BRADENTON, Fla. -- They are dueling for the same job, to become the Pirates' starting center fielder.

Same spot atop the lineup, too.

And it is right about there that any reasonable comparisons between Nate McLouth and Nyjer Morgan should stop.

McLouth is all business, all the time.

Morgan is the one who, upon taking his position at PNC Park, playfully doffs his cap and bows to the fans in the sections behind him, then welcomes them to "Morgantown."

"Man, we're about as different as you can be," Morgan said.

"Nyjer's more of the loud guy, more of the joker," McLouth said. "I'm not real keen on drawing attention. I'd rather just do my job and let people see me on the field. And that's not saying there's anything wrong with the way he is. But yeah, personality-wise, we're far apart."

What will matter most to management in choosing one for the March 31 opener in Atlanta, of course, will have far less to do with personality than performance.

A tale of the tape ...

McLouth is Mr. Baseball.

Actually, that was the award he shared as Michigan's top player coming out of Whitehall High School, where he batted .514 with 51 steals in 51 tries. He went on to be offered a scholarship from his beloved University of Michigan, extending the baseball dream he and his father, Rick, each a lifelong fan of the Detroit Tigers, shared.

McLouth did dabble in football but, as he astutely observed, "What's a 5-foot-10 guy with average speed going to do with that? Baseball was my first choice, and here I am."

The rest of his script is fairly standard, too: The Pirates drafted him in the 20th round, and then-scouting director Mickey White paid well above the recommended signing bonus for that slot -- $225,000 -- to pry him away from Michigan.

McLouth's polished skills immediately translated to the professional ranks, and he took the requisite five years to reach Pittsburgh. Now, at age 26 and after two-plus seasons of bench seasoning, he is seen as ready to start.

At the other extreme is Morgan, whose path included being that rare native Californian and even rarer African-American to adopt hockey as what he calls "my first passion." He did begin playing baseball at age 5 in the Bay Area, but his sights were set on playing for the Sharks, not the Giants or Athletics, and he left home for Canada at age 16. In a feat that might exceed his having reached Major League Baseball, at least in terms of odds, Morgan quickly matured into a regular in the Western Hockey League, one of North America's three primary feeder systems to the NHL.

Trouble was, although Morgan's speed made him a dynamic forechecker, his hands were more effective at forming fists than scoring, and there is not much of a market for 175-pound enforcers.

"If I played for the Penguins," Morgan said, "I'd be on a line with Georges Laraque."

Maturity struck next: Morgan and his girlfriend had a daughter, Niah, when he was 20.

"I was at a crossroads, didn't know where I wanted to go, had the little girl. ... I figured I had to go to college and get an education," he said.

He enrolled at Walla Walla College in Washington state, where the specialty was baseball and where, essentially, he was taught the game. Again, he was a quick learner, and the Pirates saw enough athleticism that they drafted him in the 33rd round in 2002.

Morgan immediately batted .343 for short-season Williamsport, despite doing little more than planting his bat on the ball and running like mad. There was "zero technique," as one team evaluator recalled.

He kept improving, though, to the point he made it to Pittsburgh last season and, again with the quick adjustment, batted .299 and played exemplary center field.

Still, because only one of them would be learning on the job ...

Advantage: McLouth

McLouth's swing is the stuff of baseball clinics, from the patience to the compact follow-through to that picturesque release of the upper hand.

Beyond the aesthetics, he has been efficient at drawing walks and waiting for the right pitch to drive. He took 61.6 percent of the pitches he saw last season, eighth-highest in the National League and, partly because of that, had a solid .360 on-base percentage out of the leadoff spot.

He offers power potential, too, as evidenced by 12 home runs after the All-Star break last season. To boot, that power comes from the left side, which could offer the Pirates an advantage at PNC Park.

So far this spring, he is 3 for 13 with a home run, two walks and three steals.

Morgan's approach can vary from pitch to pitch, but he somehow finds a way to hit for a high average with few strikeouts. In fact, his strikeout rate is about half that of McLouth in their careers.

He has minimal power, though -- only 15 of his 86 hits across all levels last season went for extra bases -- and draws few walks. The latter can be a fatal flaw at leadoff, but he is making it a focus this spring, going deep into counts and drawing two walks while going 5 for 22 with two steals.

General manager Neal Huntington can find positives with each.

"Nate is going to work the count more to get on, and Nyjer is going to hit his way on," Huntington said. "Nyjer will put the ball in play, and Nate's going to give you a little more thunder and some more strikeouts to go with that."

Still, the prospect of having that rare power bat in center, as well as the on-base percentage, means ...

Advantage: McLouth

The easy analysis here is to give the edge to Morgan, particularly when recalling that Willie Mays grab late in the season in Houston and another diving stab at PNC Park. They might have been two of the best catches anywhere in the majors last summer.

Huntington has cited his ideal roster as having a center fielder who can "run it down," and he is not the only one who feels strongly about Morgan's ability to do just that. Morgan's defense made him immensely popular with teammates, especially pitchers, late last season.

But more will go into the decision.

When new management took over, it closely examined video from 2007 to analyze players' tendencies. And one belief that emerged, according to a team source, was that McLouth might be "pretty close or on par" with Morgan in center field. McLouth was seen as getting better breaks and handling the position efficiently, if not spectacularly.

How much will the glove matter?

"For catcher, shortstop and center field, the defense is going to be important," Huntington said. "But the bat is always the carrying tool. We can't afford to have outs at those positions, certainly not three of them."

Neither has a strong arm, and neither has much major-league experience at the position. But because of Morgan's dramatic entrance last season ...

Advantage: Morgan

Line up McLouth and Morgan for a 90-foot sprint, and the smart money will be on Morgan. The man runs on what he once dubbed "turbo-dirt."

But the metrics here are, perhaps surprisingly, somewhat even: McLouth has stolen 180 bases in his professional career and been caught only 33 times, an excellent success rate of 84.5. That includes 22 of 23 with the Pirates last season, the best rate in the National League.

Morgan has stolen 197 bases as a professional, which gives him the edge in bulk, but he has been caught 75 times, a success rate of 72.4 percent.

In an area harder to weigh, McLouth is seen as very good in other fundamental situations. For example, he scored 38 percent of the time he reached base, the 11th-highest rate in the league, and went from first to third on a teammate's single three of seven times.

Morgan can over-slide bases, but he, too, is a lock to take the extra base.

Advantage: Push

The most striking similarity between the two is their intensity, even though it shows in different ways.

McLouth is almost invariably serious and focused, all baseball all the time.

Just ask him how he feels about this spring duel.

"My mentality and the approach I'm talking every day is that, on March 31, I'm going to be out there in Atlanta," he said. "I prepared the past couple years like a bench guy. Now, it's different. I know I'm ready for this. I know it. And, hopefully, it will be me that they choose."

And the effervescent Morgan?

"There's no pressure for me," he said. "I can't ask for anything more than a chance to go out there and show this organization what I can bring. Nate's a heck of a player. I mean, I wish I had a little thump, you know? But I think I can bring something with my speed and small-ball. I definitely feel like I belong. I want to be a major-league player. I just want to bring my poise and my energy into the clubhouse, on the bases, wherever. And, hopefully, the staff will see that."

The staff's view might carry a slight lean toward McLouth, but it was not by accident that Huntington, the man who ultimately will make that decision, turned the job over to a tryout this spring.

"Nate is the baseball player, and Nyjer is the tremendous athlete who is maturing and developing into a pretty good baseball player," Huntington said. "We feel very good about the choice we have in front of us."