The Nats were eliminated last night - getting blown out by a desperate Phillies team and finished off by a Giants win. The season, for what it was, is over. What happened?
Well in my opinion 2019 happened. The Nats went all-in at the end of 2019 to win and that meant committing to a basically a 6 man pitching staff, using Max, Stras, and Corbin heavily in relief. They all logged a ton of innings, along with their two man pen and the results were self-evident. Doolittle hurt. Strasburg hurt. Corbin wasn't good. Hudson wasn't good. And even Max, the rock of Major League pitching, wasn't Max.
The Nats put up an ERA that currently sits at 13th in the league, the typical chewing gum and bailing wire fixes elsewhere doing mostly as you would expect. Would things have been better with Joe Ross? Probably. But unless he was going to blossom into an ace the Nats would still likely have been on the outside looking in, just lasting a few more games.
With this pitching the offense almost doesn't matter, but after years of bouncing around between great and very good the Nats were merely ok. Juan Soto lost time to an early false positive but otherwise was MVP worthy. Trea Turner might have blossomed, or might have just caught a hot streak*, but either way he was nearly as good as Juan. The rest of the team was disappointing. Robles regressed. Kieboom stunk and Garcia wasn't special (though fine for an intro season at this age). Eaton and Howie both didn't hit then got hurt. Thames didn't take up the "good for a year" 1B mantle. No one became a surprise savior like 40 game AsCab in 2019 (He was just ok in 2020). Turns out you keep losing star level bats and eventually it'll matter.
This wasn't the vagaries of the short season. Those pitching woes were real and would have been even more difficult to overcome in 162. But that was the choice the Nats made and the rings on the fingers say it was worth it.
*Let's face it - in a 60 game season every statement here comes with the caveat it could be just an extended good/bad streak.
13 comments:
Truth, and sadly the future looks bleak as well. They will need a lot of things to go right in 2021 to be competitive again.
There's no reason to believe Stras Corbin and Max couldn't all be ok. If that happens the Nats will be competitive, even if they aren't 100% them. We'll know more in March and April - when we get a feel for Stras' recovery.
The pitching was disappointing, but could recover next year. "Stras gets injured" is an annual event for this team, and Corbin . . . well, we'll see, I guess. I'm most worried about Max, though, as age and wear-and-tear might be starting to catch up to him.
The offense has been dreadful. Outside of Trea and Soto, there is little to look forward to for 2021. Big changes are needed ASAP. Amazing how losing Bryce and Rendon, while relying on a bunch of 35+ guys would result in a steep decline. I don't think anyone could have predicted that!
Soto has the numbers to be the NL MVP, but he won't win because (1) the Nats are terrible and (2) he missed some games, and therefore his raw numbers (e.g. home runs, walks) are not at the top. I think Freddy Freeman wins it easily -- and he deserves it. Will be interesting to see if Soto is #2 in the voting.
Trea will win Silver Slugger for short stop.
I don't think any other Nats will get any votes. Not even Max.
@PF, Tatis or Betts definitely goes #2 if Freeman wins. I see it as a three person race between those guys. Soto probably comes in at like 4 or 5.
I just really wish the Nats had hit the reset button at the trade deadline and dealt anybody they could outside of Trea, Robles, Soto, Garcia, Kieboom, Stras, and Corbin. They are the core for the next few years and any money/prospects they could have gotten back for the rest would have been the way to go. Right now, the Nats look like the 2014 Giants. Old and getting older and no farm to speak of. I really hope the Rizzo and Co have a plan for pulling out of the rut before it's too late and we're dealing with years of mediocrity
Nats extend Davey Martinez. Despite peoples’ objections to him, I like this move. No doubt he makes his fair share of his mistakes, but he deserves some credit for 2019. That team was talented, but it wasn’t: “Here’s the keys to a WS team, just don’t screw it up.” I thought the way he managed the pitching aggressively during the playoffs (given the bullpen situation) deserved praise.
As you point out, there was likely a lingering effect into 2020. I’m ok with that. The World Series win was worth it.
And lastly, this move ensures that the Nats will finally keep the same manager for the beginning of a 4th straight season. That matters. The Lerners didn’t bring Dusty back because they weren’t satisfied with just making the playoffs. They gambled with a new manager, and it paid off. Now is the time to stick with him and not stay in perpetual ‘grass is greener’ syndrome
There's some speculation that the Nats could be in the Realmuto market, which would definitely change the complexion of the team, though that alone isn't enough. It would be a nice first step though.
Nats play spoiler to the Mets' season. I know its too few plate appearances to be conclusive, but how about Andrew Stevenson? I don't ever remember him going on a hot streak like this before. Looks like a solid OF4 going into 2021.
LOL@Mets
Well, that was a thing. I've been pretty much ignoring baseball this year since the late start of the season meant that I was already thinking football by the time the games started and the Nats' poor season meant that there was little to grab me, but:
Soto was great. Turner was great. Both catchers were perfectly adequate, even good. Stevenson came alive there. Everybody else...occupied space on the field. Slow starts, injuries, the weird COVID-19 environment, regression, the works.
Pitching-wise, ugh. Stras hurt, Max decent, Corbin meh (I mean, he still somehow put up 1.2 fWAR because his advanced stats looked better than his conventional ones, but still, this is not what he's being paid for). More significantly, the bullpen was every bit as bad as last year's, with Doolittle and Hudson falling into a wood-chipper and Harris being poor as well. Rainey, Suero, and Finnegan were the only ones who pitched like they were part of a Major League roster. Sanchez, Fedde, and Voth (and Crowe) were generally awful.
And the worst of it is, given the small sample size *and* the weirdness generally, it's hard to tell whether half of the results are something real or just statistical noise. Like, can we really say that the heavy use of the pitching staff in 2019 had any impact on 2020, when the pitchers got four months of extra rest to start the season and only pitched for 1/3 as long? Maybe! And maybe not!
What does seem clear is that the Nats have holes everywhere that need filling, and it's unsure whether they can be filled by in-house options. Rizzo is going to have to do a lot of work in the offseason.
I know this is an old post at this point, but I thought I'd pop off while watching some playoff games during this Frankenstein season. What went wrong with the Nats this year? Nothing. It's the same team* as last year. They were trash through 50 games last year, and they're trash through 60 games this year. I guess the World Series run was the outlier.
What to look forward to next year? Soto is fun and great. Turner is pretty good but is a few brain cells away from needing to wear a helmet full time. Other than that... :(
Now let's all root against the Astros, because what would be more 2020 than a cheating, losing record team winning the WS?
*With a literal replacement player for Rendon.
HOW DR AZIBA HELPED ME ENLARGE MY PENIS SIZE FROM 3.5 INCHES TO 11INCHES LONG AND 8.0 GROWTH https://naturalherbsmedicine.webs.com/
I got married 2 years ago and it just seemed that there was no excitement in my sex life. My dysfunction to perform to the best of my abilities in bed made it harder for my wife and me to have a good time during sex. And i was having the feelings that she may decide to get a divorce one day. I knew something had to be done in order to improve my sex life and to save my marriage because my marriage was already falling apart, so when i was on my Facebook page i came across a story of how Dr Aziba helped him enlarged his penis to 8ins better.so i Immediately copied the Email address of the Dr and explained to him my problem, he gave me some simply instruction which i must follow and i did easily and my friends Today, i am the happiest man on Earth, All Thanks to Dr Aziba for saving my marriage and making me a real man today. I asked him about some popular diseases like HERPES,HIV AIDS,HEPATITES,DIABETIS, CANCERS, WART, Get Ex back ,etc....... which are affecting most people he said there is no disease without a cure , he has it all...You can as well reach the Dr below for help on your problem, for he has the solution to all...
Email:[ PRIESTAZIBASOLUTIONCENTER@GMAIL COM ]
WhatsAPP DR [ +2348100368288 ]
I think this is one of the most important information for me.
And I enjoy reading your article.
wordpress
ufa88kh.blogspot
youtube
livescore
Post a Comment