Fouled-Off Bunts: Odds and Ends Edition

It really sucks that it's the second say of the season and that there's no day game at all to entertain us. At least this year, we don't have an off day between the first and second games. That 18 hour wait might as well have been 18 weeks.

I alluded to this in my rambling post below, but yesterday's offensive problems is mostly a function of facing a great pitcher like Dontrelle. He's going to do that, especially to a team that's as lefty-heavy as the Nats are.

For his career, left-handed batters have hit .219/ .280/ .310 off him. In other words, he turns the average lefty into a pile of mush worse than Guzman in '05. Church, Snelling and Schneider had no chance. I'll note, too that Felipe Lopez and Cristian Guzman hit worse against lefties than righties, so even two of the switch hitters are at a slight disadvantage.

We saw the effects of Alex Escobar's injury there. Had he been healthy, he'd have been in left instead of Church or Snelling, giving the Nats another righty bat against a tough left hander.

Dave Sheinin chatted today and gave his usual thoughful answers. Cal Ripken (or as the idiots call him, Ripkin) chats later today. If there's a just God, he's getting bombarded with Angelos sucks statements posing as questions.

Hittracker measured yesterday's Uggla homer at 463 feet. Miguel Cabrera's homer was a measly 429 feet. Cristian Guzman (not listed) hit a mean 70 foot grounder.

Before hurting his hamstring (week - 10), Guzman made a tough play on a ball deep in the hole. He got to it, threw off his back foot and didn't have much on the throw, narrowly missing the out. I couldn't tell whether the slow throw was because of his back foot, or because he didn't let loose with the throw given his shoulder problems.

He had a few good swings early in the game, even if he didn't get any results. There's some reason for optimism there. Hell, if he hits .275, we'll take it.

Baseball Analysts has an interesting article on all the non-roster players who made rosters of various teams. The Nats, needless to say, lead the league with five. Jim Bowden has always been good with this rock-turning-over strategy, getting useful talent and decent performances out of players who cost nothing to acquire.

I do wonder, and if anyone's seen this, pop it in comments, when the last time (if ever) a team successfully carried two Rule 5 players. If they carry them through, that's 7 of the 25 men on the roster who were acquired without giving up a thing. 9 if you can't Josh Wilson and Micah Bowie, or 10 if you don't count the giant sack of cash they traded to the Tigers for Nook Logan -- I'm sure Uncle Teddy counted it... over and over and over and....

I was disappointed by this year's version of the Diamond Mind projections. They have us pegged for 75 wins and about a 6% chance for the playoffs. Both seem on the high side, and their admission that they gave lots of PT to Nick Johnson and Alex Escobar probably account for some of that. NJ over Young is probably 3-5 wins alone.

Still, they're interesting, and they're usually one of the most accurate predictors out there.

At least we're ahead of Tampa and Florida in one thing.

Apparently Svrluga is now doing a podcast. I haven't listened to it yet, so I can't vouch for it, but...

And if you missed it... Todd Jacobson blogged from the game. There's some good stuff in there.