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Out of Left Field - Our Newest Halo

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports


With the underwhelming acquisition of Kirk Nieuwenhuis, it would seem the Marc Krauss era in Anaheim is being put on hold and our pitiful left field situation is beginning to take shape. While importing a higher-profile talent remains a possibility, let’s look at our left field situation as it stands today and whether there is any hope for production.

As Turk’s Teeth points out, Nieuwenhuis’ strike out frequency is downright inappropriate. Even in his decent 2014 season, he struck out in 30% of his plate appearances. Unless you hit the ball like Adam Dunn, you will never be an impact major leaguer striking out that often. His rate of 23% in the minors does nothing to inspire hope that this trend is reversible.

The good news is he owns a 9.3% walk rate in his career, a number dragged down by his abysmal start to 2015. He boasted a 12.3% rate during his aforementioned 2014 campaign, while clubbing three home runs and 14 doubles over 130 plate appearances. The lack of contact will limit his overall production, though a 112 OPS+ against righties makes him a decent choice to split time with Cowgill. We can call them Nieugill!

Also of interest, Nieuwenhuis came up as a center fielder, making it so Mike Scioscia has zero reason to ever put Matt Joyce in the field again. The Mets used Kirk (we can call him Kirk, right?) as a late-inning defensive specialist in all three positions, with generally favorable results according to both UZR and Range Factor. While we lack sufficient data to know exactly what kind of fielder he really is, I’m confident a former center fielder should do just fine in left.

As for how this affects the DH position, there is some merit to the clamoring for a DFA of Matt Joyce and keeping Krauss around as a back-up to old man Albert. I see Scioscia and DiPoto having a little more patience with the veteran Joyce, perhaps with good reason. Playing in his age 30 season, he has been a reliably above average hitter the last five years. His .216 BAbip will not last forever, though his power appears to have vanished for good. If he can start drawing walks again while getting some hits to fall in, he still has value, especially if he platoons with someone like Green. Considering the horrible alternatives in Krauss and Cron, count on Joyce getting until the All Star break to figure things out before they cut bait.

Does the addition of Nieuy and the re-assignment of roles suddenly solve all of the Angels’ offensive woes? Well, no. But they are a better team with Joyce out of left field. I would not be a shocked to see Nieugill hold a line of .240/.330/.400 in a strict platoon. Combined with decent fielding and base running contributions, this could very well be a worthwhile transaction.

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