A quick wrap-up of news items floated lately with a Nats interest in mind… and some opinion on each bullet point.
- Baseball America posted a wrap-up of the 2011 Nats draft. In short, BA thought the Nats had the best draft in 2011, getting the draft’s best hitter in Anthony Rendon, a big arm in Alex Meyer and a potential steal in Matthew Purke. Nothing we didn’t already know…
- Speaking of Rendon, this news item reports that he may not make it to the AFL after all. This concerns me, honestly. Just how bad was his shoulder injury??
- Interestingly, the Nats returned 2011 rule-5 pickup Elvin Ramirez to the Mets after having him languish on our 60-day DL all season. I’m slightly surprised by the move, in that the team obviously wanted to give him a shot when they took him earlier this year. Now, after paying his freight all year without ever really seeing him perform in a game situation (he did throw in the instructionals though) we’ve given up on him. My guess is that the team knows its bullpen is going to be competitive in 2012 and don’t anticipate being able to carry a youngster.
- Ken Rosenthal has a quick primer on the issues remaining to be haggled over in the next MLB deal. Some things of interest that could be included are draft slotting, an earlier signing deadline date, earlier free-agency, more wild-card teams and a balanced league schedule.
- Si’s Jon Heyman had a quick blurb about Phillie’s closer and FA Ryan Madson being a possible Nats off-season target. More interestingly he reports that Jayson Werth is trying to pitch Madson on the team. I’m guessing that the pitch job would include an understanding that the Nats already have a pretty good closer in Drew Storen (who just came in 3rd in the 2011 Rolaids Reliever of the Year award) and that Madson would be a setup guy. In a crowded closer FA market, perhaps Madson needs to keep his options open in case he can’t get a closer guaranteed job. I’m hoping that Werth’s “pitching” his former teammate isn’t interpreted as a lack of confidence in his current closer … a bit of press hype that certainly isn’t out of the realm of possible to be overblown so as to start a New York-style press issue.
- A couple different news sites along with MLB’s beat reporter Bill Ladson are reporting that the team is close to signing Chien-Ming Wang to a new deal. This isn’t terribly surprising to those of us that have read every bit of Nats news this off season, and I’m all for signing him for 2012 after he’s been paid to re-hab for two years by this team. It would be a refreshing bit of FA business to see someone like Wang take a lesser-monied deal to stay with the team that nursed him back to health. Wang would probably slot in nicely as our #4 starter next year but would mean that the team faces a tough decision next spring training for the back end of the rotation. Ross Detwiler is out of options and seems set to compete right now with Tommy Milone for this 5th starter spot. This also leaves no room for additional FA signings (CJ Wilson anyone?).
- Thank god we don’t live in Boston. Terry Franconia scapegoated for his team’s collapse in September and then absolutely denigrated by his owner (stay classy Mr. Henry). Theo Epstein (who you may put more of the September collapse on than the manager by virtue of leaving the team rather thin in terms of quality starting pitching) reads the tea leaves and escapes for Chicago. Now the whole “beer drinking” story that won’t die; starting pitchers would drink some beer and eat chicken on their off days, or maybe they were drinking beer in the dugout during games. I dunno; a starter in-between starts has little to nothing to do during the games; in fact veterans are often allowed to travel home early to be with family. It seems to me to be the Boston press playing into the hands of a rather cowardly news source, looking to grind a personal axe with the named players. Not a very healthy organization, the Red Sox, right now.
- Bryce Harper finally exploded in the AFL with a homer, 2 other hits and 2 walks for a pretty good game. I wouldn’t read too much into his struggles in the AFL, or in AA for that matter. I think he’s exhausted after his first full season and it should be more telling to see how he starts 2012.
- Bill Ladson had a quick interview with Adam LaRoche, who reports that he’s recovering, starting baseball activities soon and that the team hasn’t promised him any playing time in 2012. What?? I’m sure that quote is being blown out of proportion; why would the Nats have signed him for 2 years if they didn’t want him, for 2 whole years?? Of course the team wants him to play next year, to be the 25homer/100rbi left handed middle-of-the-order plus-defender player that they paid for in the off-season. I suppose its possible the team will make a splash for Fielder or Pujols, but don’t think for a second this team doesn’t plan on just flushing LaRoche’s $8M salary in 2012. Follow up comments from GM Rizzo seem to indicate the team plans to stand pat.
- Please, please Nats do not get involved in the Yu Darvish madness. They got burned on Maya; the Red Sox got burned on Dice-K. It’ll cost many tens of millions of dollars just to “win” the posting, then even more money to sign the guy. Is he worth $80-$100M? Wouldn’t you rather get a known quantity for that kind of pitching outlay?