Nats interested in Sheets!

Thank god. Not that I necessarily think the Nats should make an offer to Sheets (depends on how he looks), or that they should work hard to sign him (depends on how much other teams are looking at spending on him) but it would be silly for the Nats not to look at Sheets.

Sheets is high-risk high-reward type player. When healthy he is a #1 type pitcher, an ace. He's never been anything else. Any team with a rotation slot not set up with a youngster should be taking a long look at him to see if he's worth the gamble. It was kind of bothersome to me that we hadn't heard much about this before now.

Chances are the Nats won't make an offer at Sheets. The "high-risk" part is injury and the Nats almost certainly don't want to gamble with that. They've seen what trying to find another rotation arm can do to a pitching staff. Bad starting pitching, wearing our the bullpen, etc, etc. They want everything nice and set up for Strasburg and that means at least a couple of dependable arms in the rotation and a healthy decent bullpen. Counting on Sheets could risk both. Plus with all these teams interested, if Sheets does looks good then his price will go way up. So a high price for a type of player they probably aren't interested in = no dice. But no harm in kicking the tires.

(My opinion? The Nats really should be interested in this type of player because it's when gambles like these really pay off that teams are able to make big strides. However, that would be a divergence in the type of money management we've seen from the Nats so far. They are doing fine with "for value" contract spending for fair to good talent. Whether they are willing to overpay for higher potential or to fill in gaps with a bit more stability for a lot more money is the next step. Whether they are willing to go out and get a Davis and Sheets and worry about Zimmermann's rotation spot when/if Zimmermann comes back and is healthy. Seemed like it last year with Teixiera. We'll see. Doesn't have to happen this year. That is more of a playoff team move.)