Most Valuable Player or Most Outstanding? Big difference in those tags.

Take Nebraska senior center fielder Bryce Nimmo.

Not once has the three-year lineup regular been selected All-Big 12 Conference, not even honorable-mention, so no MOP label for him.

But feel free to throw his name into the hat for MVP.

If you watch the Huskers, it becomes evident that Nimmo’s combination of speed and keen ability to read balls coming off bats makes him one of their best defensive weapons. What he’s not known for nearly as much is his impact as a leadoff hitter.

But during his career, Nebraska is 58-14 whenever he’s been at the top of the order.

Seven games ago, Mike Anderson decided to slide the Cheyenne, Wyo., product from the bottom third of the lineup back to the No. 1 spot in place of a struggling DJ Belfonte, and the move has paid immediate dividends.

While going 6-1 in that span, NU has scored at least seven runs four times.

Nimmo is 10-for-29 (.345) with a .406 on-base percentage, and he’s scored eight runs.

Belfonte is 8-for-27, a .296 clip that’s 38 points higher than his season average, and he scored seven runs.

“I don’t think the six or seven spot or the one spot, or any of those things, concerns him,” Anderson said of Nimmo. “I might be wrong, but my thing is I think he’s a team guy. ‘Whatever it is you need me to do, let me do it.’ Wherever he can best suit our team, I think that’s been his approach.”

As eighth-ranked Nebraska heads into a key weekend series at Baylor looking to cut into Big 12 leader Texas A&M’s game-and-a-half lead in the standings, Nimmo is hitting .331. That’s 58 points higher than he averaged in 2007, his best season at NU.

The left-handed hitter’s 12 strikeouts also are the fewest among the Huskers’ every-day players, and he’s also No. 2 on the team in walks and runs.

“I think the thing is being consistent, mentally trusting yourself,” Nimmo said. “And my main thing this fall and spring has been simple: Just stay back and let the ball come to you, see it for as long as possible, stay back, because the quicker you rush things the harder it is to hit.”

He admits, though, it’s not always easy to listen to that logic.

“It’s always a struggle,” Nimmo said of trying to keep things going from at-bat to at-bat. “Sometimes you don’t feel as good, so you don’t trust yourself and you use too much energy to do things. You might be thinking too much, so, no, it’s always (easy) keeping it that simple. But when you’re usually swinging your best, you’re not thinking at all.”

Perhaps, then, that’s the frame of mind Nimmo was in when he moved back to the leadoff spot for the final game of a series at Oklahoma State two weekends ago. With Nebraska needing a win to avoid being swept, Nimmo produced two hits, walked three times and scored twice to ignite a 14-5 victory.

“He’s figured some things out within his swing,” Anderson said in regard to Nimmo’s increased production. “Something I noticed, he continues to go through the ball.

“When he gets spiny (with his wrists), he pulls off balls and gets jammed and hits little dinks and does not go the other way very well. When he starts to drive through the baseball, he can stay on pitches away. I continue to just see him going through the baseball. When he’s hitting balls to the left side, he’s got it. He’s on.”

It seems that Nimmo has had the kind of karma going for him all season. Before it began, he was one of 30 student-athletes in the nation nominated for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award, which takes into account how a player measures up in classroom, character, community and competition.

The two-time academic All-Big 12 pick was not among the 10 finalists named earlier this week, but he’s hardly losing sleep that he won’t have a shot at that tag.

“I love this year,” Nimmo said. “I’m thankful for the way this team’s been playing, how they’re competing. I mean, the whole year has just been going great.”

Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.