8 out of the Nats last 12 games have been decided by one-run. Another 2 by two runs. This remains not a bad team. It's a team that can hang. But it's not getting over the hump and the improvement in the offense by a couple of slow starters has simply gotten them here from "not close"
What's up with Nats is lefties KILL them (hitting .307 / .392 / .525 for the season so far) and the relievers are trash. How so?
As a reliever 7.47 ERA, opponents hitting .291 / .403 / .472
Late & Close? .274 / .351 / .430
The Nats pitchers get tired (5th Inning : 3.22 / .374 / .500) and the bullpen can't hold it (7th : .289 / .401 / .512, 8th : .349 / .414 / .481). 9th is a little better but overall a .305 / .403 / .865 line for innings 7-9 tell the tale.
Yes, yes small sample and vagaries and whatever but this is getting ridiculous. If everyone misses it's far more likely that you built a bad pen then everyone just happened to have a bad start. Yes, some of these guys are better than they show, but some should simply not be here.
But today is the end of April so tomorrow we can do a full first month recap. Not as "true" as the Memorial Day look at the team but a good start. Players have had time to work off bad weeks or come back down. Let's figure out a plan going forward tomorrow and see if they bother to follow it.
7 comments:
No surprise that lefties kill them. Our best bats are all left handed. Our switch hitters are better from that side too. After Crews, the best right handed bats are Call and Young. Not great.
Not much help coming either. Who knows how close Chaparro is to a rehab stint, and it's not like he has a long track record we can count on even when he's back. House is hitting much better this season, but nothing that supports him coming up and being an immediate game changer. Morales, King and Lile are right handed, but they're even further away and come with even bigger error bars.
Only thing I can think of is moving Crews up to make it harder for opponents to play matchups. But I don't know if I love piling more pressure on him just yet.
This might just be the way it is for a while.
@SMS I think Harper’s saying lefty *batters* kill them, to the tune of that ridiculous triple slash, not so much southpaws.
And that's what I get for reading quickly! I had it parsed as two separate problems (1) bullpen sucks, which I think we all agree with, and (2) lopsided lineup.
Thanks for pointing that out, and please consider my earlier comment withdrawn.
I really hope they bring up Brady House and Robert Hassell soon. I know there are service clock issues, but this team can be fun and it’s the young guys who are fueling that. We need to embrace that.
If House continues at this pace through May I could see bringing him up in June. But Hassell? He has four XBH (all doubles) in 27 games while OPSing .596. He’s going to have to do a lot better than that to earn a call up b
I get that, but Young has been really, really bad. Who would you rather see out there at this point?
If they reach the conclusion that Young is truly unplayable, then they should just start an OF of Wood/Crews/Call before bringing up a poor-playing Hassell. Call's done nothing but tear the cover off the ball since the middle of last year and there's no reason to not give him the chance to see if he's actually taken the step forward to being a genuinely good hitter. (And honestly, if Young does hold on to his job, then Call should be given the chance to replace Bell.)
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