{"id":3782,"date":"2012-01-27T18:38:38","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T23:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=3782"},"modified":"2012-01-27T18:38:38","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T23:38:38","slug":"ladsons-inbox-11612-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=3782","title":{"rendered":"Ladson’s inbox: 1\/16\/12 edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lest anyone forget, Zimmerman is under contract for not one, but TWO more seasons! Photo unknown via fantasyknuckleheads.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Another edition of mlb.com beat reporter Bill Ladson’s inbox, dated 1\/16\/12.<\/a> Man you know I’ve been busy at work if I’ve had this canned and ready to publish for more than a week but couldn’t get online to do so.<\/p>\n

As always, I write my response before reading his, and sometimes edit questions for clarity.<\/p>\n

Q: Why are the Nationals wasting time talking to Prince Fielder when they should be signing Ryan Zimmerman to a long-term contract before it is too late? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A: *sigh*\u00a0 Why, why, why is it going to be “too late” to sign Ryan Zimmerman<\/strong> to a long term contract if it doesn’t happen right now?\u00a0 Someone please check Cot’s<\/a> before asking this question.\u00a0\u00a0 He’s signed through 2013!\u00a0 I don’t believe Prince Fielder<\/strong> has anything to do with Zimmerman; we’re talking about a franchise that has been underspending on payroll by $35-$40 MILLION dollars the past few seasons.\u00a0 People who claim that the Nationals “can’t afford both” Fielder and Zimmerman are expressing unsubstantiated opinions.\u00a0 Ladson thankfully notes the fact that Zimmerman is signed through 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: What role will Roger Bernadina play on this year’s team? I love the kid’s heart, but the people in power don’t seem so encouraged. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A: Hopefully none.\u00a0 Nothing personal against Bernadina<\/strong>, but what more can we learn about the guy at this point?\u00a0 1000 major league plate appearances, an 81 OPS+<\/a>.\u00a0 About the only thing he has going for him is that he’s pre-arbitration and is cheap.\u00a0 This team is offensively challenged and needs outfielders who can slug something higher than .350.\u00a0\u00a0 Ladson thinks he’ll be the 4th outfielder, competing with Mike Cameron<\/strong> for center field.\u00a0 I hope not; can’t we sign a stop-gap right fielder??<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: Have the Nationals thought about moving Danny Espinosa or Ian Desmond to center field? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A: I doubt it.\u00a0 What would that solve?\u00a0 As soon as we moved one to CF, we’ve lost a plus defender in the middle infield with no assurance that they’d be any good in center, and we’d still need to find a solution for whatever position they’ve vacated.\u00a0 We need to find an outfielder who can hit and put him in play.\u00a0 Its that simple.\u00a0 Ladson says nope<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: I am still a believer in Desmond although his batting average and power numbers declined last year. He is a big, strong kid who can hit 15 home runs and steal 30 bases if he can be more selective at the plate and figure out how opposing pitchers are trying to attack him. What do you see for Desmond in 2012? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A: 2012 is make it or break it season for Desmond.\u00a0 Two full time seasons at the plate and he’s regressed each time.\u00a0 You just cannot put a guy out there who’s 20% worse than the MLB average (i.e., an 80 ops+<\/a>, his figure for the 2011 season) and be successful in the modern game.\u00a0 What do I predict?\u00a0 I think he’ll be similarly poor, will feature 7th or 8th in the order most of the year, and will force the team to look at replacement options starting in the trade season.\u00a0 Ladson thinks Desmond’s late season surge bodes well for 2012; indeed he was great in the last two months<\/a> of the season.\u00a0 Lets hope he’s right<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Assuming the Nats will not sign Fielder, would it be a good idea to sign an outfielder like Johnny Damon? Can you see him as a fit in Johnson’s lineup? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A: No; Damon is limited to playing LF in an easy-to-defend ball park (like Fenway) or a DH at this point.\u00a0 His outfield arm is beyond weak.\u00a0 He can hit though; but he has no position on this team.\u00a0 If we’re going to go with Jayson Werth<\/strong> in CF, I think we should sign one of the good hitters still available in the RF market<\/a>.\u00a0 Ladson agrees with me that Damon is an AL-only player now.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: If the Nats acquire Fielder, would it be best for Adam LaRoche to be traded for a bench player who might start once a week? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A: Sure, if they could trade him.\u00a0 Problem is, if LaRoche needs to be traded there’s not an awful lot of teams that would be interested.\u00a0 See my post about the Prince Fielder<\/strong> market<\/a>; maybe we could trade him to a team like Baltimore or Houston, but they’re not going to give us much in return, and we’ll be forced to pay most of his salary in make-weight.\u00a0 If we sign Fielder, you might as well just release him.\u00a0 Ladson points out that we’re not even sure LaRoche is healthy at this point<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: In all the talk about 2012, I haven’t heard a word about the status of catcher Ivan Rodriguez and right-hander Livan Hernandez. What are the Nats’ plans for those two fan favorites? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A: The wise fan would correctly assume that the lack of discussion about both Hernandez<\/strong> and Rodriguez<\/strong> would indicate that they are no longer in the team’s plans.\u00a0 Because they’re not.\u00a0 Both guys are probably out of baseball after 2011, given the calibre of players that remain unsigned so far this off season.\u00a0 I’m sorry to say: Livan’s precipitous decline in performance in the latter half of 2011 eliminated his candidacy for the 2012 rotation.\u00a0 And Rodriguez may be a great historical player and first rounder, but he hit .218 last season.\u00a0 Ladson thankfully agrees<\/em>.<\/p>\n


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

Another edition of mlb.com beat reporter Bill Ladson’s inbox, dated 1\/16\/12. Man you know I’ve been busy at work if I’ve had this canned and ready to publish for more than a week but couldn’t get online to do so. As always, I write my response before reading his, and sometimes edit questions for clarity. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14,5],"tags":[184,182,135,137,114,146,115,717,41,578,183,167,36],"class_list":["post-3782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonnatsbaseball","category-chatmailbag-responses","category-natsgeneral","tag-adam-laroche","tag-bill-ladson","tag-danny-espinosa","tag-davey-johnson","tag-ian-desmond","tag-ivan-rodriguez","tag-jayson-werth","tag-johnny-damon","tag-livan-hernandez","tag-mike-cameron","tag-prince-fielder","tag-roger-bernadina","tag-ryan-zimmerman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3782","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=3782"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3813,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3782\/revisions\/3813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}