MVN - Most Valuable Network

The Opposing Viewpoint: Washington Nationals

Welcome to the latest edition of The Opposing Viewpoint, a series of questions and answers with bloggers who write about the Mets’ opponents. Today’s guest is Harper Gordek, who writes for Oleanders and Morning Glories, MVN’s Nationals blog. Read on to find out more about the new ballpark in DC and a few names that should be very familiar to Mets fans.

So far, how have fans reacted to the new ballpark?

The fans reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, those that have bothered to have shown up. It’s a great looking place, the vendor situation is light-years better than it has been in the past, and both of these are still expected to improve in the near future.  The negatives you hear are that the capitol sightline is overrated and the parking situation is still a work in progress but the park itself gets a big thumbs up. 

The elephant in the room is the lack of fan support though.  It hasn’t been bad, it just hasn’t been up to what was expected with a brand-new park opening up.

The Nationals recently lost nine straight games. What was the main culprit for the losing streak?

Bad luck and bad pitching.  The Nats lost four 1-run games during that stretch and never seemed to get the ball bouncing their way.  The players have to take some blame though and it starts with the starters.  Every pitcher on the staff had at least one poor game during that stretch.  Overall they don’t last nearly deep enough into the games and when someone managed to pitch a decent game, like Matt Chico versus the Braves, that’s when the offense decided to quit.  Other than Tim Redding, who’s done fairly well so far, and had a decent 2007, right now the rotation feels like a giant crapshoot.  One good game, one passable but short outing, and one explosion of sucking, you don’t know which of these you’re going to get.

A Mets-Nationals series takes on the appearance of a bizarro-world family reunion, with all of the players (plus a manager and GM) who were once on one side but now find themselves on the other. How are Lastings Milledge and Paul Lo Duca fitting in with their new team?

Milledge - great.  Manny Acta loves the guy from his time with the Mets.  He hasn’t peeped word one to annoy anyone and he’s produced on the field.  The defense is a little suspect, but Nats fans are thrilled to have this guy around.   I think it helped to pull in a guy like Dukes - makes Milledge’s issues seem like the jokes they were.

LoDuca - not so much.  He’s done offensively, he isn’t great defensively and he is blocking what many Nats fans thought would be Jesus Flores’s spot this year (thanks for that guy, Mets). Of course none of that matters too much - we didn’t expect much there - but he was also brought in to provide veteran leadership. So far that veteran leadership has brought in the Mitchell Report and some backhanded sniping at teammates’ play.   So really he started behind the 8-ball for Nats fans with the whole steroid thing, and has only dug himself into a deeper hole.  Barring an awesome offensive explosion (excuse me while I laugh) the Nats will be dying for a way out of his deal come August.

Last year, the starting rotation was more like a revolving door - 12 different pitchers started games for the Nationals, and only Matt Chico made more than 21 starts or pitched more than 118 innings. What do you expect from the starters this year?

Not much more.  The management has a plan that starts with building the team up from the minors. Most of those guys, who honestly may not end up being anything but at least are decent prospects, are still a year or two away.  In the meantime they’ve tossed out whatever they could grab cheaply thinking it would be just as good as what they could pay for.  Honestly, what’s the difference between Kyle Lohse and Odalis Perez, they ask?  I think we’re seeing it this year - guaranteed performance.  Maybe not great performance - but average performance, rather than the gamble you take by putting other teams’ garbage out on the mound.   Last year things didn’t turn out horribly when it came to pitching.  Each time something failed another thing worked, so they didn’t end up being historically bad as we thought was possible. This year however things are going as you’d expect with a makeshift staff.

Chico will be below average and last the whole year, a lot like last year.  Tim Redding should provide some of the average innings we lacked last year.  Beyond that…who knows.  Perez, Bergmann, Lannan can’t be counted on.  Shawn Hill’s injury status means the same for him.  Everyone else is minor leaguers and you can’t expect them to step up.   I wouldn’t be surprised if by years end someone outside of Chico/Redding comes through and shows themselves to be a decent major league #2/#3, but who that is and when it happens, I can’t tell you.

What exactly is the team planning to do with Felipe Lopez, who lost his job to Cristian Guzman and played a few games in left field while Wily Mo Pena was on the disabled list?

Try to trade him constantly while sticking him where ever he can play.  He’ll play some OF if necessary, like we saw.  He’ll probably spell a slumping Ronnie Belliard soon, and he’ll fill in at shortstop.  But until he produces there isn’t a place for him.  I think this is silly -  why give Belliard or Guzman the first chance to prove they belong when their ages make it doubtful they’ll be here when the Nats may be good - but it’s hard to argue with sitting him down because he’s done so little to earn a spot.

Bonus question: What is your favorite baseball food?

The simple hot dog. Good at every park. Consistent.  Dependable.

(oh and Dippin Dots, but technically they are future baseball food, not baseball food for now)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 8:43 am and is filed under The Opposing Viewpoint, Tim Redding, Matt Chico, Paul Lo Duca, Lastings Milledge, Felipe Lopez, Washington Nationals, 7 Train. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.