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Potomac/High-A Pitching Staff Year in Review; 2015

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Tyler Mapes is a great draft story and my pitcher of the year out of Potomac. Photo via nola.com

Tyler Mapes is a great draft story and my pitcher of the year out of Potomac. Photo via nola.com

This is the 4th in the 2015 Pitching staff review series, here’s a review of Potomac/High-A’s pitching staff for 2015.  Other parts of the 2015 series:

For some historical perspective, here’s 2013’s version (featuring Taylor Jordan), here’s 2012’s version (Nathan Karns the feature pitcher) and 2011’s version (Danny Rosenbaum the feature pitcher) of this post specifically for Potomac/High-A.  Had we done this in 2014, we would likely have “featured” Gilberto Mendez for his good work closing.

Note; while its relatively easy to do reviews for the upper levels of the system, once we get lower we’re usually talking about a lot of short sample sizes.  And i’m sure there’s people reading this who saw every pitcher on this post throw in 2015; by all means feel free to comment if you believe i’ve mis-characterized someone here.  Of all the write-ups I expect readers here to have better opinions of Potomac players by virtue of actually seeing them week in/week out, so definitely pipe up.

All stats are courtesy of either milb.com’s Potomac 2015 Stats page or via Fangraph’s Potomac 2015 page.   Also useful here are the Big Board and the Nats Draft Tracker since so many of these lower-minors guys are recent draftees.  And here’s the Baseball America Minor League Free Agent (MLFA) tracker.  And here’s a list of the official MLB MLFA declarations for 2015, though these are more useful for the AAA and AA squads frankly.

Potomac Pitching Staff movement throughout the year (* == lefty)

  • Opening Day rotation: Pivetta, Rauh, Schwartz, Suero, Spann*
  • End of Season Rotation: Mapes, Dickson, AWilliams, Spann*, Howell
  • End of Season spot starts/swingman: Dupra, Thomas*,  Valdez
  • End of Season bullpen:  Self,   Walsh*, Johansen, Orlan*, MRodriguez
  • Mid-Season promotions: Dupra, Bacus, Suero, Pivetta, Mapes, Giolito, Purke*, Simms, Rauh, Roark
  • up-and-back: Mapes, Spann*, Dupra
  • down-and-back: Thomas*, Rauh
  • demotions: KPerez, Napoli*, Amlung, Orlan*
  • D/L: RPena, Turnbull*, Sylvestre*,  Lopez
  • cut/released/FAs: Mirowski, Henke, Encarnacion, Schwartz (retired), CDavis

Potomac starters.  The rotation started the season with Pivetta, Rauh, Schwartz, Suero, Spann*.  19 guys got starts in 2015.  Here’s an overview of the starters used, starting with the original five starters, going all the way to the rehab spot starts.

  • Nick Pivetta was your opening day starter, and by the end of the season he had gotten promoted and traded.  He earned his promotion, going 7-4 with a 2.29 ERA in 15 starts for Potomac.  He was not as successful upon his promotion to AA, but that was still enough to catch the eye of Philadelphia and be the bounty for them ridding themselves of Jonathan Papelbon‘s ego and contract.  If he was still with the team, he would have been the ‘featured” player above and not Mapes for his dominant season in High-A.  Outlook for Next Season: Philadelphia’s AA team in Reading, where he gets to go against Harrisburg and all his old teammates a few times a year.
  • Brian Rauh threw 7 excellent High-A starts before getting promoted to AA, where he spent most of the year.  See AA write-up for more.  Outlook for Next season: AA rotation or bust.
  • Blake Schwartz had three High-A starts, struggled, and retired.  After a fantastic 2013 season in Potomac, he just never could make the jump to AA and (not that I’ve ever talked to him or anything) perhaps got discouraged after not really progressing further up the chain.  Outlook for Next season: retired, out of baseball
  • Wander Suero pitched pretty effectively for Potomac in the first half in a swingman role, getting 16 appearances and 5 starts and posting a 2.41 ERA, 1.20 whip, and a 3.27 FIP.  Not much in the way of swing and miss though; 39/18 K/BB in 56 innings.  After moving up, he struggled in AA but inched up his K/9 rate while focusing more on middle relief.  No reason to think he can’t compete in AA in 2016, and is still relatively young (he turned 24 just after the season ended so he’ll still be 24 all next year).  Outlook for Next season: AA bullpen, perhaps High-A bullpen again if he gets squeezed in a numbers game.
  • Matthew Spann bounced between High-A and AA all year, posting mid 4 ERAs in both places.  See AA write-up for more.  Outlook for Next season: AA rotation.
  • Reynaldo Lopez led the team in IP and starts for 2015, going 6-7 with a 4.09 ERA in 99 IP across 19 starts.  His stats: 4.09 ERA, 1.22 whip, 2.95 FIP and 94/28 K/BB in those 99 innings, all as a 21-yr old.  It isn’t hard to see why Lopez is highly ranked on “top 10” lists for Nats prospects; he more than held his own in High-A as one of the younger hurlers in the league.  The team held him back in XST for a few weeks to keep innings off his arm.  While most scouting reports think he’ll eventually end up in the bullpen (no third pitch, iffy mechanics, big arm), he’s obviously worth giving more chances to stick as a high-velocity starter (in the same vein as Yordano Ventura for example).  Outlook for Next season: AA rotation.
  • John Simms threw an excellent half season for Potomac before getting bumped up mid-season; see AA writeup for more.  Outlook for Next season: AA rotation.
  • Lucas Giolito threw an dominant half season for Potomac (86 ks in 69 innings) after being kept in XST for the first 5 weeks of the season (so much for those pre-2015 interviews where he proclaimed that he had no innings limits, eh?) before also getting bumped up mid-season; see AA writeup for more.  Outlook for Next season: AA rotation.
  • Austen Williams blitzed the Sally league and forced a promotion to Potomac mid-season, where he continued pitching well.  In High-A he was 4-6 with a 2.59 ERA, 1.09 whip, 3.22 fip and 41/17 K/BB over 63 high-A innings.  The 2014 draftee is looking like a nice little find.  There does seem to be a bit of fortuitousness in his numbers (.253 BABIP and a delta between his ERA and FIP), so I could see the log-jam in the AA projected rotation keeping Williams back in Potomac for the first half of the 2016 season.  Outlook for Next season: High-A rotation to start with an eye on quick promotion.
  • Philips Valdez dominated the Sally league and earned a promotion after two months.  In Potomac he bounced in and out of the rotation, getting 10 starts across 22 appearances and posting a 3.77 ERA in High-A.  Other numbers: 1.44 whip, 3.26 fip, 48/25 K/BB in 59 High-A innings.  Valdez has been around for a while; this was his *seventh* season in the Nats organization.  He just turned 24.  But he has relatively few innings on his arm; just 260 IP across those seven seasons (he missed the entirety of 2012).  He’s looking like he could be a low-profile decent starter going forward, though he may run out of time in the system before the team is faced with a tougher decision on how to keep him.  For now, I think he repeats High-A to start, is tried out as a full time starter, and we’ll see if he can push forward to AA in 2016.  Outlook for Next season: High-A rotation
  • Tyler Mapes so far is a pretty good 2014 draft success story; he was a 30th round *senior sign* out of Tulane who was basically unhittable in Short-A last year, threw 6 clean innings in Low-A and was bumped up to High-A (the first 2014 draftee to get promoted that high) after just a couple of weeks.  Once in Potomac, he continued to pitch well in a swing-man role; 30 appearances, 8 starts, a 2.38 ERA across 90 innings, 1.22 whip, 2.78 FIP and 75/17 K/BB over 96 innings in High-A.  Not too shabby.  If it were me, I’d push him right to AA and stick him in the rotation, but as noted before I’m projecting an awful lot of starters to be in that Harrisburg rotation right now.  I’m curious to see how things shake out for someone like Mapes; he didn’t last to the 30th round as a favor to the Nats; is there something limiting in his capabilities that will cause him to suddenly top out like a lot of late-round senior signs?  We’ll see.  Outlook for Next season: AA rotation.
  • Ian Dickson was hurt the first half of the season and finished 2015 the exact same place he finished 2014: in the Potomac rotation with decent to effective numbers.  2015 totals for Dickson: 3-3, 3.60 ERA in 12 appearances/8 starts.  We see a problem though: 31 ks and 39 (?!) walks in 40 innings in Potomac this year.  Wow; that’s a walk an inning.  He never saw this kind of walk rate before, so hopefully its just a remnant of whatever injury kept him out the first half of the year.  Nonetheless, he seems like he’ll be back in Potomac a third year until he can solve his walk rate issues.  Outlook for Next season: High-A rotation.
  • Dakota Bacus began the season in Potomac, had 5 starts and 8 appearances and got bumped quickly to Harrisburg, where he played most of the season.  See AA write-up for more.
  • Jeff Howell is a pretty interesting player.  He’s a career minor league backup catcher, having toiled in the lower minor leagues since 2005.  He signed on with Washington in 2012 and hung around as a backup between the levels for a couple of years.  Then suddenly, at the age of 32, he decided to try his hand on the mound.  Perhaps he was inspired by other Catchers-turned-Hurlers like Jason Motte.  He (presumably) hung out in XST for most of the season learning how to pitch, then threw a couple of games in the Rookie league, then for Hagerstown, then finally for Potomac at season’s end.  He struggled once he got to Potomac, giving up 9 runs in 13 innings but more importantly walking 17 guys while he was there.  He’s now a MLFA and one may think that he’d re-up with Washington since we’re the ones who gave him a shot.  We’ll see how the off-season goes.  He may choose to pitch elsewhere where he can be guaranteed a rotation spot (a tough one in our system, since we’re completely overloaded with arms from pitching-heavy drafts over the past few years).   Outlook for Next season: continuing his conversion to pitcher in another organization.
  • Others who got starts in Potomac for 2015:
    • Matt Purke got three brief starts in Potomac before settling in Harrisburg for the year; see AA write-up for more.
    • Rehab starts for Potomac in 2015: Barrett, Roark, Janssen and Carpenter (though technically Roark’s were not rehab but “stretching out” starts).

Potomac Relievers: taking a look at the relief corps.  We’ll organize relievers by going by IP from most to least.  Anyone with less than 10 IP will get cursory analysis at the end.

  • Justin Thomas was the bullpen leader in IP for Potomac in 2015, throwing 57 innings across 28 games, posting a 3.43 ERA, 1.21 whip, a 2.84 FIP and getting 50/18 K/BB in those 57 innings.  He’s a lefty but was used more as a long-man, not being limited to just short stints.  He’s looking great considering his limited draft pedigree (senior sign out of a small college in the 21st round) and I see no reason not to keep bumping him up the chain.  Outlook for Next season: AA rotation.
  • Jake Johanssen was 1-7 with a 5.44 ERA, 1.81 whip, 4.69 fip with 48/27 K/BB in 48 relief innings for Potomac.  Johanssen was our top draft pick in 2013, has already been “demoted” from a starter to the pen, and now seemingly can’t perform in a relief role either.  Where do you go from here with him?  You and I know that his large bonus is a “sunk cost” and shouldn’t dictate his usage, but teams don’t seem to see it that way.  Just look at how long the Nats kept Brett Mooneyham around after it became clear he wasn’t capable of performing, even at lower levels of the minors?  I see Johanssen repeating High-A and trying to get his career back on track.  Outlook for Next season: High-A bullpen.
  • Derek Self seems to be taking a step back in his career; after posting a 1.69 ERA through half a season in Potomac last year, he more than earned a promotion up to AA where he more than held his own.  However after just 14 innings in AA this year, he got dumped back to Potomac, thus repeating High-A for the third straight year.  He was solid again; a 4/1 K/BB ratio in middle relief, but where is his Nats career going at this point?  Obviously he needs to be in the AA bullpen next year, but you could have also said that last year and it didn’t work out.  There’s going to be a lot of AA bullpen competition; if he gets squeezed out does he get cut in 2016?  we’ll see.  Outlook for Next season: AA bullpen competition/Release Candidate.
  • Brian Dupra is in a similar boat as Derek Self; he’s now 27 and spent most of his third successive year in Potomac.  He was promoted mid-season to AA but didn’t last long after getting hit hard.  Final Potomac stats for 2015: 2.79 ERA in 42 mostly later bullpen innings.  I think he’s going to be in a similar situation as Self this coming spring; if he cannot cut it at AA (and there’s plenty of competition for that bullpen), he may get cut loose entirely.  Not that it should matter, but it should be noted that Dupra was a senior sign for limited bonus money out of Notre Dame in 2011, so it could be a “make the team or get cut” situation.  Outlook for Next season: AA bullpen competition/Release candidate.
  • Cody Davis was struggling early in the season, with a decent ERA but ugly peripherals (4.55 fip, 10/15 K/BB in 21 ip) and was released towards the end of June as upwards player movement started to need bullpen spots.  The undrafted MLFA signing from 2011 played parts of 5 seasons for the system but seemed to fall apart this year as he repeated High-A.   It does not look like he picked up anywhere and may be done.  Outlook for Next season: out of baseball.
  • Manny Rodriguez only threw 21 innings between two different D/L stints this year, and then was released soon after the end of the season.  It seems that the team believed he never recovered from the injury that cost him two full seasons early in his minor league career.  Outlook for Next season: out of baseball.
  • Jake Walsh threw 17 scoreless innings as a late-inning/closer in Low-A before getting bumped up to High-A in July.  From there out he posted a 3.66 ERA in 19.2 innings across 9 appearances with a 19/10 K/BB ratio.   There’s something odd going on with Walsh; why was he even in Low-A to start 2015?  He posted a sub-2.00 ERA across low- and high-A LAST YEAR, yet didn’t start in Potomac nor get considered for the AA rotation despite being a senior sign in 2013.  He now holds a CAREER 1.65 ERA and seems to me to more than have earned a shot at a look at a higher level.  Outlook for Next season: AA bullpen.
  • Kevin Perez spent the 2nd half of the year in  Hagerstown after struggling early on in Potomac: see Low-A write-up for more.
  • Robert Orlan spent most of the season in Hagerstown but posted a 2.20 ERA in Potomac in 16.1 August innings:  see Low-A write-up for more.
  • Justin Amlung, similarly to Orlan above, spent most of the season in Hagerstown but posted an excellent 1.84 ERA in Potomac in 14.2 July and August innings:  see Low-A write-up for more.
  • Other Relievers of note who had less than 10 IP for Potomac this year:
    • David Napoli had 8 IP for Potomac before getting demoted to Hagerstown:  see Low-A write-up for more.
    • Matt Purke threw 7 IP for Potomac during his tour of the Nats farm system in 2015: see AA write-up for more.
    • Erik Davis threw 3 re-hab IP in 2015; see AA write-up for more.
    • Tanner Roark threw one 4Ip start during his “stretch out” minor league stint; see MLB write-up for more.
    • Brenden Webb, normally an Outfielder, threw a 3Ip mop-up game (really?  they couldn’t find ONE reliever out of the 32 guys who threw innings for Potomac this year?)
    • MLBers Aaron Barrett, Casey Janssen and David Carpenter each had some re-hab innings; see MLB write-up for more.
    • A few guys spent the entire year on the D/L: Ronald Pena, Kylin Turnbull, Hector Sylvestre: all are looking at repeating Potomac next year if/when healthy.

Summary

Potomac certainly saw a lot of churn in its pitching staff; 32 total pitchers used (19 different starters including rehab starts by relievers).  Their leading IP was Lopez, who didn’t even hit 100 IP on the year.  There were at least 6-7 arms who earned their promotions to AA mid-season, a great sign for the rising tide of pitching talent in the system.  Lots of guys with ERAs that start with a “2” in the season-ending stats.  It didn’t help Potomac in the standings; they finished both halves several games under .500 and out of the playoffs.  This will create quite a competition for the AA staff next year: my projections at this point show at least 6-7 rotation candidates, 8-9 bullpen candidates and another 3-4 guys who are right at that age where they may be summarily cut if they don’t make the AA team in 2016.  Harsh, but good for the Nats, who could use all the bullpen help they can get.

20 Responses to 'Potomac/High-A Pitching Staff Year in Review; 2015'

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  1. Todd, here’s something to make your Friday: according to Rosenthal, the Nats are still indeed trying to shop both Storen and Pap:

    http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/washington-nationals-gio-gonzalez-trade-rumors-chen-dodgers-maeda-giants-ken-rosenthal-010816

    Lots of other Nats stuff here, including the head-scratching idea of trading Gio and signing Chen.

    Thoughts on Potomac when I have more time. Great write-up.

    KW

    8 Jan 16 at 11:09 am

  2. Interesting article. If Gio fetches something of value, I could be on board with this. I liked the Yelich deal for Gonzalez as a framework; maybe we have to throw in another player to even it out given Yelich’s production and age and cost. It would have given Nats the CF/leadoff type they have long sought. Chen only costs money right? Well, money and another draft pick. But we’ve only got one more year of Stras and 3 more of Harper, so you kinda have to win now.

    I know there’s a compelling argument that Gio is much better than he’s been on the field when looking at his advanced stats. I get it. But do you perceive our needs on the offense or in the pitching staff?

    Todd Boss

    8 Jan 16 at 11:24 am

  3. Papelbon/Storen; more and more i’m thinking this team is going to keep Papelbon becuase they can’t move him and trade storen, fwiw.

    Todd Boss

    8 Jan 16 at 11:25 am

  4. Nats’ greater need: here are a couple of stats that should have been more widely discussed, but if they have been, I haven’t seen it. In 2015, despite all the injuries and the full lineup hardly ever intact, the Nats scored 17 MORE runs than they did in 2014. Those runs didn’t translate into as many wins, however, because the vaunted pitching staff gave up 80 (!) more runs than in 2014.

    Gio: he’s got three more years under contract at $12M per. He posted a 3.7 fWAR (2.8 bWAR) last season, third-best on the team behind Bryce and Max. By the Fangraphs figure of $8M per WAR, he was worth $29.6M ($22.4M using bWAR). Either way, he was a bargain, and should remain one. I also think he is one who will benefit from the eyes of a new pitching coach and the attitude of Dusty.

    Meanwhile, Chen (2.8 fWAR in ’15) is said to want $100M. He’s not going to get it, but he may get close to double the $36M Gio is owed. I’m not sure where the value is supposed to be in swapping one for the other.

    KW

    8 Jan 16 at 3:36 pm

  5. Potomac: Luke Erickson, who did indeed see all these guys pitch regularly (I wish you could get him to comment), still seems confident in Lopez and felt they had him almost overly working on his secondary pitches to the detriment of his overall development. When they did let him blow guys away, they got 11 Ks with only two hits and no runs or walks in his next-to-last outing. It hasn’t been discussed much, but I also think he’s going to fill out more and get stronger. I hope he can remain a starter, but if he converts to relief, we could see him in DC in ’16.

    On the flip side, Luke said he wasn’t that sold on Austen Williams, for reasons he couldn’t quite figure out. I hope his career doesn’t turn out like Schwartz’s, but his rise to this level without tremendous stuff brings Schwartz to mind. We’ll see. For now, he’s established himself as someone to watch, as has Mapes.

    For what it’s worth – and good to hear – in a recent Byron Kerr piece, Paul Menhart named Williams, Giolito, and Johansen as real leaders among the pitchers in the instructional league in the fall. (I guess that means the Nats are still sticking with Johansen.)

    KW

    8 Jan 16 at 4:05 pm

  6. Luke pipes up once in a blue moon. Maybe we’ll get lucky.

    Great to hear about Lopez; and makes sense. Reminds me of something i read about Mark Appel’s awful minor league numbers. The astros told him not to throw his 2 seamer and just throw his 4 seamer, which apparently doesn’t move nearly as much as his 2 seamer … so he got pummeled. Keith Law was like, “well what did you expect?”

    Todd Boss

    8 Jan 16 at 4:31 pm

  7. The other thing about Lopez is that while he may have seemed a bit down to us because of the stats, his name has come up from time to time among the national guys and no one has seemed to change their view much on him. I have heard Severino comps to him, with the same concerns in some corners of whether they can stay as an SP.

    As for trading Gio, his performance, contract and years of control makes him a very valuable player. But trading him and signing Chen might make sense when you also add in what Gio brings back in trade. If your willing to take on the additional money, which is no small thing.

    Wally

    8 Jan 16 at 6:20 pm

  8. Luke said (in response to a question I asked on his board) that it seemed at times like they were making Lopez throw his offspeed stuff all the time, even when the other team knew it was coming. It doesn’t take much knowledge about pitching to know that you work everything off the fastball, particularly if you’ve got a plus-plus one. It isn’t fair to say that a pitcher doesn’t have good offspeed stuff if it isn’t used in context. If Lopez has something 15 mph slower than his fastball and can disguise it, it doesn’t have to be great, as batters will always be way early on it while geared up for 98.

    KW

    8 Jan 16 at 9:25 pm

  9. Storen for Revere. Seems like Rizzo waited until Span definitely wasn’t coming back, then went to Plan B. Its a good roster fit, but the bullpen seems weak again – maybe unproven is a better way to say it. Clippard – Part 2?

    Wally

    8 Jan 16 at 10:45 pm

  10. Wally, there’s a chance that Clippard is toast.

    Mark L

    8 Jan 16 at 11:18 pm

  11. Hmm. Revere has a very low K rate, gets on base decently, has no power, and plays marginal defense. In short, he’s the opposite of Taylor on nearly every score, both the good ones and the bad ones. Speed is about the only thing they share. (It’s also frightening to see Nyjer pop up as one of Revere’s comps!) The team got weaker up the middle defensively with Murphy at 2B and Revere in CF.

    Don’t love it, don’t hate it. They got three years of an established player for one of Storen. Drew gets a fresh start with a playoff team, and back closer to the Midwest, so good for him.

    With Lopes tutoring him and Dusty unleashing him, Revere may steal 50. He could score 120 if Rendon and Harper stay healthy behind him.

    I guess this means we’re not getting a power OF bat. I think the non-pitching roster is set unless they decide to upgrade at catcher. If I’m counting right, T-Mo no longer has a place on the bench. Lineup: Revere (L), Rendon (R), Harper (L), Zimmerman (R), Murphy (L), Werth (R), Espinosa (B), Ramos (R). When Taylor plays for Werth, Revere can move to LF.

    KW

    8 Jan 16 at 11:30 pm

  12. Revere is actually team-controlled for two years. There’s also a PTBNL, and Rizzo usually manages to make a little hay with those.

    KW

    8 Jan 16 at 11:50 pm

  13. I like it a little better than ‘don’t love it, don’t hate it’. He isn’t Span at full health, but he is a quality player. I think it is a good roster fit and I’d be happiest using him as part of a three headed rotation for CF and LF. I don’t think that’s how they will use him JT that would get max value out of the roster for me. But Storen is going to be missed more than most people who only remember the playoffs and last year post-Pap.

    Think they need another vet arm for the pen. I mentioned Clip if the contract is reasonableness a fit.

    Wally

    9 Jan 16 at 9:30 am

  14. JT = but

    Wally

    9 Jan 16 at 9:30 am

  15. Not much to add beyond what KW did on my behalf. FWIW, Howell is a knuckleballer.

    Luke Erickson

    9 Jan 16 at 9:35 am

  16. Interesting trade. Entering his walk year, and coming off a broken thumb and his late season troubles, I don’t think anyone expected Storen to bring back more value (at the time of the trade) than did Clippard one year ago. Unlike Escobar, who at that time was bouncing to the end that it seemed no one wanted him, Revere has trended upward offensively and is defensively regarded better than his numbers. And, a clubhouse asset acquisition.

    And yes, we keep an eye on the PTBNL. Indeed, so long as we are watching the minor league pitchers (and speaking of Jeff Howell’s conversion), I wonder what is to become of Michael Brady, who is a legitimate prospect yet completely overlooked in the Escobar trade. Starter or bullpen? AA or AAA?

    I find myself considering Revere in a comparison mode to Billy Burns. For those who wanted to reacquire Burns, certainly the Nats were able to bring in Revere, an arguably better player, for a lot less.

    As for the trade itself, we knew Storen was gone, so that part is easy. But as for Revere, I am a big Michael Taylor fan and feel uncomfortable about anything that displaces him from the starting lineup. But putting emotions aside, Revere is clearly a leadoff hitter and performs very well in the clutch. He also has the pedigree of being part of last year’s Blue Jays playoff team.

    As always, I enjoy Rizzo’s tinkering, and his characteristic stealth, but not quite as much as I know I will enjoy that tinkering a year away. The Clippard trade was altogether wise and like Fister, Ross, and Turner, Rizzo saw an undervalued asset and got it. Revere may be just that.

    I’m also done with Span. For the kind of money he is now making, and already unable to stay in a starting lineup without injury, the breakup had to happen. It is for that reason that I really hope the Nats trade Strasburg this off season and get what they can for him now. Somebody out there is bound to pay plenty for only a year, and I really think the Nats can replace him.

    forensicane

    9 Jan 16 at 9:13 pm

  17. Another note on the PTBNL. With no announcement yet, one has to wonder whether the Nats plan to wait until they can scout a few talents over the course of spring training. Sure worked out with Ian Krol in the Mike Morse trade, though he was not brought in until late March.

    forensicane

    9 Jan 16 at 9:23 pm

  18. Sorry to be late to this; new posted specifically on the Storen trade. Sites were down yesterday during the brief early morning time I had to write anything.

    Todd Boss

    10 Jan 16 at 7:08 am

  19. Never knew Howell was a knuckleballer. See now that’s the kind of insight you don’t get unless you go to the games 🙂

    Todd Boss

    10 Jan 16 at 7:19 am

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