They are a fantastic palate cleanser. If the Nats manage to win tonight will the Brave losses still sting? OK, they will, but as bad?
I'm assuming the Nats can score a few runs on Sanabia (sure he shut out the Mets last time out - but (1) he put on 10 guys in 6 innings and struck out one, & (2) the Mets aren't the Nats) Tonight it's all about Haren. He was OH MY GOD bad in game one, and merely run of the mill bad in game 2. He's given up 19 hits in 9 innings, 9 of those for extra bases. His only saving grace has been that he's walked none. The Marlins are terrible at scoring. They've managed 1.67 runs per game so far. If Haren can't do something as simple as 6IP, 3 runs... well then it may be time to officially worry.
Anything else? Not really. Just for notes purposes - using the Pythagorus W-L right now is useless because big losses (or wins) will have too big an influence as well as quality of opponents faced so far. These things get smoothed out over time. If you must at least remove the largest win and loss from the Nats record and figure out the rest. (they are more 7-6 than 6-7, would be results of that).
Also for those worried about attendance, now that they've had a weekend series (where they averaged 38K) they are out of the bottom area. Still not where they should be but this should show you what a weekend series vs a marquee team can do for the numbers. Now don't look at it again until June!
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It is unfortunate that we are all expecting and demanding sweeps of the Marlins every time the Nats face them, because it is unrealistic. They are absolutely awful at the moment, though. Proving yourself against quality teams be damned! Give me Miami without Giancarlo Stanton any time.
What Harper said last time has me worried a bit... our recent record against good teams is not impressive at all, and we won't be facing Miami if we make the playoffs. Do we have a lot of above average players and no elite ones? And is that a problem?
Our rotation is supposed to be elite...but have they been? We need to get on a roll here... a couple of weeks of series wins will enable us to put the Braves series behind us... but 2/3 or a sweep in MIA isn't gonna cut it.
Last year at this point:
Texas 11-2
LA Dodgers 10-3
Miami 7-6
SF Giants 6-6
Cincinnati 5-8
Everyone freak out!
Haren is a reasonable worry right now. It has been a pretty long while since he has looked "good".
Anything else is for discussion purposes only and really means nothing. Baseball is 5 months of winning more than you lose while hoping to avoid serious injuries. Then if you have won more than you have lost for 5 months you are in the driver's seat. You put the foot on the gas and try to convincingly beat every team you play from September 1st until your season is over.
The Braves are playing great in April... woo hoo. It gives them a nice cushion for the dog days of August, and nothing more. Lets see where we both stand in September.
And by the way, Pencil in J. Zimm for the Cy Young with a Sub 3.00 ERA and 30+ wins this year. After years of being the hard luck loser, the team has finally started hitting for him.
--Vdub
Haha- 30 "plus" wins- I like that, but no. J Zimm could definitely be a candidate this year if he continues pitching like this- and great velocity- definitely a chip on his shoulder. Funny that Demond says "we always seem to have the bats going with Jordan is pitching". Always? you mean this year only? I agree though, i truly believe with run support, JZ will be elite this year. As for Haren- who cares? Detweiler is pitching like a stud, four strong pitchers is a great rotation, and I'm not worried about Stras and Gio turning it around - they will. If you are a Nats fan freaking out right now, you clearly don't watch much other baseball. Like Harper seems to have to remind us every week on this blog, there are ups and downs. The Braves are hot right now. Haren isn't a good pitcher.
What im most excited seeing is that according to VERY early trends- looks like Ian's year last year wasn't a fluke, but rather a breakout.
Somehow it seems our best pitchers are Zimmermann and Detwiler. And the Braves are clearly never going to lose another game. How long till we start looking at the wild card as the only reasonable goal?
Also: Dan Haren sucks. Againt the Marlins.
Harper, it is time to 'officially worry'. The Marlins are terrible and Haren is just plain terrible-er.
Good thing he is only a $13,000,000 terrible, or we would really be in trouble, whew!
What I need from you, Harper, is a solid explanation of why the Braves are destined to crash hard soon. The Nats' record is decent, but they're still 5 games back halfway through April. I know it's a long season, but this Atlanta team shows no signs of slowing and they're not even getting much production from their middle lineup guys.
Also, I repeat, Dan Haren sucks. Never thought I would pine for a start from Edwin Jackson.
Uhhhhh
Still too early to panic. The Nats are 8-6 but 1 or 2 plays go differently in those first two games against the Braves and the Nats would be 10-4 with the Braves at 10-3.
What does worry me though, is Zimm seems like he's got the yips. I don't know how he gets out of that, but if that's the case, it's likely to get even worse as each errant throw weakens his confidence even more. And if it does, there's really no place to move him for the next two years.
There's also the fact the Braves are missing a few guys who will help them.
Chris Young is going to come in handy, Harper.
Well, I went on record last fall about Haren being a good target. But the guy needs to command his fastball ALL the time to be successful right now. I don't understand why he doesn't use the split more, hell, he can throw it for strikes and there just aren't many pitchers using it as much.
Zim needs to command his fastball from 3rd all the time too. I'm more worried about that than Haren.
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