{"id":13572,"date":"2017-03-30T11:59:43","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T15:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=13572"},"modified":"2017-03-30T11:59:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T15:59:43","slug":"ask-collier-inbox-just-ahead-of-the-start-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=13572","title":{"rendered":"Ask Collier Inbox; just ahead of the start of the season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Glover<\/a>

Glover is on everyone’s mind. Photo via mlb.com<\/p><\/div>\n

A last gasp mailbox<\/a> from MLB.com beat reporter\u00a0Jamal Collier<\/strong>, starting off with the question on everyone’s mind….<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Dusty says the Nats have basically chosen their closer, but they have not told the guy. \u00a0Who do you think it is?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I still think its the veteran\u00a0Shawn Kelley<\/strong> to start. \u00a0Koda Glover<\/strong> waits in the wings though. \u00a0I don’t like\u00a0Blake Treinen<\/strong>‘s historic splits against lefties (career .834 OPS<\/a>) enough to trust him as the closer yet. \u00a0I say this less thinking about Kelley’s twice-cut elbow, or as any indictment of Glover’s stuff. \u00a0I say this primarily because\u00a0Dusty Baker<\/strong> seems like the kind of manager to stick with the “established veteran” until proven otherwise.<\/p>\n

Collier thinks its Glover from day one. \u00a0He mentions the organization’s repeated discussion of Kelley’s durability and Treinen’s ground ball rate. \u00a0We’ll see!<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0I know innings totals are big deal for rookie starters. Not an issue for relievers? I believe Koda has never pitched more than 45 innings. Would a 60-inning season (w\/ playoffs) be a concern for a reliever?<\/b><\/p>\n

A: IP workload for relievers? \u00a0No way; nearly 100% of these guys were starters in HS and College, only converting to relief in the minors due to lack of a complete repertoire or injury. \u00a0The bigger concern for reliever arms in my view is the ability to go multiple days in a row. \u00a0Two on, one off, another two to three on, then one to two off. \u00a0That’s a different kind of wear and tear on arms … but (not to be cynical) that’s why you ride reliever arms like a work-horse; they’re replaceable.<\/p>\n

Collier says not a concern for now .. but perhaps a concern for Glover later this year since he will be throwing a career high as a professional.<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Is Trea Turner<\/a> playing good shortstop this spring? He looks good to me. — <\/b><\/p>\n

A: Well, based on my extensive time watching Nats spring training games (which’d be practically zero), I’m going to recuse myself like a politician who secretly met with the Russians recently.<\/p>\n

Collier says Turner looks inexperienced and needs patience. \u00a0Not to call the man out, but that sounds like cliche’d sportswriter BS to me. \u00a0Turner’s likely been playing shortstop since he was 6 or 7. \u00a0Yeah everything is faster in the majors, blah blah, but the scouting report on him coming out of college hasn’t changed. \u00a0He’s got a good but not great arm, good range, good fielding and 70 speed.<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q: What impact if any will Fedde have this year and for years to come?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I think Fedde’s presence at MLB camp easily jumped him to the top of “best SP prospects in the system” line (if he wasn’t already there thanks to the Eaton<\/strong> trade). \u00a0But it also may have jumped him to the top of the “who do we call up to cover for 6-weeks of injury” list. \u00a0In reality: I think he gets a couple months in AA, and then either goes to AAA or gets called-up if there’s a rotation spot opening. \u00a0If someone goes down with injury early then its probably still\u00a0A.J. Cole<\/strong>, but at this point, I think we may know what we know about Cole. \u00a0Where this leaves\u00a0Austin Voth<\/strong> i’m not sure; perhaps Voth is the guy who will cover a spot start in May. \u00a0Either way, Fedde gets called up at some point in 2017.<\/p>\n

Collier says he was impressed by Fedde this spring … and that he may have trade value this summer?!? \u00a0If the Nats trade Fedde, their last remaining “anywhere close to the majors halfway decent” starting pitching prospect, after shedding their other three best starting pitching prospects, I’ll be rather irritated.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A last gasp mailbox from MLB.com beat reporter\u00a0Jamal Collier, starting off with the question on everyone’s mind…. Q:\u00a0Dusty says the Nats have basically chosen their closer, but they have not told the guy. \u00a0Who do you think it is? A: I still think its the veteran\u00a0Shawn Kelley to start. \u00a0Koda Glover waits in the wings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,3],"tags":[3142,17,1815,1693,845,2425,3391,2827,3277,2426],"class_list":["post-13572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","category-mlbpitching","tag-adam-eaton","tag-aj-cole","tag-austin-voth","tag-blake-treinen","tag-dusty-baker","tag-erick-fedde","tag-jamal-collier","tag-koda-glover","tag-shawn-kelley","tag-trea-turner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13572","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=13572"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13577,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13572\/revisions\/13577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}