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***OFFICIAL*** Washington Nationals ongoing thread (2 Viewers)

So I'm watching Harper's at bat last night. He misses the two fastballs early in the count that were his pitches to hit. You can tell he's talking to himself while he walks around. I figure he's going to flail at a breaking ball, strike out, go back to the dugout whining, and slam his helmet. I kind of got a little bummed at that point, but then something interesting happens. He fouls off the curve. Then fouls off a few more. Then he starts to look locked in. It was obvious. I start getting excited again.

Hand delivers right in his wheelhouse. BAM! He hit that thing 10 rows deep into the freaking upper deck. I jump off the couch and yell "BOOM!" Fist pumping like a total dork, but who cares, I was all by myself, right?

Wife comes out pissed as all Hell and says "you woke up the baby!"

####

I went from woo-hoo to boo-hoo pretty quick there.

 
Yeah Graham, I'm pretty sure my yelling Holy ####! after Werth hit that bomb woke the neighbors in my apartment building.

Ah well.

 
It is really hard to get extremely excited about this Nationals team because no matter how talented they are because they just look awful against the Braves so far this year.

 
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Don Quixote said:
hammerva said:
It is really hard to get extremely excited about this Nationals team because no matter how talented they are because they just look awful against the Braves so far this year.
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I'm not reading much into today. Lot of guys out.
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Not talking about today. They are 7-4 this year and all four losses against the Braves. Last year the Braves owned them physically and mentally as well. Doesn't help that players are getting hurt left and right on this team as well.

 
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Zimmerman and Span join Ramos and Hairston on the DL. Kobernus is hurt so he can't come up. Does zach Walters get called up today? An OF will probably need to come up too especially if Werth isn't back soon

Need a big effort from Gio today and time for Harper to get going.

 
Swing 51 said:
awful weekend
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One the worst ones I can remember. Swept by your main rival while losing your leadoff and #3 hitter to injury. I expected them to probably lose Friday/Saturday with Roark and Jordan on the road facing quality starters, but getting shelled when it's Gio vs Aaron freaking Harang? Ugh.

We're back in "just try to stay above .500 until the DL guys come back in mid-May" mode again. Deja vu.

 
JZilla said:
Thank God for the Marlins. Are we playing any other teams besides them and the Braves this year?
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Unfortunately this time there's a Tanner Roark-Jose Fernandez matchup lurking in the last game of the series/road trip. Not the same favorable circumstances as their visit to DC last week.

 
Swing 51 said:
Wtf is up with these early inning struggles by our pitchers?

That Stanton bomb must have gone about 425 feet.
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I'm trying to tell myself it's just small sample size and that if it happened in the middle of the season we wouldn't even notice it. Getting harder to talk myself into it every day, though.

I will say this in defense of at least one of them- Strasburg has been incredibly unlucky. A .396 BABIP and a 57.1% strand rate are ridiculous for a guy whose career numbers are .293 and 72.8%. BABIP is all luck and strand rate is mostly luck.

 
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TobiasFunke said:
Swing 51 said:
Wtf is up with these early inning struggles by our pitchers?

That Stanton bomb must have gone about 425 feet.
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I'm trying to tell myself it's just small sample size and that if it happened in the middle of the season we wouldn't even notice it. Getting harder to talk myself into it every day, though.

I will say this in defense of at least one of them- Strasburg has been incredibly unlucky. A .396 BABIP and a 57.1% strand rate are ridiculous for a guy whose career numbers are .293 and 72.8%. BABIP is all luck and strand rate is mostly luck.
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Disagree with this. Strand rate has to do with how the pitcher pitches from the stretch, and how the pitcher handles pressure. If the pitcher's BABIP is higher in the stretch I can see you making that assumption, but great pitchers have lower strand rates because they are great. Pitching from the stretch can be challenging for a young pitcher, he'll work through it.

 
Doctor Detroit said:
TobiasFunke said:
Swing 51 said:
Wtf is up with these early inning struggles by our pitchers?

That Stanton bomb must have gone about 425 feet.
Click to expand...
I'm trying to tell myself it's just small sample size and that if it happened in the middle of the season we wouldn't even notice it. Getting harder to talk myself into it every day, though.

I will say this in defense of at least one of them- Strasburg has been incredibly unlucky. A .396 BABIP and a 57.1% strand rate are ridiculous for a guy whose career numbers are .293 and 72.8%. BABIP is all luck and strand rate is mostly luck.
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Disagree with this. Strand rate has to do with how the pitcher pitches from the stretch, and how the pitcher handles pressure. If the pitcher's BABIP is higher in the stretch I can see you making that assumption, but great pitchers have lower strand rates because they are great. Pitching from the stretch can be challenging for a young pitcher, he'll work through it.
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Sure, but as I said Strasburg's career strand rate is 72.8%. So he's shown he can be effective from the stretch. So I think his low rate this year is a product of having #### rain down on him in the same innings instead of scattering hits and walks the way he has done in previous seasons and as most pitchers normally do. Maybe part of that is his now well-documented first inning struggles which is when he's most been unable to strand runners, like last night and opening day. But I think there's also a lot of bad luck there.

 
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I don't think it will happen but I'm more than happy getting Espinosa and Walters more playing time and having a straight LaRoche/Zimmerman platoon at 1B when Zimmerman comes back.

 
Walters is good for a brief call-up every now and again, but pitchers/scouts are going to figure out that he'll swing at everything. He had a ridiculous number of strikeouts last year at AAA.

 
Ramblin Wreck said:
TobiasFunke said:
Don Quixote said:
Walters is good for a brief call-up every now and again, but pitchers/scouts are going to figure out that he'll swing at everything. He had a ridiculous number of strikeouts last year at AAA.
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Tyler Moore 2.0
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Or Ian Desmond
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That would be nice. But when that K rate in the minors starts getting closer to 30% than 20% I get worried. I don't mind that kind of rate at the major league level, but when guys with AAA stuff are striking you out that much I worry that big league stuff is gonna make you look stupid eventually, a la 2013 Tyler Moore. Desmond was generally around 20% in the minors.

Speaking of Desmond ... ugh. I had to look at his fangraphs page for this post and I wish I hadn't. Good news is his season so far is so out of whack with his normal K and BB rates that it has to get better.

 
TobiasFunke said:
Ramblin Wreck said:
TobiasFunke said:
Don Quixote said:
Walters is good for a brief call-up every now and again, but pitchers/scouts are going to figure out that he'll swing at everything. He had a ridiculous number of strikeouts last year at AAA.
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Tyler Moore 2.0
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Or Ian Desmond
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That would be nice. But when that K rate in the minors starts getting closer to 30% than 20% I get worried. I don't mind that kind of rate at the major league level, but when guys with AAA stuff are striking you out that much I worry that big league stuff is gonna make you look stupid eventually, a la 2013 Tyler Moore. Desmond was generally around 20% in the minors.

Speaking of Desmond ... ugh. I had to look at his fangraphs page for this post and I wish I hadn't. Good news is his season so far is so out of whack with his normal K and BB rates that it has to get better.
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It worries me when it's combined with Walters' lack of walks too. His minor league numbers aggregate to four K's for every walk (and around 7:1 last year). Desmond's minor league numbers were around 2.5 K's per walk.

 
I watched a lot of last night's game. The defense looks so bad. They have a major league leading 20 errors in only 16 games. And there were many more where they did not make the play.

We are going to see the Nats vs. Cardinals on Saturday. It will be Jordan Zimmerman vs. Lance Lynn. Hopefully Lynn is not as good as Wainright or Wacha.

 
Marvelous said:
I watched a lot of last night's game. The defense looks so bad. They have a major league leading 20 errors in only 16 games. And there were many more where they did not make the play.

We are going to see the Nats vs. Cardinals on Saturday. It will be Jordan Zimmerman vs. Lance Lynn. Hopefully Lynn is not as good as Wainright or Wacha.
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1pm start tomorrow - kind of strange.

 
Swing 51 said:
Marvelous said:
I watched a lot of last night's game. The defense looks so bad. They have a major league leading 20 errors in only 16 games. And there were many more where they did not make the play.

We are going to see the Nats vs. Cardinals on Saturday. It will be Jordan Zimmerman vs. Lance Lynn. Hopefully Lynn is not as good as Wainright or Wacha.
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1pm start tomorrow - kind of strange.
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Yes, but after seeing everyone bundled up last night, a day game in the sun will be better for watching.

 
Marvelous said:
Swing 51 said:
Marvelous said:
I watched a lot of last night's game. The defense looks so bad. They have a major league leading 20 errors in only 16 games. And there were many more where they did not make the play.

We are going to see the Nats vs. Cardinals on Saturday. It will be Jordan Zimmerman vs. Lance Lynn. Hopefully Lynn is not as good as Wainright or Wacha.
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1pm start tomorrow - kind of strange.
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Yes, but after seeing everyone bundled up last night, a day game in the sun will be better for watching.
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Yeah IIRC 1 PM Saturday starts are pretty normal for April. They do something similar in September- this year all those home games start at 4.

 
How long until Storen starts getting the 8th inning and Clippard stops getting put in crucial situations? When is Aaron Barrett coming back up as that dude was getting people out? And the terrible hitting with RISP has to improve, right?

 
Ramblin Wreck said:
How long until Storen starts getting the 8th inning and Clippard stops getting put in crucial situations? When is Aaron Barrett coming back up as that dude was getting people out? And the terrible hitting with RISP has to improve, right?
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Yeah that Clippard nonsense is getting out of control. Errors by Desmond too wtf.

 
Ramblin Wreck said:
How long until Storen starts getting the 8th inning and Clippard stops getting put in crucial situations? When is Aaron Barrett coming back up as that dude was getting people out? And the terrible hitting with RISP has to improve, right?
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They have a .732 OPS with runners on base and a .707 OPS with runners in scoring position. Par for the course in the NL when you can walk the 8 hitter to get to the pitcher with RISP. By way of comparison, the Braves are at .731/.698.

As with last year and pretty much every year, the idea that they hit poorly with RISP is mostly just confirmation bias.

 
TobiasFunke said:
Ramblin Wreck said:
How long until Storen starts getting the 8th inning and Clippard stops getting put in crucial situations? When is Aaron Barrett coming back up as that dude was getting people out? And the terrible hitting with RISP has to improve, right?
Click to expand...
They have a .732 OPS with runners on base and a .707 OPS with runners in scoring position. Par for the course in the NL when you can walk the 8 hitter to get to the pitcher with RISP. By way of comparison, the Braves are at .731/.698.

As with last year and pretty much every year, the idea that they hit poorly with RISP is mostly just confirmation bias.
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I swear the last few days they have left the bases loaded at least 6 or 7 times. Even last night they got the bases loaded with 0 outs and Desmond, Rendon, Espinosa drove in only one of them on a fielders choice.

 
Ramblin Wreck said:
TobiasFunke said:
Ramblin Wreck said:
How long until Storen starts getting the 8th inning and Clippard stops getting put in crucial situations? When is Aaron Barrett coming back up as that dude was getting people out? And the terrible hitting with RISP has to improve, right?
Click to expand...
They have a .732 OPS with runners on base and a .707 OPS with runners in scoring position. Par for the course in the NL when you can walk the 8 hitter to get to the pitcher with RISP. By way of comparison, the Braves are at .731/.698.

As with last year and pretty much every year, the idea that they hit poorly with RISP is mostly just confirmation bias.
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I swear the last few days they have left the bases loaded at least 6 or 7 times. Even last night they got the bases loaded with 0 outs and Desmond, Rendon, Espinosa drove in only one of them on a fielders choice.
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The last week or so has been rough, although to be fair they've sucked with the bases empty the last week or so too. They started out red-hot on offense in both situations. Now they're regressing (incredibly quickly- there should be another word for what they're doing) and also suffering from the losses of Zimmerman and Ramos. Zim had been the team's best hitter to start the season.

 
Comeback wins are fun, but it's generally not sustainable. (Disclaimer: I have done no research to support my claim.)

 
dgreen said:
Comeback wins are fun, but it's generally not sustainable. (Disclaimer: I have done no research to support my claim.)
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Meh. There's a lot of unsustainable things in April, good and bad. Seriously doubt the starting pitching ERA will be 4.39 and Bryce Harper will be slugging .368 in a couple months, and on the flip side I seriously doubt the bullpen ERA will be 2.08 and Adam LaRoche will have a .419 OBP in a couple months.

I think when you put it all together what we've seen so far is about what they are- about a 90 win team that should grab a wild card but might need some luck to run down a better than expected Braves team.

 
SABR would say that the LOB will even out, but that seemed partly on Williams last night to me. Lobaton bunting in the 8th was just weird. RISP, no outs; gave up two outs because McLouth was up next. The lineup also still seems off to me with Harper too low (and top hitters too scattered to create big innings), but at least Span seemed to break out of his funk last night.

 
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Don Quixote said:
SABR would say that the LOB will even out, but that seemed partly on Williams last night to me. Lobaton bunting in the 8th was just weird. RISP, no outs; gave up two outs because McLouth was up next. The lineup also still seems off to me with Harper too low (and top hitters too scattered to create big innings), but at least Span seemed to break out of his funk last night.
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Agree with all of this, although I don't mind Harper hitting that low against lefties. Lobaton doesn't know how to bunt, and calling for it basically just put two strikes on him instead of giving him a chance for a decent AB.

Shouldn't need SABR to know that there was a lot of luck in play last night though. You can't a ball much harder than Werth's liner that Stauffer somehow caught to lead off the 11th, and it sure looked like Lobaton had tied the game in the 12th until Cabrera came out of nowhere to catch his liner and double up Harper.

You don't lose a lot of games when you outhit the other team 16-8 and out-homer them 2-0. The breaks will come and hopefully the managing will improve (I was begging him to go to the pen when it was 1-1 in the 6th and Zimm was clearly on fumes). Nice to see the starting pitching come around a bit at least.

 
Good to be back at the ballpark, I guess I brought them some luck. That Harper bases clearing triple was a thing of beauty, he was going for third from the second he hit it. Stras looked strong but not spectacular, he needs to start managing the game better and he did that tonight.

No Terrence cheering tonight, in some strange way I missed him. I really think it's stupid they have that VIP seating area there though, I think the seats should run all the way to the field. Tonight there were like six people sitting down there not counting the grounds crew and security, I think it's a terrible waste of space that keeps every fan in the infield further away from the field.

 
Doctor Detroit said:
Good to be back at the ballpark, I guess I brought them some luck. That Harper bases clearing triple was a thing of beauty, he was going for third from the second he hit it. Stras looked strong but not spectacular, he needs to start managing the game better and he did that tonight.

No Terrence cheering tonight, in some strange way I missed him. I really think it's stupid they have that VIP seating area there though, I think the seats should run all the way to the field. Tonight there were like six people sitting down there not counting the grounds crew and security, I think it's a terrible waste of space that keeps every fan in the infield further away from the field.
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I think there was a Bog piece a couple of weeks ago that Terrence was working for the OKC Thunder and would return when their season ended.

 
Nice back to back gems from Strasburg and Roark. And the bats are starting to come alive too. Rendon flashing an awesome glove over at 3rd today too.

 
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