Nationals' Andres Chaparro letting hair grow on hoped-for path back to MLB

Nationals' Andres Chaparro letting hair grow on hoped-for path back to MLB originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Andres Chaparro is quite the sight to behold on the baseball diamond.

He's always been a hefty fella, but the Washington Nationals' Triple-A slugger has added some long flowing hair to the look, and he's also rocking his high socks above his knees.

It makes for a conspicuous presence, even in a sparsely populated Rochester ballpark for a Friday night doubleheader against the Buffalo Bison (Toronto Blue Jays).

Chaparro is also quite noticeable when he launches a long home run deep and gone to left field, as he did in his first at bat of the second game of the doubleheader.

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Chaparro homered earlier this week against Trey Yesavage, the Blue Jays' phenom who is rehabbing on his way back from injury, so it's been a quality stretch of swings.

This is a guy who broke into MLB already but struggled with plate discipline and couldn't turn his combination of contact-making and power into consistent enough productivity.

Now, the Nats have had players pass Chaparro by. It's not clear he has a defensive position, although he looked sharp in a couple of moments on Friday night playing third base before being the DH in game two.

The bat will be the key, and maybe Chaparro is just one of those guys they call a Four-A hitter, capable of hitting at Triple-A but not so much in the big leagues.