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Six Things I Wish the Nationals Would Do
By Jamie Mottram | August 13, 2009
With no end in sight for a hometown nine hurtling toward a second straight 100-loss season, here’s a short-term six-step plan to make it feel at least a little better.
1. Sign Strasburg. Negotiations will go down to the wire and, especially after failing to sign Aaron Crow in ‘08 and losing Z-Mann until ‘11, they have to get it done.
2. Trade Dunn, Willingham and/or Guzman. All three are having career (or near-career) years, and their value will probably never be as high as it is right now.
3. Don’t jump to conclusions with Riggleman. He’s gone 14-13, and, relatively speaking, that’s exceptional. But don’t go nuts. There are still 48 games left, and Riggleman’s career mark is 129 games under .500.
4. Bring Drew Storen up for a taste. The 10th pick just two months ago is already at AA Harrisburg after striking out 37 and walking two in 25.2 innings. Those are exceptional numbers and indicate that the closer of the future is a clear upgrade over the closer of the present.
5. Avoid 100 losses. They’ll have to go 23-25 the rest of the way, which won’t be easy considering they a) haven’t done that well over any 48-game stretch this season and b) have a tough schedule to boot.
6. Replace MASN’s broadcast team. I wish Bob Carpenter, Rob Dibble and Debbie Taylor all the best, but I also wish them off the broadcast, especially after their rampant, mindless homerism during the eight-game win streak. It, like all Nats fail, is easy to laugh at during the struggle, but it shouldn’t ruin the progress, should that ever come.
Topics: Infinite Sadness, Nationals | 16 Comments »
August 13th, 2009 at 1:12 PM
I agree with everything, especially replacing Rob Dibble and Debbie Taylor, but trading Dunn, Willingham, or Guzman is a stupid idea right now. Maybe I’m a homer myself, but I think with some serious attention to bullpen pitching and second base in the offseason we might be able to contend a little bit next year. Guzman may not be the shortstop of the future, but who (in the organization) would possibly be able to fill his .300 hitting shoes? Gonzalez? No f’ing way dude. I understand Guzman’s defense isn’t great and he never ever walks, but we already have nothing in terms of middle infielders and power hitters past Dunn and Willingham, why get rid of them?
Rob Dibble does blow, though… that is for sure. I hate that son of a bitch.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Pretty sure Drew Storen is about all we have to look forward to this season.
Also, we may have to start a FireDibs movement this offseason if MASN doesn’t take care of that shit.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:30 PM
I’ll sell a kidney if thats what it takes to get rid of that guy. Does he have a contract or anything that would force MASN to keep him another season? There has to be someone better out there.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:36 PM
Dibble has a three-year contract.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:40 PM
That’s the worst news I’ve heard all day.
August 13th, 2009 at 2:47 PM
If we pool our funds can we buy it out? I got five on it.
August 13th, 2009 at 3:39 PM
I’d say that’s about right.
August 13th, 2009 at 4:38 PM
Your 6 priorities don’t make sense. How do you expect this team to avoid 100 losses if you’re also advocating trading its #2, #4 and #5 hitters??
Willingham is only entering his 2nd arbitration year, so we have him locked into below-market value contract for two more years. You don’t just trade 30-hr capability guys (he’d be on pace for 31 hrs if he’d have played a full slate of games). Dunn has transformed this team, enabled Zimmermann by hitting behind him and is a bargain for $20/2yrs. We should have signed him for four. And, nobody’s gonna take Guzman at $8m next year; it was a bad contract that we’re stuck with, but at least he hits the ball in the #2 hole.
This team, as currently constructed, has a great lineup leadoff through dukes. We don’t need to dismantle this; we need to augment it with a FA 2nd baseman, a healthy Flores and to spend on pitching.
Storen is too young to bring up, and especially too young to displace MacDougal as our closer. What’s so bad about MacDougal’s performance so far as our closer? He’s 11 for 12 in save opportunitites, a much better save % than many guys. 2.54 era, less than a hit per inning. He’s not perfect (too many walks, not enough Ks) but he’s getting the job done. Plus, if you bring Storen up, you gotta dump someone off the 40-man. We made this mistake w/ Detwiler 3 yrs ago, giving him a 40-man spot to give him an inning in the bigs, and we ended up starting his arbitration clock 2 whole years too early. If we need a reliever, and Storen proves him self at AA, THEN we can consider it.
Finally; I really don’t get the vitriol towards Dibble (or Carpenter for that matter). He’s entertaining, he brings a refreshing opinion to the game, he has personal knowledge and experience with many of the players, managers and umpires and he’s not afraid to express his opinion. He keeps my non-baseball caring girlfriend engaged while we watch broadcasts, no mean feat.
August 13th, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Boswell? Is that you?
August 13th, 2009 at 5:30 PM
No. 8’s argument became invalid when he started defending Dibble.
August 13th, 2009 at 5:51 PM
I’d say before that even, considering Willingham is 30 and has never hit 30, Guzman was reportedly traded just last week and MacDougal is walking 6+ per 9 innings.
August 13th, 2009 at 7:24 PM
I agree with all of them except for 100 losses. I want Bryce Harper bad and who cares if we finish with better record than Royals.
I thought of a new contest while watching Nats/Os games side by side like I tragically do every night with my 2 TVs. Which announcer, Dibble or Palmer, will talk about their playing career first in a game. You could even tally up how many innings each one referenced their careers.
I think it could be a tough call who would win either but Dibble likes to talk about himself early while Palmer tends to go on 5 minute story rambles over and over.
Debbie Taylor is not ugly but not hot and she asks the dumbest questions ever. For example, Taylor asked rookie pitcher Balester’s girl what they liked to do when they hung out with each other and she went on to sell Balester out that he loved the zoo.
Number one is all that matters to me right now.
August 13th, 2009 at 8:52 PM
I didn’t say Willingham had ever hit 30 hrs: i said that he was on a 30-hr/162 game pace. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/willijo03.shtml. Go do the arithmetic; he has 18hrs in 90 games. He’s got a 158 OPS+ and would be FIFTH in the NL in slugging if he had enough at bats. All that for $2.9M this year and locked in to us for another two.
MacDougal is 11 for 12 in save opportunities. Thats 91% conversion. The REST of the relievers combined for the nats this season are 10-31 in save opportunities. No, he doesn’t have the greatest numbers and he’s obviously not the long term solution, but he’s obviously better than anyone else the Nats have tried.
August 14th, 2009 at 8:46 AM
Willingham has had a tremendous half-season with the Nats, which, to me, is all the more reason to trade him now.
MacDougal does have a good save rate. He also throws one pitch and can’t throw it for strikes, which leads me to believe he’s not long for that save rate.
August 15th, 2009 at 10:32 AM
Only mindless homers are actually watching the Nats on MASN, so mindless homerism is actually a smart move. I like Dibble. He’s the best we’ve had. Anyone remember Ron Darling? Honestly, doesn’t matter who they put on, some blogger somewhere will complain. Selling a kidney to get rid of guy? Love the Internet.
Also, Dunn is a good value right now. Gotta give the current ticket holders something.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:45 AM
6 things they should do after the season (provided they sign strasburg)
1. Sign Aroldis Chapman.
2. Trade Elijah Dukes and Anderson Hernandez (Ross Detwiler too, if need be) for Freddy Sanchez
3. Trade Stephen Strasberg for Ervin Santana and Jeff Mathis
4. Trade Jesus Flores for Endy Chavez or Angel Pagan
5. Trade Adam Dunn for Derrick Lee and (Sean Marshall or Jeff Samardzija)
6. Trade Cristian Guzman and Garrett Mock for Jack Wilson and Luke French
Acquiring the defensive upgrades help the pitchers more than you’d think (see: Seattle Mariners under Don Wakamatsu)