{"id":13278,"date":"2016-12-23T08:54:15","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T13:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=13278"},"modified":"2016-12-23T09:32:53","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T14:32:53","slug":"ladsons-er-i-mean-colliers-inbox-122216","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=13278","title":{"rendered":"Ladson’s, er I mean Collier’s Inbox 12\/22\/16"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kelley<\/a>

Kelley may be first in line for in-house closer options. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports<\/p><\/div>\n

I was excited to see an “Inbox” in my MLB.com RSS feed for the Nats today, and assumed it was venerable long time Nats beat reporter\u00a0Bill Ladson<\/strong> poking his head up post winter-meetings to do some work.<\/p>\n

But no! \u00a0Its a new guy:\u00a0Jamal Collier<\/strong>, listed as “Nationals Beat Reporter.” \u00a0I don’t think Ladson has been replaced; maybe the Nats are big time now and need more beat reporters!<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Collier did an inbox<\/a>. \u00a0Here’s how I would have answered his questions. \u00a0I love these inboxes because they’re great debate points for the comments, with people asking questions (some good, some dumb) that we all ask ourselves from time to time. \u00a0Here we go. \u00a0As always, I write my answer to the question before reading his and edit questions for clarity if needed.<\/p>\n

\n

Q:\u00a0Last year, general manager Mike Rizzo had a Plan A and Plan B, but he seemingly settled for Plan C more than once. What are Plans B and C this year?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: If\u00a0Mike Rizzo<\/strong> had to fall back to plan “C” last year (presumably\u00a0Daniel Murphy<\/strong> in lieu of the litany of bats that he missed on), then that’s a heck of a plan C. \u00a0This year he didn’t miss on a big acquisition; the\u00a0Adam Eaton<\/strong> trade is by far the “biggest” he’s ever made in his Nats career, eclipsing the big\u00a0Gio Gonzalez<\/strong> trade in terms of significant prospects dealt and impact players brought back. \u00a0Yeah he missed on Sale<\/strong> .. but he didn’t *need* Sale, and he made it clear he was only shooting for him because of the rarity of a true Ace getting dealt.<\/p>\n

Rizzo really had a short “to-do” list this off-season: resolve CF or SS one way or another, get a Catcher, and get some bullpen help, up-to and including a closer. \u00a0He’s done two out of three, “missing” out on vastly overpaying for a 50-IP “proven closer” to the big-spending clubs. \u00a0Is that the worst thing in the world? \u00a0I don’t think so. \u00a0I’m guessing his “plan B and C” for closer now is to buy a couple of former closers off the FA market and see how they look side by side with in-house options like\u00a0Koda Glover<\/strong> and\u00a0Shawn Kelley<\/strong>. \u00a0I’m ok with that; as I’ve mentioned time and again, the Nats organizational chasing of over priced closers has cost us more than a few good prospects in the last few \u00a0years, and yet we’re still sitting here thinking we have a closer problem. \u00a0I also wouldn’t be shocked if Rizzo calls up one of his favorite trading partners and moves another prospect or two for a mid-range closer.<\/p>\n

We havn’t traded with\u00a0Billy Beane<\/strong> in a few weeks; maybe we make a move for his closer. \u00a0Does Oakland even have one?<\/p>\n

Collier basically says what I said, then throws out the names we keep hearing about in terms of closer trades (David Robertson, Alex Colome<\/strong>) and FA options (Greg Holland<\/strong>).<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0With Jayson Werth<\/a>‘s contract ending soon, who do you see as emerging leaders in the clubhouse? Max Scherzer<\/a>? Anthony Rendon<\/a>? Bryce Harper<\/a>? Others?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: To be a leader you kind of have to be guaranteed to be around for a while. \u00a0Certainly that’s not Harper, who (lets be honest) is likely gone in 2 years. \u00a0Rendon isn’t far behind. \u00a0The three guys on the longest deals are\u00a0Ryan Zimmerman<\/strong>,\u00a0Max Scherzer<\/strong> and\u00a0Stephen Strasburg<\/strong>. \u00a0Zimmerman is the guy who would make the most sense but he seems like a background guy. \u00a0Its hard for a starting pitcher to be a “leader” since he’s only doing it every 5 days, but Scherzer is the best possible candidate based on his gregariousness. \u00a0Strasburg has always been reserved; he’s not a good candidate.<\/p>\n

Truth be told … this clubhouse is going to do a serious turnover in the 2018-2019 time-frame, and a whole new slew of guys will be defining the makeup; only the two SPs are really going to be there for it. \u00a0I’d say Scherzer is going to define the soul of this team for the next generation.<\/p>\n

Collier makes a great point; new acquisition\u00a0Adam Eaton<\/strong> is a big presence in the clubhouse, will be around longer than practically any other bat in the clubhouse, and is in a position to take the reigns.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Will the Nats get free-agent catcher Matt Wieters<\/a> and then use their extra catchers to get Robertson from the White Sox as closer?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: This theory doesn’t make a ton of sense to me; if the Nats buy Wieters<\/strong>, aren’t they killing Derek Norris<\/strong>‘ trade value? \u00a0They not only tendered but signed a deal with\u00a0Jose Lobaton<\/strong> for 2017 … he’s now got 5 years (and was out of options), so he can’t get sent down … so do they plan on just lighting that money on fire?<\/p>\n

Plus, the assumption that they can just flip their spare parts for a quality reliever is foolish. \u00a0What did we trade to acquire Norris? \u00a0\u00a0Pedro Avila<\/strong>, a guy who pitched in low-A last year. \u00a0Now, I know the White Sox don’t exactly have awesome options at catcher, but in today’s reliever market why would anyone think we could get a bonafide closer for a couple of backup catchers?<\/p>\n

Collier expresses the same doubts I do about the acquisition and the trade.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Good thoughtful answers from Collier. \u00a0I say this of course because he agreed with me \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

By the way, this is probably the last post before Xmas, so If I don’t see you Happy Holidays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was excited to see an “Inbox” in my MLB.com RSS feed for the Nats today, and assumed it was venerable long time Nats beat reporter\u00a0Bill Ladson poking his head up post winter-meetings to do some work. But no! \u00a0Its a new guy:\u00a0Jamal Collier, listed as “Nationals Beat Reporter.” \u00a0I don’t think Ladson has been […]<\/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":[3142,1909,185,182,212,164,1169,2723,369,814,3391,115,2239,2827,2094,1037,129,3043,36,3277,38],"class_list":["post-13278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","category-natsgeneral","tag-adam-eaton","tag-alex-colome","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-bill-ladson","tag-billy-beane","tag-bryce-harper","tag-chris-sale","tag-david-robertson","tag-derek-norris","tag-greg-holland","tag-jamal-collier","tag-jayson-werth","tag-jose-lobaton","tag-koda-glover","tag-matt-wieters","tag-max-scherzer","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-pedro-avila","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-shawn-kelley","tag-stephen-strasburg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278","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=13278"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13285,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278\/revisions\/13285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}