This past weekend Nyjer Morgan tried to get the nickname "Track Nats" some play since the Nats led the league in stolen bases at the time (they don't anymore). It's a nice try but it doesn't do it for me. That's not totally surprising. Players are notorious nowadays for lame nicknames that are little more than shortened versions of the players real name, Zimm or Guz or Cappy. While Nyjer has shown himself to be much more creative than that, "Tony Plush" is far less "Preacher Roe" and far more "Sasha Fierce". Really, it's a timing issue though. It's going to be hard to keep up the nickname "Track Nats" when the Nats are middle of the pack in the league in stolen bases. Might as well call them the "Golden Arm-y" because their pitching is so great.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say this team doesn't quite yet deserve a nickname. 7-6 is nice but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. (and if they do get nicknamed I vote for the "Capitol Hitters" which works great since the popularity of the basis of that nickname has never died.)
Last night was good, but I don't read much into it. Stammen wasn't going to go 3 innings every start, but I still don't see him as a viable major league starter. Now tonight, this is interesting. If the team is going to maintain being good until Strasburg comes up I think Olsen is key.
2 comments:
If Olsen has his FB back at 91-92, he could be a happy surprise. Not a great surprise but a viable starter and the Olsen/Wang reclamation project will have a success. I've thought getting 1 solid SP out of both of them would be pleasant.
I think Stammen's game last night was like the Bacsik gem vs the Mets that helped saved the pen. Very nice to give everyone a dayoff after having to pitch 9 on Sunday and with a no offdays for a while.
The Pen has gotten a really nice rest over the last few days with 3 of last 4 starters going 7 or more. Clippard hasn't pitched a game in 4 days since throwing 90 pitches in less than a week.
Crazy to think this team is over .500 with Harris outslugging Dunn and our RF hitting <.200 and the Marquis FA a bust so far.
This is the season that the Nats fans should love. Youth is being served(I think Maxwell is doing well enough to send Willy T down when Morse is ready)and the Nats are competitive. If the Nats are anywhere near .500 when Stras is ready, will be a fun summer.
what would you consider "anywhere near"?
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