Does Mike Cameron Mean Bryce Harper?

But we’ve also got Bernadina, and we had Ankiel last year: don’t either of these guys provide as much or more than Cameron would?

But I won’t be surprised if he’s called up before the super two deadline.

It all depends on three things:
-service time and money
-his readiness
-the teams needs

Obviously, the additional year of control gained by keeping him in the monors for the first ten days of the season is obviously worth more than any amount of performance he could provide in ten games. (That’s his age 25 season, and if he lives up to the hype, he will be the best outfielder in baseball that year.) Super two status will cost the team money, however, that’s money well spent if the team is contending.

Is he ready to face major league pitching? It’s very hard to tell. Defense is more of a concern, but, realistically, there’s nothing he can learn in one month at AAA. My feeling about outfield defense is that good jumps and speed are something that are more talent than learned, and they are 80% of OF defense. (Another ten percent is arm, another ten percent is judgment, like using the cut off man or bypassing him in the right situation.) Let’s not bullshit about baserunning. The amount that a player can cost a team with bad or good baserunning is about +/- 4 runs; if you need his bat, you should probably not worry too much about the base running.

RIght now he fills a need: left handed bat, and no one really block him. Cameron and Bernadina are 4th outfielders right now. As a long time Mariner fan, I have fond memories of Cameron being the most underrated player in the universe. He was the best non-Andruw Jones CF in Baseball and a Moneyball style three-true-outcomes hitter. I still think he has something left in the tank, and I still believe he can be one of the best defensive outfielders there is.

All that said, you can’t make too many assumptions about what signings mean for Harper’s future. The nats were never going to sign a two year contract to an OF because they will want Harper up sometime between April and September 2013. That means they were only going to sign one year contracts, and that means that they were only going to sign stop-gap players. How long they are willing to stick with a stop-gap? That remains to be seen. Partly it’s up to Harper to kill spring training and his first month in the minors. And partly it’s up to the team to show that they are contenders who need the best possible product on the field because they are contenders, ready to out play the Phillies or, at the least, be a Wild Card team.