Cameron Retirement Opens The Door

 News and Notes  7 Responses »
Feb 192012
 

It was just two weeks ago that the Nationals announced the signing of Rick Ankiel, creating a three-man race for the CF position and two-man race for the backup spot. Today, Mike Cameron announced his retirement, opening the door of opportunity for an outfielder prospect to make the team.

The white phone is for you, Corey Brown.

Of course, I am toying with you: Nothing I can write will convince the impatient that this doesn’t increase the odds of Bryce Harper making the Opening Day roster. Because, on paper, I have to agree that that’s true.

But I can remind folks that Harper has mostly played left field since his promotion from Hagerstown to Harrisburg (all 37 games in LF) and made six errors in 25 AFL games last fall. None of this is all that surprising considering Harper is a converted catcher. To assume that Harper is ready on defense, however, requires not only a leap of faith but perhaps even the ingestion of a foreign substance.

Never mind whether Harper is ready on offense, with less than a third of a season of AA and zero (0) games of AAA experience.

Working against Brown is his handedness. A platoon of Cameron and the winner of the Ankiel/Berndina battle seemed to be the storyline, with the loser manning the bench. Now, as Bill Ladson noted in his story linked above, the odds of Jason Michaels and Brett Carroll also have improved — especially this late in offseason, when a thin crop of FA outfielders has been largely picked over.

Spring Training Broadcast Schedule

 News and Notes  5 Responses »
Feb 172012
 

It’s two more days until pitchers and catchers report, roughly four days until the Panera Bread references from the beat guys become a tired meme.

MLB Network has yet to release its ST broadcast schedule, but even with the increased respect the Nationals have been getting lately, the safe bet is to look at the games involving Boston and the New York teams that aren’t already listed below (April 2 for Boston, March 16 for the Yankees, March 10, 20, 28 for the Mets) and hope that one of them gets picked up. ESPN is not televising any Nationals games. The Nationals and Phillies do not play at all this spring.

Unless it has an asterisk, the games on MASN are also broadcast on the radio. The March 15th radio broadcast will be on 1580AM (double-asterisk). The March 24th TV broadcast (triple asterisk) will be with the Orioles broadcasters, but WJFK will be broadcasting that game.

Day Date Time (ET) Opponent Network
Sat. Mar. 3 1:05 p.m. Houston 106.7 FM
Sun. Mar. 4 1:05 p.m. Houston MASN
Mon. Mar. 5 6:10 p.m. NY Mets MASN
Tue. Mar. 13 6:05 p.m. Detroit MASN*
Wed. Mar. 14 6:05 p.m. Atlanta 106.7 FM
Thu. Mar. 15 1:05 p.m. NY Yankees MASN**
Sat. Mar. 17 1:05 p.m. Miami 106.7 FM
Sun. Mar. 18 1:05 p.m. Detroit 106.7 FM
Wed. Mar. 21 1:05 p.m. Atlanta MASN*
Sat. Mar. 24 1:05 p.m. Baltimore MASN***
Sun. Mar. 25 1:05 p.m. NY Mets 106.7 FM
Fri. Mar. 30 6:05 p.m. Miami MASN*
Tue. Apr. 3 3:05 p.m. Boston MASN

As always, if you’re able to access MLB Audio wherever you are during the day, you can listen to additional broadcasts during the week.

Another Confusing Post About Options

 News and Notes  10 Responses »
Feb 152012
 

One of the most consistently frustrating exercises each spring is determining who has options left. As I mentioned in my previous post, this may be one of those rare springs where it might not matter that much. I believe this to be a sign that the team is on the upswing.

Simply put: Winning teams don’t agonize over these kinds of decisions because they’re not choosing between young and marginal players.

In a nutshell, once a player is added to the 40-man roster during the 25-man period (a.k.a. Open Day to August 31), the team has three years that they can bounce him back and forth between the minors. Steve Lombardozzi, for example, has three options left because he was added to the 40-man in September, while Chris Marrero has only two because he was added in November 2010 and optioned to Syracuse in March 2011.

Think you got it straight? Well, then there’s the 20-day exception. An option year is any year in which a player spends more than 20 consecutive days in the minors. I suspect that this was originally intended for rehab assignments (try sifting through that set Google results; I dare you) but has since morphed into a means for teams to stash a position player (or No. 5 starter) at AAA for three weeks in April. Hence, Roger Bernadina’s upstate New York furlough in 2010.

Finally, there’s the fourth-option exception (hey, that rhymes!) that’s likely to become a relic: Teams can petition for a fourth option year if a player has less than five seasons of professional experience. This has mostly been the case with guys added to the 40-man immediately upon being drafted or those who have had significant injuries. Now you know how Ross Detwiler was able to start 2011 at Syracuse.

As I wrote in the previous post, the competition for the 25-man roster is most likely going to be at the fringes of the roster: the 12th man out of the bullpen and last spot or two on the bench. Here’s a look at who’s out of options but still has less than five years MLB service time (another rabbit hole), based on this post from Todd Boss and the work of our intrepid volunteer SpringfieldFan on the BigBoard:

  • Roger Bernadina
  • Sean Burnett
  • Tyler Clippard
  • Ross Detwiler
  • Tom Gorzelanny
  • Michael Morse
  • Henry Rodriguez

Sure, I think most of us can pick a name or two here that could potentially not make the 25-man, but is any of them a starter? Now take a look at another subset: Non-prospects not on the 40-man with options:

  • Mike Ballard
  • Gaby Hernandez
  • Waldis Joaquin
  • Ryan Perry

Do any of these guys look like they’ll beat out the aforementioned “one or two?” Maybe. But then there’s this list of established players that still can be optioned down:

  • Ian Desmond (2)
  • Danny Espinosa (3)
  • Jesus Flores (1)
  • Gio Gonzalez (2)
  • John Lannan (1)
  • Wilson Ramos (2)
  • Drew Storen (2)
  • Stephen Strasburg (1)
  • Jordan Zimmermann (2)

I think you can see that between these groups GM Mike Rizzo has his coveted “contingencies.” And why most of the non-Harper prospect drama might just be about making noise, not making the roster.

But that’s okay I’ve been professionally trained to manufacture drama.

If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m not drawn to the destination so much as the journey. Which is good because as the parent club gets better, the draft picks get lower and the prospects become less of a sure thing. A fair knock on the Nationals is that any idiot could have picked Strasburg, Harper, and Rendon [insert Jim Bowden joke here], let’s see how well they do when they’re picking 30th.

Well, it certainly looks like that chance is coming, doesn’t it?

2012 Spring Training Thoughts

 News and Notes  18 Responses »
Feb 132012
 

This may be the spring training with the least drama, if not the fewest players, of the eight spring trainings for the Washington Nationals. As of this writing, there are just 15 non-roster invitees — a far cry from the days when there were 70+ guys in camp.

For the most part, the drama appears to be more of the “normal” variety: who’s gonna man the bench, who’s gonna be the 5th starter, who’s gonna be the last man out of the bullpen, etc. Some of the beat guys are already making predictions on who the final 25 will be and it seems rather reasonable to me.

I’m not downplaying the Bryce Harper madness, which I know will play a big part of the 2012 story line, but I’m not going to feed that monster, either. I think the Nats brass will serve up all the usual bromides about “the best 25,” with perhaps even Davey Johnson playing the good cop and Mike Rizzo playing the bad cop. We’ll probably see some (breathless) stories comparing him to Ken Griffey Jr. and/or Alex Rodriguez in the past and Mike Trout in the present. Or perhaps we’ll get a cautionary tale about Jason Heyward, especially if the 2010 N.L. Rookie of the Year starts very fast or very slowly in Buena Vista.

What will change things in a hurry is if there’s a trade of an existing starter or two. It’s no secret that the Nats are hurting for a CF and that they have a perceived surplus of starting pitchers (pay no attention to those two guys that have had Tommy John surgery the past year or two). Perennial punching bag Ian Desmond is another trade option (as long as you’re convinced that Danny Espinosa will revert to first-half form). But I don’t anticipate such a trade happening any earlier than the last week of March (if at all).

Aside from Harper, I think most of the prospect drama this year will be whether or not Steve Lombardozzi makes the club as a bench player. The only potential wrinkle I can foresee is Johnson deciding on a platoon, which I can’t recall happening recently with two switch-hitters. I put it out there only because Espinosa’s splits finished so severely last season (.222/.312/.390 vs. RHPs; .283/.361/.496 vs. LHPs) while Lombardozzi was closer to the ideal of being even. The safer bet is to see Lombardozzi return to Syracuse so he can play everyday (and maintain trade value).

Of course, there’s an outside shot that Corey Brown can displace Roger Bernadina as a spare outfielder. Perhaps Mike Cameron will start too slowly again for the Nats to carry him. Or maybe Adam LaRoche won’t be fully healthy or effective after nearly a year off.

It’s also possible someone will shock us from the bullpen, but I think the lack of options for most will be the deciding factor. Dan Cortes and the Ryans (Perry and Mattheus) are your top candidates for the Syracuse-to-DC shuttle (formerly known as the Balester back-and-forth). Otherwise, we’re looking to see if anyone can move up from Harrisburg (Rafael Martin, Erik Arnesen, Pat Lehman).

As always, my hope is to dig up what I can while watching from afar and keep the conversation going until the minors start up on April 5th.

Morning Reading

 News and Notes, Uncategorized  5 Responses »
Feb 282011
 

Today’s the first game of Spring Training, which means we’ll have box scores to look at tomorrow and 234 tweets about Bryce Harper this afternoon. Tomorrow night, the tape-delayed game will be shown on the MLB Network, and for a preview, here’s a story by Bill “The Rocket” Ladson.

In between, a few stories of note that appeared from the rest of the beat guys over the weekend…

MASN’s Ben Goessling posted the roster of the mincamp, a.k.a. accelerated minor-league camp, a list of names we’re rather familiar with as 18 of the 22 pitchers, three of the five catchers, nine of the 10 infielders, and all six of the outfielders are on our watchlist. Goessling also had a nice post about the reuniting of college teammates Corey Brown and Adam Carr.

Steve Lombardozzi is among the infielders (oversight, note that there are nine names but “10″ in the subhead), so perhaps the most notable omission is Tanner Roark. Cameron Selik, Mitchell Clegg and Hassan Pena are three pitchers that weren’t sent to the FIL (almost all the position players were), leading to the inference that they had been shut down for the year (that’s almost certain with Clegg, who was sent to the GCL for a stint). Otherwise, as noted in the comments, it appears that Michael Taylor is being converted to the outfield.

CSN Washington’s Mark Zuckerman filed one of the great staples of spring-training sportswriting, the upbeat teammates piece, profiling the Nats’ double-play combo of Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa, proclaiming they’re a “duo with ‘swagger.’” No word on whether father-to-be Desmond will be rockin’ the swagger wagon.

Washington Post beat writer Adam Kilgore gave us a rundown of Rule 5 pickup Brian Broderick’s faceoff against Bryce Harper, which ended with the 18-year-old going down on strikes just as he did when the two matched up in the Arizona Fall League. As I remarked in the comments, I think he’s going to see a steady diet of offspeed and breaking pitches until he proves he can hit them. In some ways, getting carved up like this a few times may prove beneficial, as it’s clear Mr. Harper is unlikely to be demoralized and more likely to accept his failure a la Pedro Cerrano as a challenge.

 Newer Entries