{"id":7429,"date":"2013-08-14T08:34:54","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T12:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com.\/?p=7429"},"modified":"2013-08-14T08:34:54","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T12:34:54","slug":"ladson-inbox-81213","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=7429","title":{"rendered":"Ladson Inbox 8\/12\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3836\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/zimmermanryan_throwingacrossbody-ap-cropped_296.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3836\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-3836\" alt=\"The drumbeat to move Zimmerman to first continues.  Photo AP via tbd.com\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/zimmermanryan_throwingacrossbody-ap-cropped_296-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3836\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The drumbeat to move Zimmerman to first continues. Photo AP via tbd.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Hey, its been a while since MLB Nats beat reporter\u00a0<strong>Bill Ladson<\/strong> did an inbox. \u00a0With the Nats season now relegated to &#8220;playing for pride,&#8221; I&#8217;m guessing this inbox is going to be chock full of questions about the future. \u00a0Lets dive in.<\/p>\n<p>As always, I write my response to each question before reading his, and edit questions for clarity\/conciseness. \u00a0All stats mentioned are as of 8\/13\/13.<\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0<b>Do you think the Nationals could trade\u00a0Adam LaRoche, move\u00a0Ryan Zimmerman\u00a0to first base, Anthony Rendon\u00a0to third base and sign a free-agent second baseman like\u00a0Robinson Cano?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A: Wow, that&#8217;s a lot of moving parts. \u00a0Lets take this wish list of proposed personnel moves one by one:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trade\u00a0<strong>Adam LaRoche<\/strong>: we&#8217;d likely not get a whole heck of a lot for a 33 turning 34 year old first baseman who clearly took a step back in 2013. \u00a0LaRoche <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/leaders.aspx?pos=1b&amp;stats=bat&amp;lg=all&amp;qual=y&amp;type=8&amp;season=2013&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2013&amp;ind=0&amp;team=0&amp;rost=0&amp;age=0&amp;filter=&amp;players=0&amp;sort=18,d\">currently ranks 22nd<\/a> among league-wide first basemen in wRC+, barely above the league average. \u00a0By way of comparison,\u00a0<strong>Mark Reynolds<\/strong> is ranked 25th and was just flat-out released after passing through waivers. \u00a0So, no I don&#8217;t think there are a lot of teams out there willing to pony up the $14M he&#8217;s owed next year ($12M in salary, $2m of a buyout of his 2015 option). \u00a0 This signing has really set the team back offensively. \u00a0Though to be fair,\u00a0<strong>Michael Morse<\/strong> (who would have slotted in at 1B had the team not been able to re-sign LaRoche) is also posting about the same wRC+ numbers and has missed half the season with yet another injury.<\/li>\n<li>Move\u00a0<strong>Ryan Zimmerman<\/strong> to first base: yes I think this is going to happen eventually, but not this off-season. \u00a0I think you handle the transition of a gold-glove winning player off his chosen position carefully and with consideration to the clubhouse ramifications. \u00a0I don&#8217;t think it played well in Texas&#8217; clubhouse when a former gold-glove winning\u00a0shortstop\u00a0<strong>Michael Young<\/strong> was moved to third against his wishes, and he made way for a superb defender in <strong>Elvis Andrus<\/strong>. \u00a0Zimmerman would be making way for a relative unknown (though presumed gifted) defensive replacement. \u00a0I think the Nats brass is chalking up 2013&#8217;s subpar defensive season to Zimmerman&#8217;s lingering shoulder issue, which has exacerbated his already problematic throwing motion and associated mental issues. \u00a0I see Zimmerman giving it a fresh start in 2014, and if it becomes clear it isn&#8217;t working out we look at spring training 2015 as a position transfer.<\/li>\n<li>Move\u00a0<strong>Anthony Rendon<\/strong> to third: it likely happens eventually. \u00a0But him moving to third has to wait for the first two bullet points to happen, so again I&#8217;m predicting perhaps 2015. \u00a0I think more time at 2B will give him more confidence and his errors will subside. \u00a0So far his range at 2B is passable (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/statss.aspx?playerid=12861&amp;position=2B#fielding\">UZR\/150 of 0.5<\/a> in 448 innings), but that&#8217;s a far cry from what\u00a0<strong>Danny Espinosa<\/strong> was offering there (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/statss.aspx?playerid=9219&amp;position=2B#fielding\">UZR\/150 of 12.0 this year<\/a>, which would have been good for 2nd in the league. \u00a0He posted a 9.9 in a full-season last year). \u00a0But, by the time Rendon is set to move to 3rd he may very well just stay at 2nd. \u00a0He seems like he&#8217;s the right size and shape to play 2nd.<\/li>\n<li>Sign\u00a0<strong>Robinson Cano<\/strong>. \u00a0There&#8217;s no question Cano will be the marquee FA this coming off-season, but I don&#8217;t think he signs with Washington for two main reasons. \u00a0First, the Yankees just cannot let the one remaining good offensive player they have leave, and I believe they&#8217;ll over-pay him to stay. \u00a0Secondly, whoever signs Cano is making a potentially classic free agency mistake; overpaying a guy in his down years. \u00a0Look at the 9 figure deals signed lately for position players, and look at how many of them are almost immediately regrettable. \u00a0<strong>Albert Pujols<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Ryan Howard<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Josh Hamilton<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Carl Crawford<\/strong> and our own\u00a0<strong>Jayson Werth<\/strong>. \u00a0All of those deals routinely listed as the worst contracts in the game. \u00a0I believe\u00a0<strong>Mike Rizzo<\/strong> is smart enough and forward thinking enough not to hamstring the team with another contract.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, my answer to this scenario is &#8220;not going to happen.&#8221; \u00a0<em>Ladson says &#8220;call me in the off-season<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0<strong>How do you defend your previous support of Danny Espinosa<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p>A: Um, you can&#8217;t. Espinosa\u00a0has now had nearly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/espinda01.shtml\">1600 major league plate appearances<\/a> and has a career slash line of .230\/.303\/.396. \u00a0He just cannot hit batting left handed (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/split.cgi?id=espinda01&amp;year=Career&amp;t=b\">career splits<\/a>: he&#8217;s 40 batting points and 75 slugging points lower batting left-handed). \u00a0He&#8217;s hitting .219 in AAA since being demoted. \u00a0He faces serious concerns about where his career is going right now. \u00a0Yes he&#8217;s a great defensive player, but that only gets you halfway to a MLB job these days.\u00a0<em>Ladson says Espinosa has been hurt this whole time and when he&#8217;s healthy he&#8217;s good. \u00a0But he also admits that Espinosa&#8217;s time playing full-time for the Nats is probably at an end<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0<strong>Is Denard Span a bust? \u00a0<b>He has a low on-base percentage and he hasn&#8217;t been stealing many bases.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: Yes, I think its safe to say that\u00a0<strong>Denard Span<\/strong> has been a bust. \u00a0 He never really stole that many bases (17 last year, career high of 26), but certainly he has posted much better OBP numbers (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/spande01.shtml\">.342 last year, .350 career<\/a>). \u00a0What has happened to him in 2013? \u00a0Who knows. \u00a0He has stated that he likens this year to his rookie year, having to learn a whole new league of pitchers. \u00a0That could be fair; and could lead to a rebound in 2014. \u00a0 I do know this; .313 OBP from the lead-off spot just doesn&#8217;t cut it. \u00a0To make matters worse, his defensive stats have dropped off too; his UZR is down, his DRS is down. \u00a0That&#8217;s really not a good sign; you can put up with a #8 hitter batting .260 with no power if he provides great value in the field. \u00a0If not, then you&#8217;re better off bringing up a minor leaguer to see what he can do. \u00a0This is another concern for Rizzo heading into the off-season; is this a one-off, an adjustment season for Span, or is this the start of his decline phase? \u00a0\u00a0<em>Ladson extolls Span&#8217;s defense, admits he&#8217;s not getting on base and postulates the Nats could go after\u00a0<strong>Shin-Soo Choo<\/strong> in the off-season to replace him. \u00a0I think Ladson needs to look at the defensive numbers on Choo before advocating that; he&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/leaders.aspx?pos=cf&amp;stats=fld&amp;lg=all&amp;qual=y&amp;type=1&amp;season=2013&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2013&amp;ind=0&amp;team=0&amp;rost=0&amp;age=0&amp;filter=&amp;players=0\">dead last in UZR\/150<\/a> for center-fielders right now, by a significant margin. \u00a0Now, if you got Choo and moved\u00a0<strong>Bryce Harper<\/strong> back to center? \u00a0I&#8217;d be for that 100%. \u00a0Make Span your 4th OF, wave good-bye to\u00a0<strong>Roger Bernadina<\/strong> and move on. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0<b>Do you think Drew Storen will be traded? His relationship with the Nationals doesn&#8217;t seem the same since he blew the save last year against the Cardinals during the National League Division Series.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A: Traded? \u00a0No. \u00a0Re-called and put into a lesser bullpen role? \u00a0Absolutely. \u00a0I think once\u00a0<strong>Drew Storen<\/strong> fixes whatever mechanics issue that has been plaguing him, he comes right back to a\u00a0<strong>Ryan Mattheus<\/strong> type role in the pen. \u00a0Storen&#8217;s ERA in Syracuse is unsightly so far (unlucky small sample size; he&#8217;s given up 4 runs on just 7 hits), but he&#8217;s got <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?pos=P&amp;sid=t552&amp;t=p_pbp&amp;pid=519322\">11 k&#8217;s to 0 walks in 6 innings<\/a>. \u00a0 AAA hitters aren&#8217;t exactly challenging him, if he&#8217;s struck out half the guys he&#8217;s faced. \u00a0If the team was considering him in trade &#8230; you&#8217;d have to think they would want to get him back up to the majors to regain value anyway. \u00a0<em>Ladson thinks he can regain value and can be a MLB closer again<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Q:\u00a0<b>Will the\u00a0<\/b><strong>Nationals<\/strong><b>\u00a0consider going after\u00a0Michael Morse\u00a0when he becomes a free agent at the end of the year? He would have helped the Nats&#8217; offense this year, splitting time between the outfield and first base. What do you think?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A: As much as I like Morse and have complained about losing him &#8230; you have to realize who he is. \u00a0He&#8217;s an oft-injured slugger who has no position on an NL team. \u00a0If we signed Morse, where exactly does he play? \u00a0I guess you could platoon him with LaRoche at first or with Span in the outfield &#8230; but as a righty he&#8217;d play bat twice a week. \u00a0 I think Morse signs on as a DH with an AL team for surprisingly low money. \u00a0If Seattle offers him a Q.O. I&#8217;d be shocked. \u00a0\u00a0<em>Ladson doesn&#8217;t think he would have helped the team, nor does he see any way he gets signed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey, its been a while since MLB Nats beat reporter\u00a0Bill Ladson did an inbox. \u00a0With the Nats season now relegated to &#8220;playing for pride,&#8221; I&#8217;m guessing this inbox is going to be chock full of questions about the future. \u00a0Lets dive in. As always, I write my response to each question before reading his, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,5],"tags":[184,123,185,182,164,251,135,482,52,1307,115,238,799,136,287,129,1167,167,675,86,36,1930],"class_list":["post-7429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chatmailbag-responses","category-natsgeneral","tag-adam-laroche","tag-albert-pujols","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-bill-ladson","tag-bryce-harper","tag-carl-crawford","tag-danny-espinosa","tag-denard-span","tag-drew-storen","tag-elvis-andrus","tag-jayson-werth","tag-josh-hamilton","tag-mark-reynolds","tag-michael-morse","tag-michael-young","tag-mike-rizzo","tag-robinson-cano","tag-roger-bernadina","tag-ryan-howard","tag-ryan-mattheus","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-shin-soo-choo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429","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=7429"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7438,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429\/revisions\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}