This team is not in doomed for the next couple of years.

[Heyward]

Well, I'm gonna e a fan of Jason next year it looks like. No reason even thinking about following the team, we won't win **** with that clown at the helm. 2 epic september collapses, and this one he can't blame on injuries. Just the worst. Fredi should be on the first bus out of town, if he isn't then the whole FO should be on the first bus out of town. Unreal.

This team doesn't deserve anyone's fandom if they don't care about winning and care more about loyalty. ****ing bull****.

Will you follow Jason if they trade him?

 

[Dalyn]

BJ at leadoff was dumb but how much of a difference does that make if Heyward is leadoff all year, maybe 4-5 wins?

Again talent usually wins out and our talent isnt as good as some of yall think it is.

Same goes for every sport.

4-5 AT THE RIGHT TIME is an 8-10 game swing. Think about that.

 

[stpeteirish]

Good post. Surprisingly I agree with some of your points.

First change needed to be made and its already been done. I don't want to turn this into Frank Wren part deux.

I already like this direction this team is headed though.

now that Hart has announced he's in favor of keeping Fredi would you like to update your opinion?

 

[zitothebrave]

Will you follow Jason if they trade him?

Absolutely.

 

[CyYoung31]

4-5 wins is huge. If we had 4-5 more wins, not only would we have a winning record, we could have challenged for a wild card berth considering we played PIT at the end of the season.

 

[keithlaw]

lulz batting Heyward leadoff all year would not have won us 4 or 5 more games. More like scored us 4 or 5 more runs

 

[keithlaw]

I don't believe he alone is responsible for that. He certainly played a part. So much of baseball success especially as a hitter is mental. If you put guys in a situation to succeed and they do they gain confidence and fall into better hitting habits and hit more. While talent for sure plays a part, the Nats on paper going into last year were just as strong as this year. Thedifference was execution, is that just randomness? Or is it good management?

Nats as you pointed out added 11 fWAR, the 2 pitchers you listed added 4.5 of that, last year Haren and Detwiler had a 2.4. SO that only explains about 2 of that net gain. You don't think confidence in the manager plays a part in it?

No. And even if it did matter, attributing the Nats success this year to Williams is a silly post hoc argument, which is the same reason I don't think Fredi is a problem in the grand scheme of things. We had a lot of success with him last year with a similar roster, but this year none of our scrubs had career years.

 

[zitothebrave]

No. And even if it did matter, attributing the Nats success this year to Williams is a silly post hoc argument, which is the same reason I don't think Fredi is a problem in the grand scheme of things. We had a lot of success with him last year with a similar roster, but this year none of our scrubs had career years.

We produced (again) the same basic fWAR as the Cards, we should have been in the WIld Card game. No we weren't as good as last year, mainly cause of CJ and Uggla finding a new low to sink to.

 

[The Tariff King]

Oh my, we produced the same fWAR as the Cards...

I guess that really is the end all be all of us making the postseason.

 

[zitothebrave]

lulz batting Heyward leadoff all year would not have won us 4 or 5 more games. More like scored us 4 or 5 more runs

In a vacuum yes. In reality, it could have been worse, BJ was at his leadoff spot in late June/July. A period when Justin was very hot and Jason performed very well as well (got on base at a .370 clip) if those 2 paired up at the right time our results could have been way more than 4-5 runs. The issue with vacuum stats and on field run production is that vacuum stats account for that player, on field results factor in the performance of others. Maybe there would have been no difference, maybe there would have been a giant difference, what I know is that the best way to win is to not bat your worst hitter leadoff. And we did that for almost 1/4 of the season.

 

[zitothebrave]

Oh my, we produced the same fWAR as the Cards...

I guess that really is the end all be all of us making the postseason.

What that simply is saying is our players performed well enough to be in the playoffs, something else stopped them, be it random luck, or a ****ty manager, I'm not sure. But I do know that you can't fire random luck.

 

[jcc03004]

What? The Braves are going to lose the division by about 17 games. Not too mention the playoffs this season require like 87 wins. Where are 10-12 more wins coming from?

How many 2-1 or 3-2 games did we lose? Load up the bullpen and I'm fairly sure we are a 90 win team again even with a weak offense

 

[jcc03004]

I never said Fredi has done a great job.

Is it Fredi's fault Simmons cant hit for ****.

Is it Fredi's fault Uggla fell off the face of the earth and forgot how to hit a baseball.

Is it Fredi's fault CJ regressed a LOT.

Is it Fredi's fault Avilan regressed a TON.

Matt Williams has done a good job but his players are performing for him, Fredi's are not, thats why the Nats are so good, and we arent.

Mattingly isnt a great manager but his team is so stacked it doesnt matter.

When you have good players, it covers up your flaws.

Buck Showalter has done a hell of a job, he's a great manager.

There's maybe 3-4 good managers in baseball, the rest are about the same.

It's Fredi's fault for continuing to use Avilan in pressure situations when he had failed time and time again this year, but Fredi kept throwing him out there. Fredi's bullpen management is and has been atrocious, and maybe if he actually pitched the right relievers in the right situations we might have won more games.