The two best second basemen in the free agency market this offseason signed contracts within three days of each other with first Tony Knighton, who had his best season in the WPK this past year when he put up 6.4 WAR playing for the Charlotte Sting, inking a 5-year deal with Pittsburgh. Knighton takes his fine defense and line drive gap power hitting prowess to the already offensively gifted but defensively challenged Pittsburgh Roadrunners. He takes the place of last year's starter Bill Craig, who himself is a free agent. This should be a big upgrade as Craig had a WAR of just 1.0 last season and a -7.5 ZR compared to Knighton's fine +6.4.
A few days later the Charlotte Sting found their replacement for Knighton when they inked veteran star Randy Keisel to a 3-year deal. Keisel is trending in the wrong direction defensively but still has a pretty potent bat. He put together a 3.2 WAR season between two teams (his original club, the Baltimore Lords, and the Oklahoma City Diamond Kings after a mid-July trade). Charlotte hopes he regains some of the home run power he has at times shown in his career (he dropped from 25 HR's in 1977 to just 11 last season) and for now they have slotted him in the clean-up slot of their power-deprived lineup.
The big question now in Pittsburgh is what this means for their top prospect Nick Johnson, whose primary position is second base. Johnson played in AA last season and at age 23 is nearly big league ready and is the #5 prospect in all of the WPK. He is also durable and already a fan favorite so surely a spot must be found for him on the Roadrunners roster soon. He can also play first base but with 31-year old team captain Bill Lechner there and still very productive (and signed through 1981) it is hard to imagine that working out. Will Pittsburgh move their top prospect to improve their weak starting rotation and will the kid just need to claw his way into the lineup?