced our lineup, we’ve acquired high skill sets, and I think the roster as constructed today is something that we really like.”

A day earlier on if Michael A. Taylor was Rizzo’s guy:

Rizzo said, “[Michael A. Taylor] had a heck of a year for us last year, first of all, for a player that was probably 3 or 4 months ahead of schedule and forced into an everyday role that he probably developmentally wasn’t prepared for, but mentally he came through. Mentally he was extremely prepared, and as the season wore on he got better and better and better every month. And again, I say it when I describe Daniel Murphy, this guy, when the pressure was the biggest, he performed at his best. This guy got as many big hits for us as anyone on the ballclub did last year, and performed extremely well for us. I have very high hopes for Michael Taylor, and a guy we really like.”

Going sjm308 here with Trea Turner batting 9th:

1. Revere CF LH
2. Murphy 2B LH
3. Rendon 3B RH
4. Harper RF LH
5. RZim 1B RH
6. Werth LF RH
7. Ramos C RH
8. Pitcher
9. Turner SS RH

Yes it’s stacking lefties up top which puts the pressure on the righty pitchers. Different configuration against LHPs.  With Revere and Murphy at the top of the line-up you have 2 of the toughest batters to strikeout in the Majors and Rendon was 3rd in the Majors last year seeing 4.38 pitches per average at-bat.

In fact Murphy was #1 in K% at only 7.1% and Revere was 7th in the Majors in K% at 10.1%. Neither walks a lot but they will put the ball in play.

Revere had the best offensive season of his career and had a good defensive season also with a +2.9 UZR.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=4712&position=OF#fielding

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/reverbe01.shtml

Dusty Baker had one main wishlist item which was a speedy leadoff hitter with a high OBP.  He gets that with Ben Revere who also happens to be a lefty.

From November 13th when Dusty was on MLB Network Radio with Casey Stern, Dusty said he hadn’t discussed with Rizzo what the budget is or the players he is targeting for the team but they discussed how important the lead-off is.  Stern said Dusty went through 74 (exaggerating) lead-off men with the Reds.  Dusty said:

“I don’t know if we got that guy yet because the other guys are prone to strikeouts and don’t have that high OBP. We had that guy in Denard Span. I don’t know if we will sign him or have a chance of re-signing him.  I haven’t really talked to Rizzo or the organization yet about potential Free Agents…or what the payroll is going to be…I’m always trying to pump people to get the best team, not only the best team, the best overall balanced team. This is what I’m shooting for.”

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

nats opening day roster prediction

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