{"id":15143,"date":"2018-06-10T10:28:19","date_gmt":"2018-06-10T14:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=15143"},"modified":"2018-06-10T14:00:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-10T18:00:01","slug":"nats-pitching-depth-to-now-be-tested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=15143","title":{"rendered":"Nats Pitching depth to now be tested&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_13190\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/FeddeErick-via-minorleagueball.com_.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13190\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13190\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13190\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/FeddeErick-via-minorleagueball.com_-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"It sounds like its Fedde-time. Photo via minorleagueball.com\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/FeddeErick-via-minorleagueball.com_-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/FeddeErick-via-minorleagueball.com_-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/FeddeErick-via-minorleagueball.com_-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/FeddeErick-via-minorleagueball.com_.jpg 1310w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-13190\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It sounds like its Fedde-time. Photo via minorleagueball.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Well, we can&#8217;t really seem to go a season without a\u00a0<strong>Stephen Strasburg<\/strong> injury &#8230; and this annual affair hit us over the weekend, with Strasburg looking <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masnsports.com\/nationals-pastime\/2018\/06\/shoulder-injury-leaves-strasburg-nats-waiting-for-mri-results.html\">ineffective, getting pulled<\/a>, going for an MRI and quickly hitting the 10-day D\/L with &#8220;right shoulder inflammation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This comes on the quick heels of two other SP issues for this team:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>miracle MLFA off-season signing\u00a0<strong>Jeremy Hellickson<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/jeremy-hellickson-sustains-hamstring-injury\/c-279614334\">yanking his hamstring<\/a> and exiting precisely one batter into his friday start, also hitting the D\/L.<\/li>\n<li>Off-season SP depth re-signing\u00a0<strong>Edwin Jackson<\/strong> opting out of his minor league deal and departing the team (he signed with Oakland soon after).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, it seemed like we could stand the absence of Hellickson thanks to the schedule over the next week and a half (plenty of off-days and no need for a 5th starter), and since his injury is listed as &#8220;mild&#8221; meaning he may only miss the minimum time &#8230; but with the loss of Strasburg we&#8217;ll need to reach into our depth.\u00a0 So who&#8217;s getting the call?<\/p>\n<p>(oh, btw on top of this, on 6\/9\/18\u00a0<strong>Brandon Knitzler<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.talknats.com\/2018\/06\/10\/brandon-kintzler-dodges-bullet-mri-reveals-just-grade-1-forearm-strain\/\">strained his forearm<\/a> and seems likely to be at least unavailable for a bit, if not on his way to the D\/L too, so they&#8217;re needing reinforcements stat.\u00a0 He was officially put on the D\/L just after posting this on 6\/10\/18, resulting in both <strong>Trevor Gott<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Wander Suero<\/strong> getting their tickets for a DC return&#8230;).<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve now seen all three of our non-active roster 40-man starters get MLB action this year &#8230; and they looked promising enough to have the loss of Jackson or even the presence of\u00a0<strong>Tommy Milone<\/strong> in AAA seem like after-thoughts.\u00a0 So who gets the call to cover for Strasburg?\u00a0 Options:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Erick Fedde<\/strong>: got one spot-start this year and looked solid: he gave up 3 runs in 5 2\/3rds but pitched a lot better than his stat line.\u00a0 He hasn&#8217;t looked as great for Syracuse; a 4.76 ERA and a 1.48 whip showing how he&#8217;s giving up too many base-runners.\u00a0 Do you believe what you saw in the majors, or look at his AAA line for the year?\u00a0 His most recent start: in Gwinnet, 5 1\/3, 2runs, 9Ks but 10hits allowed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Austin Voth<\/strong>: has turned his career around, going from &#8220;next guy to get DFA&#8217;d&#8221; to a MLB call-up earlier this year (he did not appear).\u00a0 His AAA ERA of 4.35 is a bit inflated; he&#8217;s giving up less than a hit\/inning.\u00a0 He had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=608723#\/gamelogs\/R\/pitching\/2018\/MINORS\">two bad outings<\/a> in a row just after his call up\/send-back, giving up 12 ER in 2 innings &#8230; but his last out ing (6\/6\/18) was stellar; 7IP, 4hits, 6Ks, 0 walks, 0 runs.\u00a0 That&#8217;s the kind of stat line GMs like to see.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jefry Rodriguez<\/strong>: he was thrown into action when Hellickson went down and did awesome: 4 2\/3 scoreless innings in his MLB debut.\u00a0 Can&#8217;t ask for more than that.\u00a0 He&#8217;s been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=622446#\/career\/R\/pitching\/2018\/ALL\">good for AA Harrisburg<\/a> this year; 12 starts, 3.57ERA, a bit wild though (24 walks in 63 innings).\u00a0 Its interesting that he&#8217;s gotten MLB time but has yet to get pushed to AAA; perhaps they&#8217;re waiting for the typical Nats mid-season shuffle.\u00a0 His most recent outing?\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/index.jsp?sid=milb&amp;player_id=622446#\/gamelogs\/R\/pitching\/2018\/MINORS\">6\/9\/18: 5ip, 1 hit and just 65<\/a> pitches thrown (a hint?\u00a0 why would he have gotten\u00a0 yanked so quickly?)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>You have to think it&#8217;ll be Fedde first.\u00a0 Maybe what they do is promote Fedde, move Rodriguez to AAA.\u00a0 Then if you need a second starter &#8230; it seems like Rodriguez has jumped Voth in the pecking order and is next in line.<\/p>\n<p>It isn&#8217;t a very opportune time for this sudden loss of their second ace; their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/WSN\/2018-schedule-scores.shtml\">next nine games<\/a> are AL East interleague play &#8230; which will be tough games even though both Toronto and Baltimore are struggling.\u00a0 After that they get 6 games versus Philly interspersed with five more AL East games (including three at home against Boston) &#8230; so this might be a pretty crucial stage for this team.\u00a0 Lets hope our depth stands up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, we can&#8217;t really seem to go a season without a\u00a0Stephen Strasburg injury &#8230; and this annual affair hit us over the weekend, with Strasburg looking ineffective, getting pulled, going for an MRI and quickly hitting the 10-day D\/L with &#8220;right shoulder inflammation.&#8221; This comes on the quick heels of two other SP issues for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1815,3739,253,2425,1876,239,38,34,3067,3898],"class_list":["post-15143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","tag-austin-voth","tag-braondon-knitzler","tag-edwin-jackson","tag-erick-fedde","tag-jefry-rodriguez","tag-jeremy-hellickson","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-tommy-milone","tag-trevor-gott","tag-wander-surero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15143"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15148,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143\/revisions\/15148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}