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Don't forget to submit your questions for Jim Riggleman using the comment box below, and he might answer yours in his next post!

What was the thought process in bringing up pitchers Ross Detwiler, Marco Estrada, Logan Kensing, Zack Segovia and shortstop Ian Desmond?
A couple of things actually - they all have had good years and done some good things. In Detwiler's case, he was up here earlier and Kensing was up here earlier. Kensing is a guy that has shown a lot of promise, dominated Triple-A and we think he has good enough stuff to get people out up here, but it just hasn't happened. We're going to take another look at him. It's the type of thing where you don't want to make a mistake by not having this guy as part of your future if there is really something there, but he's going to have to show something.

Segovia has had a really nice year and I've heard some good things about him and we want to get a look at him. There is no clock on him like there is with Kensing.

The other guys are getting rewarded for their accomplishments in the Minor Leagues, but also with Detwiler we need a left-hander to come up here and help us a little bit.

Ian Desmond has probably been our best position player down there this year. He's really done a great job and he may have a future here in the very near future as one of our middle infielders, so we want to get a look at him.

Speaking of Desmond, will he get the majority of playing time at shortstop?
I've talked to GM Mike Rizzo about this and he's in agreement, when you have these situations you don't want to ruffle feathers on your guys who have given you a great effort all season. We've got guys like Cristian Guzman, Ryan Zimmerman, Josh Willingham and Adam Dunn; if somebody comes up from the Minor Leagues in September, you don't want to take the at bats away from guys who have played hard for you all year and just shove them aside. We'll get Ian at bats but probably not to the extent of what maybe some people would like to see. He's a guy that were going to say 'he's done a nice job at Triple-A, he's got all the tools to be a big league players.' We'll get him some games in the big leagues, but at the same time not sit anybody who has been going out there and given us a great effort all year.

Do you look at this as an audition for Desmond? Is he the shortstop of the future?
I don't look at it as a audition because if that were the case, we'd just stick him out there and play him every day. I think the future of our ballclub, the determination is going to have to be made as to where we can best help ourselves in the middle of the infield. Is Guzman our shortstop down the road or does the club acquire a second baseman to go along with Guzman or do you acquire a shortstop and talk to Guzzie about going to second? These are all questions that have to be answered, but they have to be at the same time. Guzzie has been pretty much a .300 hitter all season, played through pain and to take time away from him, I can't audition Desmond extensively because that would be taking away too many at bats.

You mentioned Guzman possibly moving to second. Have you spoken to him about that and is he okay with the move?
We haven't spoken about it. It's been brought up to me by some writers during our press conferences before or after games, so it's kind of out there that that's on people's minds. I can't say that we haven't given it some thought because we think about anything that will help our ball club, but Guzzie is a pretty good shortstop. He's an offensive shortstop. I'm not sure we want to do that. If we knew that what we wanted to do, maybe we would talk to him about it, but again, it's going to be determined by who is out there this winter that maybe fits for the Nationals and come in and play a middle infield position. If its second, Guzzie is our shortstop. If the only acquisition made was a shortstop, then we'd have to talk to Guzzie about moving to second.

Why has Logan Kensing struggled at the Major League level? He's been very successful at Triple-A. He just hasn't been able to make the transition?
The number one thing is the competition - it's obviously tougher. But, his stuff should play against that competition. I think it has something to do with not locating the ball. Whether that's because the pitches he doesn't locate at Triple-A, he gets away with or he just locates better down there, we have to find that out. We feel that if he can locate his fastball a little better, he's going to have great success because he has a lot of velocity and movement. He's just been too much off the plate to get hitters to bite on it and when he's not off the plate, he's in the middle of it. That's not going to work in the big leagues.

You also have Triple-A manager Tim Foli joining the team. What is his role while he is with the Nationals?
When you bring up some extra players, there is more physical work to be done. Tim is a great physical worker as well as a great teacher. He's got some knowledge about the players we brought up so he's going to be a great asset to us to get his thoughts on these guys. What their strengths and weaknesses are.

For those not familiar with September callups, what exactly will Foli's role be once the game begins?
During the game itself, we really can't add staff members. Basically he'll be in uniform, but his work will primarily be done before the game. During the course of the game, if I use one of the guys who played for him this year, I may run something by him. During the game, Tim will be the guy we go to for information about guys and it may be guys on the other team that he saw in Triple-A this year, we may ask him what he knows about them.

Fan Questions:
You work on the defense on a daily basis, especially at home. What can be done to improve the defense next season?
Basically, just that and the mindset. Where we finish defensively, statistically is not acceptable, that's not going to work and the only way we're going to get better, if we keep the same players, is to make them better; and we can do that defensively. We can't guarantee that we're going to be better hitters and pitchers, but we can improve our defense and the only way to do that is work. That work has to be early and uninterrupted without any distractions of batting practice. Conversations that are going on when other teams are filtering out and guys are saying their hellos - it's got to be more concentrated work that there are no distractions. By doing it early, you're emphasizing that this is a priority that this needs to be done. When we get to the point where we've polished it up enough, we can back off a little, but we are certainly a long way from there.

Does a starter need a third pitch to be successful at the Major League level?
I think you do need that. Years ago there was a manager who had great success in the big leagues who said, 'Don't send me a pitcher from the Minor Leagues until he can command four pitches.' That's asking a lot so what we'd like to have, as [a player] develops through the minors and comes to the big leagues, is that he can command three pitches at least. Generally that means locating his fastball, developing his change-up and commanding one of the two, a curve or slider, any combination of the three; if you substitute a split finger, great. Big league hitters are just too good if they can narrow you down to two pitches. They have too good a chance to not only hit them, but they can also guess right quite often if they know you can only command two pitches. They have a 50/50 chance of guessing and that puts it in their favor.