MARCO'S
BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2019: LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS!
Oh
Thank God that Manny Machado signed with a baseball team at
last. So now I know who to root against this year.
In
a way, he couldn't have picked a better team to obscure his feckless
attitude and questionable sportsmanship. San Diego is never on
TV at an hour when you can actually stay awake to watch. They have a
lousy cavernous stadium where nobody can reach the fences and they
have made an art of trading all their prospects away so they can rent
a few superstars who will quickly downgrade their WAR and quickly get
used to losing.
Now
Manny can be warm while he banks his millions at least. His wife
wanted to go to New York so she could shop. Manny wanted to
wear pinstripes and strut for the most successful franchise in
baseball history. Too bad! The Yankees for some reason were less than
convinced that they should pony up ten years at $30 mil plus for a
surly superstar who steps on first basemen and throws his bat at
opposing fielders when they have offended him. Yes he's a great
player. No, he wouldn't be popular with Yankee fans, who, even though
they are abominably arrogant on occasion, appreciate and demand
hustle on a baseball diamond. Watching Manny go into a home run trot
on a flyball that hits off the fence and making it only to first
base? Not a good idea in front of Yankee fans.
I
kind of thought MM was going to the White Sox so he could
teach Yoan Moncada how to perfect
lackadaisically trotting down to first base on grounders. Yoan
already has a good start on that. (The main return bauble in the
Chris Sale trade for Chicago had an interesting year in 2018.
He led the league in K's with 217 in only 149 games. One of
the fastest players in the majors, he stole just 12 bases while
getting caught 6 times. 17 homers, .235 average. Not exactly
startling stats for the former number one prospect in baseball.)
I
guess Manny has to be content with poisoning Fernando Tatis
Jr. in San Diego, who is playing Manny's preferred position at
shortstop.
Ah,
here I am demanding sportsmanship and a sunny disposition from this
multi-millionaire. How unfair of me. Manny Machado...you have awesome
talent. You hit a ton, field a ton and have the best infield throwing
arm I have seen since Cal Ripken. Start playing the glorious
game of baseball with respect. Enjoy your money and good luck!
The
other God-Kissed Super Free Agent we've all been waiting and
wondering where he's going to sign is, of course, Bryce “Outlaw
the Shift” Harper, who has also gotten surly on
occasion. Especially when teams shift on him and force him to hit
.249 trying to hit through, over and around their fielders. Of
course, Bryce could hit .649 if he would learn
to slash it to left instead of beating his head against a brick wall
of defenders. But that would deny him the glorious feeling of hitting
towering home runs 35 times a year and would also help his team win
too many games, so why would he do that?
Like
I once said to Joey Gallo of the Rangers (that is if Joey
reads my blog I said it to him)... spend a week bunting down the
third base line, dribbling ground balls into left field that turn
into doubles and bombing the occasional oppo field tater against
these shifty teams. After that one week opponents will go back to a
conventional defense against Bryce because they will be losing
baseball games. Then Bryce can go back to pulling the ball. Leave a
burnt offering on the base of the Stan Musial (lifetime
average .331) statue in St. Louis Bryce. Ask for guidance.
Bryce
had a golden road all laid out for him that ended in Philadelphia.
The Phillies have the most available cash in baseball since they
dumped all their overpriced superstars of the 2000's (Ryan Howard,
Rollins, Utley etc.) and replaced them with cheap young players.
Their budget was only about 64 million last year so they could afford
to buy a Harper, a Machado and a couple of pitchers all at once and
actually try to win a pennant. But Philly was too close to Baltimore
for Manny and Bryce seemed less than enthusiastic about staying in
the NL East even though Philly was the only team that was willing to
give him the fantastic salary he thinks he deserves. He wanted to
play in L.A. for the Dodgers. That way he could go play slots in his
home town of Las Vegas on off days.
But
the Dodgers are also not interested in a ten year contract for a
player who had only played 3 full seasons out of 7. (Even though I am
criticizing Bryce for his fragility, his many injuries are actually
because of something positive: unlike Machado, Harper always hustles
on a baseball field. Because of that, he gets hurt frequently. But
credit where credit is due...way to go Harper!) Harper is 26 and this
was his best chance to get his $300+ million contract. Would he take
a shorter deal in Dodgerland at a ridiculous salary and try this free
agent thing in a couple of years after the Player's Association sues
the owners for collusion?
Or
maybe go with the Giants and be a hero on a losing team? SF is
desperately trying to keep their fan base as they enter the twilight
of the second division. That whole team got old together. Maybe they
could get their fans to watch Harper while they're finishing 5th
for a few years.
The
Phillies, however, had all but announced that they were going to sign
Harper, especially after Manny popped the cork with San Diego. Bryce
could hit a lot of homers in Philly. And the Phils went out and
traded for a great shortstop in Jean Segura and
the best catcher (offense...he's still below Molina of the
Cards as a defensive player) in J.T. Realmuto. Also Andrew
McCutcheon and closer Dave Robertson. They will be
contenders in the East.
Then
Harper's agent Scott Boras got real smart. After it seemed all
but certain Philly would get Bryce at something like the 10+ years at
$30+ million per, he went back and had flashy meetings with Dave
Roberts of the dodgers and also the Giants to make it look like they
were trying to steal Harper at the last minute. Next thing we know,
there's Harper signing an unheard of contract: 13 years at $33
million per year with NO OPT OUTS. Biggest of all time. Makes
Giancarlo Stanton's behemoth deal look like loose change. The
no opt outs is the shocker. That means Philly will be paying Bryce
when he's 36-39 that same $33 million whether or not he's productive
or even able to get on the field.
And
after all this, the players are moaning about how the owners are
cheating them and colluding not to pay free agents.
Are
the owners guilty of collusion in failing to bid up the salaries of
all these free agents? No...not collusion. They are guilty instead of
intelligence. Thus, the “lies and statistics” quote (from Mark
Twain) in my blog-damned byline. Ownership has gone wonkish and
Sabremetric to a revolutionary degree in their approach to buying
talent. It is absolutely irrefutable that most players will perform
best between the ages of about 24 to 32. After that they enter the
long slow slide zone. (And sometimes not so long or slow!) Don't
credit the owners with any kind of genius perceptive qualities...just
look at Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols, Haley Ramirez, etc.
etc. etc. All great players who have fallen into the Zombie Zone in
their mid thirties. They signed lucrative long term contracts while
they were still superstars but the last half of their contracts are
Money for Nothin'. This trend has been rendered even more inevitable
now that players have stopped loading up on steroids and other PEDs.
(Watch out Mets...Robinson Cano? They took away his
juice. And he's almost 37. But it's okay Robbie...you won't get tired
because you never run out ground balls anyway.)
The
players will tell you that these guys were underpaid in their
productive youth and it's only proper to reward them for their past
careers in long term high dollar contracts in their 30s. One problem
with that theory, as the owners have finally realized: It's a good
way to lose games and money.
The
new paradigm is to underpay your superstars while they are in their
prime and dump them when they get into their 30s. Replace them with
teenage players and repeat. The teenagers won't have spent enough
time in the minors to know how to play yet, (are you listening Yoan
Moncada?) but they're cheap and they can learn on the job while the
team is tanking so management can load up on high draft choices in
prep for their next “window of opportunity”.
Manny
and Bryce will eventually get the big money because they reached free
agency when they were only 26. But all these guys in their 30s trying
to get a long term deal at multi millions? Forget it. Statistics, you
see. It just won't pay. Sorry Dallas Keuchel of Houston,
Craig Kimbrel of Boston, Gio Gonzalez of
Washington...you'll be taking a one year deal at low rate like
Moose Moustakas had to do the last two years.
But
this is not some Armageddon-ish sinister debacle of collusion like
the players are claiming. Nobody should be able to FORCE owners to
buy free agents at exorbitant rates. Especially when all the stats
say these players aren't going to produce in the last half of such
contracts. Hey...David Ortiz, one of the best “old”
players of the last couple of decades, signed a long series of
one-year contracts with the Red Sox after he entered the danger zone
of his mid- thirties. Then he went out and exceeded all expectations
and played MVP ball.
Free
agents! What the hell do you have the right to complain about when
you can “only” get a $10 million dollar one year contract? You
don't think you and your family can survive on that 10 mil for the
rest of your lives? Gentlemen...I feel really bad for you if you
can't adapt to that shocking Reality.
Meanwhile,
teams are still offering very fair contracts to their free agent
eligible stars just to stay with their home town teams. Nolan
Arenado just got $280 mil for 8 years from the Rockies. The
Nationals offered Harper 300 mil for 10 years but got turned
down. The Red Sox are going to try to retain Xander Bogaerts and
Mookie Betts with extensions. This is not collusion!
However:
right now it benefits a team that's not going to win anyway to go
ahead and finish last for a few years so they can rake in the best
draft choices. Houston pulled this off to perfection earlier
this decade. To discourage this, baseball should fix the draft system
and go to something like the NBA had with a weighted lottery so teams
would at least try to win games. Otherwise it becomes only too
obvious what tankers are up to.
Enough
of that. Let's proceed to the other Shibboleth of the off season. How
the Hell do we speed this freaking game up?
Well...it's
not a pitch clock, that's for damn sure! They've been testing
it out in the minors and whole games are going by with nobody getting
within 5 seconds of an infraction on a twenty second pitch clock.
They figure the rule will only affect about ten of the most
“deliberate” pitchers if they enforce it at all. My suggestions:
1/just
tell the umpires to keep the batters in the box except for
when they take a close one up and in or something and have to dust
themselves off.
2/start
the pitch clock sooner.
3/Limit
visits to the mound.
4/limit
warmup pitches between innings and from relievers (what have they
been doing out there in the bullpen if not warming up?)
5/realize
that if every pitcher in the world were like Bob Gibson (“Get
your ass in the box cause I'm throwing it NOW, SUCKER!”) or Grover
Alexander (“I only take 4 warmup pitches but I pitched 18
innings in the last three days anyway so I think I'm ready.”) or Cy
Young (“Let's see...749 complete games...that's more than
almost any other starter has had in APPEARANCES...I guess I've done
MY part.”) we wouldn't be having this conversation. So stop
walking around the mound and throw the damn ball.
Another
thing not to do is this screw loose idea of mandating that each
pitcher throw to at least 3 batters before you can relieve
him. Unless the inning ends before three batters I guess, or else you
couldn't pinch hit for him (NL only) in the next offensive half
inning? There would also be a lot of fake injuries so they could get
permission to take the guy out instead of making him face a tough
batter.
Teams
and managers have gone crazy with matchups. The penalty for this
specialization is a roster with 13 pitchers, most of whom throw to
only one or two batters before they are replaced. In extra inning
games they still run out of pitchers and have to let an infielder
come in and throw eephus balls. I agree that this is ridiculous.
As
I've said before, what's coming is expanding the roster to 26
but limiting the staff to 12 or 13. That's so they'll use the 26th
man to be a bench hitter/fielder. Of course, this won't stop the
other trend… three way pitcher/hitter/fielders to give versatility
to the roster. A team full of Ohtanis if you will. This ain't
a bad idea. It'll be like school ball still is...the best players
pitch and hit and field another position or two when they aren't on
the mound. What's not to like?
More
ideas:
6/remove
two 30 second commercials from each half inning...add two extra
ones back during the seventh inning stretch. That's fifteen minutes
you've shortened the game by. The networks aren't going to lose that
commercial time anyway...they'll just use it on their next reality
show that gets twice the ratings of a stodgy old ball game (at least
in the regular season) anyway. They can still run spots to their
limit during pitching changes and (PLEASE!) during replay checks.
press
time note: the major leagues are looking into starting innings on
half the TV screen while commercials run on the other half. What a
brave stand for the sanctity of the game THAT is!*
7/shorten
the damn replay checks! Just have the guy in New York make the
call if he sees an egregious mistake. Have him wired up to the head
ump and call it and get on with the game. Managers can still call for
a replay but they won't have to if the video ump has the authority to
fix the call.
8/don't
be too precious about “preserving the fabric of the game”.
Baseball has instituted revolutionary “fixes” before and sailed
merrily along. Moving the mound back from 45 feet to 60 feet 1 inch
helped the game in 1894...and that's a radical change that became
necessary when Amos Rusie started throwing 98 mile an hour
fastballs.
We've
survived the infield fly rule, the balk rule, the designated hitter
and does anybody remember when you were allowed to hit a baserunner
in the ass with a thrown ball to record an out? This was the game in
the nineteenth century, aka, “The Good Old Days”.
What
I'm leading up to is this: if nothing else works consider a 7
inning game. (Yes, I understand that the gnashing sound I hear is
your teeth grinding on my neck) But what would actually happen if all
games were 7 innings?
Most
games today take 3 hours, give or take. The first 6 innings take 2
hours and the last 3 innings take another hour with all the relief
pitchers and stra-tee-gery. So you could expect most games to take
about 2:15 to 2:30. Knock down the commercials and replays and make
it 2 hours. Take the kids home and get 'em to bed by 10.
But,
you'd also have quicker games because you'd have many more complete
games pitched by your starters. Nowadays most managers want to get
their starters out of there before the lineup turns over 3 times, and
that is a lot closer to 6 or 7 innings. You'd definitely use less
pitchers in a seven inning contest. Stats? The game stats would be
different because most hitters wouldn't get up to bat 5 times a game.
Shutouts would be forever changed but they're almost extinct anyway.
Season stats would be just as meaningful because they'd still be
cumulative, albeit based on fewer plate appearances in a season.
Your
players would be less fatigued. Also, you could keep the nine inning
games in the playoffs if you insisted. And it would be easier to play
the inevitable rain out make up double headers. And 7 inning games
are still the norm in many spring training, school and young player
leagues. It's just not that radical a change.
All
in all the seven inning game would cure the curse of the late finish
(does anybody really like staying up past midnight to see the end of
a baseball game?) and let the youth of America watch games through to
the end, whether live or televised.
Gnash
on Dear Readers, Gnash on…
Ok,
enough kvetching...let's talk about the season ahead.
The
Boston Red Sox ended the season on a very high note by
demonstrating how much team spirit can affect the outcome of the
games. I guess we knew this from watching the Yankees of the
Derek Jeter/Paul O'Neil/Jorge Posada/Andy Pettite/Mariano
Rivera era. Or the “We Are Family” Pirates of '79.
Even though sometimes a team full of quarreling churls can
succeed...the Oakland Athletics of the '70s for example.
But
the 2018 Red Sox, just like the Houston Astros of 2017 who
preceded them into team Valhalla, showed what can happen when there's
a lot of love and support and smiling superstars (Mookie, Jose
Altuve etc).
The
Sox won the Series in the third game when Nathan Eovaldi
pitched 7 extra innings after pitching twice already in the first two
games. He lost the game on a homer by Max “Yard Gnome” Muncy.
You'd think that would have broken the spirit of the Sox, but instead
they rallied around their heroic pitcher and hugged themselves into a
firm conviction that they could win. And they did. The Dodgers
were left waiting for Manny Machado to do something besides not run
out extra base hits. Game Set Match.
All
the interesting action this year should be in the National League.
Boston, New York and Houston are probably locks for the AL Playoffs.
In
the AL East, Boston didn't add much, but they
retained Eovaldi and WS MVP Steve Pearce. They're letting
closer Kimbrel walk but after watching him pour gas on the
fire in the Playoffs, that's probably a wise decision. They for sure
aren't going to give Craig the 6 year multi-million contract he's
stubbornly demanding, so their bullpen might be weakened. The Sox
also lost “Fighting Joe” Kelly to the Dodgers. (That hurts
because Kelly was inconsistent but gutsy. He gave his best for the
Sox and he beat up Yankee rookies who dared to complain about
fastballs aimed at their backsides).
New
York is very scary looking again. They kept everybody they wanted
and beefed up an already stuffed bullpen. (Chapman, Britton,
Ottavino, Chad Green, Kahnle, Bettances...and more!) The Yankees
probably have the best bullpen ever assembled. Really….there's
about six closers on that roster! Their starters are not as good as
the Sox have, but that's not where games are won in the 21st
century. They did add leftie James Paxton from Seattle. He
only threw a no-hitter last year. (His last three pitches were
strikes to Josh Donaldson...98mph, 100mph, 99mph. Over and Out.)
If
their young players like Voit, Andujar, Torres and
Gary Sanchez can maintain, and they play Aaron Hicks more
than Brett Gardner in center, the Yankees might be the first team in
history to have nine players in their batting order hit at least 20
homers this season. That was once unimaginable. Frank Cashman
has retired the trophy for best general manager. He added Troy
Tulowitzki to play short until Didi Gregorius heals. (for
a one year contract at the league minimum! Brilliant move!) Also DJ
LeMahieu (a former batting champion!) from Colorado to
back up the infield.
About
the only problems the Yankees have are what to do with the long term
contract of totally unproductive Jacobi Ellsbury and how to
survive catcher Gary Sanchez's many Dr. Stoneglove adventures behind
the plate trying to corral breaking pitches from a staff of breaking
ball specialists.
The
Red Sox may have to win 118 games to finish first in the East this
year. Maybe Aaron Judge will play “New York, New York” too
loud on his boom box again and inspire them.
The
Houston Astros should cruise in the AL West. None of
the other western teams have beefed up to any degree and Seattle
has cashed in their chips for a rebuild.
The
Angels are continuing to try to win with older players and
it's not working. Mike Trout will soon vacate the team with
only one playoff appearance to show for his whole career thus far.
Oakland
stands pat as usual...almost time to trade all your stars Mr.
Moneyball!
Texas
might surprise us. They have some good everyday players, even with
Beltre retiring. If those aging pitchers come through for them
they could finish...third?
Cleveland
still has the advantage in the AL Central, but their margin is
much thinner after losing half their team to free agency and
financially necessary trades. Bradley, Encarnacion, catcher
Yan Gomes and Josh Donaldson are gone from the
lineup and they lost a bunch of their pitching too. (Andrew
Miller, Cody Allen, Josh Tomlin.) There was talk that Corey
Kluber and/or Carlos Carrasco were on the block.
Thus die all small market teams. Cleveland is leaning very heavily on
Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez and their starters to
keep them upright, but there is no doubt they are coming back to
earth. And Lindor is starting the year hurt.
Minnesota
is nipping at the Cleveland heals. They've signed about four DH types
though, (Sano, Cruz, Logan Morrison) so they may beach
themselves.
The
White Sox are still a year away from really competing because
their young pitching is not quite ready. They have young hitters
though. Watch out for Eloy Jimenez...he's 6'4”, 220 lbs. And
powerful. He might be a great one.
Kansas
City will play small ball and be feisty, but not feisty enough to
win anything.
Detroit
is going to have a brutal season.
Why
am I excited about the NL? Because we have a 4 team race in
the East, a 3 team race in the Central, and a 1 team wipeout in the
West. (Well, two out of three ain't bad!)
Let's
not even go into the West. The Dodgers are fat and
happy. They even almost scored Harper and thus totally destroy any
possible hint of drama. The Arizona Diamondbacks lost their
two best hitters in Goldschmidt (to the Cardinals) and
Pollack (to the Dodgers!)and
their Number Two
starter in Patrick
Corbin (to the Nationals!). So play Taps for them. They
not only lost their stars, but they have to watch them play for the
best teams in the league!
If
you think Machado to the Padres is going to worry the
Dodgers think again. The Padres will be better but there's still this
little matter called pitching.
Colorado
is celebrating signing an extension with Nolan Arenado...and
good for him staying loyal faithful and true to his original team (at
the bargain price of more than 32 million + a year for 8 years!)
Won't matter….they coughed up furballs against the Brewers
in the Playoffs and don't have enough to challenge Los Angeles.
San
Francisco? They could turn back time and get a young Willie
Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda plus
Juan Marichal and still not win. Too many old, hurt players on
their team. I hope they don't trade Bumgarner though...there
has to be somebody there that the fans like to watch.
The
NL Central will be a fur fight for a bunch of teams that
really compete with each other every year. The Cubs have been
on top in this division but the Brewers took them down last
year. Then the Brew Crew went out and did...NOTHING! They needed
starters but got nobody! Stupid Brewers! Now is the time to press!
You can win the pennant! Stupid Brewers!
The
Cubs got body slammed when they spent all their money on Yu
Darvish (hurt arm) and got Bryant hurt (shoulder). Plus
they're still being bled dry by the Jason Heyward contract.
(Didn't that guy used to hit?) That $78 million they gave Heyward is
what it cost Chicago to break the curse...it was no hit good field
Heyward who got the team into the weight room for that little pep
talk that had them come out swinging in the Series 7th
game win over the Indians. So the Cubs did nothing this winter to
improve. They're just hoping Darvish can pitch this year and Bryant's
shoulder heals. And they hope that Javier Baez's break out
season was a sign of things to come. He carried them for long
stretches last year.
The
third team in the mix is the strangely inconsistent St. Louis
Cardinals. But this year, I think the addition of Paul
Goldschmidt, a steady, quiet leader, will mix well and get
Marcell Ozuna better pitches to hit. The pitching is deep and
effective as long as Yadier Molina is calling the games.
Carpenter had an awesome hot streak in mid-year and should
make a smooth transition to third base to make room for Goldy. I like
the Cards in the division this year.
The
Cincinnati Reds are not going to win yet, but they are
improving. After watching attendance drop for the last four or five
years, they suddenly realized that they need some players that people
want to watch and traded for Puig and Matt Kemp from
the Dodgers. This allowed them to dump the remnants of Homer
Bailey (Pride of La Grange Texas!) and they shipped off Sliding
Billy Hamilton as well. Nobody could ever teach Billy how to work
a base on balls (OBP .299!) or hit grounders that he could run out
for base hits. What a waste of world class speed. Anyway, I think it
would be great to see the Reds really compete again. Hope they do.
Pirates
likewise, but that owner is not in it to win it. What does he do with
all the penalty cash he collects from the teams that go over the
salary cap? (oh, sorry, we all know that baseball doesn't have a
salary cap! Heavens! The very thought!) Anyway, it's for sure that
he's not spending it on players.
We
have saved the best for last. The truly interesting division in
baseball this year could possibly be the NL East.
4
teams are actually competing, and it's difficult to tell who's
favored!
Dismiss
Miami. They are deep in Tanksville and will lose 110 games or
so this season. But Atlanta won it last year and they are at
least as good as they were in 2018 with genuine hopes for improvement
from some of their young pitchers. The Phillies signed Harper
and a few more studs and look a whole lot stronger. The Nationals
lost Harper but gained another Ace pitcher in Corbin and still have
Max Scherzer and Steven Strasburg. And even the New
York Mets have suddenly come to life and decided to try to win
something.
The
Mets made some splashy moves in getting Jed Lowrie from
Oakland and Edwin “Sugar” Diaz (57 saves) from Seattle.
And of course the splashiest move was getting Robbie Cano from
Seattle. But Robbie is going to be 37 and the rest of their offensive
core...Lowrie, Frazier and Cespedes... are also well
into their thirties and have a history of injuries. So once again the
Mets fans are pointing at a cardboard house and seeing a castle. Last
year the Metskies featured an awesome starting rotation and had bad
defense and terrible offense to back it up. This year they've gone
out and got some “names” but these names are usually those you
see on the DL. They need Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto
to step up and be stars. And if their starters DeGrom,
Syndergaard, Wheeler and
Metz can get through a year without spraining a lat the Mets
might do something. I have them pegged for fourth.
Down
in Atlanta everything is peachy. Last year they finally went
back to the playoffs and if their pitching improves they could go
even further. But I just don't see this staff standing up alongside
the Nationals, the Mets or even the Phillies. The Braves have some
talent...like Touki Toussaint...but are
unproven. Plus they play in home run heaven down there in Delta town.
The offense is pretty strong if Markakis, Albeis and
Inciarte can come close to last year's production and Acuna
and Freeman stay healthy. But one thing's for sure...the
Braves are coming. They have an awesome farm system with arms forever
(righties Kyle Wright, Ian Anderson and Mike Soroka)
and more team speed and good position players galore. This year?
Drop back a little to third.
I've
already talked about the Phillies and I must say it's about
time they were relevant again. I'm concerned that their manager, Gabe
Kapler, is a little too wonkish for his own good. He overuses the
bullpen and favors matchups over all reason. We will see how he
handles the team now that Harper is the centerpiece. Last year
the Phillies had just terrible defense. Now they've got a better
shortstop in Jean Segura and especially the best catcher
available in J.T. Realmuto. Harper is an upgrade in right or
center, wherever they put him, and they finally get Rhys Hoskins
out of left and back to his natural position of first base. Should
help. The pitching is not overpowering, but they signed Nola
to a long term and Arrieta is good and possibly great if he
can find his mojo again like Verlander did a couple of years
ago. A solid second place team.
And
now the Nationals. Wouldn't it be ironic if the Nationals got
rid of Harper and finally won the pennant and went to the World
Series? They have the talent to do that. Except for perhaps, the
Dodgers, the Nats are the deepest club in the National League. The
rotation is stronger than the Dodgers or anybody else in the league
with Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin and
Anibel Sanchez. The bullpen has Sean Doolittle, Matt Grace,
Trevor Rosenthal and Kyle Barraclough.
They
picked up Brian Dozier to play second. He was hurt last year
but at 32 shouldn't be done. When he's on he's a dangerous hitter and
a Yard Dog competitor. The infield also has Anthony Rendon
back at third as well as shortstop Trea Turner, who played
every game last year and stole a lot of bases. The big tick up comes
in the outfield, where phenom Victor Robles adds his speed and
defense to the lineup in center and Juan Soto is available for
the full season. Juan had an OPS of .923 last year with 22 dingers in
a short season. He looked really good. Bryce who? First place.
Hope
you enjoyed the rap. I'll be back later…
Marco
No comments:
Post a Comment