Turner is on everyone’s mind. photo via wp.com
I know my “Fantasy post-mortem” post didn’t move the needle; luckily Nats MLB.com beat reporter Bill Ladson posted another inbox! 2nd one in two weeks!
Here’s how I would have answered these questions, if I was in a position to have random fans email me questions all the time 🙂
Q: Is Trea Turner eligible for the National League Rookie of the Year Award? If he is, he should be the winner.
A: Absolutely Trea Turner is eligible. Is he going to win? Uh… better go check the season that Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager just had. Turner probably finishes 2nd or 3rd. If I had a vote, I’d probably go Seager, Kenta Maeda, Turner, Trevor Story and then Aledmys Diaz to round out the top 5. Turner has been awesome no doubt, but Seager is an MVP candidate and did it all year. If Turner had done what he has been doing for the full season? Yeah he’d probably be at a Mike Trout level of production and we’d be having a far different conversation about him. Ladson Agrees.
Q: You said you thought Dusty Baker sticks with slumping players too long, but you didn’t list Bryce Harper on that list.
A: I think its one thing to stick with a slumping player too long when you have a better alternative (or even a possible better alternative) on the bench. But how do you possibly claim that Bryce Harper deserved benching? He was the frigging MVP last year; talk about impatience. And even with his “down” season Harper still has an OPS+ of 117. Harper has had a really weird season: his month by month splits show him crushing in April, falling off a cliff in May after the walkathon in Chicago, rebounding for a solid June, hitting just .176 in July, rebounding again in August (.934 OPS) and then again falling off a cliff so far in September (hitting just .203 this month). If the partern holds, he’ll get hot again just in time for the October playoff games 🙂
Are the persistent rumors about his shoulder true? Respected national reporter Tom Verducci has reported it not once but twice, each time with a more vehement denial from GM Mike Rizzo, but his drop off from last year is pretty apparent for all to see. Certainly it would explain why he’s struggled so badly this year. Are Rizzo et al denying so as to prevent a competitive disadvantage from being public knowledge? Probably too late for that.
Ladson agrees; Harper is a different story.
Q: Do you think the 2016 Nationals team is stronger than the ’14 Nationals was?
A: Yes I do. I think the 2016 rotation(at full strength) matched up better than 2014’s, the bullpen is stronger, and I think the hitting is more consistent with more production across the team. Now, maybe a better question is, “Which team was better positioned heading into the playoffs? There the answer is inarguably the 2014 team; the rotation we’ll field in the NLDS is two studs and then two question marks, we really don’t have a shutdown lefty in the bullpen, and two of our best hitters (Harper and Danny Murphy) are hurt. Not a good time for all these injuries to hit. Ladson gives the edge to 2014 for similar reasons as I gave.
Q: Being a longtime Expos fan and seeing that you covered them, how would you compare Vladimir Guerrero to Harper?
A: I’ll freely admit that I’m not nearly as qualified to answer this as Ladson. But i’ll give it an opinion; Guerrero was a better hitter, more capable of hitting whatever was thrown his way. They were comparable in terms of defense; both had powerful arms and great range. I give Guerrero the edge in speed on the basepaths, and Harper the edge in power (which is tough to say given that Guerrero hit 40+ a few times and had 449 for his career). Both players only have one MVP: Guerrero’s came at age 29 as soon as he got out of Montreal. Harper won his last year at the tender age of 22, and you have to think he’s got more in him. Ladson gives the edge to Guerrero for now.
Q: With the emergence of Turner in center field, do you think the Nats will bring back both Ben Revere and Michael Taylor next season?
A: Revere no, Taylor yes. Revere is arb-eligible and is making north of $6M this year; he’s an obvious non-tender this coming off-season. Taylor is still under complete club control and is not arb-eligible for another year. I can see the team going one of three ways (as we’ve discussed here at length):
- Turner to short, Espinosa traded and we look for a CF in trade or via FA. Taylor the 4th outfielder.
- Turner to short, Espinosa moved, Harper to CF and we get a FA corner outfielder (my preference but not likely to happen). Taylor the 4th outfielder.
- Standing pat: Turner stays in CF, Espinosa stays at short, and Taylor is the 4th outfielder.
In all these scenarios, Taylor is the 4th outfielder. Is he even the 4th outfielder? Well, he’s now had 781 plate appearances in the majors; he’s hitting .224 and he’s struck out 248 of those appearances. Not good. I’m not sure what we do with him at this point. Ladson agrees with me on non-tendering Revere, and thinks Taylor needs another year in the minors.