Nationals Baseball: Don't not trade Lannan to the Red Sox!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Don't not trade Lannan to the Red Sox!

First Commandment - Do not trade John Lannan
Second Commandment - If you must trade John Lannan, do not trade him to the Red Sox

(I have a weak understanding of the word "commandment")

I don't want to hate John Lannan and root for his utter and complete failure. Don't make me.  Tigers? If you must.  I would at least then see how Roar of the Tigers renders his eyebrows in illustration. But to Boston? America's ear infection? No I say, no.

13 comments:

Positively Half St. said...

I love your reaction, although I am a casual fan of the Red Sox. What I like much better is the link to that Roar of the Tigers site. We need someone with similar artistic skill to start a copycat site for the Nats.

Alas, that person is not I.

+1/2St.

Donald said...

I don't think the Nats are as desperate to trade Lannan as the press is making out. There's going to be a point this season -- probably in July or August when games are meaningful, that they need Lannan. If he's not there, it's going to be Maya or Gorzelanny, which is not a good prospect. If they can get a starting CF for him, it'll still be worth it. But if all he brings back is an AA guy, I just don't see it. Why not at least wait until the trade deadline to see if you can get more?

bdrube said...

I agree with Donald. Trading Lannan seems contrary to the goal of trying to make the playoffs this year. They are going to need five good starters in September after Strasburg is shut down. Lannan is a great insurance policy to have in this most important of seasons.

Ollie said...

They should be patient with him and let the market develop more to where they want it.

This has been suggested before, but why not do a 6-man rotation until Lannan's traded? Unorthodox, yes, but it buys some Strasburg starts later in the season and lets them utilize one of their better pitchers (Lannan) while showcasing him for a trade. If he pitches well then it drive the price up. If not then you have 4+ seasons of mostly solid, back of the rotation-level starts to lean on in negotiations.

DezoPenguin said...

They could send him to the Yankees for Brett Gardner instead! ;)

Ben said...

I stand second to none in my Red Sox hatred, and would overall prefer not to trade Lannan. But what about a Lannan for Ryan Kalish, the Sox 23-year old CF prospect who consistently had .360+ OBPs in the minors (he was hurt last year), is projected as a 20HR/20SB guy, and is essentially forever stuck behind Ellsbury on the depth chart? (Kalish was projected as the Sox' CF of the future until Ellsbury turned into such a monster). And if Lannan is too valuable, who should we give up for a very good CF prospect?

Harper said...

1/2St>0 - Love ROTT, I'm a sucker for illustrations. If you have a few minutes check out the Passover posts.

Donald - OR Rizzo is trying to make it seem that way to not deflate Lannan's value. Personally I don't think they are DESPERATE but I think they would much rather have him off the team than on. Sticking him in AAA doesn't hurt the team but doesn't do much to help it either.

bdrube - Maybe - I think you'd hope by September they'd have another round of "Peacocks" ready to step in - Meyer, Purke, Ray

Ollie - I do think that's right though, if what they get back can't help the team now there is no reason really to trade him. As for the 6-man...I don't like it. You're trading a few less ZNN and GIO starts for a few more from Wang and Lannan

Dezo - From what I remember Kalish projects out to be a corner OF (though he could play CF) and he's injured right now, so it'd be a double gamble.

michael k said...

If the Nats get good value for Lannan, then the trade to the Sox would be worth it because it would technically make their team worse. Right? But I don't think the Nats are going to get fair value for Lannan if they trade him now.

Don't the Sox need a RF now that JD Drew is old? Kalish will probably end up playing there, I think.

Harper said...

whoops that was obvioulsy Ben in the last response

Dezo - Lannan a Yankee would be a dream scenario for both me and him.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/long-beach-product-john-lannan-shuts-yankees-nats-win-article-1.377288

Anonymous said...

Doesn't Don't not mean to actually do it. It's a double negative. Do not not trade Lannan to the Sox. So trade away!

Dr Trea (formerly #werthquake) said...

I think your confusing Boston with Philadelphia.

Ollie said...

"Excuse me, I think I have some Yankees in my Nationals blog."

As for the six-man, you don't trade too many Lan-Wang starts for Gio-ZNN ones, only a handful. With the bullpen a strength this year, and probably two relievers capable of extended inning outings if needed, why not do that with the intent to flip Lannan (or Wang...) around the deadline?

Theoretically any strain placed on the bullpen by having one less arm there would be cancelled out by a sixth quality starter, more rested starting pitchers.

They are in no man's land for it, with six quality starters but two (Wang and Strasburg) who can't rack up innings as much.

Anonymous said...

Proofreading. It's a good idea.