Federal Baseball.com: Late Day Links, Send Mark Zuckerman To Florida.
by Ed Chigliak on Feb 8, 2010 10:30 PM EST
7 comments
• If you haven't already read about former Washington Times' writer Mark Zuckerman's attempts to replace the funding the Times used to provide for him to travel to Spring Training, (when they covered the Washington Nationals), with user-generated funding for the expense of doing so...CLICK HERE and check out his Nats Insider site. Mr. Zuckerman's accepting donations and hoping to raise $5,000 dollars which will allow him to travel to Florida and cover Spring Training from start to finish. It's a bold plan, and one I personally support since I've always thought that the more voices and opinions on any subject the better. I'll travel to Spring Training at some point in March, but Mr. Zuckerman will be there the whole time...very NPR, as another DC writer noted...
• Baseball Prospectus' Will Carroll published his Team Health Report for the Washington Nationals today, where he writes in the free portion of the article about the days and dollars the Nats lost to injury last season, as well as the real cost of such injuries:
"That is money that could have been used to bring in Orlando Hudson before he decided to accept the Twins' offer for just a million more guaranteed. The Nationals could have gone the other way with that money on pitching, too, and brought in a John Lackey type instead of spending the $15 million on Jason Marquis to be a "front of the rotation" starter."
Are you one of the DC Faithful who's expecting Elijah Dukes to have a big season in twenty-ten? Mr. Carroll writes that the 25-year-old outfielder, "...is in a state of constant comeback—much of it his own doing—but he also seems to have some terrible timing when it comes to injuries. With a more-or-less new manager and theoretically coming into his prime, Dukes could put everything together... or..."
7 comments | 0 recs |
First Pitch Strikes
by natsstats on Feb 8, 2010 6:43 PM EST
7 comments
The Washington Nationals have made big changes to their pitching staff this year. Can this squad throw strikes? How important is it for pitchers to get ahead early in the count? Does throwing a first pitch strike have any impact on a pitcher's success rate? How did the Nats current roster do in 2009? While pitchers and catchers are making their way to spring training, I thought it would be a good time to go looking for answers.
7 comments | 0 recs |
Washington Nationals: HotStove.com: Reaction To The Adam Kennedy Signing.
Tom Reese at Hot Stove.com has put together another collection of opinions on the Nationals' decision to sign free agent infielder Adam Kennedy once they failed to sign Orlando Hudson. Participating this week:
Will Yoder of The Nats Blog
Ed Chigliak of FB
Anthony Emerson of Bleacher Report.
Washington Nationals: Weekend Rumors, Links And Tweets.
by Ed Chigliak on Feb 8, 2010 5:17 AM EST
18 comments
• DC GM Mike Rizzo spoke to MLB.com's Bill Ladson last week in an article on the Nationals' interest in free agent right-hander Chien-Ming Wang entitled, "Nationals monitoring Wang's progress", in which Mr. Rizzo signaled a shift in Washington's approach to the remaining free agent arms on the market, telling Mr. Ladson that any veteran pitcher who might still sign in the nation's capital would have to do so, "...at the Nationals' price." In the next few days, Mr. Ladson noted on Twitter, that he expected the DC GM to, "...focus on pitching the rest of the offseason," with future Hall of Famer John Smoltz, at least in Mr. Ladson's opinion, "a perfect fit", though, "...his price must come down."
• Just two weeks back, MLB.com's Bill Ladson reported via his Twitter account that, "The #Nats have talked to John Smoltz's agent recently, but there isn't any progress to report."
18 comments | 0 recs |
Run Expectancy Weekend Continues: AL vs NL
by Doghouse on Feb 7, 2010 5:25 PM EST
3 comments
So, once you have all the data to hand, slicing and dicing is the easy part. Remember how we compared the Nats' 2009 run expectancy to the NL average yesterday? Well, here's the AL average, just for laughs:
| Runners | no out | 1 out | 2 out |
| --- | 0.53 | 0.29 | 0.11 |
| 1-- | 0.91 | 0.53 | 0.23 |
| 12- | 1.54 | 0.91 | 0.45 |
| 123 | 2.33 | 1.60 | 0.75 |
| 1-3 | 1.88 | 1.23 | 0.53 |
| -2- | 1.14 | 0.67 | 0.33 |
| -23 | 2.03 | 1.43 | 0.56 |
| --3 | 1.43 | 0.92 | 0.34 |
Right off, we can see that AL teams score an average of 0.53 runs per inning versus the NL average of 0.48--just what you'd expect from the cheater training wheel league! A review of the NL table and comments after the jump.
3 comments | 0 recs
Washington Nationals: Syracuse For Ian Desmond? Or A Utility Role?
by Ed Chigliak on Feb 7, 2010 1:30 PM EST
19 comments
Washington Nationals' manager Jim Riggleman has said all winter that he'd be alright with Ian Desmond starting at short in 2010. Saturday night that message changed a little. Following Thursday's signing of free agent second baseman Adam Kennedy, Desmond seemed destined to start the twenty-ten campaign in Triple-A Syracuse, but according to MLB.com's Bill Ladson, Mr. Riggleman believes, as he's quoted stating in a new article entitled, "Desmond may play utility role for Nats," that the 24-year-old '04 Expos' 3rd Round draft pick could become, "...an all-purpose utility man -- playing all three outfield positions, shortstop and second base," if Cristian Guzman is healthy enough following surgery on his right shoulder and persistent issues with his feet to come back and play short alongside Kennedy at second.
So what's better for Desmond? Playing short every day against Triple-A competition and coming up later in the season to officially replace Cristian Guzman, who I'm guessing won't be back in 2011, or does Desmond stay in DC and share infield duties while filling in in the OF whenever necessary? Desmond, of course, has the right attitude as he tells Mr. Ladson that he'll do, "Anything I can do to help the team win -- if that situation (playing a utility role) comes about -- I will be more than willing to do it." Just like Collin Balester and Craig Stammen both said earlier this winter that they'd be willing to pitch out of the bullpen if necessary, I'm sure any of these players will do anything they're asked if it means remaining in the majors. Is it best for Desmond's development? Mr. Ladson notes that he hasn't played the OF on a "regular basis" since high school...but he did play right field last September against the New York Mets when he was asked to...
I remember that game...
19 comments | 0 recs |
Washington Nationals: 2010 Preview Review: Lindy's Sports Annual
by Ed Chigliak on Feb 7, 2010 1:40 AM EST
4 comments
• I knew I wouldn't be going out tonight so after a long day of work on a Saturday I stopped by the local newwstand put $7.99 on the debit card and brought home this year's edition of Lindy's Sports 2010 Baseball Preview, with its market-specific cover featuring the Yankees' Mark Teixeira, the Mets' Johan Santana and a glowing Chase Utley hovering about the top of the page. There aren't too many surprises inside for fans of the Nationals, but seeing Washington listed as the third of ten top stories of 2009 in Jim Caple's column, "Roaming the Majors", caught my attention...Of course, the paragraph quickly recounted the history of the franchise, the move from Montreal to Washington with a moment for Jim Bowden's legal troubles and departure and then on to Stephen Strasburg, who's compared to Kelly Leak...Here we go...
4 comments | 0 recs |
Snow Day Nats Stats: 2009 Run Expectancies
by Doghouse on Feb 6, 2010 5:53 PM EST
27 comments
While we wait for pitchers and catchers to report, here are some long-overdue stats to wrap up last season. That's right, more run expectancy matrices! Yay! What are run expectancy matrices? Despite the intimidating name, it's basically a table that that tells you how many runs you score in various combinations of outs and men on base. Here's the 2009 run expectancy for the NL:
| Runners | no out | 1 out | 2 out |
| --- | 0.48 | 0.26 | 0.09 |
| 1-- | 0.83 | 0.51 | 0.21 |
| 12- | 1.39 | 0.88 | 0.41 |
| 123 | 2.12 | 1.45 | 0.66 |
| 1-3 | 1.64 | 1.13 | 0.48 |
| -2- | 1.09 | 0.65 | 0.28 |
| -23 | 1.95 | 1.35 | 0.52 |
| --3 | 1.19 | 0.95 | 0.37 |
What does this mean? Well, every time an NL team had no outs and no one on base, they scored an average of 0.48 runs before the end of the inning. Similarly, when an NL team came to bat with 1 out and runners on 1st and 3rd, they scored 1.13 runs on average--and so on, for all the other combos of runners and outs. The interesting part is to pull out the data for the Nats and see how they compared! I'll give you a hint: "The Nats leave 'em loaded! (With a twist.)" The numbers don't lie (after the jump).
27 comments | 0 recs |
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NL East Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Philadelphia
|
93 | 69 | .574 | 0 | Lost 1 |
|
Florida
|
87 | 75 | .537 | 6 | Lost 1 |
|
Atlanta
|
86 | 76 | .530 | 7 | Lost 6 |
|
New York
|
70 | 92 | .432 | 23 | Won 3 |
|
Washington
|
59 | 103 | .364 | 34 | Won 7 |
(updated 2.9.2010 at 12:36 AM EST)
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
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