This team is HORRIBLE!

The offense without a doubt is concerning. However imo the BP will come around and we'll probably pick up another BP arm at the deadline plus we have Venters coming back. The starting pitching has been awesome and will continue to be. Also I see us upgrading at 2B. Whether that be LaStella, or trading for someone later. Uggla can't be allowed to be a useless player all year. Things will be fine, we had awful streaks just like this last year. Although I will admit it's been painful to watch the last few games.
 
Quit being so melodramatic. 4th place? C'mon.

They are a legit playoff contender.
 
Millwood1Hitter said:
No other way to explain it. Too many incompetent hitters that are free swingers and have terrible comprehension of the strike zone. A bullpen that has been the best in baseball over the past few, has no reliable options outside of Kimbrel. Terrible defensively at key positions outside of RF and SS. The worst in game decision maker in the game in Fredi who has absolutely no clue.

The only chance you stand at even remotely winning games here and there is that the starters need to go out there and pitch 7-8 innings of shutout or 1 run baseball, and even though, besides the last week, that's what we have gotten out of our rotation, that is too much to ask for. We're asking that out of a career journeyman that is inconsistant, a group of young studs that are capable but shouldn't be put into that situation and it will wear on them, and a piece of garbage that should be released or put in the pen to be an innings eater.

This team will be out of first place in no time, and be lucky to finish fourth in the division.
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Your post is galactically retarded.

The one thing I see that needs to be addressed is the all-or-nothing nature of the lineup. LaStella at the top and Simmons in the two-hole would be a nice adjustment.

Our bullpen wasn't going to have a 2.00 ERA forever. It'll level out.

Gattis is a significant upgrade from 2013 McCann. Maybe not from 2008 McCann, which is what the Yanquis paid for.

I think we'll make the necessary adjustments and win 98 games, with the Nats finishing eight back. There will be bumps in the road.
 
There is a big difference between ranting and what this dip**** is doing. He wants the team to do bad so he can make posts like this.
 
GovClintonTyree said:
Your post is galactically retarded.

The one thing I see that needs to be addressed is the all-or-nothing nature of the lineup. LaStella at the top and Simmons in the two-hole would be a nice adjustment.

Our bullpen wasn't going to have a 2.00 ERA forever. It'll level out.

Gattis is a significant upgrade from 2013 McCann. Maybe not from 2008 McCann, which is what the Yanquis paid for.

I think we'll make the necessary adjustments and win 98 games, with the Nats finishing eight back. There will be bumps in the road.
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Not exactly. McCann was a lefty, which to go along with Heyward and Freeman, was able to balance the lineup out a little more. And most importantly, no matter the stats and his second half struggles, McCann had a professional at-bat almost everytime up, can't say that for most of our guys in the lineup right now. Right now the only guys that have proffessional at-bats on a consistant basis are Heyward, Freeman, Simmons and sometimes Justin and Gattis. Again, for the most part, we have a piss poor approach at the plate, and it seems to worsen with runners on or in scoring position. You can't have too many guys that want to hit a homer on every pitch or don't have strike recognition, and we got too many of those hitters.
 
I was prepared to dismiss Millwood as an ignorant, negative troll, but his followup post has several points that I am forced to agree with.

1) The hitting coaches have done nothing to help the slumping, can't take credit for developing anyone and Walker especially has a history of fail.

2) This wasn't a big league bench from day one. One reason I wanted Mejia just as RH bat. But I am willing to bet that Wren will make a move for the bench very soon. Reed Johnson was indeed a large part of the upside; Millwood is one of the few I've seen acknowledge this.

3) Uggla must go. Eat the money, trade him for a sack of balls, bring La Stella up and bat him second.

4) Beyond that, Millwood's should have quit while he was ahead. Comparing Fredi's decision making to Tony La Russa overlooks the obvious -- any team would kill to have a La Russa at the helm. Fredi had the utterly thankless job of replacing Bobby, and I cannot imagine anyone doing any better under that kind of scrutiny. The Braves knew that Gattis would be a project as a catcher, but I have been pleased with his progress.

All I can say is, if you would self-edit your posts just a little, you might not sound like a total buffoon two-thirds of the time.
 
I've seen a lot of baseball through my eyes in my lifetime. I understand the long season and the ups and downs the accompany it, its part of the game, its a part of the process of a 162 game season.

We have a lot question marks and concerns, but I guess I should just avoid them and hope that we can mask them.
 
Millwood1Hitter said:
I've seen a lot of baseball through my eyes in my lifetime. I understand the long season and the ups and downs the accompany it, its part of the game, its a part of the process of a 162 game season.

We have a lot question marks and concerns, but I guess I should just avoid them and hope that we can mask them.
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We don't have a lot of question marks. Things like the pen and bench help can be fixed fairly easily as the trade deadline approaches. We should be getting Venters back as well who will help tremendously. As far as the hitting side goes Heyward and BJ have both been playing well lately. If they keep that up they will be fine. I am also confident Johnson will at least be a league average hitter by years end. The only true issue, imo, that we have is Uggla and luckily we have someone in AAA that should be an immediate upgrade whenever the club decides to make the move.
 
rico43 said:
I was prepared to dismiss Millwood as an ignorant, negative troll, but his followup post has several points that I am forced to agree with.

1) The hitting coaches have done nothing to help the slumping, can't take credit for developing anyone and Walker especially has a history of fail.

2) This wasn't a big league bench from day one. One reason I wanted Mejia just as RH bat. But I am willing to bet that Wren will make a move for the bench very soon. Reed Johnson was indeed a large part of the upside; Millwood is one of the few I've seen acknowledge this.

3) Uggla must go. Eat the money, trade him for a sack of balls, bring La Stella up and bat him second.

4) Beyond that, Millwood's should have quit while he was ahead. Comparing Fredi's decision making to Tony La Russa overlooks the obvious -- any team would kill to have a La Russa at the helm. Fredi had the utterly thankless job of replacing Bobby, and I cannot imagine anyone doing any better under that kind of scrutiny. The Braves knew that Gattis would be a project as a catcher, but I have been pleased with his progress.

All I can say is, if you would self-edit your posts just a little, you might not sound like a total buffoon two-thirds of the time.
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I wasn't comparing Fredi to LaRussa, just saying that he's trying to play matchup with the bullpen that TLR was known for, constant switching of pitchers, using 3 pitchers an inning, etc except LaRussa was good at it. A lot of our bullpen has reverse splits so it makes absolutely no sense to use Avilan only against a lefty and use him up and take him out to have Walden face a righty, when Avilan is shown to be very effective against right handed hitters with his sinker and Walden has been great against lefties with him being able to utilize his changeup.
 
Millwood1Hitter said:
Not exactly. McCann was a lefty, which to go along with Heyward and Freeman, was able to balance the lineup out a little more. And most importantly, no matter the stats and his second half struggles, McCann had a professional at-bat almost everytime up, can't say that for most of our guys in the lineup right now. Right now the only guys that have proffessional at-bats on a consistant basis are Heyward, Freeman, Simmons and sometimes Justin and Gattis. Again, for the most part, we have a piss poor approach at the plate, and it seems to worsen with runners on or in scoring position. You can't have too many guys that want to hit a homer on every pitch or don't have strike recognition, and we got too many of those hitters.
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McCann's last three years he faded. One was injury, but I think he wears down over the course of the season and is in the backside of his career because he was never in great shape. I would tell you we've got more important things to worry about than Gattis, who's been near All Star caliber.

Replacing Uggla with LaStella addresses several points.
- We get another contact hitter.
- We get another left hander.
- We get a high OBP guy.
- We get a guy who could lead off (unless you believe the speed myth).
- We get rid of an all or nothing hitter.
- We get rid of a sub-.200 hitter.
- We get rid of a right hander.
- We get more critical mass to ensure consistent offensive production.

So that helps a lot of what concerns you. And me.

I think a hitting coach's primary responsibility is to help guys out when they're struggling, stop slumps from becoming too deep. Based on that criteria, it'd be tough to point to any success for Walker. We don't make mid season changes, though.
 
I like to go crazy on here, but let's not knife them yet. Four-game losing streaks have happened. This group is equally capable of going on a 10-game winning streak.

The offense is extremely troubling, but it largely is the same as last season. I feel the need to point out that McCann's bat disappeared down the stretch more than a couple times in recent years.

Starting pitching I think will be fine if the current group can stay healthy. I'm expecting at least one or two of them to see the DL at some point. Would not be surprised to see us acquire one at the deadline. Please don't ask me who I'm going to give up. Things come out of left field all the time, and you never know how idiotic a GM might be.

The bullpen might be the scariest of all right now, because it's the one unknown, and I suspect we'll see some movement from Wren on this. It was completely dominant last season, and that helped us win a lot of tight games. Think of how many times last year we got to the sixth inning with a lead last year and could just kick back. I'd like to think Venters can come in at some point and give us a boost, but how could we reasonably expect that?

The bench.....lulz. Idk what else there is to say. Laird is too busy managing. Doumit is bleh. Pastor and Pena are alright to bleh, but I can't say I have much confidence in them to deliver a big hit. Schafer runs well, but is worse than BJ.

Fredi is what he is. A good to solid clubhouse manager, even keel. Sometimes that's not appreciated enough. His in-game decision making can be downright horrendous. I know everyone likes to say other managers are that way, too, but I'm not concerned about them. We could do worse.

McDowell: terrific.

Walker/Fletcher: I honestly don't know. All I know is this team lacks desperately in strike recognition and situational awareness. Trying to pull an outside offspeed pitch with RISP, failing to execute a bunt, leaving the bat on your shoulders with two strikes on a borderline pitch when down to your last out. It's incredibly frustrating to watch that. Such is the game of baseball that we love.

One other area. There's not really a stat to measure this, so people will scoff, but I can't point out that real veteran leader on this team yet. That's what hurt the most losing McCann and Hudson. We've got a lot of young talent, but no one out of the regulars really stands out as the guy. I would hope Freeman or Heyward could become that eventually, but they're still young. And you can't just go out and find a Chipper Jones/John Smoltz/Tom Glavine walking around.

Overall, I think we're still a contender. I really don't know if we can win 96 games, but 92 and a division title should be within reach.

And then unless we're just insanely hot going in, we're not winning a playoff series. We've got good, sometimes very good pitching. Not an alpha male.
 
The problem Milwood is th at you lack persective. Sure the pen ain't what it used to be but who has a better one in the division? I visit other teams forums and they wish they had our pen. Try visiting wnff.com and see how nat fans view their team vs the braves. If you posted what you did about the braves over there they would call you a nats homer.
 
The Cards lost to the Cubs in back-to-back games with Wainwright and Wacha on the mound.
Are they HORRIBLE!?!?!?
Really hate hissy fits.
 
bravesnumberone said:
I like to go crazy on here, but let's not knife them yet. Four-game losing streaks have happened. This group is equally capable of going on a 10-game winning streak.

The offense is extremely troubling, but it largely is the same as last season. I feel the need to point out that McCann's bat disappeared down the stretch more than a couple times in recent years.

Starting pitching I think will be fine if the current group can stay healthy. I'm expecting at least one or two of them to see the DL at some point. Would not be surprised to see us acquire one at the deadline. Please don't ask me who I'm going to give up. Things come out of left field all the time, and you never know how idiotic a GM might be.

The bullpen might be the scariest of all right now, because it's the one unknown, and I suspect we'll see some movement from Wren on this. It was completely dominant last season, and that helped us win a lot of tight games. Think of how many times last year we got to the sixth inning with a lead last year and could just kick back. I'd like to think Venters can come in at some point and give us a boost, but how could we reasonably expect that?

The bench.....lulz. Idk what else there is to say. Laird is too busy managing. Doumit is bleh. Pastor and Pena are alright to bleh, but I can't say I have much confidence in them to deliver a big hit. Schafer runs well, but is worse than BJ.

Fredi is what he is. A good to solid clubhouse manager, even keel. Sometimes that's not appreciated enough. His in-game decision making can be downright horrendous. I know everyone likes to say other managers are that way, too, but I'm not concerned about them. We could do worse.

McDowell: terrific.

Walker/Fletcher: I honestly don't know. All I know is this team lacks desperately in strike recognition and situational awareness. Trying to pull an outside offspeed pitch with RISP, failing to execute a bunt, leaving the bat on your shoulders with two strikes on a borderline pitch when down to your last out. It's incredibly frustrating to watch that. Such is the game of baseball that we love.

One other area. There's not really a stat to measure this, so people will scoff, but I can't point out that real veteran leader on this team yet. That's what hurt the most losing McCann and Hudson. We've got a lot of young talent, but no one out of the regulars really stands out as the guy. I would hope Freeman or Heyward could become that eventually, but they're still young. And you can't just go out and find a Chipper Jones/John Smoltz/Tom Glavine walking around.

Overall, I think we're still a contender. I really don't know if we can win 96 games, but 92 and a division title should be within reach.

And then unless we're just insanely hot going in, we're not winning a playoff series. We've got good, sometimes very good pitching. Not an alpha male.
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Even though you annoy the hell out of me, I can't refute this post.

Great post, not good, but great.
 
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