{"id":10500,"date":"2015-04-28T09:43:17","date_gmt":"2015-04-28T13:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10500"},"modified":"2015-11-28T08:48:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-28T13:48:12","slug":"cole-up-why-not-roark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10500","title":{"rendered":"Cole up … why not Roark?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A.J.<\/a>

A.J. Cole getting his MLB debut. Photo AP<\/p><\/div>\n

PSA: your 7-13 Nats are now on a pace to finish 57-105.\u00a0 Or about 50 games in the Wins column away from where some pundits were talking.<\/p>\n

And now instead of our $210M stopper Max Scherzer<\/strong>, we’ll be giving the ball<\/a> to an untested rookie A.J. Cole<\/strong> to stop an ugly 6-game losing streak.\u00a0 This is the same Cole who we saw this spring look rather hittable while giving up 9 hits and 4 walks in 10+ MLB spring innings<\/a>.\u00a0 Of course, his track record speaks for itself at Syracuse: he’s yet to take a loss<\/a> in 14 AAA starts dating to mid-last season.\u00a0 And he’s been on literally every single Nats prospect top 10 list<\/a> since the moment he was drafted in 2010, so certainly we’re all experiencing some “prospect fatigue” with him despite the fact that he just turned 23.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong; i’m happy he’s getting a shot and look forward to seeing if his apparent lack of deception (in my eyes) can be overcome against a team of professional hitters (even if its just the Braves).<\/p>\n

Now, that being said … why the heck are we not using Tanner Roark<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Wasn’t the WHOLE POINT of putting 5-win Roark in the long man role so that we could, you know, use him as the first alternative starter in case of injury??\u00a0 That was the argument we all made, right?\u00a0 Instead of sticking Roark in AAA to maintain a starter’s schedule, he was (in theory) going to be available out of the pen as needed.<\/p>\n

Except now we hear that, thanks to his basically being used now as a right-handed middle reliever (you know, the type that you can find on the waiver wire every day, or on the FA market as we speak), he’s not stretched out enough to actually make the start.\u00a0 Matt Williams<\/strong> was quoted by Chelsea James<\/strong> in NJ as saying that Roark could “only go 50-60”<\/a> pitches before needing relief.\u00a0\u00a0 Well … if that was the case, then give Roark the start, let him go 5 innings and THEN use Cole.\u00a0 Or call-up one of the “long men” in AAA who are actually suited for this role.\u00a0 Guys like Lively<\/strong>, McGregor<\/strong>,\u00a0or Meek. \u00a0<\/strong>No room on the 40-man you say?\u00a0 Well then put one or both of the guys who are on season-long\/season-ending injuries (Erik Davis<\/strong> and\u00a0Craig Stammen<\/strong>) to the 60-day and make the call.<\/p>\n

I just don’t get it.\u00a0 Who is the better pitcher, Roark or Cole?\u00a0 Who has demonstrated over parts of two MLB seasons that he’s a highly effective pitcher when given the chance?<\/p>\n

I hate to sound negative, especially with a 7-13 team that clearly has offensive issues.\u00a0 But don’t be surprised if Cole is shelled early, knocked out and Roark gets the d*mn ball anyways in the 3rd inning and pitches for another 4 in mop-up duty.\u00a0 Yeah; every team uses a 5-win starter as a mop-up guy.\u00a0 That’s effective use of your resources.\u00a0 Hey, i’ve got an idea; if you’re going to waste Roark in the pen in low-leverage middle relief appearances and then not bother to use him when you actually need him, why not just frigging trade him?\u00a0 Lets trade him for someone who can catch the ball when its hit to them, or can hit better than .135 (Uggla<\/strong>) or even .215 (Espinosa<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, we’re seeing a pretty “worst-case” collection of issues.\u00a0 The already-thinned bullpen suffered two very bad losses.\u00a0 Our Cy-Young quality starters have struggled.\u00a0 Our best hitter can’t bend his knee without pain.\u00a0 We may have just lost Escobar<\/strong> (one of the guys actually hitting) to a hand injury thanks to a patently dirty slide.\u00a0 And we’re depending on starters who shouldn’t even be on MLB teams.\u00a0 Where’s the leadership?\u00a0 Where’s the veterans rallying the clubhouse?\u00a0 Where’s the manager leading the troops?\u00a0 Where’s the frigging defense (22 errors in 20 games, leading the league)?\u00a0 Have you ever seen so many non-error defensive blunders in such a short amount of time?\u00a0 How do you fix this?<\/p>\n

Rant off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PSA: your 7-13 Nats are now on a pace to finish 57-105.\u00a0 Or about 50 games in the Wins column away from where some pundits were talking. And now instead of our $210M stopper Max Scherzer, we’ll be giving the ball to an untested rookie A.J. Cole to stop an ugly 6-game losing streak.\u00a0 This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,2771,98,1005,135,61,1237,1314,1037,2659,2657,77,1569],"class_list":["post-10500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","tag-aj-cole","tag-chelsea-james","tag-craig-stammen","tag-dan-uggla","tag-danny-espinosa","tag-erik-davis","tag-evan-meek","tag-matt-williams","tag-max-scherzer","tag-mitch-lively","tag-scott-mcgregor","tag-tanner-roark","tag-yunel-escobar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10500"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11656,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10500\/revisions\/11656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}