{"id":6505,"date":"2013-04-19T14:43:26","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T18:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6505"},"modified":"2013-04-19T14:43:26","modified_gmt":"2013-04-19T18:43:26","slug":"ladsons-inbox-41813","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6505","title":{"rendered":"Ladson’s Inbox 4\/18\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m sure there’s going to be some nervous questions with the Nats uneven start in MLB.com Nats beat reporter\u00a0Bill Ladson<\/strong>‘s latest mailbox (dated 4\/18\/13<\/a>). \u00a0Lets dive in.<\/p>\n

Q: Will the Nationals stick with right-hander Dan Haren for long if he continues to struggle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I would think so. \u00a0You can’t judge a pitcher after 3 starts. \u00a0But you can start to make changes after about 6-8 starts. \u00a0The big concern with Dan Haren<\/strong> right now is clearly his control; he’s missing out over the plate a lot, and he’s getting hammered. \u00a0He’s not going to overpower you; he relies on control and command and a sinking fastball. \u00a0Right now he’s struggling with all three. \u00a0He’s giving up a TON of hits (26 in 13 innings<\/a>) for a very ugly WHIP. \u00a0But he’s not walking anybody (1 walk on the season).<\/p>\n

Is he washed up? \u00a0That’s hard to imagine; he’s only 32. \u00a0His money is guaranteed; will his immense salary give the team pause to replace him? \u00a0They didn’t hesitate to send down John Lannan<\/strong> and his $4M salary last spring … but $13M is a different story.<\/p>\n

Ladson second guesses the acquisition, which I think is pretty gutless if he’s not on record before with these concerns (which I cannot say that I recall seeing). \u00a0Otherwise he says its early and check back in a month.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: What is Plan B for Haren’s spot in the rotation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Well now that’s a good question.<\/p>\n

Your AAA candidates right now aren’t exactly enticing. \u00a0They’re in AAA for a reason. \u00a0\u00a0Yunesky Maya<\/strong> has proven several times why he isn’t a MLB quality player and is playing out the string in Syracuse. \u00a0Danny Rosenbaum<\/strong> couldn’t make the Rockies rotation, one of the worst in the game (but to be fair, he’s still a prospect and could turn into a new version of Tommy Milone<\/strong> with some more seasoning).\u00a0\u00a0Ryan Perry<\/strong> hasn’t looked convincing since his acquisition. \u00a0Ross Ohlendorf<\/strong> hasn’t looked bad so far this year in Syracuse, but he’s sort of like the 2013 version of\u00a0Zach Duke<\/strong>, a guy who couldn’t catch on with a MLB team so he’s trying his luck on a ML contract.\u00a0\u00a0Tanner Roark<\/strong> has been awful so far this year and likely gets replaced in the rotation by …\u00a0Chris Young<\/strong>, who looks to be the #1 call-up option once he’s back throwing regularly, but again, if he was that good, he’d have picked up with another team. \u00a0We don’t really have any upper-end starting prospects anywhere in the system right now close enough to be a decent option either. \u00a0The best bet even in AA is\u00a0Nathan Karns<\/strong> and he’s been awful so far\u00a0\u00a0(wish you had\u00a0Alex Meyer<\/strong> back yet? \u00a03 starts and a 1.69 ERA<\/a> so far for Minnesota’s AA team). \u00a0The Nats have very little starting pitching depth, we all knew it, and Haren’s troubles are somewhat of a nightmare situation for the team.<\/p>\n

Ladson says simply that Chris Young is next in line<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Even if Johnson is not worried about Ryan Zimmerman’s throwing errors, do you think we should be worried?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Davey Johnson<\/strong> is clearly protecting his player in the media right now. \u00a0Ryan Zimmerman<\/strong>‘s arm is a HUGE concern for this team. \u00a0He’s getting very close to a Steve Sax<\/strong>\/Chuck Knoblock<\/strong> mental state where he literally cannot make any routine throw any longer. \u00a0And that’s really bad for this team, which has no place to put him. \u00a0The team just had to acquire Denard Span<\/strong>, which pushed the plus-defender Bryce Harper<\/strong> to left, which cost the team Michael Morse<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Lest you think I’m being a “hind sight is 20\/20” hypocrite here, I’m on record pretty plainly<\/a> that I didn’t think the Span deal was “necessary,” and pointed out a lot of the issues that we now face in terms of players being blocked and of the loss of Meyr. \u00a0One of my oft-repeated mantras is that you “can hide players in left and at first base.” \u00a0Meaning, you don’t need a gold glover at 1B or in LF if it means more offense. \u00a0But that’s not what Mike <\/strong>Rizzo <\/strong>has chosen to do in Washington. \u00a0Instead he ran out of town the lesser defender Morse (if you do want a dose of hindsight analysis, Morse is only leading the AL in Homers as we speak and has a 160 OPS+<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Well, now Zimmerman can’t move to first for at least two years, and LaRoche can’t play anything but first base (Morse could at least lumber around left field if he wasn’t on the sac). \u00a0Zimmermandoesn’t rate as a 2nd baseman … so Anthony Rendon<\/strong> is seemingly blocked right now. \u00a0Nobody’s going anywhere in the outfield … the Nats are locked into this lineup whether they like it or not.<\/p>\n

So, yeah I’m worried.<\/p>\n

Ladson says he trusts what Johnson says and also thinks that Zimmerman’s shoulder isn’t 100pct. \u00a0What!? \u00a0Since when has anyone said that? \u00a0In fact, all we’ve heard all spring training is that his shoulder is ready to go.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: Does Daniel Rosenbaum have a future in the Nationals’ organization, and if not, what do you see the Nats doing with him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: We alluded to Rosenbaum briefly above; lets talk about him in more depth. \u00a0I think Rosenbaum represents the kind of softer-tossing control lefty that Rizzo doesn’t entirely favor. \u00a0He wants a guy who can miss bats, power pitchers with higher K potentials. \u00a0Rosenbaum’s numbers in AAA so far look great at a macro level (2 starts, 6 hits allowed an a sterling 0.82 era<\/a>) but there’s one rather troubling number: only 3 strikeouts in 11 innings. \u00a0In AA last year he had 99 Ks in 155 innings. \u00a0I just don’t think that’s enough swing-and-miss potential to be effective in the modern game. \u00a0Rizzo traded away Milone, who features as a similar pitcher to what Rosenbaum offers, for somewhat similar reasons.<\/p>\n

What is his future? \u00a0Perhaps continuing to serve as a backup starter in the minor leagues, perhaps serving as trade fodder for the next off-season’s manouverings. \u00a0Ladson says the same essentially<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Do you think Johnson should have had Zimmerman play more innings during Spring Training to get comfortable with his throwing motion?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

A: The number of spring training innings for established veteran hitters is immaterial; Spring Training is almost entirely so that the pitching staff can build up the arm strength needed to go 6-7 innings from day one. \u00a0So, no, I don’t think any change in time played in Viera would have made a difference here. \u00a0 Ladson agrees<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Q: Why is the bulk of our lineup sitting in the Marlins series (<\/strong>Danny Espinosa,\u00a0Bryce Harper, Denard Span)?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Harper and Span because they had the flu, Espinosa because he got a huge bruise from a HBP. \u00a0Nothing nefarious here. \u00a0Ladson confirms\/agrees<\/em>.<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n


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

I’m sure there’s going to be some nervous questions with the Nats uneven start in MLB.com Nats beat reporter\u00a0Bill Ladson‘s latest mailbox (dated 4\/18\/13). \u00a0Lets dive in. Q: Will the Nationals stick with right-hander Dan Haren for long if he continues to struggle? A: I would think so. \u00a0You can’t judge a pitcher after 3 […]<\/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":[262,185,182,164,1719,349,983,135,851,137,482,39,136,129,196,1554,543,36,1337,77,34,883,906],"class_list":["post-6505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","tag-alex-meyer","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-bill-ladson","tag-bryce-harper","tag-chick-knoblock","tag-chris-young","tag-dan-haren","tag-danny-espinosa","tag-danny-rosenbaum","tag-davey-johnson","tag-denard-span","tag-john-lannan","tag-michael-morse","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-nathan-karns","tag-ross-ohlendorf","tag-ryan-perry","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-steve-sax","tag-tanner-roark","tag-tommy-milone","tag-yunesky-maya","tag-zach-duke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6505","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=6505"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6511,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6505\/revisions\/6511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}