The Nats are at it again. Last April they crushed it starting pitching wise. Here's how the 4 returning guys did.
Gio 1.82
Ross 1.64
ZNN 1.33
Stras 1.13
Pretty good huh? Right now Gio and Stras are sitting at 0.00 so they are on pace to match that. I have little doub that ZNN will do about the same against this Marlins lineup featuring 7 AAA batters and Giancarlo "2 weeks from going full Felipe Lopez" Stanton. Detwiler vs the Reds in Cincy... Ok that's a test.
As for the team not hitting, yeah they did that last year too. .226 / .304 / .328. Don't expect a big turnaround. We talked a couple of weeks ago that the Nats bats are slow starters.
Where does this leave Nats fans? Probably the same place it has been the last two nights. Watching awesome pitching and waiting for just enough offense to put the game away. Not ideal, but it'll work for now. We expect 17 wins for the month, but really the key is to be over .500 and not too far behind anyone. A slow start like that never killed anyone. A 2-0 start is a good... ummm... start.
If the sucky hitting continues, the key will be learning to wait it out. It may be until late May before we should have a talk if something is wrong with player/position X that the Nats need to deal with. That's a long time away. A long time to just say nothing when our instincts are to bitch.
So divert. Go back to the above. Focus on the new goal - 32 innings without a run scored to start a season (or 35 if you prefer earned runs). We'll talk about who's hot right now (BRYCE HMVPER) and who's not (Hi, Keyhole!) tomorrow. (but not in any real - "this means something" way)
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8 comments:
Equally interesting is what's going on in the rest of the division. The Braves (and Mets) are really crushing the ball. And Halliday? Was that a weird pitching line or what? I have no idea what that portends for their year. He certainly can still miss some bats with his offspeed stuff, but man, that 'fast' ball wasn't working.
I will say...it could easily had been 3-4 runs in the first inning last night. They were smoking the ball, just right at people. Little bad luck.
either way...keep it rolling today ZMM
The good news is the Nats crushed the ball yesterday - they just hit it right to opposing outfielders. Wasn't it said by FP around the 6th that the Nats had 5 line drive outs? That would've made them 2/7 in line drives when he said it, which isn't going to continue. The bad news is, well, it was against a sucky pitcher, so it might not mean anything.
On Halliday - he's on my fantasy team - so you can imagine what's going through my mind with him right now. 9/10 outs are Ks? He's gotta turn around the babip, right?
Harper (Bryce) - the main thing I've seen from him that has me excited for the year is he's hitting offspeed pitches. If that continues, and there isn't a single, consensus way to get him out, I think he can have one of those crazy seasons that was alluded to in your "hitters who do what harper did when they were 19" post.
I know you need to write blogs, but I don't think we can look at any numbers until we're done with the first two series.
For now, just watch and enjoy, I think. I'm generally more a fan of pitchers, but I think Bryce Harper is the most fun-to-watch hitter I've ever seen. For me personally, not in an objective sense. I've been jinxing him all offseason with MVP and now I've taken to going further with "best player since Willie Mays". So. Much. Fun.
Sorry - I just am a bit giddy that I can plop down a Hamilton on any weeknight and head down to SoCapSt to watch a world class baseball team with two or three future-hall-of-famers in their primes.
Donald - Halladay might not be done but he can't be fixing what's wrong in the majors. The Phillies don't have that margin of error.
DC Natty - Yeah and while I won't say the Marlins were ready to bust out at any time they should have scored a run by now. you don't get 0 runs just by great pitching. A team can't throw 110 perfect pitches. Gotta have some luck.
mike k - Marlins and Nats both having bad luck at the plate. Starting point matters though.
Halladay - K's don't mean as much anymore. Everyone Ks. I'd sit him until he has a decent start.
Bryce has hit a few off-speed pitches but they've all been low in the zone, kind of the lefty batter's wheelhouse. Maybe I'll review tomorrow see what I see.
cass - hell end of the month is probably too early to really write about performance. If I do go hot or not it's more of a Reds series preview type of thing. Can't read anything more than that.
Not sure what you mean in your response about Halladay, saying you'd sit him until he has a decent start. Kind of hard for him to have a decent start when he's sitting. I think they are in a bit of a pickle with him. He's probably not going to agree to a trip to the minors to get his act together unless he cops to some injury we don't know about.
They could try to Lincecum him to the pen but is that really a better option?
Donald if you read what Harper was responding to, i'm pretty sure he meant sit Halladay in fantasy until he does better in real life.
Anyways, though its been 2 (and a half as i type this) games, I do see a strikingly similar start as last year. To be honest, I'm not complaining. Its april, cold weather, and fun to see scratch and crawl games, so long as we win them of course.
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