At this time last year, Brad Lord was one of the biggest stories of Nationals Spring Training. After working at Home Depot in the offseason, the former 18th round pick pitched his way on to the Nationals roster. Following a solid rookie season, Lord is flying much more under the radar.<\/p>\n
He is a lock to make the roster, the only question is what role he will serve. Lord is a quiet, go with the flow guy, which makes him the perfect candidate to bounce between the rotation and bullpen. He just wants to help the team in whatever way he can. Lord told me that he will \u201cDo whatever they need and I am always open to anything\u201d.<\/p>\n
As of right now, he is building up to be a starter, but he is not sure what his ultimate role will be. After the Zack Littell signing, I think he is likely to head to the bullpen. He was more effective out of the bullpen last year, posting<\/a> a 2.79 ERA in that role. However, he was reliable wherever he pitched and was a rare bright spot on a brutal Nats pitching staff.<\/p>\n Lord faded a bit down the stretch, but he still had a great rookie season for a guy taken in the 18th round. He posted<\/a> a 4.34 ERA in 130.2 innings as a rookie. His ability to generate<\/a> ground balls and keep the ball off the barrel made him a solid MLB pitcher. To get to the next level, he will have to refine some of his secondary pitches, as he was very fastball reliant last year.<\/p>\n He threw<\/a> either a 4-seam or a sinker 66.5% of the time last year. With the Nationals cutting fastball usage, I anticipate that to go down. However, the heater should still be Lord\u2019s bread and butter. His low arm slot<\/a> and solid velocity make his fastballs quite good. He just needs another weapon that hitters have to respect.<\/p>\n Lord told me that one thing he was refining is his changeup. He did not make any massive changes, but the righty did tweak his changeup grip. Last year, the changeup was a solid weapon to lefties, but nothing special. This grip change could improve the pitch. Lord used the changeup to overwhelm Nolan Gorman yesterday in his Spring Training outing.<\/p>\n