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1. Esoteric throws a 'hard slider' Posted: April 25, 2012 at 09:35 AM (#4115561)Maybe you wouldn't, but all of Japan would, and pretty much anyone who's paid the slightest bit of attention to either Strasburg or the Nats. The Nats in a World Series alone would be an amazing story, and even more so if they were matched against the team that deserted Washington 40 years ago.
The closer hasn't given up an earned run yet. 4 starting pitchers with ERA+ of 240 or higher with one guy at 338 and the other at 654!
That simply cannot last even if they all stay healthy.
You mean the Natinals. amirite?
Plus one could argue that since I lived so close to Chicago and Milwaukee that I can also count the White Sox winning the WS and the Cubs having their best stretch in the last 50 years as well.
At this point I feel like I should be sending my resume out to various sad sack ballclubs.
AND the pitchers are all good, too.
having a guy like strasburg on the team who attracts all kinds of attention is also good for the team rep. not sure how it gets them more money, seeing as how all the tv contracts are set for a long time, but i can see the few actual MLB writers left having a good ol time. and they would absolutely LUUUVVVV a natinals/rangers WS - got the year's 2 big stories right there in 1 WS
well, you'd THINK they'd love it but prolly not because there's no yankees/red sox in it. and if a guy who comes out of practically nowheres to throw a perfect game is put waaaaaayyy behind the redsox bullpen blowing a 9 run lead, well, i don't have real too much hope that media can ever bring themselves to talk with enthusiasm about inferior story lines
2005 9-8
2006 7-10
2007 6-11
2008 5-12
2009 4-13 (my personal favourite Nats' team, because of the bullpen follies)
2010 9-8
2011 9-8
As things stand at the moment, the Nationals are going to need something resembling a career year out of NadyRosa in one of the corners to get enough offense to carry them through a playoff race. I just don't think they have shown enough offense yet during a schedule that hasn't featured any pre-season pennant contender other than the Reds.
"I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of zzzzzzz"?
I would be glued to the TV for any WS match-up involving Stasburg. Darvish? No. What's exciting about watching a pitcher walk four batters in five innings?
What do you have against Peter Mansbridge?
If Strasburg isn't enough to attract your attention to a baseball game all by himself, then I'm forced to leap to the conclusion that the pitcher capable of achieving that doesn't exist.
As for the Nationals they have their share of players who are underperforming so far and can be reasonably expected to improve. Wilson Ramos, Ryan Zimmerman, Danny Espinoza all have track records above their current 2012 levels. Sure, the pitching is going to come back down to earth, and they won't be winning 130 games or whatever they're on pace for. But hasn't the story in Washington in recent years been gradual improvement? That they're 13-4 is a surprise, but is the fact that they're doing well one?
I'd say the OF is kind of weak. Werth's having a nice start to the season and with his contract I think your only option is to hope he keeps that up.
LF and CF seem entirely improvable. I don't know their minor league status, any promising prospects there?
Is this serious, or a joke?
They have this guy who wears a lot of eyeblack. He hasn't hit for anything at AAA yet, though.
Perhaps just CF.
Yes. The Expos have been irrelevant since 1994, and so they shall remain.
Right now, the Braves are set to win the division. The Nats will falter. Their starting pitching isn't nearly this good. Not even *close* to this good, and their offense isn't particularly good either. The Phils are showing their age early on, and the Mets and Marlins are the Mets and Marlins.
Dirty filthy libel, yes.
It depends on what you mean by 'this good'. If you mean the current 2.21 ERA, I'd agree. But the only peripheral that looks seriously wrong is HR/9. Give them a league average 0.8 HR/9 and you'd get a FIP of about 3.28 based on current totals, if my math is right. For this Nationals' pitching staff to be in that vicinity at the end of the season wouldn't surprise me.
LF would be improved simply by playing Teddy Roosevelt out there.
A lot is going to depend on usage plans for Strasburg and Zimmermann, too.
Well I'm afraid that you'd better get used to it ya bittch, because this is going to be a very good ballclub for the next few years.
Weekend series in LA could be interesting.
Skeptics may want to remind you that generally mediocre teams can put up 14-4 stretches. Heck, we have to go back all of just one year to see the Indians starting out 13-5.
The Nationals' offense (with Morse out and Zimmerman potentially headed to the DL) is their Achilles heel, but their rotation is just devastating: two actual aces (Strasburg and Zimmermann), one solid #2 with a potentially higher ceiling (Gonzalez), a thoroughly competent 3/4 type that would rank even higher for most teams (Jackson) and a wild card who right now looks up to par with the rest (Detwiler).
With the exception of Detwiler, these pitchers aren't unknowns. They're guys with track records of previous success that give us a solid reason to suspect that, while the current streak of unimpeachable pitching can't really be sustained at its present preternatural level, they also aren't going to regress into Pumpkinville either.
The Braves and Phillies are paper tigers. The Phils are old and injury-torn, whereas the Braves (which I consider the greater threat) have roughly half a rotation. I don't expect the Nationals to win the division this year -- not without some offensive reinforcement -- but I fully expect them to contend for it (or a WC) all the way up to September.
That's the thing right there. As solid-to-great as these guys are, they are still pitching way, way above their heads. Give them a still-fantastic, regular-ace 3.30 ERA over this period instead of a 2000-Pedroesque 1.71 ERA and the Nationals are break-even in run differential. And of course we're assuming everyone stays healthy and effective as 3 of the guys are expected to set career highs in IP. The rotation is good, but this is ridiculous.
There SOS on BRef is 0.0 and I have no idea why since the only team they played with a positive Rdiff is the Astros at .4.
The pitchers I'd be most concerned about are, in fact, relievers. Specifically, Stammen and Clippard. Clippard is so far below his 2011 standard,* yet he is something of Davey Johnson's fireman. Stammen is a bit of a bullpen throwback in that he is a failed starter. He has been extremely valuable this season as a sort of long-man/7th inning guy, but I'm not at all convinced he's capable of keeping this up. In 2010 he wasn't any better a reliever than he was as a starter.
I'm also slightly wary of Henry Rodriguez in the Closer's Role. We shall see.
____
* Although a lot of that is down to one appearance on 15 April against the Reds. He's been back to his old self his last three outings.
As amazing as Washington's pitching has been, Pittsburgh is right on their heels for RA.
Houston with a positive run differential and a 7-12 record (projecting pythag W% over the rest of the season the Astros make second wild card spot!)
Some other things are mildly surprising. The Dodgers are doing better than I'd have thought (and to a lesser extent the Nationals)
See, this is just wrong.
They have two top flight starters - Strasburg and Zimmerman. They have two mid-tier (3/4) starters - Gonzalez and Jackson. (Gonzalez is not a top tier starter outside of Oakland.) Then they have Detwiler pitching so far out of his mind he's probably mainlining acid.
This will not last.
Early results don't seem to agree with this.
Wang is coming back soon also. Plus John lannan stewing away in AAA. A lot of starter depth. They really do need one more outfielder though. Even with Werth hitting a little bit it's a challenge for this team to scrape out runs.
Early results are early.
The South always seems to say this about the North. It's so cute.
Well, maybe not when he pitches at BAP, the Big A, NYS, Fenway, etc. He seems to have done pretty well against NL teams while with Oakland. And of course he didn't exactly go from Oakland to Coors.
How's that 4-0 start treating you, buddy?
To a 10-8 vs. 5-13 start last year. I know games ahead/up don't mean much to you after last year, though.
Latch your mule to a dream of another historical anomaly. I get it. I understand. You're a Mets fan, after all.
SMELLS LIKE VICTORY
I locked in at 18-1 preseason. This is gonna be fun.
A Marlins fan. That's funny.
Ray rode the Rays at 250-1 in 2008 and didn't cash out after the ALCS. Took a lot of heart on his part. I sure would've sold at least half of it at that point.
Did Teal & Black abandon them after they changed the uniform colors?
It's a good thing we have this really young up-and-coming superstar in the pipeline you might possibly have heard of named Bryce Harper
Well there's one idiot in this thread who's never heard of him.
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