Nationals Baseball: More odds and ends

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

More odds and ends

I have some ideas for longer posts but since they aren't germane to the season at hand I feel I can hold them off. This season only is going to last two more weeks.

AH!

That just really hit me. The season is only going to last 12 more days for the Nats. Of course I still have the Yankees, but they are a loss away from stamping their WC ticket which only guarantees a few more days of baseball that I really care about. And this does nothing for you. Sure we'll watch the other games, but with far less interest.

OK well nothing to do now but watch baseball.

Notes

If you are overly Nats focused here's a quick rundown on the rest of the majors and series to watch.
AL East : Blue Jays have a solid lead, playing Yankees now. The Yankees need to take both left in series to have a good chance at winning East.
AL Central : KC put this away a while ago
AL West :  Texas and Houston are in a dogfight. Their series this weekend (in Houston) is the must watch series of the rest of the season.
AL WC : Yanks are pretty well set to be in it unless they take the East (6 games up on first out Minnesota) and have a leg up on hosting. The loser of the Houston/Texas should be the other WC, but a tank job could open the door for the Twins, Angels or even Cleveland.  To that end Cleveland and Minnesota play 7 times starting tonight. The Angels end with 4 vs the Rangers. We'll see what matters.

NL East : No idea.
NL Central : The Pirates couldn't close on the Cardinals but they have a 3 game set coming up in a week. The Cubs are too far back to worry about the division.
NL West : Dodgers hold the second biggest lead in the majors. The division is done.
NL WC :  There are really only three reasonable possibilities. Pirates host Cubs, Cubs host Pirates, or Cardinals host Cubs. The Pirates and Cubs also play this weekend, that should clear up if the division or the WC hosting is the talk of the final week.


The NL East is closing in on a "Top 5 worst divisions ever" status with a current combined winning percentage of .457.  They play eachother a lot to end the year so how they ultimately finish will be down to about one series a piece for each team.

NYM : 4 games @ Cincinnati
WAS : 3 games v Baltimore, 1 v Cincinnati
MIA : 3 games @ Tampa Bay
ATL : 3 games v St Louis

Hmmm only 14 games. The rest of the games are going to be .500 so I think literally even if they lose all these games they'll gain some ground and probably avoid Bottom 5 status. Congratulations?

19 comments:

Nats Suck said...

The Mets are 6.5 up on the Nats and the Dodgers are 7 up on the Giants yet the NL West is a done deal but you have no idea for the NL East.... I'll stand back and give you one big fat thumbs up on that one.

Ric said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chas R said...

The AL West is a nail biter. Astros have been doing all they can give it to the Rangers, who looked like they were going to surge and run away with it. but then didn't. We are going to 2 of the Astros-Rangers games this weekend.

I think most Astros fans are just pleasantly surprised they are finally playing for something at this point of the season. Rangers fans remind of the old Phillies fans that we used to deal with.

If Astros and Yankees don't take their divisions, I think it highly unlikely Astros beat the Yankees in Bronx. Astros have been awful on the road all year.

Ric said...

Nats Suck said...
The Mets are 6.5 up on the Nats and the Dodgers are 7 up on the Giants yet the NL West is a done deal but you have no idea for the NL East.... I'll stand back and give you one big fat thumbs up on that one.

Um, he was being sarcastic. You might have picked up on that if you read any one of his last nine posts, all which basically say "the Nats are done, the Mets one the division."

I'll stand back and give you two big fat thumbs down on your comment.

Chas R said...

That's a Big 10-4 Ric

Nats Suck said...

Ric Andersen is sour about the Nats season. He'll go back to rooting for the Rangers or Cubs, wherever he's from originally.

Ric said...

Nats Suck said...
Ric Andersen is sour about the Nats season. He'll go back to rooting for the Rangers or Cubs, wherever he's from originally.

You are trash-talking me because YOU didn't get the sarcasm? Um, ok...

I'm from DC; lived here my whole life. Even so, not sure why you would question the loyalty of a fan based on his/her hometown. And sour? No, not really. Definitely not sour to the point where I go trolling others on their team sites.

But to each his own. Best to you.

Anonymous said...

Ironic how a commenter with "suck" in his name is calling other commenters sour.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, definitely a lot of great September baseball going on. I'll tune in once it's no longer mathematically possible for the Nationals to win the division and ignore Harper's fancy "statistics" and hoity-toity "projections" until then.

Anonymous said...

Also, anyone know when the Calvin Coolidge bobblehead give away has been rescheduled to? I'd hate to miss that.

Anonymous said...

They're giving the remainder of the bobbleheads out at the makeup game Thursday.

Ric said...

4:05 PM Thursday.

(Originally an off-day for both clubs).

Rob said...

Mets trolls aren't the smartest lot are they? Gheesh...

Anonymous said...

I have more money than Calv and Coolidge. Put together!

Max David said...

The 2005, 2006 or 2008 NL West is in debate for "worst divisions" ever. The 2006 winner tied between LA & San Diego with the Padres winning on a tiebreaker finished 88-74 but was still good enough for the 2nd best record in the NL that season after the Mets 97-65 mark. Those 3 teams, the Phillies (85-77), Cardinals (83-79), and Astros 82-80 were the only 6 teams to finish above .500 in the NL that year. The 2 NL West teams went 1-6 in the playoffs that year.

Padres won the NL West in 2005 with an 82-80 record. Rockies finishes tied for the second worst record with Tampa & Pittsburgh and only finished 15 games back.

The 2008 NL West winner (Los Angeles) finished 83-79, but were sitting at 5 games under .500 (65-70) as late as August 29. Arizona finished in second at 82-80, everyone else finished with 74 wins or fewer.

I still think both beat out the 2015 NL East, but if the Mets can get to 90 wins and the Nats can get to 86 or 87 I think they'll pass both the 2006 & 2008 NL West. The AL Central's had some awful teams in the last 15 years with 2012 being the most recent example; Detroit literally coasted that entire season finishes 88-74, White Sox finished at 85-77, the other 3 teams all lost at least 90.

NO matter what happens by winner in the "worst division pool" is the 2005 NL West. Unless a team wins a division with an 81-81 record OR a team wins a division with less then 90 wins that includes at least two 100 loss teams (very well the 2015 NL East could fill this quota) in that same division, and 2005 NL West will always be my winner.

Froggy said...

Has anyone noticed that Ole PBN looks like a bag of shit in his same old faded red Nats warmup? Way to set rhe example and show some pride there Skip!

Jay said...

Can we all agree the wheels have come off on Gio. He has made 29 starts and 11 of those went 5 innings or less. Plus another two starts of 5 1/3. He has made 12 starts since July 25 and gone 5 innings or less 8 times. 4 of those were less than 5 innings. Wow. Does McCatty get any blame in this. Gio has gotten worse every year he has been here.

Booyah Suckah! said...

I find it soul-crushing that the guy responsible for the phrase "it ain't over til it's over" died yesterday. Probably at about the same time the Nats season was, finally, over.

Ric said...

Jay said...
Can we all agree the wheels have come off on Gio... Does McCatty get any blame in this. Gio has gotten worse every year he has been here.

I concur with your sentiments. I'm pretty neutral on McCatty (mostly because I don't think about him often; does he share responsibility for our bullpen woes?), but I'm willing to give him a pass on Gio. I feel Gio, like Fister, are pitchers who are declining mostly due to age. I'm just happy we got Gio at his best.

I doubt Gio will improve next season, which is a shame, because he still shows flashes of his 2012-self.