MVN - Most Valuable Network

What’s past embarrassing? Oh yeah, sad.

At this point, what is there to say? The Nats are tripping over their own feet and they need a run of good luck to get them out of this malaise.   Seriously, they can’t simply get back to playing how they ”should” be playing and bust out of this slump. This is a below .500 team to begin with.  Simply performing is not enough.  They need to catch some breaks.  A couple 1-run wins, a couple horrible showings by the other teams pitchers, a couples shutout by Nats guys, a couple players getting super-hot at the same time.  These things happen, for every team, in every season.  The Nats need it to happen real soon. 

Last year the timing of that run “saved” the Nats season.  After starting infamously 9-25, the Nats went 11-4.  Got workable starts, including a gem by Bergmann outdueling Smoltz in a 2-1 win.   Won 5 one-run games.  They didn’t hit all that great but managed to slug 14 HRs in those 15 games, after hitting only 15 in the previous 34.  Suddenly the Nats were 20-29, and pretty much back where they should be, before the season could get out of hand, before the team became a laughingstock. 

Last night:

The offense got on base a ton but could never deliver the knockout blow.  In part because they kept running themselves out of innings, trying to hard to make something happen on the base-paths since nothing is happening at the plate, but in part because the Nats have been no good at hitting with RISP this year.  Second to last in the majors in battting average with RISP (.222), dead last in SLG (.322).   The Nats are a slap hitting team right now.  That means to get a big inning - you know 4+ runs or more, they need to work in 4 or 5 hits to go along with a walk or two.   That’s tough for a good hitting team.  

Thing is they know that, they tried to correct for it and they only made things worse.   Wily Mo is a giant hole in the line-up right now.  .100 / .129/ .100 .   This was a team that had no margain for error.  Bringing back Wily Mo early was an error.  Game Over.  0 runs scored.

What can the team do?   I don’t know.  Willie Harris might manage to get on base a little more but he’s not going to rally help the lineup.  Felipe in the OF? Maybe, but are you going to trust Felipe to keep hitting?  You’d have to DL Wily Mo because he isn’t going to take kindly to being benched so a SS/2b can play LF.  God I can’t believe I’m saying this - but bring up Alex Escobar.  What do you have to lose right now.  You don’t need a Willie Harris on the bench.  Defense and speed isn’t going to turn the corner for the Nats.

It’s a grasping at straws move to be sure, but that’s what the Nats have to do now.  Grasp until something (probably unrelated) clicks. Fiddle around with the lineup in places where you don’t care.  Switch around some bench players for some minor league spot starters.  Sometimes it’s just as important to look like you are doing something than to actually make a change.  And doing these things keeps you from making moves you don’t want to make just yet, like sitting Kearns and Zimmerman, or messing with the middle of the line-up.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 10:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized. 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.