Conundrum and Solution

Posted by Mike Henderson on Jan. 12, 2009 at 8:45 AM
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As we puzzle over the Nationals front office's sudden and unaccountable infatuation with Xavier Nady, our thoughts bounce back to last March, when this Hutch indulged in more of its customary hand-wringing, that time regarding the future of John Lannan.

John LannanHis vault from single-A ball to the majors in a space of three months in 2007 caused us to wonder whether he was being pushed too far, too fast. But a great Spring Training provided a flicker of hope that Lannan could somehow help the 2008 staff hold it together.

There were a lot of things we should have been wringing our hands about, but that turned out not to be one of them.  John Lannan has proven to be the real deal.

And why shouldn't he have been?  The 2008 season, after all, wasn't the first time he'd been called on to amp it up a notch. In his draft season, 2005, his innings load grew from 109 2/3 to 146, which is pushing it just a bit for a 20-year-old (and which we fervently hope doesn't come back to haunt him).

It was an understandable push, given his performance in collegiate summer ball the year before. In response to a Hutch request for information about Lannan's 2004 season in the Great South League, here's what Athens Pirates general manager Bill Park had to say.

The Georgia heat of the summer convinced John that he could throw as hard as he could without hurting himself (he was used to the cold Spring weather in Albany NY).  As a result his velocity picked up about 3-5 mph.  He developed a very good change to go with his curve and working more inside with the fastball. I think more than anything else, our coaches, Ricky Jones (a MLB veteran) and Dan Horne helped John develop the quiet confidence he has and that he could compete at the highest levels. Coach Jones was very encouraging to John that he had MLB talent. I told Bill Capps, the SCBL Commissioner and former White Sox scout, John would get a chance to play in the bigs. Not too many people believed us at the time.

We think it's a safe bet, Mr. Park, that you can count a lot of Nats Nation as believers now.

Here is John Lannan's stat line for 2004 in the Great South League (source: Athens Pirates GM Bill Park):

Team W L ERA G IP H HR BB SO
Athens 4 0 1.95 7 37.0 32 0 10 37

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Tags: Pitching, Xavier Nady, John Lannan, Athens Pirates, Bill Park, Ricky Jones, Dan Horne, Bill Capps, Great South League



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Bring Hondo Home!

Mike Henderson is a medical informatics consultant based in Silver Spring, Maryland. He grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, rooting for the great Pirates teams of the 1970s that he's really never got over. (And he still misses Pirates announcer Bob Prince.)

Upon moving to the DC area in 1984, he duly began rooting for the Orioles but found it was never quite the same. Especially after the 1994 strike and the Angelos teardown.

Mike's inner fanboy came back to life the minute the Nats hit RFK in 2005. He shares his random observations with the discerning readers of Nationals Pride and eagerly awaits the day when he'll be complaining about having to pay entirely too much for playoff tickets at Nats Park.


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