Odd. Looked down at the books and there were the same amount of Curly W's in it as the day before.
The Nats face an interesting weekend. While they try to knock the Marlins around, the rest of the NL East faces the non Dodger part of the NL West. The Phillies keep playing a Padres team that has problem scoring runs against bad pitching let alone Hamels and Halladay. The Mets take on the fairly punchless Giants. And the Braves, who have scored 7, 9, 14, and 10 runs in 4 of their last 5 games, take on the D-backs. Honestly I expect one of those teams to sweep the weekend so the Nats really do need to take 2 of 3 at least, to keep their little lead.
Since no one wants to talk about a dumb loss how about a look around the league at some former and could have been Nats?
Prince
Prince Fielder : .354 / .418 / .521 Yep he's that good. Still going to be death at the end of that contract though.
The Gio Deal
Tom Milone : 2-1, 2.84 ERA
Brad Peacock : 1-1 1.42 ERA in AAA
AJ Cole : 0-2 4.80 ERA in High A
Derek Norris: .306 / .302 / .612 in AAA
I wouldn't take the deal back, because Gio gives the Nats the NOW stats they need, but the 2013 A's likely will owe 2/5ths of their rotation and their starting catcher to dealing Gonzalez. Glad to see a deal work out for everyone.
The Centerfield Mess
The "settle for these guys" the Nats didn't settle for
Marlon Byrd : .075 / .159 / .075. Just noting.
Kosuke Fukudome : .143 / .200 /.143. Yep done.
The foreign gambles passed on
Norichika Aoki : .300 / .417 / .300 Numbers look good but he's been strictly a PH so far. 13 PAs.
Yoenis Cespendes : .222 / .340 / .533. May have made a mistake here because that power is for real.
The "trade for these guys" not really on the table, but felt available if the Nats would pay through the nose
Dexter Fowler : .216 / .326 / .459. Don't buy the power. 15 homers over last 3 years.
Peter Bourjos : .206 /.229 /.324. Not this bad, but not as good as you might have thought.
BJ Upton : Should play first game today.
The "trade for these guys" not available
Adam Jones : .321 / .357 / .679 Hey look Luis Ayala is on the O's and doing ok!
Denard Span : .327 / .364 / .442. Off the market once they got rid of Delmon last year. There's a reason these guys weren't available.
Old Friends and such
Adam Dunn : .222 / .340 / .400. A slow start for Adam in a season where he needed a fast one. He's still a couple of 0-fer games from being terrible and he hasn't hit a home since Opening Day. I'm not ready to call this 2011 redux just yet but he needs to get a streak going or something.
Livan Hernandez : 4.70 ERA. Unimpressively eating up unimportant innings for the Braves.
Laynce Nix : .188 / .278 / .313. Just one small part of the Phillies offense problem.
Erik Komatsu : .273 / .385 /.273 The Rule V grab is so far hanging on as the last OF on the bench for Cardinals.
Nyjer Morgan : .139 / .139 / .139 Is the honeymoon over? Probably, but at least the Brewers can feel good they didn't get suckered into a long term deal after last season.
Josh Willingham : .340 / .411 / .700 No he won't keep
hitting like this but he's still a good deal at 7 million. And the
3-year deal means he won't get traded this year. Enjoy your calm
offseason Josh.
Justin Maxwell : .250 / .308 / .500. See Aoki, though he's getting some starts now. Good for him.
6 comments:
nice work, just added this to my google reader. keep up the good work
I still love the Gio trade. Ace in the hand and all that. Still hate the Hammer trade even if H-Rod is becoming a very good closer. The Hammer in Left makes our defense a bit worse but our lineup a lot stronger.
Still glad that Morgan is gone and was very, very wrong on Dunn deal. I wanted a shorter but high-end contract. I'm shocked at just how quickly Dunn fell off the cliff. Yikes!
BTW, I think Milone can settle into a John Lannanish niche. He doesn't K folks but still a 4sh ERA for the A's is good. The rare win/win trade.
I know how much you like Lannan, so I don't mean to pick at a sore subject, but you could have listed his AAA starts in your list of might have beens...
Nice synopsis of why Rizzo didn't pull the trigger on a CF deal. So far, looks like wise prudence. There was nobody readily available...
Focusing on pitching is the way to go in this type of market.
Jury still out on the EJackson move.
I have to agree with Nattydread. The guys that were available for CF, well, weren't available outside of wishful thinking. I *am* glad we didn't trade for Upton, whom I think is vastly overrated.
(It's one reason why I, too, am very confused by the Jackson signing--it's a one-year deal, paying $10M for a fourth starter. Given Jackson's history of being a "high upside, mediocre reality" guy who...well, his last two starts pretty much sum him up, as I expect to get some of each, it only makes sense if the Nats are in "win now" mode, and unless the pitching stubbornly refuses to regress even a little from where it is now, "win" for 2012 means "squeak into the playoffs." Is the difference between Jackson and Lannan going to mean that difference? And if Rizzo thinks it actually is, why not sign Jackson for 2 or 3 years? If nothing else, at least he's been durable.)
Gio deal looks good for everybody. Adding in the contract extension Riz gave him plus his past performance, it looks like we've gotten a #2-3 starter for the next half-decade-plus in exchange for a bunch of guys who will probably also be good, or be flipped for prospects, for the As.
Fielder...you know, honestly, I can see him being the next David Ortiz, playing out the last 4-5 years of that contract being the DH and actually hitting the ball there (He'll be overpaid, of course, but if he gives his team a .900 OPS out of the DH slot, it's at least money well spent.). It's a contract that could only have been given by an AL team, of course.
Willingham...really, the only reason I didn't want the Nats to keep him was his injury history. Of course, now Morse (who's Willingham 2.0 with fewer walks and better BA) has promptly gotten hurt...
Yeah...how *is* Lannan doing in the minors, anyway?
Best of all, though, Det proves again that momentum is only as strong as the next game's starting pitcher. ^_- Since it didn't hurt the Nats, I can also sit back and admire Bonafacio's eighth-inning at-bat (hm, speaking of "old friends" playing CF!).
Ho Hum, another shutout another win. No one said the NATS would win 113. I said and still say 90 games-no playoffs. It is all about pitching this year. It will be consisent all season.
Post a Comment