Thursday, September 24, 2009

Natmosphere in your Ear (September 24, 2009)

Brian joins me to discuss Ian Desmond, utility man, the possibility of MacDougal as closer in 2010, and Aaron Crow's contract.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

John Lannan: 199.1 IP, 3.93 ERA. Barring an epic collapse that won't happen because Lannan owns the Mets, it will look like you were wrong about Lannan regressing to the mean, Lannan being mediocre, and Lannan not being a quality workhouse with 200 IP and a 4.00 ERA. You should quit the business of doubting John Lannan's abilities. I'm excited about his future potential once he is comfortable with his stuff and adjusts to a few hitter who own him like Chase Utley.

Steven said...

How did I know you'd be back, Mr. Anonymous.

Sadly, I never said Lannan was "mediocre," I never said he was "regressing to the mean," and I never said He was not "a quality workhorse."

So there. You're wrong, I'm wrong, let's call it off, eh?

JayB said...

Steven,

That was not me and don't make use look up your comments and $50 bet.....You were wrong a we were right....let end it at that.

Steven said...

How humorous is it to have someone commenting as "anonymous" trying to collect on a bet. Please.

Look up whatever you want. If anyone ever said Lannan was mediocre or not a quality workhorse, I would have disagreed. I argued that Lannan isn't good enough to be a #3 for a contender. Look at the #3s on the contending teams. Buchholz/Matsuzaka, Pettitte, Pineiro, Saunders/Kazmir, Kershaw/Kuroda, De La Rosa... You're just wrong if you think he's as good as those guys. And it's unfair to him to expect him to be that good when it's clearly beyond his ability.

Let him be who he is. A good #4 or 5. A QUALITY WORKHORSE. Best case, he's for the Nationals what Tim Wakefield has been for the Red Sox.

Nationals fans haven't seen a good pitcher other than a could flashes from Zimmermann and Patterson way back. So they get one guy who doesn't fall on his face and mistake him for a front-end starter.

Did I expect Lannan to get to 200 IP with a sub-4 ERA? No. That's a huge achievement. But Lannan this year has pitched over his ability level. Enjoy it. I am. But if you expect that this is the the performance that you should expect from him going forward, you will be disappointed.

estuartj said...

I disagree only so much as I think this overall performance will be indicative of Lannan going forward, 200IP and a 4.00 ERA is NOT a #1-3 starter for a contender, but exactly the kind of guy a contender needs in the #4-5 slot to save the bullpen and scrape out 10-15 wins.

Here is my 2011 starting rotation;
1. Webb
2. Strasburg
3. Zimmermann
4. Detwiler
5. Lannan

THAT is a contender's rotation!

Steven said...

I hope you're right. That's a rotation that could be very good, though there's a lot of projection and injury recovery there. Still, if all those guys worked out, you're right, that's what a contending rotation looks like.