:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/27913213/20130921_mbr_bs5_365.0.jpg)
Some players in baseball have cool nicknames, like Big Papi, Mannywood, The Machine, and King Felix. Going back a few decades, there was Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, Hank "The Hammer" Aaron, Willie Mays "The Say Hey Kid", Mark "The Bird" Fydrich, and countless others.
Other players just have cool names, like Brewers second baseman Scooter Gennett. His real name is Ryan Joseph Gennett, but that is boring. Scooter is a cool name and a cool baseball name. I wonder if his father is a fan of former Yankee great, Phil Rizzuto, who had the nickname "The Scooter". Scooter sounds like a perfect name for a middle infielder, doesn't it?
The Brewers are heading into the 2014 season with Gennett as their starting second baseman, even though they have Rickie Weeks still on their roster, for now. Weeks is certainly a trade candidate, or could be used as insurance in case Gennett fails in his first full season in the big leagues.
Last season, Gennett played 69 games, making 230 plate appearances, and performed well. Gennett his .324-.356-.479 with 6 HRs, 29 runs, 21 RBI and 2 stolen bases. Prior to his call up, he hit .280-.327-.371 with 3 HRs, 44 runs, 22 RBI and 10 stolen bases in 15 attempts at AAA Nashville.
I don't see Gennett repeating his 2013 performance in Milwaukee as hi O-Swing% was 43.1%, so unless he is the next Vladimir Guerrero who could hit any pitch thrown to him, we will see some regression in Gennett's 2013 numbers. Add in the fact that Gennett benefitted from an extremely high .380 BABIP, then we could see his batting average regress to the .260 range.
Gennett never showed much power in the minors, as his career high is 11 home runs in 2011, but he will call Miller Park home, so he could run into a few more homers than expected. Miller Park is one of the best home run parks in baseball, so double digit home runs should not be unexpected. Manager Ron Roenicke also likes to give his players the green light on the base paths, so we could see 10+ stolen bases from him as well.
Roenicke batted him all over the lineup last season, but he batted 8th the most, but I could see him in the two spot in the Brewers lineup, hitting ahead of Ryan Braun, Carlos Gomez, Jonathan Lucroy and Aramis Ramirez. More than likely, he will be slotted in the eight spot again, so his runs and RBI totals will suffer as a result. He will learn how to take pitches, especially with the pitcher behind him in the order.
For 2014, I see Gennett hitting in the .260 range with double digit homers and stolen bases and 50-60 runs and RBI.
