I'm thankful for a lot but I'm very thankful today that the Nats team is winning in strong fashion and not sneaking out close wins because if there's one thing that I hate (and as you can probably tell there are many) it's the trite re-use of the "Cardiac" nickname for any team of young players (Cardiac Kids!) or whose name slightly allows it because of a similar sound (CardiAc NAts!). That isn't happening here. I can breathe.
I'm also thankful for a great weekend of Nats baseball to liven up the season that had a chance to go very moribund. It actually pushed them to a nice little 10-3 run and relevance? Not quite. But another one of those from relevance!
The recent push has been helped along not by James Wood being a stud (look the guy is a star at the plate and it's time we just start talking like he is as opposed to some young player than might be something). Josh Bell and Luis Garcia starting to hit again... and enough timely hitting to score the runs needed to back up the pitching.
Gore had a couple of ace like performances and the pen 2.0. Brad Lord, Cole Henry, Jose Ferrer until his arm breaks are doing very well.
When can you get "excited"? Let's set our sights on June 13th. The Nats will be past the tough stretch and looking at 7 games against the Marlins and Rockies. I know the Nats have been kind of up against the good, down against the bad, but the Rockies are so bad that supercedes that. Just look at the last 3 game set. The Nats were the closest the Rockies came to winning a series, winning one and losing two 1-run games but they still didn't do it.
We talked about not getting too low before, nor should you get too high. I still think this is a 75 win team. But seasons where you can pretend it's more, where you flirt with being meaningful before a late fall, are more fun that seasons when you can't. Nats are almost there. It's almost fun, you know in a "not the usual fun of just watching baseball fun" A couple more good weeks would do it.
Thanks for the post, Harper.
ReplyDeleteDid you mean to say, 'has been helped along by James Wood'?
Yes! Ooops
DeleteApparently the second wining month since the rebuild began four years ago. Progress!
ReplyDeleteHere's why I don't think this is a 75-win team. Look at the cavalry that's coming: House almost certainly, Cavalli probably, and maybe Crews will be better than Lile. In any event, Crews or Call will be better than Lile. Plus either Bell will continue to hit, or they'll fill his spot with anyone who can. (Chaparro? Tena? Yoyo Morales?) Given that the bullpen has gotten competent, and there are plenty of starters who can at least do OK, the pitching looks like it'll be so-so at a bare minimum. The offense is at least average already, plus some improvements are coming. That sounds like an 82-83 win team, even with the bad start they have.
ReplyDelete@Kevin: I'll take the under on 75 wins for several reasons. (1) possible injuries, particularly to Irvin or Gore; (2) I don't think Abrams can maintain his current pace; (3) they are in a tough division, with a lot of games remaining against Philly, NYM and Atlanta; and (4) some players may be traded, including Finnegan.
ReplyDeleteMy pre-season projection was 73 wins, I'm adjusting upwards to like 78. I don't see this team being .500, mainly because of the offense.
ReplyDeleteThe team is literally dead center (15th) in pitching fWAR right now, and that seems about right with a solid rotation of one ace (Gore) and a bunch of 3/4 types and a bullpen that started horrendously but has been okay the last ~month.
But on offense, the team is pretty meh. Only Call(!), Rosario(!), Abrams, and Wood have a wRC+ above 100. Hopefully Lowe regresses to his career averages, and Garcia seems to be getting bit by the luck bug with his low BABIP, but even still this offense is missing at least one big bat to be able to fight for that .500 record
Oooph, man I know you dog on the Rockies cause they’re bad, but I didn’t realize HOW bad. I usually don’t look at standings or records until mid-July or so, but decided to peek because of your post. HOLY S**T!!! They’re on pace to go 27-135. They’ve had FOUR separate eight game losing streaks. I mean…that’s unreal.
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