{"id":8657,"date":"2014-03-17T16:21:08","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T20:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8657"},"modified":"2014-03-17T16:21:08","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T20:21:08","slug":"detwiler-to-bullpen-the-first-shoe-to-drop-this-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8657","title":{"rendered":"Detwiler to bullpen… the first shoe to drop this spring"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"If<\/a>

If he’s out, who’s in? Photo Haraz Ghanbari\/AP via federalbaseball.com<\/p><\/div>\n

So, big news out of camp today is\u00a0Matt Williams<\/strong>\u00a0announced decision to “start the season” with\u00a0Ross Detwiler<\/strong> in the bullpen. \u00a0\u00a0Adam Kilgore<\/strong> broke the news<\/a> earlier today and now it’s been picked up by some of the bigger<\/a> sites and other Nats beat reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m on record with having predicted Detwiler for the 5th starter, dating back to my (too-early) December 2013 post<\/a> predicting the rotations across the system. \u00a0I stand by my arguments made at the time, but cannot argue with decisions made by those who watch these guys day-in and day-out. \u00a0Detwiler’s stats this spring<\/a> leave something to be desired (insert standard anti-Spring training stats\/short sample size arguments here), and we all know that a) the team needs another lefty reliever, b) Detwiler’s reliever stats are excellent, \u00a0and c) the Bullpen was pretty bad last year and needed improving anyway.<\/p>\n

Detwiler in the bullpen definitely improves the group as a whole, and opens up a spot for someone unexpected to start the season in the rotation.<\/p>\n

So, now what are we predicting? \u00a0Something like this?<\/p>\n