{"id":5596,"date":"2012-12-31T08:46:05","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T13:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5596"},"modified":"2015-07-06T11:25:37","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T15:25:37","slug":"ladsons-inbox-122812-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5596","title":{"rendered":"Ladson’s Inbox 12\/28\/12 edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Rodriguez getting ready to fire in another pitch he has no idea where its going. Photo via humorfeast.blogspot.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Holiday edition mailbag from MLB.com’s Nats beat writer Bill Ladson<\/strong> for 12\/28\/12<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Q: Where does Henry Rodriguez fit in the Nationals’ plan this upcoming season?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: A good question; Mike Rizzo<\/strong> loves Rodriguez but I find him completely frustrating as a fan. \u00a0 In 2011 he led the league in wild pitches despite only throwing 65 innings, and in 2012 he had a -0.7 <\/a>WAR\u00a0and a 69 ERA+ before hitting the DL for season ending surgery. \u00a0He’s got no minor league options and thus has to be either carried on the active roster or be subject to DL shenanigans. \u00a0Davey Johnson<\/strong> also loves him, and said he was the Nats best pitcher last spring training. \u00a0My guess is that Rodriguez holds it together for another spring, breaks camp with the team and then plays his way into a DFA. \u00a0The team can replace his 7th\/8th inning innings with Christian Garcia<\/strong> rather easily (assuming of course that the team realizes that Garcia’s arm is too fragile to reliably be depended upon as a starter). \u00a0Ladson predicts he’ll be a middle reliever for this team in 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: What are the Nats going to do with first baseman Chris Marrero?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Great question; he has one more minor league option<\/a>, is clearly behind the likes of Chad Tracy<\/strong> and Tyler Moore<\/strong> on the first base backup pecking order, but really hasn’t got much left to prove in the minors. \u00a0He hit admirably enough at AA and AAA in 2010 and 2011<\/a>. \u00a0I think Marrero’s problem is that he’s stuck at first base but has limited power capabilities. \u00a0If he played LF, perhaps you could deal with someone who didn’t look to hit more than a handful of homers at the MLB level. \u00a0But he plays a position that needs 25-30 homers of production. \u00a0I think he’s trade bait ultimately. \u00a0Ladson says the team’s bench is set and that Marrero may be traded<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Isn’t it time to make Ross Detwiler the No. 4 starter? Also, what do you think of Nats’ rotation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I’m not exactly sure what the questioner wants; does it really matter if Detwiler is #4 or #5? \u00a0Not really (not until the playoffs anyway). \u00a0Detwiler is the 5th starter inarguably on this team, looking at the accomplishments of the 4 other guys.<\/p>\n

I think the rotation is either the best or competing to be the best in the sport. \u00a0I’ve got a future post ranking all 30 rotations (I’m more or less waiting for the last of the impact free agents to sign before publishing it), and (teaser) the Nats are in the top 3 without question. \u00a0However, the Nats rotation is very, very thin. \u00a0If one of the 5 guys goes down, I really don’t know who is going to step up to make starts. \u00a0 Zach Duke<\/strong>? \u00a0Ryan Perry<\/strong>? \u00a0Lets pray for a healthy spring training. \u00a0Ladson says Detwiler is the 4th starter entering spring training, and that he likes the rotati<\/em>on<\/em>. \u00a0Not a very deep answer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: Bill Bray was an OK pitcher in his last stint with the Nationals. Do you think he will be anywhere near as good the second time around? <\/strong><\/p>\n

A: It all depends on his health. \u00a0A groin strain and then a back strain<\/a> cost him more than 100 games last year. \u00a0 Those injuries should be healed up well enough by now; if he was recovering from an arm injury I’d be more worried. \u00a0He posted a 133 ERA+ in 2011<\/a>; i don’t see any reason why he couldn’t repeat that performance in 2013. \u00a0However, I still think the team needs to pursue one more lefty out of the pen. \u00a0Michael Gonzalez<\/strong> just signed with Milwaukee, meaning that all three of our lefty bullpen guys from 2012 are gone. \u00a0J.P. Howell<\/strong> remains available but competition is fierce for his services.\u00a0\u00a0Ladson says it all depends on his health<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Should the Nationals be concerned with the way Ryan Zimmerman was releasing the ball at the end of 2012 season?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Yes. \u00a0They should be concerned with the way he’s been throwing the ball for several years now, AND they should have been concerned with the effects of the shoulder injury that was bothering him all season. \u00a0Off-season surgery fixed the latter part. \u00a0As for the former … I think its just inevitable that Zimmerman moves to 1B. \u00a0At some point I feel his arm action is going to turn into some sort of Chuck Knoblock<\/strong> mental block. \u00a0Ladson reminds of Zimmerman’s surgery<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Why don’t the Nationals just give Adam LaRoche a third year? If things don’t pan out by the third year, the team could trade him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Good question. \u00a0The core of the team is locked up for 3 more years, why not extend the offer? \u00a0I think perhaps the answer relates to the massive amount of arbitration salary<\/a> the team is looking at by 2015. \u00a0They might have 12-13 arbitration cases with escalating salary by then. \u00a0 And its no guarantee to be able to trade Adam LaRoche<\/strong> in 2015; what kind of return would we get? \u00a0We’d likely get marginal prospects AND have to pay most of his salary. \u00a0I’m not even mentioning the obvious; he just turned 33; do you want to guarantee a 3rd year 8-figure salary to a 35-yr old? \u00a0Isn’t that exactly the kind of contracts that are killing the Phillies right now? \u00a0Plus, signing LaRoche locks of 1B for 3 years … meaning no room for Moore for 2 more years AND no room to move Zimmerman if his arm turns into mush. \u00a0I know the team likes LaRoche, but it makes more sense for the future of the team to let him walk. \u00a0Ladson echos my comments on age and having to eat money on a trade<\/em>. \u00a0He also mentions that the team would like Matthew Skole<\/strong> at first by 2015, which I don’t necessarily think will happen (but we’ll see).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holiday edition mailbag from MLB.com’s Nats beat writer Bill Ladson for 12\/28\/12. As always, I write my response here before reading his, and sometimes edit questions for clarity. Q: Where does Henry Rodriguez fit in the Nationals’ plan this upcoming season? A: A good question; Mike Rizzo loves Rodriguez but I find him completely frustrating […]<\/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":[184,820,182,835,124,103,1329,137,181,1266,733,1194,129,51,543,36,108,235,906],"class_list":["post-5596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","tag-adam-laroche","tag-bill-bray","tag-bill-ladson","tag-chad-tracy","tag-chris-marrero","tag-christian-garcia","tag-chuck-knoblock","tag-davey-johnson","tag-henry-rodriguez","tag-jp-howell","tag-matt-skole","tag-michael-gonzalez","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-ross-detwiler","tag-ryan-perry","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-sean-burnett","tag-tyler-moore","tag-zach-duke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596","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=5596"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11020,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596\/revisions\/11020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}