{"id":8469,"date":"2014-02-03T08:58:14","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T13:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8469"},"modified":"2014-02-03T08:58:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T13:58:14","slug":"ladsons-inbox-13114","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8469","title":{"rendered":"Ladson’s Inbox 1\/31\/14"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Would<\/a>

Would this guy look good in a Washington uniform? Photo unknown via ladodgertalk.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Nothing like a time-waster for the weekend; Bill Ladson<\/strong>‘s latest inbox plopped\u00a0Friday afternoon 1\/31\/14<\/a>. \u00a0Here’s how I’d have responded if someone had bothered to as me these questions \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Even though the Nationals are confident with\u00a0Denard Span<\/a>\u00a0in center field and they have strong center fielders in the Minors, is it possible that they might try to get\u00a0Matt Kemp<\/a>\u00a0at the Trade Deadline or next offseason?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:\u00a0Matt Kemp<\/strong>‘s name has come up in this blog in the discussion spaces once before in an interesting “what-if” game. \u00a0The question as it was posed was this: “Would you, straight up and with no salary relief, trade Matt Kemp right now for\u00a0Anthony Rendon<\/strong>?” \u00a0Think about it; Kemp is owed $127.5M<\/a> over the next six seasons ($21-$21.5M per season). \u00a0He put up MVP numbers in 2011 (many thought he should have won instead of\u00a0Ryan Braun<\/strong>, even more so after Braun’s positive PED tests) but has floundered with injury and sub-par performances (relative to his salary) for the past two years. \u00a0Meanwhile Rendon is getting paid a fraction of what Kemp’s salary is, is younger and has room to grow, but so far has been merely a league average player. \u00a0Its a good question: do you run the risk of a $20M boat anchor on your roster, taking up 1\/7th of \u00a0your salary cap, or do you roll the dice that Kemp returns to his former glory and earns his pay? \u00a0Or do you bet on Rendon becoming a significant player cost contained and under team control for another 5 years?<\/p>\n

For me, I think you stay away from Kemp. \u00a0That’s a ton of money with no guarantee that 2014 will be any different from 2013, and the Nats already have enough pending payroll problems without adding one more $20M player.<\/p>\n

As for the question at hand, I see no inclination for\u00a0Mike Rizzo<\/strong> to make such a move, now or ever. \u00a0He spent a lot of capital (our best starting pitching prospect at the time in\u00a0Alex Meyer<\/strong>) to get\u00a0Denard Span<\/strong>, he sought him out and coveted openly him for years, and now he has him. \u00a0Span’s not going anywhere. \u00a0As for next year, we’re in a wait and see. \u00a0One of our best prospects is a CF candidate in\u00a0Brian Goodwin<\/strong>, but he took a step back in 2013. \u00a0If Goodwin steps back up in 2014 or doesn’t pan out, we can exercise Span’s 2015 option at $9M and wait for the next best CF prospect in our system (Michael Taylor<\/strong>) to grow. \u00a0If neither prospect pans out, we don’t have to worry about it for a few years. \u00a0But, at some point you hope this team can grow another prospect to replace an aging $9M free agent with a minimum salary guy.<\/p>\n

Ladson basically says what I say, but in fewer words<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0The Nationals still have bullpen questions that were not addressed during the offseason. Do you think the Nats will sign another lefty for the bullpen? Or will they use\u00a0Ross Detwiler<\/a>in relief?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Do we have bullpen questions? \u00a0Where? \u00a0We got a lefty (Jerry Blevins<\/strong>) and we have another decent lefty option who pitched decently for us last year (Xavier Cedeno<\/strong>). \u00a0I’m quite pleased with the state of our back-end guys (Soriano<\/strong> and Clippard<\/strong>), our 7th and 8th inning options (Storen<\/strong> and Stammen<\/strong>), and our long-man options (Ohlendorf<\/strong> and Roark<\/strong>). \u00a0 Remember; Clippard has great lefty splits, always has. \u00a0If our loogy doesn’t work out that well, we go back to using Clippard periodically as a match-up guy. \u00a0Or we call up\u00a0Sammy Solis<\/strong>. \u00a0Hell, we could even try\u00a0Matthew Purke<\/strong> as a bullpen option (he’s on the 40-man after all); scouts are souring on him ever being an effective starter, but his weird motion and shorter stints could help him feature as a bullpen guy. \u00a0 I think you use\u00a0Ross Detwiler<\/strong> as a starter until he proves otherwise; as mentioned in this space time and again, Detwiler was effective in 2012, started well in 2013 and got hurt; I have no doubt that if healthy he can start 2014 as he started 2013. \u00a0Ladson says similar things about our lefty options.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0How is\u00a0Adam LaRoche<\/a>‘s health going into Spring Training? He looked as if he lost a tremendous amount of weight last year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Adam LaRoche<\/strong>\u00a0looked healthy enough in all those shots that appeared of him killing things on the internet over the winter. \u00a0Seriously; who knows what the answer to this question is. \u00a0But we know he’s aware of the situation and should be taking steps to maintain his strength and weight in 2014. \u00a0It is a contract year after all, and he’s shown a proclivity towards having career years in contract years when he needs them to secure his next paycheck. \u00a0I can’t see \u00a0him “platooning” like a lot of bloggers seem to be calling for, but I can see him being told by management that he needs to maintain his production or he may be banished in phantom DL trips. \u00a0Ladson reports that LaRoche was taking an ADD medication, believes he has it figured out, and predicts a Gold Glove in 2014. \u00a0Random prediction but sounds good.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Any chance Nationals could bring back Jesus Flores as a backup to\u00a0Wilson Ramos<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Well, Jesus Flores<\/strong> is still out there as a MLFA<\/a>. \u00a0What doesn’t speak well of him is the fact that he was released in May of last year by the Dodgers. \u00a0Clearly to me, he’s no longer a viable major league backup candidate. \u00a0I can still see the Nats giving a non-guaranteed contract to one of the few remaining veteran catchers<\/a> to see if one of them sticks as Ramos’ backup, but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised to see the winner of a competition between\u00a0Jhonatan Solano<\/strong> and\u00a0Sandy Leon<\/strong> sticking as the backup. \u00a0That being said, both these guys were awful in 2013 in the minors offensively and I don’t have a good explanation why. \u00a0Leon seems like the better bet; better history of batting, \u00a0younger. \u00a0\u00a0Chris Snyder<\/strong> has had a rough couple years but is still relatively young and has had stretches of decency<\/a>, if the team wants to go with a veteran backup instead of a rookie.\u00a0\u00a0 I dunno what’s going to happen. \u00a0On the bright side,\u00a0Keith Law<\/strong>‘s just-released top 10 for the system<\/a>\u00a0(ESPN Insider only) includes one\u00a0Pedro Severino<\/strong>, giving him relatively glowing grades for his defense. \u00a0 He’s a couple years away (born in 1993) but if he succeeds in Potomac this year he could be a ready-made Ramos backup sooner than later. \u00a0Ladson says the team had a problem with the way Flores called games … hmm, never heard that before. \u00a0Ladson also predicts more signings before Feb 1.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0I sense a double standard: why give continued chances to\u00a0Danny Espinosa<\/a>\u00a0but essentially shut out\u00a0Drew Storen<\/a>? Am I missing something? Similar struggles, but at least Drew fought his way back to the Majors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I’m not sure what “chances” Danny Espinosa<\/strong> is getting at this point, nor am I sure what Storen has been “shut out” of. \u00a0The team bought\u00a0Rafael Soriano,\u00a0<\/strong>are paying him a ton of money, and he’s the closer as long as he’s here. \u00a0That’s that; both Storen and Clippard got pushed down a peg when he got acquired. \u00a0Meanwhile, I think its clear that\u00a0Anthony Rendon<\/strong> is the starter, and Espinosa is playing for a backup role. \u00a0Maybe there were just too many quotes taken out of context from NatsFest. \u00a0Ladson re-iterates his believe that Espinosa will be traded<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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

Nothing like a time-waster for the weekend; Bill Ladson‘s latest inbox plopped\u00a0Friday afternoon 1\/31\/14. \u00a0Here’s how I’d have responded if someone had bothered to as me these questions \ud83d\ude42 Q:\u00a0Even though the Nationals are confident with\u00a0Denard Span\u00a0in center field and they have strong center fielders in the Minors, is it possible that they might try […]<\/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":[184,262,185,182,257,1548,98,2225,482,52,2123,112,461,110,145,166,708,129,2000,1398,51,1554,388,19,529,77,128,147,1786],"class_list":["post-8469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","tag-adam-laroche","tag-alex-meyer","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-bill-ladson","tag-brian-goodwin","tag-chris-snyder","tag-craig-stammen","tag-danny-espniosa","tag-denard-span","tag-drew-storen","tag-jerry-blevins","tag-jesus-flores","tag-jhonatan-solano","tag-keith-law","tag-matt-kemp","tag-matthew-purke","tag-michael-taylor","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-pedro-severino","tag-rafael-soriano","tag-ross-detwiler","tag-ross-ohlendorf","tag-ryan-braun","tag-sammy-solis","tag-sandy-leon","tag-tanner-roark","tag-tyler-clippard","tag-wilson-ramos","tag-xavier-cedeno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8469","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=8469"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8479,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8469\/revisions\/8479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}