Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Car Pushed Into Anacostia River By Train
Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
Devendra Banhart @ 9:30 Club
Saturday Thanks Don't End At Thanksgiving Photo: November 28, 2009
Ryan Zimmerman's hitting streak ended the same day as the Capitals season, leaving the Nationals without any positive story lines right when people are going to start paying attention to them. To those local sports fans, let us implore you to turn your eyes towards D.C. United. They are tied for first in the East, with three wins, one loss, and six ties.
The Nationals, on the other hand, are 1-6 over the last week, and 11-25 overall. After briefly looking like they might be able claw their way out of last place, they're firmly buried at the bottom of the league. This weekend, the Nats were swept in four games by the Phillies. While those games may have occurred in Washington, the place certainly looked and felt like Citizens Bank Park South. At least someone is paying to go to the stadium. At least the Nats' second baseman proved that he could be a formidable dodgeball opponent.
The Nationals have seven more games at home on this home stand. Four are against the Pirates, and three against the Orioles. If the Nationals have any chance of redeeming this season, and probably Manny Acta's job, they need to win at least four of these seven games. After playing their game against the Orioles on May 24, they won't play another team that is currently under .500 until they play last year's AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays. In a practical sense, they won't play another bad team until they play the Orioles again, at Baltimore, on June 26. That is over a month - or 27 games - of games against good opponents. We are going to start the over under for the Nats' record on June 26 at 20-50.
Daniel Cabrera: Despite giving up seven runs in five innings in his last start, Daniel Cabrera is still on the team and scheduled to start on Thursday, May 21. So far this season, Cabrera has no wins, twice as many walks as strike outs, nine wild pitches, and presumably compromising pictures of Manny Acta and Mike Rizzo.
Game of the Week: The game of the week is tonight, when the Nationals face the Pirates. Due to the doubleheader, and Scott Olson's injury, the Nats have called up Ross Detwiler. Detwiler was the team's first pick in the 2007 draft, and has been pitching in Double-A in Harrisburg. He is 0-3 this year, but with a 2.96 ERA, and 28 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings. All of this won't really matter, because at some point the Nats bullpen will take over.
Briefly Noted: The Nationals' ground crew is as disgraceful as the Nats' fielders ... The team may not be able to pitch or field, but they do have a great third base coach... The Bullpen, the first bar near Nationals Park, is open ... The Nationals are offering half price tickets to Teddy fans.
Meaningless Statistic of the Week: Nick Johnson is leading the National League in number of times a left handed first baseman who was born during the Carter administration has been hit by a pitch while playing at home, with 3.
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"the place certainly looked and felt like Citizens Bank Park South"
Yep - it was the largest collection of ugly people you'll see outside of Citizens Bank Park North.
Who you callin ugly??
Hey-that's not where I wanted to reply. It was supposed to go to Kev29's post.
Less sports...?
Hernandez's fuck-up yesterday was hilarious. 6-5 in the 8th, the Nats could win this?!
Hell no. Hernandez's teammates pull a misdirection play on him, and he fell for the play-action. The ball whizzes by.
Even the announcers couldn't believe it. "Oh my god..." was one of many ways they voiced their disbelief at how bad this team is.
For us, they're the DC Nationals. For the rest of the country, it's the DC Schadenfraude.
When are the Nats going to do something about Rob Dibble? He's terrible and makes the games almost unwatchable. The pitching should be concern #2 for the front office.
I disagree wholeheartedly! I think Dibble's hilarious. Both those guys are fun to listen to.
I don't think anything he says is funny on purpose. He over uses 'we' like he's on the team and seems to forget what it was like to be a player. in every big situation he says this is what should happen then gets upset when a player can't execute (for whatever reason).
To be completely open about this, I'm from Philly and a Phillies fan so I'm used to some great baseball announcers. But they should take a lead from what Philly does... every 2 or 3 innings, switch up the radio and TV guys. It gives some freshness to the broadcast (and would likely keep me from stabbing my ears out listening to dibble)
Interesting idea about the radio and TV thing. There's not a lot to be positive about if you're a Nats announcer though. I think Dibble's got a goofy but likeable personality and sometimes says interesting stuff about pitching. They're both definitely a bit of a different breed.
I can't agree with this. Dibble is the only thing that makes the Nats games remotely watchable. The team sucks, and Bob Carpenter is far and away the worst play-by-play man in the country.
Soccer...The only sport where you can have twice as many draws than wins and still be in first place.
Note to Ed: Ties are what you where around your neck
Just sayin is all...before all the Barra Brava people get all offended
1st place is 1st place! We didn't make the rules!
fyi... You might get some comments back, this has already been sent to the DC soccer world! ;)
Recent conversation with a soccer fan friend of mine trying to convince my how awesome the sport is compared to hockey.
Him: Whaddya mean soccer is not exciting? Did you see that game between [some team] and [some team]? It was amazing.
Me: (in excited voice) Oh! Was that the one where the score was 1-0?
Him: Yeah! Wasn't that awesom...(realizes that I am goofing on him). You are a dick.
vamos united is right! the nationals are clearly the laughing stock of mlb. they need the billion dollar stadium taken away from them. and dc united needs this stadium fiasco fixed.
Umm... shouldn't it be Vamos United with an exclamation point instead of a question mark? ;)