{"id":12171,"date":"2016-04-26T15:52:38","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T19:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12171"},"modified":"2016-04-26T15:52:38","modified_gmt":"2016-04-26T19:52:38","slug":"ladson-inbox-42516","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12171","title":{"rendered":"Ladson Inbox 4\/25\/16"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Treinen<\/a>

Treinen looking like a closer in the making Photo via zimbio.com<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m digging the frequency of Bill Ladson’<\/strong>s inboxes this year.\u00a0 It prompts me to write something when i’m otherwise slammed and distracted with that silly thing called work.\u00a0 Here’s 4\/25\/16’s edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Q: As April comes to an end, what has been the most pleasant surprise for the Nationals?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: I’ll go with the relatively injury-free spring and April; we havn’t had someone major break or pull anything.\u00a0 Only Ben Revere<\/strong> has gotten bit by the bug, and that’s no great loss b\/c it forces more playing time for Michael Taylor<\/strong>.\u00a0 Ladson goes with the Bullpen, who admittedly has been great<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: In your recent Inbox, you said No. 3 prospect Victor Robles<\/a><\/span> will be Bryce Harper<\/a>‘s teammate in a couple of years. Do you think Harper will still be a member of the Nats? I watched Harper all spring, but my guess is I’ll be driving cross state to Tampa to see him with the Yankees.<\/b><\/p>\n

A: Harper<\/strong> hasn’t even hit arbitration years yet.\u00a0 But the timing of Harper hitting free agency and Robles likely arriving could be a “dovetailing” event. I think the assumption that Harper is automatically going to go to New\u00a0 York is silly; the Yankees aren’t highest spending franchise right now, and\u00a0Steinbrenner<\/strong>‘s sons seem like they’re more interested in avoiding luxury taxes right now than they are in winning.\u00a0 The big question the Nats will have to ask themselves is whether they’re willing to put 25% of their payroll for the next decade on one player…. when the time comes anyway.\u00a0 They’re already kicking $15M\/year down the road for a decade longer than they have to with Scherzer<\/strong>‘s contract.\u00a0 Ladson thinks the Nats will “find a way to pay Harper.”\u00a0 Really??\u00a0 Do you not know who his agent its?\u00a0 Harper is GOING to go to FA, no matter what his opinion of Washington is<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: What is Plan B for the ninth inning if Jonathan Papelbon<\/a> gets hurt or doesn’t perform? Seems like there isn’t a replacement.<\/b><\/p>\n

A: Actually, its looking more and more like there’s TWO options: Treinen<\/strong> and Rivero<\/strong>.\u00a0 I gotta admit; i like what Dusty Baker<\/strong> is doing with the bullpen so far.\u00a0 Both these guys are looking like closers in training.\u00a0 And that’s good b\/c there’s not a ton of help at AAA right now.\u00a0 A quick glance at the Syracuse stats<\/a> isn’t entirely promising on this front: I don’t see a “closer in training” anywhere in AAA.\u00a0 As far as relievers go;\u00a0 Trevor Gott<\/strong> has ok numbers but not good K\/9 rates.\u00a0 40-man guys Grace<\/strong> and Solis<\/strong> are both doing great … but they’re loogies.\u00a0 Rafael Martin<\/strong> and Sam Runion<\/strong> have struggled.\u00a0\u00a0 Two guys that could be interesting (Erik Davis<\/strong> and Abel de los Santos<\/strong>) have done well … Davis especially, finally healthy after all this time.\u00a0 But again, not a closer.\u00a0 So, if Papelbon went down we’d probably be looking at Treinen as the closer, Rivero as an 8th inning guy and likely bringing up Davis or de los Santos to fill in earlier. \u00a0Ladson also says Treinen and Rivero<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Why doesn’t Matt den Dekker<\/a> get more starting opportunities? He has speed, power and is great defensively.<\/b><\/p>\n

A: It might just be a matter of time, if Michael Taylor<\/strong> continues to struggle and Ben Revere<\/strong> is slow to come back.\u00a0 But at this point, based on limited sample sizes, even den Dekker<\/strong> might be “behind” Chris Heisey <\/strong>were the Nats to need another starting outfielder.\u00a0 Just no room at the inn.\u00a0 Ladson thinks Taylor and den Dekker could platoon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Why wasn’t Gio Gonzalez<\/a> pitching in this first home series? He’s a veteran pitcher who seems to have been squeezed out of the starting rotation during the first two weeks.<\/b><\/p>\n

A: Clearly Baker looked at Gio Gonzalez<\/strong> as his 5th starter coming out of Spring Training and that’s what it meant to have been skipped the first time through the rotation.\u00a0 I don’t think its a stretch to say that the other four guys have outperformed Gonzalez lately, either in potential (Joe Ross<\/strong>) or in 2014 performance (Tanner Roark<\/strong>).\u00a0 Baker basically said that Gonzalez’s starts tax the bullpen so he had to consider when to use him.\u00a0 Ladson notes that Gio struggled in spring training<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: With Trea Turner of to a nice start, when do we expect to see him in the big leagues?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: Man that’s a good question; every additional week he’s hitting .350 in AAA and Danny Espinosa<\/strong> isn’t hitting his weight is another week where it becomes tougher and tougher to keep him down.\u00a0 I still think he’ll hang out down there until the Nats regain a service year.\u00a0 Ladson makes a good point; the Nats are winning without him so why change anything?<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

I’m digging the frequency of Bill Ladson’s inboxes this year.\u00a0 It prompts me to write something when i’m otherwise slammed and distracted with that silly thing called work.\u00a0 Here’s 4\/25\/16’s edition. Q: As April comes to an end, what has been the most pleasant surprise for the Nationals? A: I’ll go with the relatively injury-free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2690,498,182,1693,164,2095,135,845,61,2237,1097,385,2691,452,2751,1228,1037,708,69,2660,19,77,2426,3067,2757],"class_list":["post-12171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","tag-abel-de-los-santos","tag-ben-revere","tag-bill-ladson","tag-blake-treinen","tag-bryce-harper","tag-chris-heisey","tag-danny-espinosa","tag-dusty-baker","tag-erik-davis","tag-felipe-rivero","tag-george-steinbrenner","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-joe-ross","tag-jonathan-papelbon","tag-matt-den-dekker","tag-matt-grace","tag-max-scherzer","tag-michael-taylor","tag-rafael-martin","tag-sam-runion","tag-sammy-solis","tag-tanner-roark","tag-trea-turner","tag-trevor-gott","tag-victor-robles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12171","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=12171"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12178,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12171\/revisions\/12178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}