There's been some updating to the blog here. Sometime after Saturday night, when the Nats squeaked out a victory in an elaborate clown show masquerading as a game and then decided that it was worth smashing cabbage over, the automatic safeties were engaged and the title was changed. The idea that a win in the midst of a terrible start, that merely got a team hoping to win a World Series, back into sniffing distance of .500, that should be quietly thanked and used only as a way to focus on the next one, was treated as an excuse to celebrate suggests a dangerous take on leading this team that we are unable to endorse here at "Team That Doesn't Celebrate Poorly Played Games That Get Them Back To 4 Under .500 w Hijinx Baseball" the 2nd best blog about "Team That Doesn't Celebrate Poorly Played Games That Get Them Back To 4 Under .500 w Hijinx" on the internet
So for tonight, until the stink of that celebration wears off, we will be actively rooting for "Team That Doesn't Celebrate Poorly Played Games That Get Them Back To 4 Under .500 w Hijinx", which tonight is the Brewers. Go Brewers! Beer! Cheese! Great old hats! Yelich! Gio! Teddy Higuera!
In non "Team That Doesn't Celebrate Poorly Played Games That Get Them Back To 4 Under .500 w Hijinx" news, the team that does do that, the Nats, managed not to get swept which was the base goal. Now comes the harder part - finding 3 wins over the next 7 games. The easiest path would be a number of dominant performances by Max and Stras and Corbin. You can't win if you can't score. The Brewers, who has been hitting pretty well, have cooled down only scoring 10 runs over what amounted to 4 games worth of innings against the Mets. Shaw, Thames, Arcia, Grandal, and Cain are all majorly slumping. So this is possible. Get 2 here and then you don't have to hope to split against the stronger Dodger team.
But can the Nats avoid being the team with zero runs? The Nats themselves are showing exactly what happens when you lose 2/3rds of your lineup to injury. Since April 26th they've scored 3, 3, 7, 3, 2, 1, 2, 2, 10!, and 1 runs. That's 8 out of 10 games scoring 3 or fewer. That's not good. But it can't be helped. It's one thing to expect the team to buck-up losing Turner and Rendon. It's another also losing Soto, Adams, too. Suzuki is trying to make up for it all by himself. 6 out of his last 12 with 3 homers and a double. But one man does not a team make.
That's bad news for the Nats but good news for "Team That Doesn't Celebrate Poorly Played Games That Get Them Back To 4 Under .500 w Hijinx. Go "Team That Doesn't Celebrate Poorly Played Games That Get Them Back To 4 Under .500 w Hijinx"!
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45 comments:
Yeah, this garbage team has really soured me on baseball generally. I've tried to get excited about other teams but watching generic relievers throwing high 90s and striking out generic sluggers who sometimes hit dingers has not been doing it for me.
Not that I don't know who players are on other teams but the emotional connection is absent. Unfortunately it's also absent from the Nats (feat. left fielder Adrián Sanchez).
Sorry, Harper, but I think "giving a shit about how a team celebrates a victory or the fact that it celebrates at all" is a far worse look than "celebrating a victory with cabbage."
I really miss the Capitals! They kept me on the edge of my seat into early May (in the bad years) and into June last year. Now all I have left is baseball.
This must be really tough on Scherzer, Strasburg and Corbin, all of whom have pitched pretty well, but get no run support whatsoever, and must rely on the bullpen to hold a lead. Scherzer ERA is a bit misleading. Sure, he hasn't been dominant, but bad fielding and bad relief pitching have inflated his ERA.
So, who are the 7th and 8th inning pitchers now? Sipp as a LOOGY. Justin Miller? Wander Suero? Bear Claw? Grace is terrible. Joe Ross -- what's up with him?
@Anon I think you'll find you're in the minority on that take. The celebrations are performative and engineered to make Davey look fun and inspirational. The players can feel free to celebrate how they want but the team repeatedly showing us "LOOK HOW FUN AND HAPPY OUR PLAYERS ARE PLS DON'T LOOK AT THE STANDINGS" is grating and infantile.
I mean I'd rather the cabbage stuff and celebrating a win, than hanging their heads after a loss, pointing fingers, leaks from the clubhouse, choking each other out in the dugout, mutiny on the manager.... not that we've never seen that before.
Summer hasn't even started but they've gotten on my nerves already.
My guess is by July we'll be seeing both. Performative cabbage right after the game, complaining to Svrluga once the cameras leave.
And in my left hand! A new pitching coach!
There is something sad about a wild celebration for doing something right when you're still almost in the cellar.
Ex: The Washington "professional" football team doing an endzone dance when the team is losing by 35 in the 4th quarter. Or the Nats celebrating in the dugout after a HR even though they're almost certain to lose.
In other words, celebrate when you do something right and it makes a positive difference.
Also, as it relates to our questionable coaching staff... since we apparently have a problem of developing pitchers in our organization (aside from Strasburg and Storen), why should the fans be relieved that Lilliquist was replaced by the guy who has overseen pitcher development at various levels for the Nats since 2006?
Frankly, I hate the whole cabbages thing. Maybe once, but after EVERY victory? Seriously?
I too hate the cabbage thing, but it is irrelevant. There is no deeper meaning in the cabbage celebrations. It is not performative in the sense that they are TRYING to make Davey look fun and inspirational. So, one thing that is clearly worse than the cabbage celebrations is efforts to draw meaning from cabbage celebrations.
I've quickly become a somewhat interested observer as opposed to the live and die with every pitch fanatic that has generally marked me thus far since about 2008. Cabbage or champagne makes no difference. This team isn't going anywhere this post-season and I'm not going to waste my energy getting too excited or too pissed off. Not because so many guys are hurt, and not because so many things go wrong. But because when Rendon, Turner, Zim, Adams, Soto, Taylor, and whoever else is MIA is no longer MIA, Messrs. Rizzo, Martinez, and Long will still be here, and Mark Lerner will still be a meddling moron.
Fortunately, however, there is a silver lining to the cloud...at least for the next three games. Probably the best part of the whole season is at hand: three games in Milwaukee with beautiful Front Row Amy to take my mind off how badly the Nats are playing.
Anon is definitely not alone. I imagine most of us who don't care one way or the other about the cabbage haven't bothered to reply and maybe not even read the post?
It's pretty obvious that getting rid of Baker and Maddux after back-to-back playoff seasons was a mistake. It was obvious at the time and it's obvious in hindsight.
Not signing or extending Bryce was also monumentally stupid as is not extending Rendon.
Cabbage? Who even cares?
Start making trades now, you'll get more if other teams get players for the whole year because while it's not statistically impossible, this team is done. By the time they get everyone healthy, they're going to be 7-10 games out of it. From the first week of the season it was obvious that this was not a good team. Dozier's career is over. The bullpen was(is?) bad and everyone is hurt.
pretty bored of people complaining about how people celebrate
Josh Highham - there's always Max and there's new core here but it may take another year (and some better performance) before Soto/Robles/Kieboom capture hearts. OK Soto has
Anon @ 8:52 - no need to be sorry. you gotta opinion. I think it's fine to have opinions on the how (Like the Silver Elvis wigs, hated the chocolate syrup) and I think the "that it happens" can be telling.
PF - Bear claw is definitely set-up. The 7th is whoever is hottest right now.
Ole PBN - fair enough if those are the choices
W Patterson - this is how I feel. It's almost like you are missing the big picture. It's great you won a game. But it's one game and it didn't change anything about your position. It's the guy throwing his bat and jawing at the pitcher after hitting a homer in the 8th to make the score 10-4 with his team has the 4. I mean... if it makes you happy I guess? But if that makes you happy - winning but not being relevant when you were aiming for it - what are we doing here?
Ole PBN - No idea.
Johnny - I think it's just for comeback wins but given how few wins this team has had recently I will excuse any confusion
Sammy - have fun
cass - well we complained about all that to no avail. Maybe complaining about the cabbage will change things?
JWL - If you are going to trade, you are going to trade Rendon, and if you are going to trade Rendon you have to wait to see him play again so his value doesn't dip, and if you are waiting to see him play again you pretty much can wait and see where you are when he does come back in case there is an amazing comeback
Great, we have a bunch of guys who are giving up on the season, FINALLY. I suggested in the second week of the season that this wasn't a .500 club even without the injuries.
What we need now is for all of you who wanted to sign Kimbrel and lose our number 1 draft pick as well as another draft pick, step forward and remind us again how smart a move that would be for the future.
Also it would be nice if BX and the rest of the Harper diehards would remind me that Harper and his .233 BA is going to the Hall of Fame and how his newly developed slider would have improved the bullpen to insured the playoffs for the this year and beyond.
A true bargain at 325M for 13 years.
Don't let me down folks.
Anybody heard an explanation for why Nats traded Austin Adams, who's probably been their best AAA reliever this year and last, for what sounds like nothing? Why on earth wouldn't you at least give that guy a legit shot to help your terrible bullpen?
https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=13801&position=P
I know "technically" speaking it's still relatively early, but they are as close to the last place Marlins in the standings than they are the first place Phillies.....oh and that's the same Marlins team that has yet to record double digit victories, and who's only series win this year, was coincidentally, against the Nats. So, that's discouraging and not good. Blue Jays (15-19), 4th place 6.5 games back; White Sox (14-18), 4th place, 6 games back; LA "don't call me Anaheim anymore" Angels (15-19), 4th place 5 games back; Cincinnati (15-20), 5th place 6 games back; Colorado (16-19), 4th place 5.5 games back. All teams that are theoretically in the same position the Nats are in; sub .500, 4th or 5th place in the division. Do you think any of those teams make the playoffs?? I'd say Colorado has best chance of any, but I'd still put them in the playoffs at under 20% so what's different about this Nats team?? We had Rendon AND Soto AND Zimmerman for the Marlins series.....and we still lost it, why's to say it's going to somehow miraculously get better when they all return??
We've seen this team for almost 200 games and they are what their record says they are: under .500 through 195 games since the start of the '18 season
@ Dustin M. Smith:
No idea, asked the guy that traded Kintzler for a lottery ticket, and gave away Shawn Kelley for literally nothing because "they were in the way."
Good point about the celebration from the player's point of view.
From mine I prefer celebrations when it makes a difference in the games outcome. That Homer in the 8th when losing by 6 is rather pyrrhic.
Heard some rumblings about juiced baseballs as the reason for he uptick in home runs. Lester, Happ, and Price seem to agree - while Manfred man denies it. Since our team is no good, who is up for some conspiracy theories?!
Also, I’d like to think that once everyone is back and healthy, and you plug Kendrick at second, Adams full time at first, cut ties with Dozier... this isn’t a bad team. Kendrick is really undervalued. The guy needs to be starting. But his salary would restrict him to the bench, sadly.
I'm thinking that since the high-A LH pitcher they got back from Seattle, Nick Wells, is from Haymarket, maybe he's a local guy that the Nats' scouts liked but missed in the draft on a few years ago. I don't know more than the older online scouting reports, but his numbers look like a guy who has trouble from the stretch, gets hit hard by RH hitters, and maybe loses his mechanics on occasion. He was still imagined to be back-end starter material in 2017, but the results are screaming reliever.
In Modesto, Wells has one walk, 18 Ks, and 5 ER in his last three appearances covering 13 1/3 innings. Before that, were two games where he gave up 12 runs in six innings - now THAT sounds more like a potential Nats reliever.
The Nationals have the fourth worst record in baseball. They have a grand total of one more win than the Orioles. They were a 0.500 team with everyone healthy. Now they are a AAA team. And let's not get too excited that everyone will/might/could be back in the next 2 weeks. Rendon, Soto, Turner, Adams would certainly help. But injuries happen, and even if these guys come back, other injuries will occur. Strasburg won't make it through the year. And Doolittle is an injury risk as well. But we'll always have Trevor.
I went to sleep last night before the game ended, and I dreamed that Scherzer broke his foot on a line drive, but convinced Davey to leave him in, and he struck out the side while wearing a boot. Then Matt Grace gave up 10 runs after Davey left him in to face the whole lineup because of reverse splits.
Then I woke up and saw that although we lost our starting catcher and our 40th-string left fielder, the Brewers had scored only scored 3 runs off the bullpen and Max was okay!
How bout those 2019 Nats!!!
@ Ole PBN
I agree, why don't we ride with Kendrick? I'm not as familiar with his history - but he has been great on the Nationals since he's been here. Certainly better than anyone else not named Daniel Murphy we have had at 2nd.
Harper, why can't we just plug him in and be satisfied and have Difo be first off the bench?
@ Dustin Smith, they gave Austin Adams a chance to help the awful bullpen, and he made himself right at home. 1 inning, 2 walks, 1 hit batter, 2 wild pitches, and a 9.00 ERA. Then again, I don't necessarily expect anything different from guys when they've been coached by Lilliquist and Menhart.
Most of these guys are not fielding at a major league level, and it's not like you can just plug someone in to help who's not on the 40-man roster immediately. Last night reminded me of watching a lousy high school team playing a game against higher competition, where they can manage to look equal for several innings, but you just know there will be one inning where they boot a grounder, then the pitcher makes a pick-off throw that goes in the dugout, the guy walks into third while the 3B who usually doesn't play there gets to the bag too late, the pitcher gets pissed and starts losing the plate and walks guys, gets hammered on the few strikes he throws since they know what he has, probably balks once after a few rockets, jams a guy into a bloop single the SS should catch, the LF throws home over the catcher, letting runners move up a base, then a ball hit 20 feet ends up with the batter on third after a flurry of errant or dropped throws, creating a big inning that puts the game out of reach.
Why does Rendon take so damn long to heal? GO PLAY BASEBALL DAMN IT!
blovy8: That was a heckuva sentence!
Rendon is back, yay
Time to click-and-drag the Dan Jennings icon to the recycle bin. It’s getting full now though, and we don’t ever want to see any of this trash. Ever. Again. So make sure to empty the recycle bin, Rizzo. These are not even collegiate level pitchers.
Man, inherited runners scoring has been brutal to the starters' ERA.
I posted this on Twitter tonight, but let's post it here.
For all the people that want Martinez fired, who are they going to get that's any better?? You are fooling yourselves and are in complete denial if you think Joe Girardi or Mike Scoscia is going to come manage this dumpster-fire of a team for the rest of the year knowing they probably aren't getting extended beyond the end of this season. I'd just let him finish the season (Randy Knorr ain't moving the needle this year I'm sorry to say), trade anyone and everyone not named Juan Soto or Victor Robles by July 31, and finish the reboot by dropping the GM and manager as soon as the season ends.....and actually spend money on a manager! Don't get me wrong, Rizzo has made some great moves, but the failure of the last 2 years falls squarely on him, and as I said last year him hiring another rookie manager for a win now team after the last one failed spectrally as it did is grounds for removal from his position, not to mention not even putting any thought at all into a bullpen. With the rest of this May schedule coming up I'd be surprised if this team was anywhere other than last starting play on June 1. Even the Bad News Bears would be embarrassed by this display of baseball.
And also, there is no way you can fire Martinez and keep Rizzo. Not counting the 3 games of John MacClaren's tenure between Riggleman resigning and hiring Davey Johnson Rizzo has already hired 4 managers he CANNOT make a 5th hire, especially after how horrible this one went. Most GMs are lucky if they make a second managerial/coach hire it is unheard of to have the same GM make more than 2. So, you basically have 3 choices:
1) Stay status quo with Rizzo upstairs and Martinez downstairs.
2) Stay with Martinez but replace Rizzo
3) Replace both Rizzo & Martinez.
Personally, I'd keep Rizzo around until after the trade deadline, and once the calendar flips to August 1 I would remove him from office, let Martinez finish out the string, hire a GM, give the GM a blank check and total authority to hire whoever he wants who he thinks is the best candidate, and have the new GM and his hand picked manager start in 2020. Not saying '18 or '19 is any better or any different, but if the Lerner's stay out of the damn way and let the baseball executives make decisions themselves without interference both years are probably better......because Baker is still around. Are they a playoff team in 2018?? In the end I don't think so but it would've been down to the last handful of games. Are they 14-21, with the 4th worst record in all of baseball on May 8, 2019 with Dusty Baker?? Hell freaking No!
Rizzo wanted to bring back Dusty Baker. Rizzo wanted to hire Bud Black originally before the Lerner family offered Bud Black a 1 year deal with a team option for another year. The offer so offended Bud that his wife was complaining about it on twitter at the time. They got lucky that Dusty was the back up option. The Lerner family is the root problem. Maybe they learn from all of this to let Rizzo do what he wants, but I doubt it. We'll probably get another letter from the desk of Mark Lerner telling us everything is going to be fine and they'll turn it around this year.
@Max David Why in the world are you blaming Rizzo for Martinez? If it were up to him, Bud Black would be managing this team. He didn't want to fire Dusty either, if reports are to be believed. The deferred money, the penny-pinching on managers and bullpens, the refusal to take on new salary mid-season all falls on the 5.1 billion dollar real-estate tycoons who thought it would be fun to have a baseball team.
Reminder to those who apparently need it: Davey's contract goes through 2020 with an option for 2021, and is worth less than $1m per year. If you're going to fire him, fire him now, dead money be damned--it's barely more than the minimum player contract. If you're going to keep him, you're committing through 2020.
@Max David, Mr. T and Jay have a point. Rizzo is a huge reason why this team has been competitive, and still is despite the pen and the injuries the last two seasons. Harper: I think its time for a Rizzo evaluation, since some of your readers are calling for his head. Should he get canned?
2009 Good: Signed Livan Hernandez; traded Lastings Milledge for Nyjer Morgan; drafted Stephen Strasburg, Drew Storen, and MAT
2009 Bad: N/A (unless you're upset he gave away Nick Johnson for nothing, but he only played another 50 games over the next two years)
2010 Good: Signed great relievers in Doug Slaten, Joel Peralta, and Matt Capps (All-Star that year) and all of whom were never as good once they left DC; traded Capps for Wilson Ramos; traded an old Christian Guzman for Tanner Roark; drafted Bryce Harper, Sammy Solis, Matt Grace, and Aaron Barrett
2010 Bad: N/A
2011 Good: Signed Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche; traded 3 minor league players who never made it to MLB for Tom Gorzelanny; drafted Anthony Rendon
2011 Bad: Traded Josh Willingham for Henry Rodriguez and Corey Brown (Willingham would go on to have 2 good years after); traded Nyjer Morgan for Cutter Dykstra; drafted Alex Meyer and Brian Goodwin in first round
2012 Good: Signed Chad Tracy and Mike Gonzalez; traded Davied Frietas for Kurt Suzuki; traded AJ Cole/Tommy Milone/Derek Norris/Brad Peacock for Gio Gonzalez
2012 Bad: Signed Brad Lidge (9 ERA in 11 games); drafted Lucas Giolito in first round
2013 Good: Traded Alex Meyer for Denard Span; traded Michael Morse for AJ Cole, Blake Trienen, and Ian Krol (productive pitchers for Nats, aside from Cole, whereas Morse played only one more full season)
2013 Bad: Traded Kurt Suzuki for Dakota Bacus; drafted Jake Johansen in 2nd round
2014 Good: Signed Matt Thornton; traded Ian Krol/Steve Lombardozzi/Robbie Ray for Doug Fister who had a career year (this one might be a moot point if Ray blossoms); traded Nate Karns for Jose Lobaton and Felipe Vazquez (Rivero); traded Zach Walters for Asbrubal Cabrera
2014 Bad: signed Nate McClouth; drafted Erick Fedde in 1st round
.....
......
2015 Good: Signed Max Scherzer; traded Steven Souza for Trea Turner and Joe Ross
2015 Bad: Signed Casey Janssen; traded Tyler Clippard for Yunel Escobar (one could argue the Pivetta-Papelbon deal should be here, but Pivetta sucks and the deal made sense at the time, regardless of how bad Papelbon was for the team).
2016 Good: Signed Stephen Drew, Daniel Murphy, Matt Belisle, Shawn Kelley; and Chris Heisey
2016 Bad: Signed Mat Latos; traded Yunel Escobar for Michael Brady and Trevor Gott; traded Max Schrock for Marc Rzepczynski (Schrock is a legitimate prospect, Rzepczynski played 17 good games for us)
2017 Good: Signed Matt Albers and Adam Lind; traded Blake Treinen/Sheldon Neuse/Jesus Luzardo for Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson; traded Tyler Watson for Brandon Kintzler; traded McKenzie Mills for Howie Kendrick (I wanted to put the Adam Eaton trade here but the verdict is still out on Giolito)
2017 Bad: Signed Matt Wieters and Joe Blanton
2018 Good: Signed Matt Adams, Jeremy Hellickson, Mark Reynolds, and Greg Holland
2018 Bad: N/A (unless you want to traded impending FA's Kintzler/Madson/Murphy/Gio/Kelley)
(Too early to tell on some moves)
2019 Good: Signed Kurt Suzuki; traded cash for Kyle Barraclough
2019 Bad: Signed Trevor Rosenthal and Brian Dozier; traded Tanner Roark for Tanner Rainey
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Seems to me Rizzo is a pretty good GM. The draft has been his weakest talent along with identifying solid pitching (via trade/FA/draft), but even that isn't as bad as people might think. For instance, not a single draft pick of ours since 2009 can be called "the one that got away." (Maybe Giolito in a couple years? We'll see). He is a thief in trades and hasn't blown a single high-price FA signing.
You fire Rizzo, you lose everything that this franchise has. Blame the Lerner's if you want. They unfortunately will fire Rizzo one day and that will be a crappy day. It's people who employ the "blow it up" mentality like Dan Snyder or Jeffery Loria who just make me laugh.
(can't believe I ran out of characters. Maybe I should stop posting for a while haha)
I stopped reading Max David's post when he suggested Mike Scioscia was a good manager. Why not list Mike Matheny too?
The idea that there is a GM candidate who is both (1) likely to be better than Mike Rizzo and (2) wants to work for the Nats is sort of ludicrous. Firing Rizzo would be the epitome of "we need to change something!" knee-jerk reactionary thinking, which is not the way successful people make decisions. I would be happy to have another GM if both conditions I list above are satisfied. I am very skeptical they will be.
Also, Max Schrock is not a legitimate prospect. He did not make Fangraphs' list of the top 40 (40!!!) prospects in the Cardinals' system.
@Ole PBN
Don't entirely agree with your Good/Bad assessments, but what a tour d'horizon of the past decade!
Nate McClouth!
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