Game 140: Strasburg rulez, rest of Nats droolz...
by Doghouse on Sep 6, 2011 11:49 PM EDT
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PrintTonight's game story: Strasburg rulez, rest of Nats droolz...
- Welcome back: Stephen Strasburg (+22.8% pitching, +6.9% hitting) dominates over 5 IP, fanning 4 and allowing 2 hits and no ER. He also reaches on error on a sac bunt (scoring a run, +8.3%) and comes around to score, himself.
- Bullpen FAIL, how I've missed you: Brad Peacock (-20.9%) has a less-than-auspicious debut, cashing in Doug Slaten's (-4.6%) two runners and one of his own to tie the game the inning after Stras left. Henry Rodriguez (-34.7%) coughs up 2 ER in the aeyeth to put the Nats behind for good.
- Better (although limited) debuts: Stephen Lombardozzi (+10.5%) leads the Nats in batting WPA on the strength of a PH walk. Atahualpa Severino (+4.1%) gets an out in relief.
- The Beast is dead: Michael Morse (-16.6%) is 0-5 with 4 Ks and 8 LOB. Danny Espinosa (-16.3%) is 0-4 with 3 Ks and 4 LOB.
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Was at the game tonight and I have to say...
Your headline is spot on! Strasburgh was outstanding…everyone else looked like they just didn’t give a crap.
Such a waste.
I was there, too, crossing my fingers for the rain that refused to come and save the Nats from themselves. It’s a good foundation to build on for next season, I know, but that didn’t make it any less painful to watch.
"I don't believe in luck, but it was just one of those things where it wasn't really skill, either." --Jerry, jr.
Well, yeah...Strasburg to Slaten...whoosh...rapid deflation.
Slaten? Really?
"player development" should not be gladiator games. by cat daddy3000 on Aug 6, 2011
You're saying Slaten 2.0 isn't an improvement?
Darn.
If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!
I moved down to front row behind nats dugout after the delay...
Man I wish I had money lol.. Though the shark acknowledged us as we said his nickname!
BTW, Strasburg made it to TV here in China
Saw innings 2 through 4 this morning on ESPN (Asia), here in Yixing City. Was awesome to see it here in the middle of nowhere, half-way around the world. Game was dubbed into Chinese – seeing Bob and FP speaking Chinese was cool, I wonder if they knew they were speaking it! LOL. Also cool to see Chinese folks learning not only about Strasburg, but about the likes of Lombardozzi, Desmond, Marrero, et al.
Building a global following (and personally I’m hoping they didn’t cut back to the game after the rain delay!).
If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!
I think the headline should read: Strasburg rulez, rest of Nats GHOULS..
undead yet not alive.
Honestly, why would any top line FA pitcher want to sign here to get zippo in run support and watch his good works swirl down the toilet as the kidz and mediocre vets gag up yet another good outing?
"player development" should not be gladiator games. by cat daddy3000 on Aug 6, 2011
Well, it IS September
bullpen composition will change next year, except one would expect Clippard (8th) and Storen (9th) to remain. If I’m a “top line” FA pitcher, I expect to go 7. Then Clip and Store have my back.
So I certainly wouldn’t worry about the BP.
Re the run support, I’d think our lineup has Zimmy, Morse, and otherwise is sprinkled with some “potential” that should be maturing, and I’d also know there’s a kid named Harper coming along soon. That’ll likely be enough for me if I’m apitcher with some confidence in my stuff (pretty much a “by definition” thing for top line FA pitchers)
Plus, I’m going to get paid BIG BUCKS by the Lerners to come here. I’m going to be part of a top tier starting staff with Strasburg and JZimm. I’d think this team is definitely on a long-term upward trend. I don’t give the September record of an “out-of-the-race” team anything but extremely short shrift – now’s the time to see which kids may have what it takes.
(Yes, I had the advantage of only seeing the GOLD part of today’s game, not the FAIL, so I am understandably less bitter than I would otherwise be at this moment, Miss B. But let’s not fail to see the reasons for optimism with the future).
If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!
"GOLD" = "GOOD", but since it's "good as gold", I guess that's a typo that doesn't change the meaning.
If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!
I like "seeing" the callups as much as anybody, but the season-long RISP FAIL...
and general lack of Offense this year SCREAMS for some fixing. Rizzo needs to re-work his formula for next year.
And yeah, it was really hard to stomach all the FAIL up and down the line after Stras left…especially the numerous indefensible moves made by DJ….seemed intent on humiliating all the rooks tonight
"player development" should not be gladiator games. by cat daddy3000 on Aug 6, 2011
Slaten.................
Is’nt a call up………..He’s a Fraud.
Davy tried to give the explanation that he really did’nt think the rain was going to hold long enough to justify peacock entering the game at all…….He had hoped slaten could get thought the inning…………….
Frankly…………this organization is still snake bitten…………….
This.............
might be the first time I agree with you. F the rain, Slaten sucks almost as bad as Garrett Mock. Worst case, Peacock pitches 2/3rd of an inning, and you use Coffey to get the out when the game resumes. A starting prospect should not make his debut with runners on 1st and 2nd, and the MVP at the plate. That is some of the worst manging I have seen in my life. Almost as bad was walking Eli Whiteside intentionaly to the load the bases.
Severino has a better fastball than Burnett and Slaten, by why dosent he get 1,000,000 chances before getting cut. leftys that throw mid 90’s are not common. When I started hyping Severino, I though he threw at about Milone speed. Bouy was a shocked when the gun said 96. You should have seen my face when he got the K. Davey needs to go, for a while there he looked like he was learning the team, but that went away fast. I honestly feel that Randy Knorr should have been chosen for the manager spot, or McLaren as both guy are similar to Riggleman, and that would have caused less of a transition period. It was a little late in the year for a major change, and we are seing the results. I would honestly give a look to Knorr, Porter, Jewett, and possably the Harrisburg guy in the offseason, as I think they are all potential MLB skippers. Rizzo has not only stocked the farm sysytem with good players, but with good coaches. ranging from Matt LeCroy and Paul “magic man” Menhar(pitching coach)t in Potomac, to a guy who should have won manager of the year in the EL, to Knorr and Jewett who many feel to be potential mangers.
One last though, Peacock actualy impressed me once he settled down, I put no blame on him and blame his 1ER on Davey.
LET SEVERINO PITCH!
You are SO singing my siren song!
I agree a thousand per cent.
I STILL feel like the Davey hire was both a panic move AND a gotcha to Riggs by Rizzo.
It has born bitter fruit.
I like all of the guys you mentioned for next year plus Ryne Sandberg. Any one of them would be superior to DJ who needs to go back to his consulting and yarn-spinning role.
Eleven years out of the dugout is too long away to start again at his age.
"player development" should not be gladiator games. by cat daddy3000 on Aug 6, 2011
by MissB on Sep 7, 2011 6:01 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
It shouldn't be called a panic move
Because Davey was the guy they wanted there all along. They couldn’t hire him after Acta left because he was pretty sick at the time so they let the career stopgap manager, Riggleman fill in for what was supposed to be a brief tenure. Riggleman actually did well so he got some extended time there.
But regarding last night. He’s got a couple lefties coming up and then the meat of the order. We need to see if SOMEONE can get lefties out. So can we stop flipping out whenever Slaten and Burnett pitch? Or should we just release them RIGHT THIS SECOND and go into ST next year with Atahualpa Severino as our only lefty. Whenever September 1st rolls around, this is always the time everyone wants new management as if that will change everything. Our manager, as well as every single other manager who’s not in the race, is trying to see who is going to step up and make a case for themselves next year. That’s the only agenda and rightfully so
Whats the frequency, Kenneth?
by ZimforPrez on Sep 7, 2011 6:36 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
But hes making a mess of it
Peacock is NOT a reliver, asking him to do Clippard, Coffey, or HRods job is an absurd way to evaluate a starter. Thats like if I took a D-man in hockey, and asked him to play center, its apples to oranges. If evaluationg the young guys is the agend, than why wasnt Severino brough in to face the lefites, and why did Davey make up some BS excuse about rain. I honestly feel that we should release Slaten, see what Burnett and Severino can do to see if we need to sign someone next year. Davey has already had more bonehead moves the Riggleman. Im never gonna agree with every move a manager makes unless im the manager. Im tired of this half ass agend that is somewhere between evalute the young guys, and try to win games. If Peacock was a reliver than yes thats the right move, but his a starter, AND Davey said he would start an inning. There is no need to jerk around the players like that
LET SEVERINO PITCH!
Brad Peacock has occasionally pitched in relief in the minors, including twice this year
He also was a relief pitcher in the AFL last fall. This was not a role that he had never experienced.
I was looking forward to seeing Peacock directly after Strasburg, and was disappointed when Slaten came in. That said, I understand why Johnson did it the way he did it, and while I wouldn’t have done it that way it wasn’t criminally stupid.
That's exactly what I was thinking too
I was hoping to see Stras go 5 and then Peacock like 3 and then whoever. Obviously he did it differently and obviously the results were awful. But I’m not pulling my hair out over Davey’s moves, and I’m not praising them either. I’m indifferent towards him as a manager because I know (and he knows) he’s not going to be here long term.
My stance on in-game managing is this. Every single manager in the league has subtle differences on how they utilize their starters/pen and no one is right or wrong because its all based on rationale. They all have reasons for going with the guys they chose and the results can go either way. The thing is, people only notice the decisions with bad results. So instead of just looking at each and every “bad move” it’s just alot easier to look at what he accomplished in the long run. Like at the end of this year, we should have a pretty good idea of where each player stands going into the offseason. If we don’t; then in that case Davey failed
Whats the frequency, Kenneth?
Okay, hes relived twice
Peacock is not a reliver, and you dont have a starter make his debut agaist the MLB in a relivers possition. The guy was in AA about a month ago working on starting, and now your asking him to reliver in his debut agaist the MVP. How hard is it to use Coffey to get two outs before Peacock. Rember how he was good the next inning too. Lets not forget he still want HRod to be a long man. Also the fact we had 2 long guys most of the year under daey. And then there the way the trew Detwiler adround between starter, and reliverstarter or whatever he was. Im not asking him to predict the future, or turn rocks into gold, all I want is him to manage a bullpen in a way the fits this team, which he was not done IMO. I will say this about Davey, he is great at the second part of managing, the part you dont hear about, he just cant do the part that the fans see every day very well. Riggs was terrible at the other half from whats been reported, and he was only okay at the part the fans see. If Davey would just stop dicking players I would be fine with him
LET SEVERINO PITCH!
As Clauswitz noted, no plan survives contact with the enemy
It wasn’t the way that Davey wanted to do it, but circumstances got in the way of his plan. DJ, as reported in today’s Nationals Journal:
“The weather report came to me in about the fourth inning that it was going to, in about 15 minutes, [rain] was moving in," Johnson said. "I wanted to warm [Peacock] up earlier. I didn’t know Stras was going to go five easy. I would have started warming him when Stras was out there, but I didn’t want to have him warm up, and then the rain came. So, I went to Plan B. I’ll warm him up with Slaten. That way, I can let him get his full warm up, like a pitcher, not rushed. Unfortunately, I had to bring him in to face the right-hander, and it happened to be one of the best hitters in the league."
Fans may have not have been comfortable with the move, but Peacock was. He had been told he might enter in the middle of the inning, and he felt perfectly ready to make his major league debut in that way.
"I relieved out in the Fall League, and I did pretty well," Peacock said. "So I’m used to it. That’s a situation I’ve been in before. They just got some hits."
Emphasis added is mine. If Coffey had come in and given up the hits, everyone would have wondered why you are using short relievers in the 6th when you have a long guy/starter prepped and ready to go. A manager really can’t win versus fans that have the keen advantage of hindsight. I had more trouble with him bringing in MPHRod than the way he handled the 6th – but I can construct the argument for using MPHRod as well.
I wouldn't have complained with coffey
Right when they brought peacock in, I said out loud that it would end badly and they should have used someone else. The weather thing is bs as they had peacock out there for the next inning when there was a delay. I just can’t stand how davey goes from one plan to another every game, and keeps switching from play to win, to pitch the young guys. It’s not just the sixth inning tonight, he done this multiple times. I just wish he would learn the players better, and not keeping second guessing his gut
LET SEVERINO PITCH!
by jeff550 on Sep 7, 2011 10:59 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
When watching sports, live or on TV, I get a feeling that something will end badly often. Frequently. As in, all the time
I remember every single time that I was right, and almost none of the times that I’m wrong. Of course since I spend a lots of time watching the Nationals and Redskins, I’m correct a fair amount of the time. Still.
What else is the kid going to say?
He’s in no position to dispute the manager at that point. So his comments prove nothing. Cheers to him for going with the positive spin, though.
And that yarn DJ is spinning is 180 degrees from the one he spun before the game…when he swore he’d ONLY bring Peacock in to start an inning. Gave a bunch of reasons why ..to protect him as a SP, debut to MLB, etc., etc.
"player development" should not be gladiator games. by cat daddy3000 on Aug 6, 2011
Again, no plan survives contact with the enemy
He even said in the quote above that’s what he wanted to do, but he felt constrained by the situation. Would you rather have a manager that didn’t change his “plan” when circumstances called for it, or slavishly stuck to a plan no matter what? I can tell you I’ve seen managers criticized for both.
And beware of confirmation bias – if a players says something that tracks with what you believe, he’s telling the truth, but if he says something that contradicts what you believe, he’s lying to cover up for the manager? Is it even remotely possible that the player is telling the truth, that he was told to be prepared to come in during the middle of an inning and was OK with it?
Agian whats wrong with wait till the next inning for Peacock
I think we will have to agree to disagree on this.
LET SEVERINO PITCH!
And, FWIW,
Keith Law’s convinced Peacock’s a reliever in the majors. I have issues with Law, but he’s been pretty good in assessments.
Brain: "Pinky, are you pondering what i'm pondering?"
Pinky: "Yes, but isn't a cucumber that small called a gherkin?"
I think law is the one the said Espinosa would suck
If its not Yankess or Red Sox, Law dosent like
LET SEVERINO PITCH!
Actually
Law has said several times this year that Espinosa and Desmond should switch positions, and that Espinosa will be a low-ba hitter with some pop (sounds way off base, huh?)
Brain: "Pinky, are you pondering what i'm pondering?"
Pinky: "Yes, ... wait, ... no, ... never mind"
I spent over $t500 last night for tickets, dinner and drinsks…seeing Slaaten come out pissed me off more than II can tell you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man, I REALLY feel bad for you!
Despite all Davey’s proclamations of a game plan…both pre- and post-game…he doesn’t follow through during the game. It’s disturbing…and unnerving as he veers off the rails.
I worry about the kidz under his care. He doesn’t fill me with confidence for their development..
And I don’t know why the Nats can’t both evaluate the callups and CONTINUE to fight for every game. Other teams well out of the playoffs seem able to do that.
"player development" should not be gladiator games. by cat daddy3000 on Aug 6, 2011
One bit of irony from the 6th
With Peacock letting all the inherited runners score, he Slaten’ed Slaten.
Brain: "Pinky, are you pondering what i'm pondering?"
Pinky: "Yes, but isn't a cucumber that small called a gherkin?"
by jbg2772 on Sep 8, 2011 10:09 AM EDT reply actions 2 recs
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