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Unanswered questions for the Washington Nationals as they head to spring training Washington enters the 2012 season with a beefed up rotation and bullpen, but largely the same bats.
1. How will Davey Johnson view Bryce Harper?
Davey Johnson's experience with Dwight Gooden in 1984 shapes his outlook: The 19-year-old Gooden skipped three minor league levels and dominated the majors with a legendary season. An enormous talent, Johnson believes, can flout baseball's take-it-slow developmental conventions. He'll push to give Harper every chance to head north with the Nationals.
John McDonnell
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The Washington Post
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2. Will Bryce Harper make the opening day roster?
Ultimately, it may not be a difficult decision to start Harper in the minors. Keeping a prepared prospect in the minors for too long is a minor misstep at worst. Promoting one too early and then sending him back down would invite catastrophe. Harper would have to prove beyond any doubt he could thrive in the majors while, at 19, learning the professionalism teammates and management expect. Don't forget that he’s never played at Class AAA or dominated at Class AA, his ascendant Arizona Fall League performance notwithstanding. The Nationals insist Harper's preparedness will be the only factor, but there's also the business side. If the Nats wait until mid-May to promote Harper, they would delay him becoming eligible for free agency by a year. By starting him in the majors, the Nationals would effectively sacrifice a full season of Harper at 25 for one month of him at 19. Which would you prefer?
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3. Who will play center field?
Harper's whereabouts on April 5 will play the deciding factor. If the Nationals put him on the 25-man roster, he would man right field and shift Jayson Werth to center field. If Harper begins the season in the minors, Werth would stay in right and the Nationals would make their center field job an open competition between Rick Ankiel, Mike Cameron and Roger Bernadina, with the likeliest result a platoon with Ankiel and Cameron. Whoever ends up in center likely won't stay for long — only until Harper does reach the majors. Werth has ample experience in center, including last fall when the Nationals moved him there with 2012 in mind. He looked comfortable, covering ground with his long, gliding strides and getting to balls some faster outfielders couldn't with sound jumps.
Henny Ray Abrams
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AP
4. What are the Nationals going to do with all their starting pitchers?
The Nationals once struggled to fill out their starting rotation. With the return of Stephen Strasburg and the acquisitions of Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson, their only problem this spring is sorting it out. They are taking eight qualified starters to camp, and John Lannan — the opening day starter in 2009 and 2010 — seems like the odd man out. Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann and Gonzalez are locked in. The Nationals cannot trade Chien-Ming Wang or Jackson until late May because they signed as free agents. Ross Detwiler is out of options and therefore can't be sent to the minors. So is Tom Gorzelanny, a part of the opening day rotation last season and now a reliever.
Jonathan Newton
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The Washington Post
5. What will happen to John Lannan?
The Nationals are open to trading Lannan, but they insist they'll deal him only at their price. With Zimmermann, Wang and Strasburg all recently recovered from surgery, the Nationals know they need insurance. If they can't find a desirable return for Lannan, they could stash him at Class AAA Syracuse to start the season because of his remaining minor league option, which would be surprising given his solid performance and his $5 million salary. For now, he'll compete for a spot and give the Nationals luxury. If they suffer an injury in their rotation, they'll have a more-than-capable replacement. And if (or, more likely, when) another team loses a starter to injury, the Nationals can use their surplus to pry a valuable player in a trade.
Scott Cunningham
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Getty Images
6. Where will the runs come from?
After scoring more than only six major league teams in 2011, the Nationals effectively stood pat this offseason. Rather than improving from the outside, the Nationals counted on internal improvement — healthy seasons from Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche, steps forward by Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa and, maybe most noticeably, a bounce-back season out of Jayson Werth.
Matt Slocum
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AP
7. Will Jayson Werth rebound?
The key for Werth could be re-learning how to mash against left-handed pitchers. Entering last year, he had hit .292/.394/.550 against lefties in his career. His first year in Washington, lefties held him to .184/.307/.368. After he made a career out of creaming southpaws, Werth suddenly produced the fourth-lowest batting average against them in the majors among right-handed hitters.
John McDonnell
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The Washington Post
8. Who will hit leadoff?
After their leadoff hitters reached base at a major league-worst .285 clip last year, the Nationals will entrust the top spot to shortstop Ian Desmond. He struggled at the plate for most of 2011, but for the last quarter of the season he batted leadoff and hit .304/.342/.437. Desmond has shown flashes of offensive ability, and the Nationals believe he'll show it in his third full season.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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AP
9. How will the Nationals handle expectations?
The Nationals will arrive at spring training with a decidedly unfamiliar challenge. Previously they have been a curiosity, a laughingstock and an afterthought, but never what they are now: A potential contender, maybe a chic pick to unseat the Phillies in the National League East. They may have the perfect manager for dealing with the new attention — Johnson thrives on whipping his teams into a just-try-to-beat-us fervor. Before any outside influence takes hold, Johnson himself will convince the Nationals that they're contenders, and should expect to be treated as such. The next six months will tell us if they deserve it. But they can dream now — and, well, that’s what spring is for.
Jonathan Newton
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The Washington Post
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