You Needed That
Admit it. You did. You needed that. You needed to be slapped aside the head with some reality. You needed some perspective. You were getting a little too cocky. A little too big for your too-tight britches.
I know you looked at the standings and figured out how many you'd be back of the Braves with a sweep. I know you looked at the standings and figured out how far back we were in the Wild Card. I know you played that what-if game, and figured that .500 was within our grasp.
That's why you needed to see Jerome Williams stink up the park. That's why you needed to see batter after batter weakly tap Tim Hudson's sinker in the soft turf. That's why you needed to see the never-ending cavalcade of relievers.
We're not a good team.
Sure, we beat the hell out of the Marlins, but that was a team that was under .500 last year (they were the darlings of '06, but they were sub-.500 darlings), and they're worse this year. And sure, we beat John Smoltz and the Braves, but it took a near no-no to do it, and then we barely squeaked out the win, by the barest of margins.
So deflate your puffy head. Take a deep breath. Come back out of the clouds.
We can be fun at times, but...
We're not a good team.
I know you looked at the standings and figured out how many you'd be back of the Braves with a sweep. I know you looked at the standings and figured out how far back we were in the Wild Card. I know you played that what-if game, and figured that .500 was within our grasp.
That's why you needed to see Jerome Williams stink up the park. That's why you needed to see batter after batter weakly tap Tim Hudson's sinker in the soft turf. That's why you needed to see the never-ending cavalcade of relievers.
We're not a good team.
Sure, we beat the hell out of the Marlins, but that was a team that was under .500 last year (they were the darlings of '06, but they were sub-.500 darlings), and they're worse this year. And sure, we beat John Smoltz and the Braves, but it took a near no-no to do it, and then we barely squeaked out the win, by the barest of margins.
So deflate your puffy head. Take a deep breath. Come back out of the clouds.
We can be fun at times, but...
We're not a good team.
posted by Chris Needham at
11:11 PM
9 Comments:
I have to admit, I did think a streak was on, I did think we weren't THAT bad, I did think that the offense was ok, but it's just not. I don't play the game, even at "let's go to the park and play catch" level, and I could hit Williams. The guy has nothing in his array of "weapons" that looks even half scary. Send him down and bring up a good kid. Let the kid get hit. Let him learn how to react. Isn't that the plan?
By
Anonymous, at 5/15/2007 11:50 PM
perfect post. my sentiments exactly.
By
(j)on, at 5/16/2007 2:03 AM
WRONG! I certainly didn't need *that*. I have already collected ample evidence of the Nats deficiencies. No reminders are required, thank *you* very much.
By
Anonymous, at 5/16/2007 5:43 AM
I agree...but I do have to say I am damn worried about Zimmerman. Hitting under .250 after 1/4 of the season is officially alarming.
By
Anonymous, at 5/16/2007 8:31 AM
In the future, please try to avoid posting these types of rants in the evening. I read it before I had my coffee and it was very unpleasant. I will now go back to repeating my mantra:
"The Nationals are a fine young team with a lot of potential . . . The Nationals are a fine young team with a lot of potential . . . The Nationals are . . .
By
Anonymous, at 5/16/2007 10:58 AM
What makes modern-era pitchers so fragile?
Is it because Walter Johnson, Camilo Pascual, Whitey Ford, etc., never threw sliders and two-seamers to mess up their arms?
The casualty list just keeps growing . . .
By
Anonymous, at 5/16/2007 11:58 AM
The slider and splitter do a helluva lot of damage.
Some of it is that they don't throw as much -- and I'm not talking between starts, but as kids. Long tossing and building up arm strength from the time they first walk, playing ball all day, really helped a lot of the older players.
But, to me, the biggest reason there are so many 'injury prone' pitchers today is because of surgery. With advances, pitchers can linger and rehab and get rebuilt whereas 40 years ago, they'd have retired quietly without ever attempting an ill-fated comeback, if they even made it to the majors to begin with.
It's not that today's pitchers aren't as healthy, it's that many have an opportunity to pitch that might not have before.
By
Chris Needham, at 5/16/2007 12:01 PM
Another point... it's easy to cherrypick the exceptions to that. We can point to Walter Johnson. But how many people EVER did what he did? Not many. And how many Senators pitchers had short careers before flaming out, in part, because of injury?
By
Chris Needham, at 5/16/2007 12:02 PM
Just came back from the Nats game -- Took 3 of 4 from Atlanta .. We may be bad but this week has been a lot of fun!
By
Anonymous, at 5/17/2007 5:28 PM
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