Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Seven Wonders Blunders

Wow! John Lannan has giant balls of steel!

It's hard to say that 7 innings with 8 hits and 5 walks is a good outing, but one run is one run, and one HUGE strikeout of Barry Bonds to end the 7th inning is the exclamation point on the night!

Lannan looked like he was pitching verrrry carefully to Bonds instead of pitching around him, even if the effect was the same in the first part of the game. But when it was crunch time, he came up and in with two pitches, getting Bonds to swing through both -- rare swings and misses for him -- giving the Nats a most improbable outing!

Seven in a row, thanks to Dmitri Young's solo homer in the 10th, and the Nats staved off Barry Bonds and more importantly, the entire Giant team for one more night.

Feckin' Lopez.

Feckin' King.

Feckin' Manny and his defensive subs.

posted by Chris Needham at 1:42 AM

22 Comments:

  • Who would you rather have been playing SS at that point? D'E6 Jiminez? Ronnie Belliard? Robert Fick? Sometimes a ball up the middle is just a ball up the middle.

    Now, about our "lefty specialist"... hanging sliders equals no pie, Ray. Are you listening Ray? No Pie!

    By Blogger Nate, at 8/07/2007 7:11 AM  

  • So after turning off the TV when Bonds was pulled out of the game, I was ready to sing the praises not only of John Lannan--tremendous performance under the circumstances--but of Ray King. King's pregame interviews made him sound like Lannan's personal pitching coach, as did some of today's article ("And when he got up, the entire crowd stood. The flashes went off, and Lannan stepped off the rubber, advice King had given him. 'He can't start until you do,' King told him.")

    Thanks, Ray. And Chad.

    Oh well, at least Zimmerman didn't get killed by the other rookie pitcher in the game.

    By Blogger Ben, at 8/07/2007 8:08 AM  

  • I think the beef with Lopez is that he can't get down a sacrifice bunt (though one might wonder if bunting in the 11th was a good idea anyway, but I digress).

    By Blogger John O'Connor, at 8/07/2007 8:25 AM  

  • No. It's that he can't get down a bunt OR field his position on routine groundballs.

    Sure, he might've been the best option, but that doesn't make him a good one.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/07/2007 8:29 AM  

  • Wow - it's one thing to watch that mother til the bitter end, bt to get a post up too . . .

    Apparently, and despite your best efforts to the contrary, you actually are a blogger.

    And a fan.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 9:07 AM  

  • Hey, you can write while you're watching.

    Thankfully that's not my real job, so I didn't have to re-write the story in the end. Just use the [strike] tag and tack on bitterness in the end.

    It's an easy job! ;)

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/07/2007 9:11 AM  

  • Chris, you are correct!

    Lopez not hustling YET AGAIN!!

    By not diving and keeping the ball in the infield......little leaguers SS know that was a must at that point of the game....Lopez let runner go to 3rd which that let Sweeney hit and run off first which prevented a double play with the two slowest players on they had in the catcher and Sweeney!

    When is Acta and this team going to cut out this cancer AT LEAST KNOCK IT DOWN!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 9:45 AM  

  • Calm down, boys, calm down.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 9:50 AM  

  • John,

    Lopez has showed this lazy approach as well as not having his head in the game for over a year. This team is not going to anywhere in the future with him on it. This is the year to find things out....

    Acta has not proven he is ready to be the Manager until he proves he can take action to correct the approach of one of his own favorites. It is well documented that Acta favors Lopez and has known him since he was a child. Acta babies him and it is not helping anyone.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 10:07 AM  

  • I did not stay up to see extra innings; so, I probably should not comment, but Lopez is banged up right now with a bad knee. He may deserve a little slack here. Or maybe not.

    With Guzman coming back next year and Belliard a legit everyday 2nd baseman, the Nats could unload Lopez (who is arbitration eligible after the season) to free up cash. I am guessing Lopez will make between $3 and 4 million next year as I think that he is making $3+ this year.

    Pilchard

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 10:21 AM  

  • not that Lopez needs my defense, but he is dealing with a nagging knee injury. that's the biggest problem with the major league roster now and for the forseeable future, is that there isn't any quality back up. and i'm sure Manny was put up against a wall last night. i'm sure he didn't WANT to put Lopez out there in that spot. he had no choice.

    By Blogger Dave Nichols, at 8/07/2007 10:43 AM  

  • Pilchard,

    LOPEZ is making $3.9 MMMMMMMillion Dollars in 2007. Thanks for giving us hope and showing the light.....your right, they will not dump him for his PLAY but they sure will for his PAY! Good!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 10:43 AM  

  • FLOP must go. Logan underperforms too, but at least he hustles. Its a darn one run game in extra innings -- GET THE BALL.

    I cheated myself out of an hour or more of sleep for that? I really don't care if Bonds gets his stupid HR or not. In the words of Al Davis, "Just Win Baby."

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 10:45 AM  

  • Dave,

    ACTA did NOT have to put Lopez in....He replaced the Starting SS and went into his spot in the line up. This was straight substitution and Chris's comment is correct....

    "Sure, he might've been the best option, but that doesn't make him a good one."

    He has talent but he wastes more than any other player I have seen in recent years. He has NO CLUE what is going on in the game and by the way, bunting does not take good knees. He is just does not ever have his head in the game.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 10:51 AM  

  • Felipe Lopez is the worst fielding shortstop in the NL according to Bill James Handbook 2007, p. 283. Lopez's range factor is next to worst, fielding pct. lowest in NL, number of errors highest in NL. More Bowden fantasy baseball where only offense counts.

    By Blogger Tofu Dog, at 8/07/2007 11:22 AM  

  • "Sure, he might've been the best option, but that doesn't make him a good one."

    But he was the best option. And the fact that there wasn't a better one has to be laid at the feet of Jim Bowden, not Manny Acta. Felipe Lopez, whatever his flaws, is a better SS than D'Angelo Jiminez, Ronnie Belliard, Tony Batista, Melvin Dorta, Bernie Castro or whatever other options are available to the Nats right this moment.

    Pretending otherwise is just the (understandable) hangover from a bad loss.

    By Blogger Nate, at 8/07/2007 11:25 AM  

  • Duh! See the description of my blog on the top right? ;)

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/07/2007 11:39 AM  

  • love the critique from anonymous. thanks.

    i never said Chris wasn't correct. my comment wasn't a critique of Chris'. it was simply to illuminte a point that the player is playing gimpy and the manager still considered him a defensive upgrade over the below replacement level back-up that started last night's game. Lopez is statistically the worst defensive SS in the NL, but he is better than Jiminez, even on one leg.

    and as i started my comment off, i'm not defending Lopez. he's a dog, seemingly uninterested in the game around him. but from casual observation that can be said of the left fielder too, but no one mentions him in the "uninterested" conversations.

    bottom line: sometimes a grounder gets up the middle and you lose a game you were once winning in extra innings.

    By Blogger Dave Nichols, at 8/07/2007 11:58 AM  

  • One big, old, nasty bitter pill to swallow, for sure, but the wrong culprits are being hung here. How do you lose to a lame-ass team like the Jints? Eight, count 'em, EIGHT blown saves for Armando Cordero just ain't gonna cut it. And Austin "Lost In Space" Kearns' nonexistent bat in the middle of the lineup is just killing us.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 12:21 PM  

  • Why do you think Cincy dumped Lopez? At least in Cincy, he hit a few homers in their tiny ballpark. His laziness and bad attitude were well know before he came here.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/07/2007 2:20 PM  

  • OK. We get it. Lopez sucks.

    Next topic.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/07/2007 2:21 PM  

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