{"id":12912,"date":"2016-09-24T15:50:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-24T19:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12912"},"modified":"2016-09-24T15:50:30","modified_gmt":"2016-09-24T19:50:30","slug":"ask-ladson-92316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=12912","title":{"rendered":"Ask Ladson 9\/23\/16"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Turner<\/a>

Turner is on everyone’s mind. photo via wp.com<\/p><\/div>\n

I know my “Fantasy post-mortem” post didn’t move the needle; luckily Nats MLB.com beat reporter\u00a0Bill Ladson<\/strong> posted another inbox<\/a>! \u00a02nd one in two weeks!<\/p>\n

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 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Is Trea Turner<\/a> eligible for the National League Rookie of the Year Award? If he is, he should be the winner.<\/b><\/p>\n

A: Absolutely Trea Turner <\/strong> is\u00a0eligible. \u00a0Is he going to win? \u00a0Uh… better go check the season that Dodgers shortstop\u00a0Corey Seager<\/strong> just had. \u00a0Turner probably finishes 2nd or 3rd. \u00a0If I had a vote, I’d probably go Seager,\u00a0Kenta Maeda<\/strong>, Turner,\u00a0Trevor Story<\/strong> and then\u00a0Aledmys Diaz<\/strong> to round out the top 5. \u00a0Turner has been awesome no doubt, but Seager is an MVP candidate and did it all year. \u00a0If Turner had done what he has been doing for the full season? \u00a0Yeah he’d probably be at a\u00a0Mike Trout<\/strong> level of production and we’d be having a far different conversation about him. \u00a0Ladson Agrees<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0You said you thought Dusty Baker sticks with slumping players too long, but you didn’t list Bryce Harper<\/a> on that list.<\/b><\/p>\n

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. \u00a0But how do you possibly claim that\u00a0Bryce Harper<\/strong>\u00a0deserved benching? \u00a0He was the frigging MVP last year; talk about impatience. \u00a0And even with his “down” season Harper still has an OPS+ of 117<\/a>. \u00a0Harper has had a really weird season: his month by month splits<\/a>\u00a0show 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). \u00a0If the partern holds, he’ll get hot again just in time for the October playoff games \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Are the persistent rumors about his shoulder true? \u00a0Respected national reporter\u00a0Tom Verducci<\/strong> has reported it not once but twice<\/a>, each time with a more vehement denial from GM\u00a0Mike Rizzo<\/strong>, but his drop off from last year is pretty apparent for all to see. \u00a0Certainly it would explain why he’s struggled so badly this year. \u00a0Are Rizzo et al denying so as to prevent a competitive disadvantage from being public knowledge? \u00a0Probably too late for that.<\/p>\n

Ladson agrees; Harper is a different story<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Do you think the 2016 Nationals team is stronger than the ’14 Nationals was?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: Yes I do. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0Now, maybe a better question is, “Which team was better positioned heading into the playoffs? \u00a0There 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\u00a0Danny Murphy<\/strong>) are hurt. \u00a0Not a good time for all these injuries to hit. \u00a0Ladson gives the edge to 2014 for similar reasons as I gave<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Being a longtime Expos fan and seeing that you covered them, how would you compare Vladimir Guerrero to Harper?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: I’ll freely admit that I’m not nearly as qualified to answer this as Ladson. \u00a0But i’ll give it an opinion; Guerrero was a better hitter, more capable of hitting whatever was thrown his way. \u00a0They were comparable in terms of defense; both had powerful arms and great range. \u00a0I 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<\/a> and had 449 for his career). \u00a0Both players only have one MVP: Guerrero’s came at age 29 as soon as he got out of Montreal. \u00a0Harper won his last year at the tender age of 22, and you have to think he’s got more in him. \u00a0Ladson gives the edge to Guerrero for now<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0With the emergence of Turner in center field, do you think the Nats will bring back both Ben Revere<\/a> and Michael Taylor<\/a> next season?<\/b><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0Revere<\/strong> no,\u00a0Taylor\u00a0<\/strong>yes. \u00a0Revere is arb-eligible and is making north of $6M this year; he’s an obvious non-tender this coming off-season. \u00a0Taylor is still under complete club control and is not arb-eligible for another year. \u00a0I can see the team going one of three ways (as we’ve discussed here at length):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Turner to short, Espinosa traded and we look for a CF in trade or via FA. \u00a0Taylor the 4th outfielder.<\/li>\n
  2. Turner to short, Espinosa moved, Harper to CF and we get a FA corner outfielder (my preference but not likely to happen). \u00a0Taylor the 4th outfielder.<\/li>\n
  3. Standing pat: Turner stays in CF, Espinosa stays at short, and Taylor is the 4th outfielder.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In all these scenarios, Taylor is the 4th outfielder. \u00a0Is he even the 4th outfielder? \u00a0Well, he’s now had 781 plate appearances in the majors; he’s hitting .224 and he’s struck out 248 of those appearances. \u00a0Not good. \u00a0I’m not sure what we do with him at this point. \u00a0Ladson agrees with me on non-tendering Revere, and thinks Taylor needs another year in the minors.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

    I know my “Fantasy post-mortem” post didn’t move the needle; luckily Nats MLB.com beat reporter\u00a0Bill Ladson posted another inbox! \u00a02nd 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 \ud83d\ude42 Q:\u00a0Is Trea Turner eligible for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,5],"tags":[3308,498,182,164,2594,3309,845,1597,708,129,456,441,2426,3307,1224],"class_list":["post-12912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","category-natsgeneral","tag-aledmys-diaz","tag-ben-revere","tag-bill-ladson","tag-bryce-harper","tag-corey-seager","tag-danny-murphy","tag-dusty-baker","tag-kenta-maeda","tag-michael-taylor","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-mike-trout","tag-tom-verducci","tag-trea-turner","tag-trevor-story","tag-vladimir-guerrero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12912","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=12912"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12920,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12912\/revisions\/12920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}