Got back from the game pretty late, so I'll just post my thoughts on that and do Part 3 in the "Maybe Next Year" series tomorrow.
It was quite a game tonight! I took the girlfriend (it was her first baseball game sitting in the stands) and we had a good time, even better because the Nats won! She liked Dmitri a lot, as well as Belliard, because they were "gangster" and "played with swagger." I wonder what she would have said if Elijah Dukes and Lastings Milledge were playing. But I guess Da Meat Hook and Belliard are old enough to be referred to as "O.G.'s" now, as in "original gangsters."
Jesus Flores and Kory Casto came through with the big hits (and walk) for the Nats tonight. Lo Duca was hit by pitch one too few times (since he's still on the team at the moment). Lannan didn't pitch incredibly well (threw a lot of balls), but he did get himself out of a lot of jams, inducing the Diamondbacks into countless double plays (actually, my dad counted, and it was 4).
It was my first win at Nationals Park, with the previous 4 games being losses by the counts of 6-0, 6-1, 13-3 and 10-2. Sooooo the GF is officially GL-good luck.
That's all I've got. I'll probably have a post at some point during the day tomorrow.
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Hoagie, just went through your spreadsheet a little more thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteIf the injury luck is better next season, they will improve on this season's record. They might even top .500. That's the best I can say.
Would it help to sign more or better free agents? An owner or GM who thinks "yes" will end up on the popularity chart somewhere between Wayne Huizenga and Peter Angelos. Not to mention the paucity of high-impact FAs in this year's class. (Moral: FOs are getting smarter.)
So player development and trading are where it's at. And even so, JimBow will need to pass a miracle akin to this past winter's Bedard trade if the Nats are to do much better in 2009 than in 2008, methinks.
The good news: we're only three high-impact starters away from having an elite pitching staff.
There are some positions we absolutely have to fill by resigning/signing free agents: 2B, SS, bench and maybe bullpen. That's something we've been lucky with over the years: a bullpen we don't have to spend ridiculous money on in FA.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think we should go after big-name FA's like Tex because after 6 or 7 years, they won't be worth it anymore.
To clarify, the spreadsheet is kinda a combination of what I think they should do and what I think they will do, realistically.