Series win - Pirates Preview

And you call yourselves Champions. tsk tsk. 

One more series and we start to talk numbers, albeit extremely informally.  

The Nats have a very interesting schedule in that next they play the Pirates for 4, then host the D-backs for 3. Conceivably since these are both bad teams, the Nats could win like 5 of 7 and come out of this 8-6 and like tied for first in the NL East.  This would briefly set off a "Maybe they are actually good" storyline that I would absolutely hate. This would not be a surprise.

Of course the Nationals are also a bad team and on the flip side if the Nats stumble and go 2 of 7 against these guys then they find themselves 5-9 and this long season just feels a lot longer. 

 We can start doing some previews though - 

THE PIRATES

Nutting's investment fund masquerading as a baseball team has played STL and PIT so far and is 2-3.  Lineup wise they've gotten some good performances but it's all early season small sample size stuff. And even then they haven't overwhlemed.  A lot of hits but not a lot of homers and not a lot of walks. It's not a good offense with two good bats (K'Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds) and one decent guy (Ben Gamel).  The most interesting guy is probably DH Michael Chavis who was once thought of highly in the Boston system, reaching AAA at 22, but not doing well since. He might be something. Of course this is 4 bats. The rest are just guys filling spots, even the young guys.

The staff is Jose Quintana trying to find redemption after being mediocre for the Cubs and bombing with the Angels and Giants last year, three Erick Feddes and an actual prospect, albeit an up and down one, in Mitch Keller. The Nats miss Zach Thompson - which is a shame because he's probably the worst of the Feddes - the version that shouldn't be in the majors.. JT Brubaker is the Fedde that is a bad, but if you have to use him you can, number 5.  Bryse Wilson is the Fedde that skirted the Top 100 who relied on not giving up homers and hits to look good in the minors but can't replicate that in the majors. (FWIW - Fedde strikes out more, Wilson has better control).  Worst case there's at least two guys the Nats should be able to pound, probably three. 

Relief wise the Pirates turned former Nat SP failure Wil Crowe into a closer and the immediate, 3 game, returns are great. But as this is his first time here you can't say much. David Bednar got a ROY vote and did look honestly good last year. Roansy Contreras has got a live arm and is expected to be really good but is still green. Chris Stratton is a solid arm.  The rest are guys that couldn't find better jobs elsewhere or are just being tried out. Looks like a pen that can close out the rare late leads the Pirates find themselves with but isn't going to be able to hold anything close mid game.

Even at the Pirates and knowing the Nats are a bad team, not at least splitting against these guys seems impossible. Then again while the Nats have a better offense, I can't say their starting pitching is better and their RP is about the same in the "hey the back end might be pretty good and every thing else might be trash" way.  I think it'll come down to how Pittsburgh hits the Nats starters.  The Nats will score some runs. Will Pittsburgh score enough that they can close it down? 

Anyway - treating this like any season that matters until it doesn't anymore. Let's get that split.