Nationals Baseball: Topics of conversation

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Topics of conversation

Lannan, still gaining acceptance. Some better fielding and the his game would have looked a lot better... but still been a loss. I don't want to say that Thursday's game is a must win (because it isn't) but a loss would mark some interesting 2010 milestones.
  • The Nats would fall 3 games under .500 for the first time this season, making it their "low point".
  • Combined with a Braves win the Nats would fall 6.5 games out of first in the NL East - the furthest they would be behind the leader in the division this season.
  • Combined with any of 3 wins, the Nats would fall 6.5 out of the Wild Card lead, the furthest they've been out of that all year (granted since today - but that still counts!). It would also set them to possibly fall into 10th in the Wild Card race over the weekend, (depending on how the Cubbies do) a place they haven't been since the 2nd week of the season.
Some other thoughts on last nights "events"

Replay - It didn't effect the outcome of the game, did it? So we're bothered because... an accomplishment has been robbed from Galarraga? He can no longer be Len Barker in 20 years? It's unfair, sure but... I mean it's a game, right? I don't care if they end up using replay or not, I guess I'd come down on the "might as well use it since they have it" side, but I'd like the outrage saved for when it matters a bit more.

Griffey - Thank you Ken for going out the right way, hanging on until the game forces you out the door one way or another. I'm not being sarcastic. Athelets have a profession that they love to do, and they get paid very well for doing it, but can only do it for 10-15 years if they are really lucky. Keep going till they rip the bat from your cold dead hands.

6 comments:

Positively Half St. said...

The pity for Griffey is that he should have had a farewell tour, but the Mariners mistreated him with the "sleeping in the dugout" leak.

Harper said...

It's hard to have a farewell tour when you don't know if he's leaving. My collection of "Last game for Brett Favre" ticket stubs will attest to that (I do not actually own such a thing - but now that I think about it - it would be pretty cool)

Hoo said...

Last night was the microcosm of Nats offense. The latter half was a debacle of hitting and Njer made yet another costly baserunning move to blow an inning.

I'm not a Ray Knight fan but his line that "He can't read pitchers." Seems pretty darn apt describing Morgan. 1/8 times Morgan reaches base he gets a CS. Horrific.

I don't think the Nats can make a strong playoff run with Njer at leadoff /CF.

Bryan said...

Last night was an embarrasment for Desmond, who I actually like. Rarely is one baseball player the sole reason a team loses, but Desmond's three errors and 5 LOB comes pretty close.

And I disagree with Hoo. While I'm not sure this team can make a push yet anyway, to the extent that they can, I think they can make a push with Morgan, but he's going to have to be more judicious.

Harper said...

My present theory - there's a nagging injury that is causing Nyjer to be a bit slower and that's weraking havoc with him because speed is what he is. That would explain his drop in bunts for hits as well. Makes more sense than he suddenly can't bunt anymore or got even worse at reading pitchers.

Hoo said...

It's more a regression to the mean. He's never been a great basestealer. Currently he's as far under his career average as he was over during his starturn last year. I'd say he's pretty much a career 2/3 guy, which is breakeven.

It could be a foot injury but a lot of it is being picked off, which is more about not reading the pitcher. They're clean picks where he makes his break as the pitcher throw to 1st.

I think he can be a 2 or 8 guy but not sure about #1. And I hope that Bernadina gives him some competition for starting CF. Bernie isn't as good with the bat but has more pop and he's younger. I assume we sign a new corner OF, which means that Roger can assume either the Harris role or have a good year and content for CF.