Some Spring Training updates... well not really. Some quotes from Rizzo about topics of interest.
Max is hurt! He sprained his ankle. That isn't good! I mean yes there's the obvious reason - he's hurt, but also two other things I like to talk about when it comes to injury. First is injuries beget more injuries. You hurt your landing ankle and you try to adjust not to stress it too much. So now you are putting more pressure on your arm to compensate for a lack of drive stepping through. Your arm starts to hurt so you try to add more torque and suddenly your torso is... well you get the picture. It's not a given these things happen but they definitely can. Second is the fact that Max is old! I'm old! One of the things you notice about getting old is that it takes a lot longer to heal up, even doing things right. That's without the pressure of wanting to get back on the field and the incredible stress that an athlete will subject his body to immediately.
Anyway - take your time Max. Heal it up right.
Strasburg should pitch today. Just a bullpen session. It's gonna happen, since they can tailor this to what Strasburg needs exactly. The questions you should look to be answered - Is he on a mound throwing the normal amount? Does he pitch again in a couple of days. Answer these in the positive and things are moving as they should for a healed Strasburg and that's great.
Rizzo defended not moving on from Kieboom just yet with a "everyone thought he was good and some guys start real slow" In another interview answer I saw him compare Kieboom to Robin Ventura. And it's true Ventura got off to a slow start. It took him about 60 games not to suck at the plate. Given that standard Kieboom gets another few weeks to warm up. Honestly I think you could give him half a year. Of course the problem is even if he couldn't hit Ventura was a top notch fielder. Kieboom is not that. So he's giving you very little if he's not hitting. Ventura also would be about a year younger when he "got it". It's not a terrible reach but it is a little one and if you are already starting to reach... well if Kieboom doesn't hit relatively soon into 2021 I don't see how you spin it.
Speaking of defense. The Nats had some of the worst defense in baseball last year. They did not get better. But they might not have gotten worse and if they can hit better... I guess that's better.
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The Metsies just signed Walker, bolstering an already formidable rotation. The east is going to be a beast again this year!!!
I missed that Rizzo compared Kieboom to Ventura. All I can say is "Oh Rizzo, no...." Ventura obviously isn't an all-time great, but as someone who was a huge fan of Ventura growing up (I played 3B and grew up following the Chi Sox, so he was basically my favorite player for many years) Kieboom is pretty far off young Ventura. That's not really fair to Kieboom to compare their trajectories. Kieboom has a ways to go before he is a serviceable major league player, much less to grow into a fringey All-Star type.
Let's also not forget that Max is an incredible creature of habit who is obsessive about his long runs. That's not going to fly with any issues with his ankle. Hopefully he can just shut it all down until his ankle is ready to (not) roll once again.
The Mets seem clearly a step better than the rest of tough NL East, but hey, their the Mets! You never know what might happen!
As my name suggests, I'm not feeling optimistic going into the season with this news. We needed Max to be MAX and Stras to be WS MVP Stras. Right out of the gate, we're getting hit with bad news about Max and there are still question marks about Stras's health (because, well, it's the Nats training staff).
I'm looking forward to a long, stressful season where the Nats continue to look like they're better than a .500 team, only to get swept by the Marlins.
You can see why Rizzo is going for this comparison. Ventura was a truly worthless hitter when called up in 1989 and again for all of 1990 (until September). So maybe 150 games of low average hitting with no power, but precious walking ability. I had him on my rotisserie team, so I remember this well!
I did read an interesting article about Kieboom playing all year last year with a groin tear. It broke down splits and made a pretty compelling case as to why that may have been a pretty big impact. Can’t remember where I read it and I’m too lazy to search back for it. I know looking at certain splits can convince you of nearly anything, BUT hope springs eternal...the Nats fan in me right now is choosing to believe that it was true and Kieboom will end the season with a .270 BA and 25 HR with fair to good fielding. And the fan in me has decided to believe that Castro will do about the same, Robles will take fair step forward, Stras will be healthy, Corbin will look like 2019 Corbin, Max has at least 1 more good year, Rainey becomes closer material, Bell and Schwarber return to form, Soto becomes the greatest hitter ever, a couple of young arms surprise and do well, Lester does good enough, Joe Ross looks like the Joe Ross we saw in the Series, DM learns good bullpen management, and Zimmerman gets to ride off into the sunset after a Renaissance year as a part time player.
The Nats fan in me says ALL of those things individually have an average chance of happening. But the realist in me argues that while all have a chance of happening, the of chance of ALL of those things happening in infinitesimally small. And sadly, for the Nats to be great they’d need a large number of those things to happen.
But it is spring training...so I’m siding with the Nats fan in me for now. The realist will get his time soon enough.
TalkNats.com stated: “It was known that Carter Kieboom had a groin strain as the 2020 season opened from a report from Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. But the report also said, ‘the injury evidently only hurts when he moves laterally, so he’ll be able to hit and run the bases.‘”
Found it on a couple more sites as well.
"Expect him to be a new kid this Spring Training."
Aahhhaaa! That’s the one. Interesting piece. Particularly the splits section. I am always interested in fancy stats.
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