Nats are a mess. I dont see them going on a run at all the rest of this year. They need to make some changes in the offseason, starting with a new manager.Originally Posted by thewupk
Nats are a mess. I dont see them going on a run at all the rest of this year. They need to make some changes in the offseason, starting with a new manager.
Easy schedule.
Regards to Medlen.
Last year was a fluke but he is legit.
He won't pitch that well again but he could pitch that well for a stretch. Last night was the best he looked all year minus one pitch to one of the hottest hitters in baseball.
Probably not a number 1 but around a 3. It's all about location with him, if he's hitting his spots and using his off speed pitches well, he's very good.
Last edited by Heyward; 08-08-2013 at 02:31 PM.
Nats are toast. The lucky seasons of guys like Espinosa/Desmond (to an extent) isn't happening this year. You even have to wonder at this point if Zimmerman will ever be a middle of the order type hitter. Nats really undervalued the impact Morse had on their team.
They are done.
Natural Immunity Croc
The lucky season Espinosa had hitting .247/.315/.404?
Mike Morse hit .291/.321/.470 last year and is hitting .242/.302/.442 this year. As importantly, Morse was a 0.0 War player last year and is at -0.4 WAR this year.
Span is a 1.3 War player this year.
Of all the problems Nats have this year (Laroche, 2B, Span) losing Mike Morse is certainly not one.
And if Teheran keeps developing/progressing and at least gets semi-close to reaching his ceiling; and Minor pitches like this for the foreseeable future, we won't need Medlen to be anything more than a #3...and that's not even including Beachy.
And I admittedly don't know much about Wood in terms of potential, but if we've got a rotation in the near future where he's our 5th starter after Julio, Minor, Beachy, and Medlen, then we're in pretty good shape because I do think Wood at least has #3 starter type potential.
Their bench is the biggest problem.
Though when Harper and Werth were out, wouldn't it be nice to have Morse filling in for one of them?
Wood has #2-3 stuff IMO.
It's all about if hs mechanics can hold up.
His stuff is legit.
In before the Wood jokes.
Walden for Hansen may wind up being one of the biggest rapes, uh, steals of this off-season.
thethe (08-08-2013)
What is the production out of second base this year for the Nats? What Mike Morse is hitting this year is not exactly what he would have done for Nats all year if he were on the team. I work with a huge Nats fan and he believes that his absence from the clubhouse also had an impact as he was one of the leaders there last year.
Natural Immunity Croc
Braves sold at the perfect time. They gave it enough time to see if he could rebound and when they realized he was toast they pawned him off to a team that still beleived he could get it done.
Natural Immunity Croc
Well idk if yall miss him, but speaking from a Braves fans POV, I dont miss Morse on the Nats either.
So he would have magically hit better for the Nats than he did last year with them or he has this year and would have rah rah'ed them to victory?
What does the 2B production this year have to do with whether Espinosa was lucky or not last year?
It helped that Walden was also injury prone and seemed in decline too. They didn't use him in high leverage situations much last year. That's telling too regarding their trust of him. The Angels had lost faith in him and were looking to move him.
That said, I am certainly happy with the trade as we're winning it big time so far.
Same, seemed to always have big hits against us.
Morse did hit well against the Braves, though the pitcher he most owned was Hanson who's no longer here. He hit some real bombs off Hanson last year.
Yes, Espinosa had a lucky year. That guy will never come close to that production again. When you have a position that is a compete black whole and then all of a sudden get someone that hits you 17 homers then its big time luck.
And yes, Morse could have absolutely had a better or worse season had he been hitting for the Nats all year. I guess you don't believe in league shift affects. Oh, and he happens to be hitting slightly better on the road this year as well.
Natural Immunity Croc
But, we have what Morse hit with the Nats last year, what does that have to do with league splits?
Here are Espinosa's number since he was called up: (Notice the "lucky year" in 2012:
2010- (limited ABs) .723 OPS
2011- .737 OPS
2012- .717 OPS (LUCKY YEAR)
2013- .465 OPS
So the real Espinosa is the guy that played with the fractured right wrist in 2013 (.202 BABIP). Not, the guy that was consistently between .717 and .737 OPS with the low end surprisingly being the lucky year.
Just had this pointed out to me. The Braves have swept the first and second place team in every NL division. Since we cant sweep ourselves in the East we swept the second place team twice.
Ok, you got me with the Espinosa stuff. I didn't realize that he had such a stellar 2011 campaign. Duly noted.
Natural Immunity Croc
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