Game Thread: St. Louis Cardinals at Washington Nationals- 2008 Game 60 of 162.

How’s the weather down there? Look’s nasty on the radar…

”’I was really concerned about the time after the first delay how long it took for the first pitch (to be) thrown after it stopped raining. That was excessive,’ La Russa said. ‘I don’t think the umpire was too happy about it, either.’”

-from St. Louis Post Dispatch writer Joe Strauss’ article, “Lohse beats Nats, rain.”

Tarp still on the field, heavy rain at the park. Also, Smoltz to have season-ending shoulder surgery.
Boone, Sr is enthusiastic about the guys in the pipeline in the minors, but thinks they all need a season or two more before coming to the bigs. He thinks Kasto has “figured it out” this year and has a really good swing now. Also, he says Kasto is a really good fit in RF… more pressure/backup for AK/Dukes?
I tuned in in the middle of him talking about the draft. He said it was a weird year, not a lot of obvious bests as you go to the later rounds. “Our twelfth pick might be as good as our fifth.”

...if you’re so inclined, I might have a nice cross-promotion opportunity so I’m working on a draft-related post tonight while I watch the game…I’ll check in later and see what’s happening…

Flores gets the start tonight with Lannan pitching instead of Nieves. With his crazy-hot bat the only one going right now (his OPS is still just under 1.000) Manny wants to keep him playing… Hmm… mini-Jesus Stat Post coming up!

Has Flores come up with an entirely new swing? I’m comparing his stats from 07 with this year’s, and check it out. All the stats I quote are 2007/2008.

First off, he’s just plain hitting like crazy:

AVG: .244/.333
OBP: .333/.400
SLG: .341/.569
OPS: .671/.969

Taking a look at “isolated patience” (OBP-AVG), we see .089/.067, so his walk rate is down a little bit, but extra .089 AVG more than makes up for it! The isolated power (SLG-AVG) is a real jump: .097/.236! What’s going on here?

Okay, let’s scope out some of the peripherals. I’ve mentioned in some stats posts that Flores has a great line drive rate: 16.8/30.8… He’s nearly doubled the fraction of line drives he hits this year! Where did those liners come from? Well, his ground ball rate is 49.6/36.5… in other words, almost all of this year’s extra liners were grounders last year! His rate of fly balls in almost unchanged: 33.6/32.7. Ah, but what’s going on with the fly balls? Well, first off he’s popping up more: his rate of infield flies to fly balls is 11.4/29.4 so he’s more than doubled his rate of pop-ups. On the other hand, his rate of home runs per fly ball is 9.6/12.4, an increase of roughly 30%!

If we believe these stats are a trend (and we certainly shouldn’t—the 2008 numbers are based on only 80 PA), I think there’s a good argument that it’s Flores who’s “figured it out” batting-wise. He’s figured out how to wait for pitch, get under it, and drive the heck out it.

Looking at the radar picture, I’m guessing 1.5 hours to game time. Right now Gameday Audio is doing a continuous loop of the Nats radio theme. It’s slowly driving me mad. There’s the thunder!

Guuuuuzmannnnn – 6
Dukes – 9
Lasto! – 8
BOOOOONE! – 3
Casto – 5
Flores – 2
Pena – 7
Harris – 4
Lannan – 1

Lopez may be due for a rest day, but I think Manny might have been unimpressed with his lack of hustle last night. I hope FLop isn’t regressing to Bad Attitude FLop. How about Dukes at #2? In spite of his miniscule BA, he’s still managing nearly a .300 OBP and shows some verve on the basepaths.

...if it’s unfortunately at Zimmerman’s expense…

1:10 first pitch for game 1, 7:10 for game 2….

See you tomorrow.

$5 cheapseats for the early one and then $35 fof the night one. I’m amped!

...and had no job, or at least a day off, so I could spend the day at the park? Where r u gonna go between games? Anything to do around the park yet?

—-anybody out there ?

—-Casto,Guz,Harris,Boone around the infield, WillyMo,Lasto,Dukes in the OF and a battery of Jesus and Lannan…

Come Li’l John, settle down!

following on XM 187.

—-No Pujols=No big inning.

—-leading off, nice.

C’mon, Elijah! Stay patient (right now his walk rate is highest on the team by a good bit—except for NJ).

—-using that hole on the right-side, nice piece of hitting…

—-cleaning up ?

—-yelling ‘SWING’ Doghouse…?

Bloop single? He’s hurting his SLG!

—-ALWAYS getting it wrong…

—-but popups,K’s and tappers. Wake up the BATS !!!

—-having trouble keeping the changeup down.

—-minutes MLB has the Rays taking the SS from Ga.

Don’t go all non-Discerning on us.

—-Glaus missed that swipe-tag !!!
ARRRRRRRGH !!!

On the other hand, found money is MY money once I’ve found it.

Let’s see some outs now, fresh start.

—-belt high.

...spotting the change 2 innings back.

—-showing a piece on the Nats’ draft braintrust. Good Luck.

—-take…

Extra bases!

RBI single, let’s see it!

—-3,2,1…Tim Beckham, SS from Georgia.

—-Pedro Alvarez 3B from Vandy.

Coming back from surgery, location is supposed to improved, and change up much better. He’s been at extended Spring, and is due to throw a simulated game at Potomac pretty soon then start a rehab assignment.

at least we didn’t give up a bag.

—-BEATS THE PICKLE !!!

—-Eric Hosmer 1B.

One for three pitches, that is… Mendoza, here we come!

Least he singled this time.

—-take Brian Matusz LHP.

—-Buster Posey, C.
Felipe Alou overseeing the draft table, Nice.

I mean, thanks, but …

—-Kyle Skipworth, C.

Dukes has the Discerning Eye not Casto!

—-Yander Alonso, 1B from Da U.

Langerhans into LF on the double switch… is that really a defensive sub, given how WMP’s been batting (or not) this year?

—-Gordon Beckham, SS from U of Georgia.

—-Nats to ‘EAT CROW’ !!!

—-Or did I mess up ???

-CROW.. Say he’s the closest to MLB ready.

—-Jason Castro.
Or have you lost interest, now ?

—-Justin Smoak, 1B. NATS SHOULDA NABBED HIM !!!

—-Jemile Weeks, 2B. Rickie’s Brother.

—-take Brett Wallace, 3B.

—-Aaron Hicks, OF/RHP.

—-Ethan Martin, 3B/RHP.

—-Brett Lawrie, IF/OF/C from Canada.

—-David Cooper, 1B.

—-Ike Davis, 1B/OF, Arizona State University.

Andrew Cashner, RHP.

—-Josh Fields, RHP.

—-our Nats/Draft coverage, for now, please tune in for the 2nd game of the Double-Dip. This is the Ministry of Truth, signing off, remember…..War is Peace Freedom is Slavery and Two and Two Make Five.