Results tagged “mlb”

We couldn't help but notice that perennial loser Teddy Roosevelt was absent from the Presidents Race during the Nationals' game against the Marlins on Saturday. Given how badly the game went, it was just another disappointment among many for Nats fans that night. But what happened? Had Teddy finally succumbed to the crippling depression of never winning? Did he run off to establish another national park?

It took a little bit longer than expected, but Manny Acta is officially no longer the manager of the Washington Nationals, as first reported by ESPN Deportes and confirmed by the Associated Press. It was certainly time for the Nationals to make the switch: between a downward spiral of poor performances, color commentators (usually some of the game's biggest cheerleaders) questioning the team's effort, local media fondly reminiscing about the old manager, the dismissal of the team's pitching coach, and the jettisoning of several underperforming players, there was simply no one left to take the bullet for the team's recent run of form. That the Nationals (aside from Ryan Zimmerman, who'll be in St. Louis for the All-Star Game) will get a full three days to digest the change helps to explain the timing.

Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman has been named to the 2009 National League All-Star team. Every team gets an All-Star, and Ryan Zimmerman is the Nationals'. As the face of the franchise, Zimmerman is the perfect representative for the Nationals: much like the team, he is both hitting better than last year and has a lot more errors. Fans still have the chance to vote shortstop Cristian Guzman into the final National League All-Star slot.

Let's engage in a hardball hypothetical, shall we? Player A is a 25-year-old outfielder, hitting .244 with 6 HR, 30 RBI, and 18 runs. Not the greatest stats, but Player A is generally appreciated by the fans, and has moderate-to-good defensive capabilities, even though he might be slightly late to practice once in a while. On the other hand, Player B is a 29-year-old outfielder on the decline. Player B is currently batting .197 with only 3 HR and 16 RBI in 58 games, even though he has a reputation as a power hitter -- somehow, this power hitter's slugging percentage is lower than his poor on-base percentage. Player B is a defensive liability most of the time acceptable defensively, but strikes out nearly a third of the time he comes to the plate. Player B is also generally understood to be grossly overpaid.

After winning four straight, including two out of three against the Yankees and the Blue Jays, the Nationals returned to Fenway South last week to face the Red Sox, who promptly extinguished any hope the dozens of Nationals fans may have had that the season would turn around. The team went 2-5 over the last week, and are in the middle of a series against the Marlins. The Nats are 0-7 against Florida this year, and 29-49 against the Marlins since coming to the District, so don't expect things to get better any time soon. Overall, the team is 22-52, but importantly are on pace for around 46 wins, which would avoid 120 losses or more.

Ideally, this column is scheduled to run on Mondays. We held it until today because after this report by Fox Sports, and the Nationals subsequent non-denials, we were certain that Manny Acta was going to be fired yesterday. Well, he wasn't. It still seems likely that he will be, it is more a matter of when at this point. If it happens before Sunday, you can expect Bethesda Big Train Baseball's Nationals Night with Manny Acta bobblehead dolls to be the hot ticket of the season.

It is the week of the baseball draft, and in what looks like a yearly tradition, it is time to see what the Nationals organization does with the first pick. Everyone expects them to draft pitcher Steven Strasburg. Strasburg is a talent so great that only a team as incompetent as the Nationals would fail to draft and sign him. It should be an interesting Tuesday. Strasburg is represented by hated agent Scott Boras, so the team is a long way away from introducing the next Ben McDonald to the world.

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 may still be the worst team in the Major League, but at least they can hit. They currently lead the National League in OPS with .808, and are in the top three in the league in Batting Average, OBP, and Slugging. Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman are at the top of the National League in most offensive categories, with Elijah Dukes, Nick Johnson and Jesus Flores not far behind.

Before yesterday's game against the Mets, Filip Bondy wrote in the NY Daily News that "any result other than a sweep must be considered a setback." Well, things aren't looking too good in Queens, as the Nats managed an 8-1 victory yesterday, avoiding the series sweep. Take that, Gothamist!

The Nationals have announced a date for their rescheduled game against the Philadelphia Phillies after an April 15 matchup was rained out. The game will now take place at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday, May 16 as part of a doubleheader. A second game will take place that night at 7:05 p.m. Those of you with tickets to the original April 15 game can use your tickets for the May 16 afternoon game, or you can exchange your ticket for any other regular season home game, with the exception of the June series against the Boston Red Sox. The rescheduled game will also mark a celebration of Jackie Robinson Day, when players from both teams will wear Robinson's number, 42. Originally, the teams had planned to celebrate Jackie Robinson Day on April 15.

It's never good when a team is swept in a series. It's also never good when a team gives up a 9th inning lead. It takes a special team to get swept in a series by giving up three straight 9th inning leads. This rare feat was accomplished by the Nationals over the weekend, as they dropped three games to the Marlins. The result is that three pitchers from the bullpen, Saul Rivera, Steven Shell, and Wil Ledezma, were sent down to the minors after Sunday's game. To replace them, the team called up Jason Bergman, Garrett Mock, and Kip Wells. This is a dramatic move, and sends the message that there's a degree of losing that even the Nationals organization cannot tolerate.

With no relief in sight from today's downpour, the Nationals have gone ahead and postponed their second home game of the season tonight against the Philadelphia Phillies. The make-up date has yet to be announced, so there won't be a double header tomorrow. Ticket holders for tonight's game should keep their tickets, which may be used either for the TBA rescheduled game, or in exchange for tickets for the same priced seat at any future 2009 Nationals home game, excluding the June series against the Boston Red Sox. Thursday night's game is still on, set for 7:05 p.m.

       

The DC Creates Public Arts Program and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities unveiled several new pieces of public art at Nationals Park on Wednesday. The pieces include sculptures of Washington Senators players Frank Howard and Walter Johnson, and Homestead Grays player Josh Gibson, all created by Omri Amrany, and The Ballgame, a suspended artwork created by D.C. artist Walter Kravitz. DCist photographer Meaghan Gay stopped by to get a closer look.

                     

Construction crews on Friday hustled to put the finishing touches on a number of new features at Nationals Park, as the team gets set to kick off its second ever season at the stadium this month. It was hard to believe yesterday, amid the plastic tarps and forklifts, that everything would be spic and span in time for tonight's pre-season exhibition against the Orioles -- but Nationals president Stan Kasten expressed confidence that his ballpark would not only be ready, it would be much improved over last year.

This is just kind of sad. While it has yet to be officially announced by the team, it's long been reported that, schedule permitting, President Barack Obama will throw out the first pitch at the Nationals home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday, April 13. Yes, the home opener is a weekday afternoon game (3:05 p.m.), but considering the one-two punch of the Nats playing the world champion Phillies and the promise that the wildly popular Obama will be there, you'd think our pathetic little baseball franchise wouldn't have any trouble selling tickets to at least this one game. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

       

Forget acquiring free agents – the Washington Nationals need a stylist. The team unveiled the good, the bad, and the ugly with their new uniforms for the 2009 season yesterday.

If the thing weren't solidly anchored to the ground, we might expect to find the District's new baseball stadium hiding somewhere in a corner. After all, the last few months have seen enough bad news for Nationals Park to make even the most confident of publicly financed ballparks a little glum.

Baseball season comes to its end over the next week, as the World Series is set to unfold between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies. Here in D.C., we celebrate by freaking the eff out all over again over the cost of the brand new Nationals Park. Not only did hardly anyone go to Nats games in their new ballpark this year, but now we're hearing about how the whole endeavor actually cost over $690 million, quite a bit more than the regularly quoted $611 million figure. No one, and we mean no one, who followed the lengthy debate over the new baseball stadium could possibly be surprised by this news, but it's still causing quite a bit of consternation in some corners of the D.C. Council.

It is now official. Nationals Park will not be hosting a playoff series this year. What is surprising is that the Nats were not the first team to be mathematically eliminated from the post season. What is shocking is that the team is 8-2 in their last 10 games. The Nats have 21 games left in the season, and they have to win 9 in order to avoid 100 losses. A week ago, it seemed certain that they would fall short of 63 wins, and now they have a decent shot. They don't even possess the worst record in baseball anymore. Alas, it would have been nice to draft, and then fail to sign, Stephen Strasburg.

Someone has to be fired. There have to be consequences to the type of season that the Nationals are having, if only to show fans that the ownership actually cares about the product on the field. Most of the chatter seems to center on GM Jim Bowden and Batting Coach Lenny Harris, and given the team's performance, both seem like good candidates. That said, there are plenty of other worthy contenders. Given all the injuries this year, and how imprecise the diagnoses seem to be, the medical staff should probably be shown the door. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Clint in an unemployment line.

It looked pretty good there for a while. After dumping the dead weight that was Felipe Lopez, Paul Lo Duca, and Johnny Estrada, the re-invigorated Nationals promptly went 6-1, and were fun to watch. Unfortunately, the schedule then put the AAAA Nationals against good Major League baseball teams. This led to their current seven game losing streak, and continued position at the bottom of the Major League. The Nationals remain steadfast in their refusal to score runs, hit for average, get on base, or hit for power. I wish I knew what Lenny Harris had on the Lerners, because blackmail is the only thing the explains his continued employment.

Nationals fans are living in a brave new world this morning after the team completed its first second sweep of the season on Sunday, a home stand against the Cincinnati Reds. Most of the credit is going to new youngsters Emilio Bonifacio and Alberto Gonzalez, who have injected some much-needed energy into the Nats roster. But over at RotoNation, one blogger noticed a fan sporting an Obama-themed Nats jersey on Friday night. Coincidence? If Barack Obama is your new bicycle, could he also be your new Washington National?

The Nationals are 2-10 since the All Star break, currently in a nine game losing streak, and have been swept in three straight series. Their two wins came in a three game series in Atlanta. Atlanta's response to losing a series to the Nationals was to trade Mark Teixiera and give up on their season, which is a reasonable reaction to losing a series to the Nationals.

With the Nationals firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Major Leagues and the Redskins getting ready to start the season with a new head coach, another new offensive system, and a smattering of injuries, it is tough to get excited about Washington area sports right now. Given that the Redskins are 70-79 since Dan Snyder purchased the team in 1999, and the Nationals are 150-204 since the Lerners took the helm, it is easy to blame the ownership for their teams' woes. That would be wrong; Dan Snyder and Ted Lerner are both excellent owners. The problem for Washington sports fans is that they own the wrong teams.

Those Nationals went a respectable 3-3 over the last week. They took a three game set against the Orioles, a series highlighted by a thrilling 12th inning walk off homerun.

Yesterday, Nationals manager Manny Acta called a team meeting to remind his players that they are not "independent league players." The point was that, despite being younger and not as talented as some other clubs, they are expected to be able to complete routine plays like hitting the cutoff man and fielding the baseball. It is clear that Manny will live with a team that is last in the National League in every offensive category, the worst team in the National League, and quickly becoming the worst team in baseball, but he will not tolerate basic baseball errors. To put it another way, the manager of the Nationals expects the same level of play from his team as my junior varsity coach expected from my team.

The Nationals went 3-4 in the last week. The three wins came against the Seattle Mariners, the only team with a worse record than the Nats. Jose Vidro is their designated hitter, and they no longer have their manager. This is actually a good way to measure managers this year. If your team gets swept by the Nationals, then you deserve to be fired.

The Nationals have won 3 of their last 13 games, and possess the second worst record in the National League. The team is currently batting .235, have an OBP of .310, are slugging .357, and have an OPS of .667. They also have 229 total RBIs and 781 total bases. What is amazing about all of these statistics is that the Nationals trail all other NL teams in each of them. In fact, these numbers would be the worst in the MLB, if not for Seattle's .305 OBP and Kansas City's 227 RBIs. It is really amazing how bad this team's offense is. If you filter any of these statistics using runners in scoring position, or runners on, etc., you just need to look at the bottom of the list to find Washington.

The Nats are 3-3 in the last week. They even managed to score 25 runs in those 6 games, up from the 17 that they scored in the previous 7 games. They are still only batting .218 as a team with a .267 OBP in the last 7 days, putting them second to last in the National League during that period. Overall, the team is last in the National League with a .234 batting average, second to last in OBP at .311, last in slugging at .357, and last in OPS at .668. That said, they don't have the worst record in baseball, and have actually won 18 of their last 34 games. If they could learn to hit, they might actually live up to the admittedly meager .500 ball expectations that they had this year.