Nationals Baseball: Monday Whoopsie

Monday, March 25, 2013

Monday Whoopsie

Not "whoopee" - get your mind out of a gutter from the 70s. Whoopsie as in "I made a mistake".  Just deleted a days worth of comments.  Sorry about that.

This comment thing is getting on my nerves. It's not terrible mind you.  I'm not popular enough for that. But this also isn't my job so it's not like I can float in every couple of hours to delete comments. What I'd like to do is just force people to put in a name, even a made up one, because nearly all the spam I'm getting right now is "Anonymous" and I don't think people would care about tossing in a fake name, but there's no way of doing that here. Still thinking. 

Meanwhile the Nats carry on.  The most important way to describe the Nats spring? Unscathed.  Not a single injury that means anything (sorry Christian Garcia!).  While we're all focused on the NCAA Tournament the same thing applies to Spring Training. It's not about doing well.  It's about surviving. Just make it to Opening Day healthy.

Best team in baseball.  No controversy. No injuries.  (Jealous?  Yes. Yes I am)

Let's go already.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's fine by me if you start to require us to sign in before commenting. I don't have an ID at this point, but would be willing to set one up in order to continue to respond to the blog.

Spammers just suck and this seems like a pretty easy way to keep them from undermining a great baseball blog.

-DC Anonymous

Froggy said...

I agree with DC Anon...Will the captcha log in thingy work for you? That seems to cut down on spammers pretty well.

Sirc said...

Vernon Wells doesn't excite you? You must be dead inside.

Harper said...

Anon / Froggy - thanks. I personally hate captcha but if you guys don't mind it it IS an option.

Sirc - I'm a soulless automaton remember? I am dead inside. However Wells does make condensation form around my ocular circuitry.

Zimmerman11 said...

PLEASE NO CAPTCHAS!!! I'd rather log in to comment. Those captchas hurt my head.

Now, do you have any advice on how to watch for the next six months knowing the only desirable outcome is one or multiple playoff series wins?

Is THAT why you're here, Harper, to help us long time losers understand how to best enjoy watching a perennial contender???

Donald said...

When can we start looking at the schedule ahead and making predictions? There are 27 games in April against some very good teams and some very bad teams.

Seven against Cincinnati. Six against Miami. Five against Atlanta. Three each against Chicago White Sox, Mets and Cardinals. If we could end up 17-10, I'd be pretty happy. There are going to be some tough series in there, but Davey's teams usually start fast. At what record do we hit the panic button? 13-14? Probably too early to panic with that. 10-17? Maybe.

Harper said...

z11 - given my own feelings I think that's enough to keep captchas out.

No advice, you'll enjoy the ride to the playoffs no doubt. Expectations just reset once you get there. Really the season isn't what gets ruined by high expectations, it's the offseason Oct through ST.

Donald - now's the perfect time. I think 16-11 is about where the team should be give or take a game. As for panic time, depends on what the other teams do. 10-17 with the Braves going 17-10 would be worrisome division wise, but if the Braves go 13-14 themselves that it's not a big deal. Playoff wise you'd have to go down to like 7 wins or less. At that point even if the perform as we think they should have the rest of the year they are on WC fringes. (Of course if they go 7-20 why would you think they would perform up to expectations the rest of the year).

I'd say tentatively anything 4 games under the Braves in April would have me fixated hard on making up ground in May. Anything in single digits would be PANIC time. Not because the Nats as we know them couldn't still make the playoffs but because I would think we didn't really "know" the Nats.

(FYI - Both Oakland and Texas had months they were 5 games under. That's the worst playoff team month last year)

cass said...

Anything is fine for me. Capcha, forced log-in, or forced name/url.

I'd prefer you spend your time doing other things than deleting spam and I don't like seeing it before you delete it. So I'm all in favor of whatever you need to do.

Section 222 said...

Last year the Nats were very consistent in their 9 18-game sets, which is useful way to divide up the season suggested by those old guys on MASN's talk show. Take 10 out of every 18 games and you've got 90 wins and a ticket to the playoffs. 11 and you're a great team and almost certainly a division winner. Last year's record:

14-4
8-10
10-8
10-8
11-7
12-6
12-6
12-6
8-10

We have the good fortune in April of facing the Marlins 6 times, but also face the Reds 7 times. If we can take advantage of the Marlins and win 4 or 5 games and take the series against the White Sox, Mets, and Cardinals, we can lose a series against the Braves and Reds and still be over .500 for the month. I'll be very happy with 16-11, and fine with 15-12, depending on how hot the Braves start out as you note.

BlueLoneWolf said...

It's whatever, I'll find a way around it to bore you with my diatribes.

Just remember, one week left. Opening day predictions against the Miami Fish Carcass? Strasmas v. Nolasco for the first division game of the season! Glad I get MASN in BBurg.

NatsVA said...

What's all this "your" stuff Harper? Even though you're a Yankees fan, you've been here since the beginning and are as much a part of this and the Nats fanbase as the rest of us are.

But seriously, Vernon effing Wells? Oy!

Lee said...

Since it was posed...

My guess/hope for April:
Marlins: 4-2
Reds: 4-3 (for home field)
White Sox: 2-1
Braves: 3-2 (for home field)
Mets: 2-1
Cards: 1-2 (hedging the Sox pick)

Totals: 16-11...a 96-66 pace. Anything better is just gravy.

Worthless speculation of course.

Dr Trea (formerly #werthquake) said...

I agree, i usually set to get emailed follow ups to see responses to me, then i get an email about a post from a month ago! I hate those capcha's but if its the only thing that works, then so be it.

Froggy said...

Ok, so capthcha wasn't a popular idea. I was going to suggest retinal scans...but it doesn't matter to me as I log in anyway. Regardless, I'm in support of doing whatever is necessary to keep the spammers out.

I predict there will be 'something different' about the way Davey coaches this year and we start seeing it when we go 14-13 in April.

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