Well... That sure was an incredible game last night - I mean, I can't believe that Manchester United was able to come back from a 3 goal deficit to tie the game, simply amazing!
And now, as you wake up from your food and beverage induced coma, call in "sick" to work only to sit down at your computer to read some Nats coverage, it's time to remind you what is really important in the world of sports.
The Nats pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS.
In less than two weeks we will have actual on-the-field news to report instead of just speculation on how the rosters might shake out. It's time to get down to business. To start, let's figure out just what we do know about the 2012 Nats, no guessing.
How many roster spots are locked up and who owns them?
By my count the Nationals have 19 players locked in for 2012.
C -Ramos, Flores
INF - LaRoche, Espinosa, Desmond, Zimmerman
OF - Werth, Morse
SP - Strasburg, Zimmermann, Gonzalez, Jackson
RP - Storen, Clippard, Rodriguez, Lidge, Burnett
P - Detwiler, Wang
Who is fighting for a spot?
INF - Lombardozzi, DeRosa, Moore
OF - Harper, Bernadina, Cameron, Ankiel
SP - Maya (Ha!), Lannan
RP - Mattheus, Perry, Severino, Gorzelanny, Stammen
My two cents on who is going to actually fill out the last 6 spots -
P - Gorzelanny (Under contract for $3 Mil)
OF - Harper (Davey wants him), Cameron (Veteran bench guy), Ankiel (Proved valuable last year)
INF - Lombardozzi (Will push for playing time), DeRosa (Veteran utility guy)
This is purely on the roster as currently designed - I believe that Lannan will be traded, most likely a center fielder (Nick Cafardo reported Sunday that the Nationals are attempting to get Peter Bourjos from the Angels for John Lannan - which would be a coup). In which instance, we will have to play this little exercise again.
What are your thoughts on the 25-man, as currently constructed?
No way Harper makes the roster out of Spring Training. It would simply cost the team way too much money down the road not to hold him back for two months. He can easily use another couple of months' seasoning at AAA anyway, so it is not even a bad baseball decision, unless he absolutely kills the ball in ST.
ReplyDeleteLannan for Bourjos would be great. If not, trading Wang seems to make more sense since Lannan is under team control next year and they still need to fill two rotation spots at that time once Jackson (likely) moves on.