Bourgeois Possibly Moving to Second?

In a recent article by Astros.com writer Brian McTaggart , the idea was purposed of a move to second base for Jason Bourgeois. With Keppinger starting the year on the DL, it will be interesting who the Astros use to be a back up to Bill Hall in the season’s early goings, and this idea is worth looking into.McTaggart reports that “Bourgeois hit .297 with 26 runs, nine doubles, two triples, three homers, 22 RBIs and eight stolen bases in 155 at-bats and 37 games for Caneros de los Mochis in the Mexican Winter League. He came through the Minor Leagues as a second baseman, so he wasn’t completely foreign to the position when he took it back up last year.” Granted the Mexican Winter League’s credibility is not up there with MLB standards, but seeing this type of production is impressive for a guy that has a career batting average of .215 is worth noting.

Bourgeois has yet to truly compete for a major league starting position, but in a 10 day period where he started for the injured Michael Bourn, Bourgeois didn’t really impress. Going just 9 for 43 (a .209 average) with zero extra base hits, the lumber didn’t win anybody over in the Astros’ dugout to give Boo-zhwah a chance at competing for even the fourth out fielder’s spot over Jason Michaels. He did, though, nab four stolen bases in just 1o days which shows that speed prevails during slumps.

Bourn will be at the top of the lineup regardless of who else is on this team. What would be useful, though, for a team looking to win by playing small ball is to have another base path burner in the lineup that can generate offense by turning singles into doubles with his theft of bases. Bill Hall will offer an average average, but we need more than that. A Bourn-Bourgeois 1-2 combo makes the first inning even more dangerous for the Astros. What Bourgeois will need to do in the spring to make this happen is adopt the true tendencies of a two spot hitter which is extending the count. If Jason can bat above .270 for the rest of spring and show that he can get 5+ pitches into the count, then it is worth looking into the shift to second base.

Trevor Harris is a contributing writer for Climbing Tal’s Hill. Click here to follow him on Twitter andclick here to follow CTH.