{"id":12882,"date":"2016-09-16T16:37:43","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T20:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12882"},"modified":"2016-09-16T16:37:43","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T20:37:43","slug":"ladsons-inbox-91516","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12882","title":{"rendered":"Ladson’s Inbox 9\/15\/16"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Turner<\/a>

Turner is the biggest surprise of the year for me. photo via wp.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Wow, what a treat! \u00a0I’ve been kind of slacking in the content department and suddenly our favorite beat writer\u00a0Bill Ladson<\/strong> pops out an unexpected mid-September mailbag<\/a>. \u00a0So here’s something to argue about this weekend.<\/p>\n

As always, here’s how I would have answered his questions.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Who do you think is the most pleasant surprise on the Nationals this year<\/b><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0Trea Turner<\/strong> without a doubt. \u00a0We knew he was going to be good, but I don’t think anyone knew he was going to be *this* good. \u00a0Keith Law<\/strong> in his chat yesterday<\/a>\u00a0 pointed out a fun little fact about Trea Turner: he’s got a (now) 3.0 bWAR this year, which would rank him (unadjusted for position) as the 6th best ever for either the Rays or the Padres, the two teams that passed along Turner (and\u00a0Joe Ross<\/strong>) in that trade two years ago. \u00a0What a steal. \u00a0And despite his only playing 57 games this year you have to think he’s in the mix for NL Rookie of the Year. \u00a0Corey Seager<\/strong> probably has it wrapped up, but a 2nd or 3rd place for Turner seems warranted.<\/p>\n

Ladson said\u00a0Stephen Drew<\/strong>, which I guess you could argue for … except that he’s a bench player who has missed a ton of time and isn’t a lock to make the post-season roster given his illness<\/em>.<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0How far do you think the Nationals could go in the postseason?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: Could? \u00a0They could go all the way! \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0In reality, I think the\u00a0Stephen Strasburg<\/strong> injury really, really hurts them in their likely NLDS match up with Los Angeles. \u00a0If the Nats rolled out Scherzer-Strasburg-Roark-Gonzalez versus the Dodgers’ Kershaw-Hill-Maeda-random 4th starter i’d feel pretty good about our chances in that series. \u00a0Right now we’re basically auditioning pitchers for that 4th spot and Gonzalez has been shaky, and Los Angeles’ arms are daunting for a team that routinely gets shut down by starters from teams like Philadelphia and Atlanta. \u00a0Right now, I think we lose a close NLDS series to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Even if Strasburg was healthy, I think we’d really be hard-pressed to beat Chicago in a 7 game series either. \u00a0We took 2 of 3 here, lost 4 out of 4 there this year (though as we’ve discussed here, that sweep wasn’t nearly as dominant as the press made it seem), but we still lost to them, and they’ve stayed at full strength basically the whole season. \u00a0I don’t see how anyone beats the Cubs this year.<\/p>\n

Ladson hedges his answer, saying he wants to see how the bullpen and offense go the rest of the way. \u00a0Why is he worried about the bullpen? \u00a0Isn’t it one of the best in the game? \u00a0The Nats bullpen is #1 in baseball in ERA, #2 in Fip<\/a>. \u00a0 What more do you want?<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Do you think Stephen Strasburg<\/a> will be ready to pitch in the postseason?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: Nope. \u00a0Strained Flexor Mass is usually a 30 day injury; he got hurt on 9\/7\/16. \u00a0So at best t hat’s 10\/7\/16 … or basically at the end of the divisional series. \u00a0But … where’s he going to rehab? \u00a0There’s no more minor league games; i guess he could throw simulated or instructional league games. \u00a0But more importantly, this is a notably conservative team medically, especially with Strasburg over the years and especially since they just committed $175M to him. \u00a0No way do they rush him back from a serious injury just on the opportunity to make one post-season start. \u00a0Ladson agrees.<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Why do you call Jayson Werth<\/a> “The King” on Twitter?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: (me shaking my head): who knows. \u00a0Maybe because he’s the king of getting caught doing triple digits on the beltway? \u00a0I’ve lived here all my life and can’t tell you how many times i’ve hit 100 on the interstates around here without getting caught. \u00a0Ladson says he calls Werth the king because he turned “clubhouse from unprofessional to first class.” \u00a0Well, except for all of last year under\u00a0Matt Williams<\/strong> … I guess even the King couldn’t salvage that dumpster fire.<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What do you think of the job Danny Espinosa<\/a> has done this year?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: Good power, good defense, bad hit tool. \u00a0About what we expected; his plus defense and power this year have outweighed his strikeouts and his low batting average. \u00a0 He’s got a 1.8 bWAR and a 1.9 fWAR on the year, so its not like he’s totally useless out there. \u00a0Its one of the reasons i’ve supported him and havn’t been completely ready to get rid of him; he’s ranked 15th among qualified Shortstops<\/a> in fWAR this year. \u00a0So that’s right in the middle; league average. \u00a0 I mean, if he had negative WAR, didn’t have power, or wasn’t a plus defender, I could see the huge rush to replace him. \u00a0But moving him this coming off-season (as many want to of my readership) opens up another hole in Center that’s probably harder to fill right now than Short. \u00a0Its why I suspect the team may just stand pat, keep Turner<\/strong> in center another year, and roll out basically the same lineup in 2017. \u00a0Ladson gives him a “6.5 out of 7” and says he deserves the NL Gold Glove. \u00a0I dunno about that; there’s 5 or 6 NL shortstops<\/a> that probably rate better defensively than him.<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Was Murphy what you expected this season?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: No way; Murphy<\/strong> a ton better than I expected. \u00a0I was hoping for a solid 6th hitter, not a frigging MVP candidate. \u00a0He earned his entire $37.5M contract this year. \u00a0Ladson Agrees<\/em>.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What do you think of Dusty Baker as a manager? I know you often said Davey Johnson is the best manager you ever covered. Where does Baker rank as far as Nationals manager go?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: I think Baker<\/strong> has done a fantastic job of calming this group, bringing some order, and not showing any of the faults that he was accused of in the past. \u00a0He’s shifted, he’s managed the bullpen decently, he’s stuck to his guns and rested players, he’s communicated well, he hasn’t burned out starters. \u00a0I think he’s ridden his primary catcher too hard … but then again, Ramos<\/strong> is having a career year and Lobaton<\/strong> is a huge step back offensively. \u00a0Is he better than Davey? \u00a0Not yet for me: lets see what happens when Baker has to deal with some injury issues or a better divisional rival. \u00a0Ladson has them 1-2 with Davey still on top.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Wow, what a treat! \u00a0I’ve been kind of slacking in the content department and suddenly our favorite beat writer\u00a0Bill Ladson pops out an unexpected mid-September mailbag. \u00a0So here’s something to argue about this weekend. As always, here’s how I would have answered his questions. Q:\u00a0Who do you think is the most pleasant surprise on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[182,426,2594,1859,135,137,845,385,115,2691,2239,110,1597,1314,1037,2773,1014,38,77,2426,147],"class_list":["post-12882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","category-natsgeneral","tag-bill-ladson","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-corey-seager","tag-daniel-murphy","tag-danny-espinosa","tag-davey-johnson","tag-dusty-baker","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-jayson-werth","tag-joe-ross","tag-jose-lobaton","tag-keith-law","tag-kenta-maeda","tag-matt-williams","tag-max-scherzer","tag-rich-hill","tag-stephen-drew","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-tanner-roark","tag-trea-turner","tag-wilson-ramos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12882","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=12882"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12886,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12882\/revisions\/12886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}