Tuesday, April 15, 2008

firelennyharris.com

Anyone know if it's registered?

Hell, bring back Tom McCraw! I'm sick of this aggressive to the opposite field approach!

posted by Chris Needham at 8:03 PM

22 Comments:

  • I'm watching the Mets' HD broadcast of the game tonight. Zimmerman comes up with the bases loaded. Keith Hernandez's comment: "Really you think of Nick Johnson as more of a three-hitter, but Manny Acta has it flipped."

    Amen.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 4/15/2008 8:13 PM  

  • Don't kid yourself, they are sucking when they try to pull the ball too.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/15/2008 8:57 PM  

  • If I had not been disappointed that the team rehired him, I might argue. But I agree totally!

    By Blogger Positively Half St., at 4/15/2008 9:21 PM  

  • The odd thing is that I was ready to add something about getting rid of Odalis Perez, but then I realized he only gave up 2 runs in 6 innings. That is a successful outing, even if it felt like a losing effort the entire way through.

    By Blogger Positively Half St., at 4/15/2008 9:24 PM  

  • what is dirt bag leather pants going to do now? Threaten to send his entire offensive lineup to AAA? How about firejimbowden.com and firemannyacta.com? Oh yes, and cutaustinkearns.com

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/15/2008 10:29 PM  

  • how about bringbackmitchellpage.net?

    By Blogger logan, at 4/15/2008 10:33 PM  

  • Hey, we suck!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/15/2008 11:14 PM  

  • promotepatcorrales.com

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 12:05 AM  

  • Since none of our catchers can throw out base stealers anyways, why not sign Mike Piazza. At least he might hit better. He can't be that expensive, I hear the Reds are thinking about signing him. Hey, there is a chance for Jimmy to punk his old team.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 4/16/2008 12:18 AM  

  • So, why is Zimmerman getting a free pass from everybody these days? 1-17 with runners in scoring position so far? I like Zimm, i really do, but it's not like he's ever had an truly amazing season to hang his hat on. He's undoubtedly a great defensive 3b but after that and the walk-offs, what do you have? A guy who has been (albeit the season's still early) largely disappointing so far. Fire Lenny Harris is right.

    So what do you think Chris? Is last season predictions this seasons reality?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 1:05 AM  

  • What is Manny doing right now?

    Has he already conceded the season and is just riding things out? How many times must the Nats lose before he tweaks the lineup?

    IT IS NOT WORKING!! Play around with the lineup, and maybe things might work out better. But if a manager doesn't MANAGE the team, then what's the point of even having one?

    Zimmerman and Kearns are effectively killing the team from creating any offense. Yeah, they're going through slumps, but its the managers job to ensure their slumps negatively affect the team in the most minimal way possible.

    This season is already a disaster.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 2:11 AM  

  • Manny's the last person to blame.

    If you give Wolfgang Puck a box of Hamburger Helper, it's still going to taste like shit.

    If you gave Herbert von Karajan a kazoo band, it's still going to sound terrible.

    He's doing the best he can with the shit he's been handed. Starting Rob Mackowiak at third would make you happier?

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/16/2008 8:39 AM  

  • The Nats, Bob Carpenter, and Don Sutton suck so many balls.

    ....By the Way.

    Willy Mo had a single in the bottom of the ninth! This will be the beginning of a hot hitting streak....no not really. 30-132

    At least the Zards are playing soon.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 9:10 AM  

  • No team has gotten less out of its corner OF spots. Realize it early, but the claims of a better more productive OF seem to be greatly exaggerated (Milledge being the exception). Time to face the fact that in the words of Denny Green: "Austin Kearns is who we thought he was". Sorry, but you can't be an everyday RF at the MLB level and hit .250 with little or no power.

    Pilchard

    PS Zimmerman has been awful too, but at least he had been reasonably productive in the past. Kearns has never been productive. Wonder if there is any talk about sending Zimmerman to AAA to get his act together.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 10:22 AM  

  • "Wonder if there is any talk about sending Zimmerman to AAA to get his act together."

    That is an awful, destructive idea. Sending the team leader and cornerstone down to AAA would be stupid, stupid, stupid.

    You probably like Daniel Snyder.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 11:02 AM  

  • OK, seriously. This is a lot of overreaction over just a handful of games. I agree, I wish Zimmerman was hitting better than 1 for 17 with RISP, but batting him 7th or sending him to the minors? Really? I haven't looked it up, but I'd bet we're hitting below .100 with bases loaded, and there have been a few tough luck games, like Belliard's line drive getting knocked down by Glaus, or Johnson's potential tying homerun getting knocked down at the wall. Win those 2 games, we're 6-8 and have nothing to bitch about.

    But, I would rather see Johnson hitting 3rd and Zimmerman hitting 4th. But, that's as much for having a lefty with patience and the ability to hit and run up there with guys on base who have speed. Plus, against a RHP, we could start with L/R/L/R in the first 4 hitters. The Cubs, a few years ago, flip flopped Grace in the 3 or 4 hole, depending on if they were facing a Lefty or Righty. Against RHP, put Nick 3rd, against LHP, put him 4th.

    By Blogger Natsfan74, at 4/16/2008 11:03 AM  

  • Though I tend to agree with Chris re: the approach to hitting taken by L. Harris may not be the most effective for an everyday player, I also think its too early in the season to reach conclusions on the capabilities of this year's offense. Many players, historically, perform poorly in April and balance out their stats over the course of the full season. Indeed, the Nationals offense last year improved DRAMATICALLY after April.

    If it is the case that the Nationals have an inordinate number of slow starters, this is something that should be addressed by Jimmy B., as it makes little sense to start off slowly offensively EVERY YEAR.

    Also, as for Kearns, his BABIP is .256, well below the league average. Arguably, better production will come with better luck. As for Wily Mo, it's ludicrous to judge a player on such a small sample size.

    For a typically reasoned group of contributors, I find this discussion to be irrational talk, unsupported by statistics, and without an understanding of the length of the baseball season.

    I wonder, would this discussion be the same if the Nats didn't start with three victories, but one once every once every 2.5 games?

    By Blogger OleShu, at 4/16/2008 11:16 AM  

  • FWIW, I hate Dan Snyder and am a big fan of Ryan Zimmerman (T want the Nats to sign Zimm to a long term contract). I am not advocating that Zimm be sent to the minors, but was simply ruminating whether the Nats would contemplate the move should Zimm continue to struggle.

    Pilchard

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 11:23 AM  

  • Re: OleShu and your "irrational talk unsupported by statistics" claim. Here are a few statistics that count:
    1. The team is 4-and-10.
    2. Zimm is 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position.
    3. Kearns has hit into 5 double plays in 14 games.

    This is the team that everybody was predicting would be apocolyptically bad last season. This is the 40-and-122 team. It came a day late.

    The problems are too numerous to mention, but here are a few:

    1. Shitty starting pitching.
    2. A surprisingly poor bullpen (not a good combination with No. 1).
    3. Cheap owners/low payroll/unwillingness to spend.
    4. A lineup that basically features the same batter eight times, i.e., slow, pull, power-hitters who can spray the ball.
    4. A manager who refuses to ever "manufacture" a run, if for no other reason to get a lead early in a game just for fun.

    True, it's mid-April. But, perish the thought, what's it going to look like when a few guys start packing it in during the dog days?

    Bring up Kid Flores and all the kid pitchers and throw them in the fire now. The season is shot, they're doomed to lose 100 games (at a minimum), why do I have to look at Willie Harris and oh-for-Mackowiak for five more months?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 11:40 AM  

  • Stan's friend-
    I agree with you about Flores playing everyday, but I don't think the young pitchers need to be up here. Pitchers need to have confidence in their stuff to be effective, and letting a bunch of 19-21 year olds get shelled won't do any good.

    Re: stats.
    The sample sizes are too small to make any decisions right now. The numbers dictate that NJ should be batting leadoff and Guzman should be in the 3-hole. Does anybody here really wanna see that??????

    By Blogger Rob B, at 4/16/2008 12:11 PM  

  • What a sweet deal Kasten has. He sets the baseball operations budget (I think it’s all Kasten and the Lerner’s go with it because he’s supposed to know how this stuff works, for now) which ties Bowden’s hands as to the quality and type of players he can bring in and trade for and Bowden, Manny, the hitting coach, and the Lerners (even the announcers!) all take the fall. He spends the last two years talking about turning the stadium into a theme park while putting less emphasis on the product on the field and people are shocked, shocked to find that customers are finding other things to do than stay in their seats and watch a game the team is losing. And all the while Kasten gets worshipped by some like a cult leader.

    But for me, even though the record is bad now, I think the team will improve, at least from it’s current state. The starting pitching other than the Bergman disaster, is so far at least keeping its head above water. The relievers are trying to get used to new roles thrust upon them and may not be as good as we thought without RFK. We’ll see. Zman will start hitting, they didn’t give Wily Mo enough ABs in the minors, I think it will get better. People and the press just seemed to get a little too carried away over the first 3 games.

    But the good thing is that fans expectations are higher and the demand for success on the field is paramount. Never give the FO a free ride with the “Oh, so what if the team is a loser, we’re just happy to have a team again” attitude or the ridiculous low expectations of last year. That’s for suckers at these prices.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 1:15 PM  

  • On a semi-related note, why are we carrying three catchers? I don't understand why we had to spend $5 million on an over the hill Paul Lo Duca and another $1.25 for Johnny Estrada when we've got Jesus Flores (who is admittedly a little green still).

    If we're going to suck we might as well do it while rebuilding like the O's. I checked out for a couple years, but what happened to the Expos farm system? That wonderful system that brought the likes of Pedro, Vlad, Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore etc. etc. etc.

    Granted they all get way to expensive to hold on to, but if the Diamondbacks and (to a lesser extent) the Rays have shown the league anything, it's that young players can make a viable team.

    I say ditch all of our high priced semi-useless catchers (the Yankees need one and usually are stupid enough to pay for it), trade Chad Cordero while he still has value, pawn off Austin Kearns and Filipe Lopez on someone and *gasp* trade Nick Johnson for some good prospects.

    I think, best case scenario we can put up a season like we did last year, but if we deconstruct now, we'll have something to look forward to in the 2010 season.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/16/2008 4:47 PM  

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