I TOLD you March is problematic
So since we last left the Nats they... became the Nats we expected. Joey Weimer is not a secret superstar. The pitching is not just fine.
They actually didn't do a bad job hitting against LA but it wasn't enough. The good news is they are done with perennial playoff teams for a series. The bad news is the next week isn't super easy - at least if you believe the early season results. St. Louis looks to be an average team, while Milwuakee and Pittsburgh(?) (!) look to be pretty decent. This to me is a "hold on" week where you hope to go like 5-5 or 4-6 and not have the bottom drop out of the season by mid-April.
The big worries currently are James Wood looking incredibly lost at the plate (17Ks in 45 PAs) and Miles Mikolas looking washed. The tissue paper soft underbelly of the pen is also a worry but we knew about that anyway and guys like Miles were supposed to cover for that. Also Millas looks bad and Ruiz is still himself so the C problem isn't going away anytime soon.
The big pluses are... well Weimer who it's only fair to take the whole season so far and he started so hot a cool off still doesn't take him from the league leaders. For me it's really Brady House looking ok. He's the 23 year old you are betting on as a piece of the future. It's nice to see Young hit, Abrams crush, and Garcia look good, but we've seen these all before and know the latter two can be streaky and Young may not be real. We'll come back to all these at the end of the month. Honestly for Abrams probably Memorial Day because that guy can swing a torch for two months than an ice club for the next.
Really though I think our eyes should be on the mound. Is their major league worst 6.27 ERA a Phillies/Dodgers thing or a Nats thing? Are the Nats pitchers that hittable and easy to take out of the park? Let's see what happens in each series.
1 comment:
Agree that House's walk rate is the most interesting, possibly real thing going on so far. The less good news is that it looks more like increased passivity than better recognition. His o-swing rate is lower than last year's, but his z-swing is lower by a fair bit more (even on rate basis after accounting for the higher baseline).
That doesn't mean that this is not his current true talent, but it does make me worry that the league will claw back these gains by adjusting to his less free swinging profile. Still, we'll have to see and, all in all, an encouraging first week.
Also, obviously Wiemer isn't real but even if he's just a 55 defensive OF who can mash LHP, that's an excellent OF4 and a real find for a waiver claim.
I do think it's crazy that they're DH'ing Tena and benching JY to make room for him in the lineup, though. Given our roster, left handed DHs should be exclusively selected from among Lile, Wood, Abrams or Garcia. Is it too much to ask to have a DH who's projected to be a league average hitter? You know, a DH you wouldn't have to bat 9th.
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