This demands a blog post said the commenter so ok. Here!
Actually this is more - Monday so I can do this short and sweet and I don't care.
Nats are weird. They've won series from Arizona, Cincinnati, and the Dodgers. They've lost to the terrible Marlins and the Pirates. Are they as good as the best or as bad as the worst?
Parker looked bad again matching the "he can't keep that up" stuff we talked about earlier. Williams was not good but it didn't matter. Gore looked more like "good last year Gore" but that's ok if he can make that his usual floor. As we saw that can still hold a good team in check for a chunk of the game.
The offense feels perfectly ok with Abrams back. I like what Lowe is doing and I think when the weird 1B renaissance calms down (check out some of the names of guys hitting real well at 1B) I think he'll settle into the Top 10.
I do wish Davey would settle on a line-up but that is not his style. If I'm not wrong they've used 30 different lineups in 35 games.
Plug along. Get better. Don't let anyone get hurt.
You know what - let's go for more than that. The Indians aren't this good - they have a weird "get blown-out or win close" thing going on that usually settles on "not that good". The Cardinals are just perfectly meh. The Nats can win both the home series, go 4-2 and get the fans thinking about .500.
14 comments:
In trying to predict how many games the Nats will win this year, let's keep in mind that Nathaniel Lowe will be gone, probably well before the trade deadline. That will leave an offensive hole in the line-up and a defensive hole at first base. Finnegan will probably be traded, too -- although the return for him will be paltry.
I'd be mildly surprised if Lowe is traded at the deadline. I'd be shocked if he's moved significantly before the deadline.
Guessing how many games the team will win this year is fun....if based on extrapolating the current team plus likely call-ups, minus unknown injuries, and all based on its strengths, weaknesses, and opponents. Adding who gets traded at the deadline complicates it, but I am not sure it adds much pleasure or insight to the conversation.
Will Lowe be traded? I would think "yes" if they are clearly out of it, "maybe" if they are sniffing at the upper 70's in wins, and "no" if the kids have us at or near .500 and a week-long hot streak might bring us close to a play-off berth. Everybody happy?
I think it would be silly to move Lowe. The team doesn't have any 1B prospects in the minors (maybe Morales becomes something?), Lowe is controllable for another year, and you've got money that needs to be spent elsewhere, even if finding a slugging 1B is generally one of the easier FA tasks
If anyone has a theory why Davey will put bench players at the top of his lineup, I’d love to hear it. Seeing a guy that doesn’t hit enough to be your starter near the top of the order drives me crazy.
I agree that trading Lowe seems unlikely. Garcia was a big trade chip, and a lot of that deal making sense is Lowe being able to cover 2026 as well.
But, yeah, you can imagine Morales continuing his great run of play and forcing his way into the conversation by the end of the year. He's kept up the 150 wRC+ that he showed in AA after his thumb healed, but now there's way more power in the mix. His 2025 ISO .274, which is 3rd highest in the eastern league. That plays.
He still subscribes to 1980s batting-lineup theory that you bat "scrappy guy who can bunt" second? (That would explain Rosario batting there the last two nights.) Though for most of the year the top four guys have been some flavor of Abrams, Wood, Lowe, and Ruiz, who have actually been our four best non-Call hitters.
If Morales and House keep hitting, a lot of problems get solved. Morales goes to DH, House goes to 3B, Wood in center, Crews in right, Call in left. DFA Bell & DeJong. That's a lot of solid bats.
When will Rizzo finally let him go? I can't believe he's still there
Wood is having enough trouble in LF; they're not moving him to CF. With that OF alignment it would be Wood in LF, Crews in CF, Call in RF.
Alas, the Indians are no more. (Call me a traditionalist: I wish they still called the Redskins the Redskins.) Time moves on, but I don't think Lowe should. There are other "ifs" of course, but if Crews lights up meaningfully, he should push the team over 500.
Trading Lowe at the deadline this year would be complete insanity. Lowe is both good and under control next year. He's more of an extension candidate than a trade candidate. And if someone in the minors (Morales or otherwise) hits his way onto the big club, the obvious way to make room is to DFA Josh Bell. Lowe stays.
One can squint and see the makings of a good pitching staff next year. Gray, Cavalli, and Bennett are all in various stages of their rehabs, and the first two should make meaningful contributions late this year and next year. The organization (finally!) appears to be wiling to move failed starters to the bullpen with some early successes (Rutledge, Henry--though Henry's move is b/c of injury not failure). The big hole in the pitching staff is at or near the top of the rotation. Gore is someone who you'd want starting a playoff game but I'm not sure anybody else is (other than Sykora/Susana, who are too far away to count on). As terrible as the bullpen is right now, I think the organization has the arms to fix it--Herz is likely good enough to be the top RP on a playoff team if he can't stick in the rotation and Rutledge seems to have the stuff to be a viable set up man).
That was my demand, thanks for following up. But I must say this post didn't age well, our team is looking really bad!
I think Harper has thrown in the towel. One week ago he wrote: "Yes, I'm not posting as much. Busy and the team quickly became uninteresting." If the team was uninteresting one week ago, it's really uninteresting now. The starting pitchers (except Gore) have reverted to the mean, the relievers are still terrible, and the hitting is pretty bad, except for Wood and Abrams. A bad team, and not even a little bit exciting. 3 runs in the last 3 games. Even the Capitals have 4 goals in their last 3 games (although one was an empty net goal).
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