{"id":14296,"date":"2017-08-04T10:44:27","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T14:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14296"},"modified":"2017-08-04T10:44:27","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T14:44:27","slug":"ask-collier-8317","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14296","title":{"rendered":"Ask Collier 8\/3\/17"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Did<\/a>

Did the Nats do enough at the deadline to shore up the bullpen? Photo via UPI<\/p><\/div>\n

Another Nats off-day, another\u00a0Jamal Collier<\/strong> twitter-driven mailbag<\/a>. \u00a0If people tweeted me a bunch of random questions, I’d probably do “mailbags” too!<\/p>\n

Here’s how i’d have answered the questions he took.<\/p>\n

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Q:\u00a0To me it looks like Dodgers vs Nationals NLCS unless bracketed before…who can u see beating either of these 2 teams???<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Well, lets not put the cart before the horse. \u00a0What’s looking more and more certain by the day isn’t a guaranteed NLCS matchup, but rather an NLDS matchup between the Nats and the Cubs. \u00a0And who can beat the Nats? \u00a0Certainly the Cubs can. \u00a0Heck, the Nats just got their asses handed to them by the Marlins in a 3-game series; certainly they could lay an egg in a 5-game series against a good offensive team that’s the defending World Series champs. \u00a0It bears repeating: in a short series, anything can happen. \u00a0The Nats outscored the Dodgers in the 2016 NLDS 24-19 and had the lead in the deciding game heading into the 7th inning … and still managed to lose.<\/p>\n

I’ll also point this fact out: the 116 win 2001 Seattle Mariners got their asses handed to them in 5 games by the Yankees in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Lets make it to October, then see how our health looks and see how we’re hitting. \u00a0All we can hope for is 100% all hands on deck to give the series our best shot.<\/p>\n

Collier notes that anything can happen in the playoffs, that the wild card teams all improved at the trade deadline, and that he’d love to see an LA-Wash rematch.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Q:\u00a0Do you see the Nats going after a waiver Starting Pitcher this month in case Strasburg needs to be out for an extended period?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Hmm. \u00a0Yeah I could. \u00a0I don’t think the team trusts\u00a0Jacob Turner<\/strong>, nor\u00a0A.J. Cole<\/strong>. \u00a0Certainly not 40-man member\u00a0Austin Voth<\/strong> (demoted to AA a month ago). \u00a0But I also think\u00a0Erick Fedde<\/strong> was better than his stat line showed, and his dominant 2nd inning was clearly a sign of what he “can” do if he stays consistent. \u00a0But we need to get to October first and that might mean a waiver-wire trade. \u00a0It all depends on how much more time their two aces miss at this point.<\/p>\n

Collier disagrees, saying that Rizzo<\/strong> was adamant about not getting antoher starter at the trade deadline … but things have changed.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Q:\u00a0With Matt Wieters recent offensive and defensive struggles, do you think that the Nats should give Pedro Severino a closer look in Sept?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: In a word, No. \u00a0Severino<\/strong>‘s 2016 stat line was a mirage; he’s hit just .213 in AAA this year. \u00a0That might not even be good enough to supplant\u00a0Jose Lobaton<\/strong> as our once-a-week catcher. \u00a0I agree with those who complain about the Wieters<\/strong> signing … but then again\u00a0Derek Norris<\/strong> has hit just .201 for Tampa, and\u00a0Wilson Ramos<\/strong> is hitting even worse after missing half the season. \u00a0So its not like they really had a choice. \u00a0Lets just hope some of our lower minors Catcher depth pans out.<\/p>\n

Collier agrees<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Q:\u00a0How are they going to fit everyone back into this pen when Kelley and Glover come back?? Surely they can’t send anyone down for Kelley<\/p>\n

A: Good question. \u00a0As of today (prior to the\u00a0Romero\u00a0<\/strong>injury, their pen was as follows:<\/p>\n

Kintzler, Doolittle*, Madsen, Albers, Romero*, Perez*, Blanton, Grace*,<\/strong><\/p>\n

They’ve been carrying 8 relievers for a bit, probably since their 5th starters rarely make the 5th inning. \u00a0Now look at that crew and ask yourself; who could even be optioned? \u00a0Kintzler, Madsen, Perez and Blanton are all vets that could refuse demotions. \u00a0Albers too; they all have 5+ years. \u00a0Doolittle doesn’t … but he’s also pretty much your closer right now. \u00a0So that’s 6 of your 7 guys. \u00a0Romero is out of options. \u00a0That’s 7 of 7 right there. \u00a0Despite how well Grace has pitched, he’s on the outside looking in right now. \u00a0If\/when Kelley<\/strong> and Glover<\/strong> come back … yeah you have to make some tough decisions. \u00a0If I had to guess, the team is going to have to D\/L some guys (like Blanton) in order to get others in. \u00a0And if you were putting together an 8-man playoff bullpen, you’d probably go Kintzler, Doolittle, Madsen, Kelley, Glober, Albers, Romero and Grace. \u00a0Man it’d be tough leaving Perez off a post-season roster though. \u00a0And we havn’t even mentioned\u00a0Solis<\/strong>, banished to AAA but very much an integral part of last year’s playoff bullpen.<\/p>\n

Collier notes that by the time some of these roster squeezes happen, we’ll be past the 9\/1 expansion deadline and it may not matter. \u00a0Which is a good point.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Q: \u00a0It’s definitely a long shot, but do you think there’s any chance whatsoever that a ’17 draftee pitches in our bullpen by end of September?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Zero chance. \u00a0For reasons inexplicable, the one guy who may have had a shot (Seth Romero)<\/strong> failed to sign until the deadline, apparently squeezing out the ever last drop of over-slot bonus money, then failed to even appear in a game for several weeks beyond that (despite not having pitched since mid-March?). \u00a0Clearly the organization was not in a hurry to move him along. \u00a0Times are changing; we still havn’t even seen a 2016 draftee appear in the majors yet, so to project a 2017 player moving up that fast would be crazy.<\/p>\n

Collier agrees<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Another Nats off-day, another\u00a0Jamal Collier twitter-driven mailbag. \u00a0If people tweeted me a bunch of random questions, I’d probably do “mailbags” too! Here’s how i’d have answered the questions he took.   Q:\u00a0To me it looks like Dodgers vs Nationals NLCS unless bracketed before…who can u see beating either of these 2 teams??? A: Well, lets […]<\/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":[17,1815,3685,369,3445,2425,1458,3391,213,2239,2827,3438,1228,2094,78,2000,2952,1347,3565,3277,147],"class_list":["post-14296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","tag-aj-cole","tag-austin-voth","tag-brandon-knitzler","tag-derek-norris","tag-enny-romero","tag-erick-fedde","tag-jacob-turner","tag-jamal-collier","tag-joe-blanton","tag-jose-lobaton","tag-koda-glover","tag-matt-albers","tag-matt-grace","tag-matt-wieters","tag-oliver-perez","tag-pedro-severino","tag-ryan-madsen","tag-sean-doolittle","tag-seth-romero","tag-shawn-kelley","tag-wilson-ramos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296","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=14296"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14301,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296\/revisions\/14301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}