Don't change the team that won for the curly-W's. The only ?? I see is that 5th starter: sign Edwin Jackson? A what price? How do the Nats get Jackson to pitch well consistently? Key: this is a young team that won the most games in MLB in spite of more injuries than I can remember hitting any team that I followed, and I've followed baseball since I was about 4 years old. 1952. Honest: I learned to read by memorizing the back of 1953 baseball cards. "Zack Wheat, Philadelphia A's, won none and lost one". To my five-year old mind, that was the ultimate futility. My Dad still remembers that I would burst out laughing. Ah, the old red glider on 6th Place, NE, just of South Dakota Avenue, when the kids from our block would gather on the porch because it was too hot to play baseball. (Bob Short's Denny McClain was far in the future).
Sign LaRoche, even at 3 years and $40 million. He is worth it. He fields like an infielder. He hits. He's solid.
Morse? He hits. He's not a good LF, but he hits. If 2011 was a career year, then his hitting in 2012 would have been about equal if he had been healthy. Maybe Davey has to find a way to get Morse or Moore time at 1B...but Morse needs to play for the Nats. And so do Lombo, Moore, and Sharkadina. Yes, the team has more starting-quality players than positions, but e have to expect injuries somewhere. My hunch is that Bernadina hit an honest .290, and probably would have hit more if he had played every day. Lombo certainly hit well in August, when he started at 2B.
In fact, I like to see the entire team return. Flores might be extra, assuming Leon or Solanno can be backup catcher if Ramos is not healed. The team need to find a spot for Christian Garcia, maybe as a two-inning relief guy. He was a starter in the Yankees organization, but his arm broke down. Take it slow. So far, the Nats have done that, and I think Garcia will improve. Yet another guy you hope succeeds.
Add that hope somebody teaches Espinosa to hit line-drives, rather than pretend he is Harmon Killebrew in miniature. Please read Stephen Walker's "It's a Whole new Ballgame" about the 1969 Nats. Special credit: find the quote from our own CALSGR8. Here's what advice Ted Williams would have given to Espi: "you sorry [], I don't care if you hit 17 home runs, you struck out 189 [] [] []ing times you [] [] dog[]. Every time you strike out you might as well stay on the bench. Wave a white []ing flag, you [], cause you're worthless...no, you are a []ing danger to the team and you're lucky I don't shove a bat up your []!!! Now, Nellie says you have potential, so I won't drown you in the Tidal Basin, but I ought to, and I will if you do that [] again!!!"
(Ted was famous, or infamous, for "brutal honesty" with his players. He hated strikeouts. He worked with Frank Howard and you can see the change from sloppy-hitting power-Frank to his 1969 season)
No need for a CF. Harper will learn the position, and he has speed and an arm. in AAA the Nats have Eury Perez, who needs a chance to hit major league pitching, and Goodwin should be in AAA by the all-star break...then, holy tamales, by Saints Sam Rice and Goose Goslin: the Nats will be over-loaded with OF.
So when do pitchers and catchers report???
