The Nationals will host Washington's first playoff game in 79 years today when they welcome Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals to Nationals Park. Here are some links from the NL East…
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post suggests the Mets should sign Russell Martin if the Yankees let him leave as a free agent this offseason. The Mets could use catching help and they know Martin can handle New York while offering a combination of defense, power and youth.
- Multiple teams have tried to buy low on Ian Desmond, but GM Mike Rizzo says he “never one time considered trading him at all," according to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post (quote via Twitter). Kilgore explains that Desmond’s tremendous year can no longer be overlooked now that he’s producing for the Nationals in the postseason.
- If the Nationals get eliminated from the playoffs, questions about Stephen Strasburg’s shutdown will be coming from within the team’s clubhouse and from outside critics, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports.
- In case you missed it, here’s my offseason outlook for the Mets. A top priority for the club is locking up David Wright, and they’d like to reach a deal for $100MM or so — an unrealistic price in my view.
Ken Rosenthal delivering a real shocker there…
I think the Yankees will consider re-offering Martin a 2-3 year deal. It’d probably be less than the one offered last spring. He had a down year offensively, but when he did get hits, they were usually big ones. He also set a career high for home runs and works well with the pitching staff.
Everyone just needs to get over the Strasburg decision already, the Nats are a very good team and I don’t think they will be a one year wonder. I know pitchers can get injured at anytime but if they go into next season with the team they have now plus a signing or two, I don’t see how they won’t be in the running for the next few seasons.
That’s not the point. The point in baseball is to win, bottom line. If a major piece in your puzzle is missing down the stretch, your chances diminish.
Also, there is no guarantee that this team will be a playoff contender next year. There is absolutely no way to know this.
I agree. Why didnt the Nats limit his innings over the course of the year or last couple months of the season?
Yeah, I was thinking that starting in mid-August, for all his starts, that he just goes 5 innings and they could have still been using him now.
@c38048f7936b28f3682d54aaaa9725d6:disqus
You’re correct about winning being the bottom line, but there are no guarantees in Baseball. Having Strasburg on the team just makes your chances better, there is no guarantee there either.
What everyone seems to forget here, is that the Nats made a decision this spring to bring him along slowly.They drew up a plan to compete, while not expecting to go as far as they did so quickly.When Rosenthal interviewed Johnson in the spring, Davy said they had a good team, he didn’t say they were going to win the division. They didn’t know what Bryce Harper was going to do, nor how Strasburg was going to perform coming off surgery, so they were content with being competitive, that they’re ahead of schedule turns out to be gravy.
Granted, when you’re this close, it’s tempting to risk pushing Strasburg to win it all. But why do it?If he gets hurt again, you’re back to square one.
Follow the plan for next year and the next to compete, even if there are no guarantees. The original plans were to win in 2013 anyway. Stay the Course.
but there is no guarantee of 2013. Harper could have a sophmore slump, could be injuries, heck strasburg could get injured.
you atleast have a chance this year.
Rosenthal needs to get over the Strasburg shutdown already… he got lit up in 2 of his last 3 starts, and if he had kept up that pace, there’s a chance they lose the division to the Braves… Zimmerman had his first bad start in over a month on Monday, let the postseason play out for more than 2 games… jackass
Rosenthal is like most reporters, they ride a negative story, like beating a dead horse!
Any report about the potential Wright deal I’ve seen is that the Mets are starting at $100 million – not that it’s their cap.
Wright would be foolish not to go to free agency. He can play for a contender and get more money than the Mets are going to offer.
If the team makes changes and the young guys coming up deliver then I don’t see how he’s being foolish to stay with the Mets exactly. People love to forget but the Mets were in contention for the first half of the year its not like they were in dead last for most of the year. Again the Mets aren’t far off they just need to improve the holes they have to turn it around already.
Questions about Stephen Strasburg’s shutdown will be coming from within the team’s clubhouse and from outside critics, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports.
Yes, I can see it now, National Fans carrying pitchforks and torches and chasing Frankenstein aka Rizzo to the top of the tower for his part with this decision.
The series is 1 to 1 correct? The Nationals are heading home correct?
The Cardinals Jaime Garcia is hurt, Carpenter is still recovering, and Holliday still can’t field. We’ll see what happens tonight.
I wonder how strasburg feels in all this.. he’s the teams best player and has to sit around and watch. I’d assume he’d be pretty upset at this.
Absolutely. He has played baseball his whole life to get to this point and he cannot share the feeling with his teammates. It must be frustrating. The minute he hits free agency, he is gonna bolt.
Or maybe Strasburg understands that this entire innings limit cap was in the best interest for him and his career longterm…. And thanks the Nationals for there unselfish act….
If you are going to assume, you have to assume both sides of the arguement.
Or, I’ll just look on the back of my Nolan Ryan baseball card and see that he pitched 300+ inning twice early on in his career…no problems at all.
Nolan Ryan never had Tommy John Surgrey. Bad comparsion given how much has changed in baseball in 40 years.
I agree about the Tommy John surgery. The only thing in baseball that has changed in the last 40 years is the contracts.
Really? I don’t see teams running 4 man rotations, Closers going 2-3IP 2 nights in a row (Mike Marshall, Bill Campbell) and we will probably NEVER, EVER see 40 20G winners on 1 staff again, like the ’71 orioles had.. All on a 4 man rotation…
Lots of things have changed over the last 40 years with regards to pitching and mostly for the worst.
I agree with you. It’s only going to be a matter of time before we see 6 man rotations and each starter throws 150 innings.
Yeah. People that think pitching has not changed are without a clue and the idea that pitchers throw harder does not hold water either.. Bob Veale threw 100mph AND made 150 pitches per start for nearly 10 seasons. Bob gibson was a bullet thrower. Lefty Carlton, the game had many hard throwers way back also. The only difference? players were not ‘trained” to go out with pitch counts, which to me has not fixed anything, just added to medical staff’s employment on teams and extra payouts.
we wont unless they decide expand rosters beyond 25, which is why i’m content where it is. Teams have the option to deal with their pitchers as they want, they just are limited on roster spots.
Pretty much every starter nowadays pitches less, and bullpens are way more important.
Yeah, I’m not a fan of that. I’m not a fan of “lefty specialists” either. I like old school workhorses.
Wrong. 40 years ago, pitchers used to throw more innings, young pitchers werent babied, there were not pitch counts, there were not innings limits, outfeild fences have been moved in, players diets have changed, workout programs are year around, etc. etc, .etc…. TONS of things in baseball have changed in 40 years. That list can go on and on and on.
Exactly. It’s all due to productivity and inflated contracts. They think if Pujols (for example) isn’t constantly working out, taking supplements year round, and other likely overrated activities that his production will drop and his value will diminish.
Ron Santo was always complaining about how players were overworked during spring training because once the year started, they were already showing signs of wear and, come August, they are starting to really hit the skids in production.
flip – flop
No, I should have been more elaborate in my answer. I think the behavior in the league is due to the contracts they receive.
Strasburg had thrown so little pitches.. I don’t get why it was ever an ‘innings’ limit. not all pitchers are strasburg and need to throw 18+ pitches an inning, stras is not one of them.
You have made a very great point….. He should of been on a pitch count rather than a innings limit this entire year…. But i do not hear that being mentioned from the people who argue the Nat’s sitting of Strasburg… So you are now a first. You have my “vote up”.
It’s refreshing to see an organization not take the Gladiator approach, I think Strasburg is happy he is pitching on a high level again in the majors.
Yeah go do that Mets! Then you’ll have another power drained player hitting .220. Martin never hit for power until he hit in Yankee stadium and other places in the AL. I don’t think he will if he leaves it.
Well he did hit 19 back in 2004.
Yankee Stadium is not an easy place to hit homeruns for right handed hitters.
You just want to see “Petrocelli power” evaporate don’t ya 🙂 Damon found it and lost it after leaving Yankee stadium also. petrocelli would have lost it had he ever left fenway as well.
And let’s say they kept Strasburg going. He gets into the NLDS, pitches game 5 in a win or go home situation, blows out his arm and subsequently gets shelled, and goes back to the surgery room. So, keeping Strasburg in leads to him being out for another year and his injury comes at a horrible time, causing them to lose.
How many people would be complaining that risking Strasburg’s arm was the worst choice, and they should have benched him earlier? Quite easy to manage a team in retrospect…
okay so start of spring training, strasburg in his first start for the nats feels a familiar pinch in his arm..
anyone can play the what if game. and if anyone thinks that the nats know the best way to keep pitchers healthy they couldn’t be more wrong. No one quiet knows how or why pitchers get injured and no one has a magical formula to keep them healthy. Or else they would have kept him healthy in the first place.
Everything they do is a what if. No matter what they choose, if it’s the wrong choice, everyone will always say what if they had went the other way. Thus why all this speculation is just pointless. They made a choice that they felt would benefit them the most going into the future, and regardless of what happens, they made the choice. Get over it and end all the hindsight managing when things don’t go the right way.
If one player is really what stands between the Nats and winning it all then they shouldn’t win to begin with. The choice has been made, the die is cast, etc. Time to move on and see what happens.
when the player is elite ofcourse it makes a difference, especially in the playoffs when it becomes a game of inches.
Ahhh of all the accounting I did for the Nationals chances today. I didn’t account for the Jim Joyce factor. While, the Nats pitching wasn’t very good, I don’t think Joyce’s call helped the Nats cause today.
The Nats won’t be able to avoid criticism, no matter what happens. Anything less than a WS championship and their fans will complain that they could have gone all the way with Strasburg, and the further they go, the more unhappy Strasbug is that he wasn’t allowed to be part of it. No way to win this one Rizzo!