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New Traditions In Natitude, Birdland And Rocking The Red
By Jamie Mottram | April 16, 2012
I’ve been mostly out of touch recently, and with so much happening with our four active teams I want to check in with everything all at once, so.
The Wiz are still flat-out awful. Not only are they threatening the franchise mark for futility (current winning percentage: .233; record-low percentage: .232), but this is their fourth straight season of doing just that. Normally after four years a rebuild is either underway or nearly accomplished (see: the Nats). What the Wiz have, though, is John Wall and some guys who may project as marginal players on a contending team. Wall may fall into that category too, or so it seems some nights when I watch vicariously through Twitter. Pray for Anthony Davis.
The Nats are in first place with the third-best record in baseball, which is really weird. Get used to all of this competitiveness, though. Not because I’m predicting they’ll go wire-to-wire, no, but because their pitching is that good. The starters have a 1.75 ERA so far, 34 percent lower than the NL’s second-best rotation. It’ll come back to Earth, because it must, but so too should Mike Morse, Drew Storen and Bryce Harper come to Washington, which means no more Mark DeRosa, Brad Lidge as closer and Rick Ankiel. Looks like a fun summer ahead.
The O’s are also in first place, despite going 2-4 after sweeping Minnesota to start the season. Expect much more of the former as their pitching swells back to last season’s Major League-worst marks. It’s fun while it lasts, though, and it’s nice to see Nolan Reimold back in the lineup where he belongs. Most of this season’s intrigue will be down on the farm, where bonus baby Dylan Bundy, 19 years old, struck out 12 and allowed no hits or walks in his first six innings with Delmarva.
And what about these Caps? All hope seemed lost just weeks ago. Then they got Nicklas Backstrom back, gathered some momentum and stuck Braden Holtby in goal, because they had too. And now, thanks to Holtby’s brilliance and their Dale Hunter-minded ways, they’ve taken home ice from the Stanley Cup champs. The two games in Boston were played to standstill, both ending on a snipe from the left wing in overtime. Seeing Tim Thomas scurry off after Backstrom’s was beautiful, a sweeter thing than we’re accustomed to around here. The puck drops again tonight in D.C.
(And no, that image is not of Jason Chimera; it’s my son, Miles Ovechkin.)
Topics: Capitals, Nationals, Orioles, Wizards | 3 Comments »
April 16th, 2012 at 4:34 PM
Dead ringer for Chimer. Boy’s got hockey hands, too.
April 16th, 2012 at 7:59 PM
while it’s certainly questionable whether or not the O’s have recently improved the talent on the field, the awesomeness of the uniforms isn’t debatable. adding the “Baltimore” to the away jersey and going back to the traditional caps are almost enough to make me forget how bad the starting rotation is.
if Adam Jones would just grow a jheri curl and a mustache i’d have my favorite Oriole of all time back.
April 17th, 2012 at 1:05 PM
Matusz is over as an MLB starter.