Look I don't set the school schedule.
The Nats avoided the sweep and as they get ready to take on Toronto here are the takeaways
- the rotation looked good continuing the trend of last year
- The bullpen looked bad
- the kids weren't alright at the plate
- but the pickups were doing ok
Don't get too excited or sad. It's time to keep watching and see how things go
6 comments:
Post-Philadelphia, most would have bet on a 1-2 record for the Nats -- it was the most likely outcome. Despite the hand-wringing and semi-justified panic about the crappy bullpen performance, the Nats were in all three games.
The starting rotation looked strong, the newly acquired corner infielders performed. Ruiz appears to have turned a corner. Home runs were hit.
Bullpen was crap, yes, and Crews looks foolish (so did Willie Mays).
Until we get owners who want to dish out serious money, I'm okay with an improved and entertaining team.
I mean, almost everything is noise at this point. Even swing decision stuff and bat speed and the like, it feels like you need to wait for 50 PAs, 10 IP or 100 innings of defense before you even look at the numbers. That said, I can't keep myself from believing that Ruiz has improved his pop time.
There have been 3 stolen base attempts and he's gotten off a good throw on all 3, with an average pop time a full .15 seconds faster his previous average. To put that in perspective, lLast year, Ruiz ranked 81st out of 83 qualified catchers. His pop time this year would rank 13th.
Maybe he won't be ale to keep it up as the wear and tear builds up, but he has looked great so far.
In defense of Ruiz, he was ill last year (flu?) and lost 20 pounds. As a professional athlete he may well have been better able to withstand the bodily blow than most of us....but none of us are required to bring ourselves back to the level of a professional athlete afterwards. All of this was in-season!
Not enough games to be sure, but I am willing to believe that he is back to the place where the Nats thought he was worth a long-term contract.
Not only did he lose 20 lbs, but given that he's a professional athlete with (likely) much less body fat than the civilian population, most of that was probably muscle. Losing that much lean mass could PROFOUNDLY affect anyone's job performance, especially when your job is playing sports.
Looking pretty bad so far.
When does the off season start? I hope the Capitals go far in the playoffs so I have something to watch in May.
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