{"id":1879,"date":"2011-07-02T14:09:50","date_gmt":"2011-07-02T18:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=1879"},"modified":"2011-07-02T14:09:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-02T18:09:50","slug":"interpreting-davey-johnsons-roster-changing-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=1879","title":{"rendered":"Interpreting Davey Johnson&#8217;s roster-changing comments&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1882\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/johnson_davey_stock-AP-PhotoRob-Carr.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1882\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1882\" title=\"johnson_davey_stock AP PhotoRob Carr\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/johnson_davey_stock-AP-PhotoRob-Carr-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/johnson_davey_stock-AP-PhotoRob-Carr-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/johnson_davey_stock-AP-PhotoRob-Carr.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1882\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnson takes over as the franchise&#39;s 4th manager since relocating.  Photo: AP\/Rob Carr.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>With every new regime comes changes.\u00a0 I suppose it was inevitable that new Nats manager <strong>Davey Johnson<\/strong> would have some &#8220;opinions&#8221; on the current construction of the Nats 25-man roster.\u00a0 In this <strong>Mark Zuckerman<\/strong> piece he has some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csnwashington.com\/07\/01\/11\/Johnson-wants-changes-to-Nats-roster-sta\/landing.html?blockID=538771&amp;feedID=9656\">enlightening comments<\/a>.\u00a0 To paraphrase (along with mentioning the players he&#8217;s probably targeting for replacement):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong>More offense off the bench instead of defense<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Current Bench: <strong>Stairs<\/strong>, <strong>Cora<\/strong>, <strong>Bixler<\/strong>, and <strong>Ankiel <\/strong>(<strong>Hairston<\/strong> when he&#8217;s not injured).\u00a0 You would have to think he&#8217;s talking specifically about Bixler and Cora.\u00a0 Bixler&#8217;s time on the roster probably would have come to an end had Hairston not gotten hurt.\u00a0 But he may be offering criticism of Ankiel&#8217;s current batting form.\u00a0 And, in a round about way (I believe the impetus for the question came from more questioning about Stairs&#8217; value on the squad), he seems to be defending Stairs&#8217; inclusion on the roster.\u00a0 Perhaps we may see a swap for someone like <strong>Michael Aubrey<\/strong> in the coming days (requiring a 40-man move) but the fact is our minor league cupboard is pretty bare.\u00a0 Cora is in the same boat as Hairston; useful utility veterans who can play multiple positions and whose presence on the roster is required.\u00a0 Not much you can do about them, and they&#8217;ve both produced pretty well this season given expectations.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong>A better long-man\/spot starter<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Current bullpen: <strong>Storen, Clippard, Burnett, Coffey, Rodriguez, Mattheus <\/strong>and <strong>Balester<\/strong>, with <strong>Gaudin, Slaten <\/strong>and <strong>Kimball <\/strong>on the DL).\u00a0 Of that entire list, only Balester has recent starting\/long man experience and he&#8217;s struggled in 2011 thus far.\u00a0 I think the move here could be to swap Balester for <strong>Craig Stammen<\/strong>, an MLB experienced guy who is pitching pretty well in AAA.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong>Another Loogy<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The loss of Slaten has hampered the bullpen matchup game, despite his ridiculously bad WHIP and Inherited Runners-allowed-to-score figures.\u00a0 Our minor league cache of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/WSN\/2011-organization-pitching.shtml\">lefty-relievers<\/a> is pretty weak, but we did just sign Philly-castoff <strong>JC Romero<\/strong>.\u00a0 I think Romero is destined to replace someone in the current bullpen (Mattheus?) as a loogy matchup guy sooner than later.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong>Fewer Regular Lineup guys with bad L-R splits<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 This is a tougher one to solve.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/split.cgi?id=nixla01&amp;year=2011&amp;t=b\">Lance Nix&#8217;s splits<\/a>: .306 vs righties, .105 versus lefties.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/split.cgi?id=espinda01&amp;year=2011&amp;t=b\">Espinosa&#8217;s splits<\/a>: .321 versus lefties, .207 versus righties.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/split.cgi?id=espinda01&amp;year=2011&amp;t=b\">Ankiel <\/a>has been equally bad versus both lefties or righties this year.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/split.cgi?id=morsemi01&amp;year=&amp;t=b\">Morse<\/a> has actually been much better versus right-handers (.315 versus .269).\u00a0 There&#8217;s no real good way to solve this problem in the short term.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Specific to hot topic <strong>Matt Stairs<\/strong> and his lack of capabilities on this roster, Johnson was quoted as saying that &#8220;you win pennants with 25 guys, not 24, 23 or 22.&#8221;\u00a0 To me, this means that Stairs isn&#8217;t long for this team.\u00a0 He was barely functional before he failed to hit his weight, now I think he&#8217;s holding back Johnson&#8217;s strategic desires.\u00a0 (Last night&#8217;s walk-off blast not withstanding).<\/p>\n<p>One of the problems Johnson needs to be reminded of is the specific lack of MLB experience by the rest of the current 40-man roster.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s the remaining guys not already mentioned on the 40-man (with pitcher ages).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Starters: Detwiler (L) 25, Mock 28, Stammen 27, Maya 30<\/li>\n<li>Relievers: Severino (L) 26, Carr 27<\/li>\n<li>Catchers: Flores<\/li>\n<li>Infielders: Marrero<\/li>\n<li>Outfielders: Harper, Brown<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of these 10 remaining players, 5 have never played a minute of baseball in the majors (Severino, Carr, Marrero, Harper, and Brown).\u00a0 That leaves just ONE positional player on the 40-man who has played in the Majors in Flores, who clearly needs to stay in AAA to gain market value.\u00a0 The four starters have all played in the majors, with mediocre-to-awful results.\u00a0 So, clearly there&#8217;s not much in the minors that can be called up immediately.<\/p>\n<p>My ever-lasing memory of Johnson&#8217;s managing strategy occurred during his stint with the Orioles.\u00a0 The team was facing Randy Johnson during the height of his powers, and fielded a lineup of entirely right-handed hitting guys, sitting most of Baltimore&#8217;s best players.\u00a0 Most thought he was crazy, but the lineup beat Johnson that night by playing matchups to the best of the team&#8217;s abilities.\u00a0 So it&#8217;s not terribly surprising to hear that he wants more flexibility in his lineup.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the best way to solve most of his roster-construction complaints is going to be done either on the trade-market in the next month or in the off season (more likely).\u00a0 We may see some slight adjustments in the coming weeks, but the 40-man is pretty bare of resources right now for what Johnson wants.<\/p>\n<p>Looks like we&#8217;re going to go with what we have for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With every new regime comes changes.\u00a0 I suppose it was inevitable that new Nats manager Davey Johnson would have some &#8220;opinions&#8221; on the current construction of the Nats 25-man roster.\u00a0 In this Mark Zuckerman piece he has some enlightening comments.\u00a0 To paraphrase (along with mentioning the players he&#8217;s probably targeting for replacement): More offense off [&hellip;]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-1879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","category-natsgeneral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879","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=1879"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1886,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions\/1886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}