Not for me, but for the Nats which makes pretty much no sense. There's no travel (for the Nats). The large bulk of the players / coaches / etc just had 4 days off. I'mn sure it's a Dodgers coming from Phoenix thing but still come on, MLB, schedule better.
The Nats keep on keeping on . They nearly swept the Pirates thanks to Muprhy's heroics but end up with the series win and the same lead they had 3 games earlier. Now there isn't ~72 games for the Mets / Marlins to make a run there are ~69. Tick tick tick.
The pitching looked great coming out of the break. Strasburg pitched well, which was most important after the held out of AS Game moment. No issues to speak of. Roark and Max both were great. Now comes the rest. The pen pitched admirably in the 18 inning game - it's just one game but it's better than not pitching well.
On the offense side things were not as sunny. Zimm is out. Muprhy had one at bat. Rendon got sick. Werth and Bryce both have stumbled out of the gate. Despite the RS it was actually a very poor hitting series where the offense was made to look better by Stephen Drew, some timely hits, and some helpful Pirates errors. They would have still likely won two games, given the dominance of the pitching but it's something to keep watching in the Dodgers series.
As a public service : If you can't watch the Nats tonight - what should you watch? No, not the RNC. Who watches conventions? You should watch more baseball, of course. Tonight there is only one marquee game - Mets v Cubs and it's really not even close. The next most compelling game is probably Cleveland v Kansas City, but while you were watching the Nats, the Indians opened up an 8 game lead on the Royals (the Tigers are closer). I suppose if you stretch interest as far as it will go you could watch White Sox / Mariners as being swept would likely turn the loser into sellers. Jose Fernandez is pitching, so is Chris Sale. There you go.
Be back tomorrow with something more meaty and substantive, I hope.
Yeah, weird scheduling, but it turns out to be a blessing after going through the whole bullpen yesterday. Easy to second-guess the manager after losing a long game like that, but in particular I wondered why Petit only pitched one inning.
ReplyDeleteI ask the same thing. Is there a long reliever on this Nats team or Dusty does not believe in the concept of long relieving. I wish the game was over in 9th to save those arms.
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain to me how Roark does what he does?
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain why Lopez was added to the rotation now, and will start on Tuesday. With the off day, why not just stick with the normal rotation (which would be Gonzalez, Stras, Roark, Scherzer). What's the point of adding in Lopez this week, and pushing everyone to 5 days rest between starts?
ReplyDelete@Anon 7:30 - Long-man is usually Petit. I suspect today's random off-day factored into Dusty's thinking.
ReplyDeleteI was more disappointed that Murph only got the one AB, but probably better to let him fully recover.
Won the series, even if we didn't get the sweep. Do it again against L.A.
@PotomacFan- Maybe this is Joe Ross is coming back sooner than we thought and they want to showcase Lopez as a starter before the trade deadline?
ReplyDelete@Jimmy -- good theory. However, if I wanted to showcase Lopez, I would have him pitch in relief.
ReplyDeleteCould be to showcase him. But I think Dusty just wants to take a look. I would've liked to see if Gioloto can bounce back, but this is ok too. It's possible after those first two games Nats brass just think he's not ready yet.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's not a showcase. Everything people are saying about Lopez is that he may not cut it as a starter but has the potential to be a shut down closer a la Chapman. With how the bullpen has been, I'd love to bring in Lopez as the 7th/8th inning guy for this season then transition him to closer once The DC Strangler is gone (assuming he performs well, of course).
ReplyDeleteI definitely think it is a showcase start. He still may not be traded, but if you were going to trade someone major now is the time to do it. You have Sherzer and Strasburg for at least 3 more years. Roark for that time as well. Gio for two if you want it. Ross looks legit as well. All the while, Giolito at AAA. Fedde is lighting it up now. We'll see what the next two weeks bring.
ReplyDelete@Jimmy - a detailed look at how Tanner Roark is doing what he's doing... sounds like a great post idea for our Soulless Automaton In Charge.
ReplyDeleteI don't pretend to be a fancy-stat guy, but from what I've seen, he's keeping the ball down, and in the park... and he's not walking many. Hitters don't appear to be getting hard contact against him either. I was at his last start - he hit 96 a few times with his fastball, as I recall, so he's had a little more giddyup lately.
Had my broom out for the duration of yesterday's double-header. Offense didn't have any interest in winning that game. Oh well, off to check our team ERA after giving up just 3 runs in 36 innings...
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of closers, Harper, when do the Yankees finally decide they are SELLERS and look to make some trades? And what does the market look like?
Someone, somewhere on the interwebs did an awesome analysis of Roark recently...and I can't for the life of me find it. I assumed it was fangraphs but I don't see anything there. But basically what it came down to was what JE34 is saying, his hard contact % is minuscule (league best if I remember correctly) and it was "all" related to increased movement on his fastball
ReplyDeleteNotBobby posted this link on Roark the other day as well.
Deletehttp://espn.go.com/blog/washington-nationals/post/_/id/1546/is-tanner-roark-the-nationals-most-valuable-pitcher
Thanks Froggy. Also see http://thenatsblog.com/2016/07/tanner-roarks-elite-skill/
DeleteI was really surprised Dusty didn't let Petit pitch more. He ended up painting himself into a corner and had to leave Perez out there to face Marte.
ReplyDeleteJust saw on fangraphs that Murphy's 2016 production is valued at $31.5. Makes that 3 year $37.5 contract seem like a pretty good deal, right?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=4316&position=2B
Harper, Ladson suggests that the word on the street is that Turner might be available in a trade (http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/190339230/who-should-the-nationals-trade-for/). How good does a midseason pickup have to be, and how many years of team control, before a rational person lets go of such a promising young player? I know Baker doesn't seem to be interested in prospects unless they are currently winning games (and even then, only a little interested), but Rizzo has to be a bit more future oriented, right?
ReplyDeleteHey, anybody have a suggestion for a good, analytically-minded, non-homery Rays blog? I'm moving to Tampa and while I'll always be a Nats fan, I figure I can root for the Rays too. They're AL and only four letters long, so it should be an easy transition.
ReplyDelete