{"id":6436,"date":"2013-04-10T08:33:18","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T12:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6436"},"modified":"2013-04-10T08:33:18","modified_gmt":"2013-04-10T12:33:18","slug":"ladsons-inbox-4813","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6436","title":{"rendered":"Ladson’s Inbox 4\/8\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Ramos has started hot; how long will he platoon w\/ Suzuki? Photo Al Bello\/Getty Images via federalbaseball.com<\/p><\/div>\n

One week down, one serious over-reaction to a series loss against \u00a0Cincinnati, and we have our next installment of Bill Ladson<\/strong>‘s inbox, dated 4\/8\/13<\/a>. \u00a0Lets see what Nats fans have on their mind this early in the season. \u00a0Hopefully it isn’t “they sky is falling” because we lost 2 of 3 to a very good Cincinnati team.<\/p>\n

As always, I answer here before reading his response and sometimes edit “questions” for clarity\/levity.<\/p>\n

Q: Even though catchers Wilson Ramos and Kurt Suzuki are in the lineup every other day, it seems to me like\u00a0Gio\u00a0Gonzalez’s personal catcher is Suzuki. Does that play into Johnson’s decision making?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Is Kurt Suzuki<\/strong> Gio Gonzalez<\/strong>‘s personal catcher? \u00a0I never noted that. \u00a0Gonzalez was caught by every catcher<\/a> on the roster last year but had Suzuki 10 times. \u00a0Based on when Suzuki came over, that seems an awful lot. \u00a0But last night 4\/9\/13<\/a> Gonzalez was caught by Ramos. \u00a0So who knows. \u00a0If Gonzalez has asked for Suzuki to be his catcher, then yes absolutely this factors into lineup decisions. \u00a0Luckily both Suzuki and Wilson Ramos<\/strong> are right handers, so there’s no matchup considerations right now.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, I was really surprised to see Ramos sit the day after he hit two bombs over the weekend. \u00a0I know Suzuki is the vet, Ramos is theoretically on the mend and they’ve said they’re splitting time … but I want my hot bats in the lineup, not sitting on the bench because of some even-odd playing time split that’s been promised.<\/p>\n

Ladson doesn’t think there’s a personal catcher situation going on.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: Is Johnson letting Harper’s throwing mistakes slide?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I doubt it. \u00a0But i’m glad its being handled in private and not in the press. \u00a0Ironically the Sports Junkies asked Johnson<\/strong> about this very topic this morning 4\/10\/13 and Johnson definitely seemed to indicate that he believes Harper<\/strong> is just over-excited, needs to keep his game emotions in control, and that the coaching staff is constantly talking to him to fix mental errors like these. \u00a0\u00a0Ladson doesn’t think Johnson is letting it slide either but says we’ll have to see “how it goes.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: If one of the current five starters goes down with an injury, who will get the callup to start for the Nationals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: A week ago I would have said Zach Duke<\/strong>, but he looked pretty awful in his one appearance so far. \u00a0I would bet that if someone went down tomorrow the team would call up Ross\u00a0Ohlendorf<\/strong>. \u00a0But in a couple of weeks time the #1 replacement would have to be Chris Young<\/strong>. \u00a0 Ladson says Young<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Do you see the Nats releasing reliever Henry Rodriguez if he is ineffective after a month or so?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I don’t think they’ll release him; i’m sure they’d try to DFA him and sneak him through waivers to AAA so they could keep him. \u00a0Mike Rizzo<\/strong> loves his arm. \u00a0But he’s been short on results and long on frustration for a lot of his tenure here. \u00a0Every once in a while you see players who the manager\/GM just won’t give up on despite results (Austin Kearns<\/strong> and Manny Acta<\/strong>\/Jim Bowden<\/strong> being one good example); I wonder if we’re getting to that point with H-Rod. \u00a0\u00a0Ladson says no way.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: After 2013, would general manager Mike Rizzo consider Jayson Werth as a player-manager?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: No way. \u00a0Werth needs to focus on hitting and not being a player manager. \u00a0 The team will get a professional manager to guide the team going forward. \u00a0Ladsons says Werth may be a Team Captain but never the manager. \u00a0He also names Joe Girardi<\/strong> as his guess for the next manager. \u00a0Interesting.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: What plans do the Nats have when it comes to incorporating the designated hitter into their roster this season? Would they consider having Anthony Rendon added to the roster and DHing Ryan Zimmerman?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Interesting question. \u00a0I’d guess that initially they’d go with a platoon DH split of Tyler Moore<\/strong> and Chad Tracy<\/strong> for any interleague games in the AL park. \u00a0Rendon<\/strong> is staying in the minors until needed to keep his service time down. \u00a0Ladson writes almost exactly what I wrote<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One week down, one serious over-reaction to a series loss against \u00a0Cincinnati, and we have our next installment of Bill Ladson‘s inbox, dated 4\/8\/13. \u00a0Lets see what Nats fans have on their mind this early in the season. \u00a0Hopefully it isn’t “they sky is falling” because we lost 2 of 3 to a very good […]<\/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":[185,817,182,164,835,349,137,181,115,507,1395,1033,420,129,1554,36,235,147,906],"class_list":["post-6436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-austin-kearns","tag-bill-ladson","tag-bryce-harper","tag-chad-tracy","tag-chris-young","tag-davey-johnson","tag-henry-rodriguez","tag-jayson-werth","tag-jim-bowden","tag-joe-girardi","tag-kurt-suzuki","tag-manny-acta","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-ross-ohlendorf","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-tyler-moore","tag-wilson-ramos","tag-zach-duke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6436","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=6436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6446,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6436\/revisions\/6446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}