MVN - Most Valuable Network

A win and a potential loss

In an alternate universe we’d be talking about how the Nats’ overworked bullpen blew another game.  This time the tired Saul Rivera, gave up 2 runs in 1.2 innings.   I’d be screaming about how this was his 95th appearance already and how his arm is going to fall off, all while demanding more space nectar from my sexy robot wife.

We don’t live in that alternate universe (Goodbye sexy robot wife!  I’ll never forget you!) we live in this one, and here the Nats scored four runs starting with a man on second and two outs.  For a team that hasn’t had things go there way much, having 3 groundballs through the infield with 2 outs (well hit groundballs mind you - but well hit groundballs are also fielded for outs very often) is nice to see for the fans.  Throw in a couple of walks and suddenly four runs cross the plate.  Four runs that gave the Nats a nice cushion that even their bullpen couldn’t lose.  Nats win.

Of course the Nats can’t get away with having good news only so Nick Johnson selflessly took a hammer to his wrist and needs an MRI today.   This is obviously bad news.  Nick is injured all the time.  A lot of it isn’t his body’s fault, a broken leg in a collision, a broken face from a batted ball, but each injury means more strain on the rest of the body as it tries to compensate.  Nick dealing with injuries now is like a trying to stop a damn from breaking. 

However, it really is worth it because if you can get a healthy season from the guy you have a fantastic offensive and defensive presense.  Hell the guy has an OBP of .415, despite being hurt and unable to really drive anything.   On a team where 5 out of 8 regulars have OBPs under .320 that’s huge.

Jay Bergmann goes today.  Bergmann’s got the stuff to get out major league hitters.  We’ve seen that.  He’s got the stuff to go 6-7+ innings into minor league games effectively.  He has been very good since being dropped down to Columbus. The question is whether he’s got the stuff to go 6-7+ innings into major league games.  He didn’t earlier. Check out the inning by inning splits.  This is a guy dominant through 4, holding batters to about a .200 average with 2 XBH, that gets crushed past that.  Like over a .500 average with 7 XBH.   Some combination of familiarity and a slight loss of stuff tips the scales well against Jay.  Personally I’d like to see him back in the pen, but I got nothing against him getting another shot.  Just watch your heads in the 5th.  

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 9:19 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.