Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 20, 2008
Dukes on the Throne

Nationals Journal liked what they saw at the Elijah Dukes press conference:

Your new Washington Nationals outfielder just finished an approximately 20-minute press conference here at Space Coast Stadium, and I have to say it was an impressive performance, relative to the expectations. He was composed, confident, introspective at times, and seemed genuinely thankful for the opportunity and the support the Nationals are giving him.

Has anyone noticed the Nationals are taking the opposite approach of the Colorado Rockies? The Rockies go out of their way to sign players with good character. The Nationals, with Dukes, Fick, and Young are a repository for recovering jerks. I wonder if one approach is better than the other. Sometimes the jerks are really good players.


Posted by David Pinto at 04:15 PM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

It's probably worth distinguishing between different kinds of character problems. There's a real difference between a guy like Elijah Dukes who seems to have very serious, potentially career-destroying issues, and a guy like Lastings Milledge, who has been viewed as a "problem child" for petty things like high-fiving fans and appearing on a rap song during the offseason.

Posted by: Sylvan at February 20, 2008 05:32 PM

Milledge also got kicked out of high school his senior year for allegedly sexually assaulting a classmate. That's a serious character issue, even if it was a few years ago.

Posted by: Mike A. at February 20, 2008 06:29 PM

I don't think it's fair to lump Fick in with Dukes, Young and Milledge. He might be a jerk but I don't think he's been arrested before.

Posted by: Tom at February 20, 2008 10:41 PM

Mike A.-

Without trying to minimize the issue, when you say "allegedly sexuallly assaulting a classmate", do you mean "allegedly had sex with a sophomore when he was a senior" or a real crime? Because terms like "sexual assault" tend to lump a rather heterogeneous group of people together under a term that has (justifiably) strong connotations.

And regarding David's point in the OP, as I understand it, the Rockies are targeting Christian players (more specifically, Christian players for whom their faith is especially important) rather than simply "good character" guys. While there may be some advantages, I don't really like this type of strategy, especially if it means they don't acquire certain players who may be able to help the team but are, say, Pagans.

Posted by: mraver at February 20, 2008 11:43 PM

Either way, I'm pretty sure Fick is no longer with the Nationals. Didn't he sign a K with some other team during the offseason?

Posted by: Jeff B. at February 21, 2008 11:16 PM
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