Home Run Derby

Nick the Greek is taking sometime away from his new job to take a look at an old hobby.  Life gets busy sometimes, but that doesn’t mean we should take some time for baseball, right?  We are at the halfway point of the season (well technically a little more than halfway), and before I blink, the rest of the season might be over and I will have missed my chance to say so many things.

Anyway, Home Run Derby got some fan mail the other day, and it basically beckoned me to return.  HRD reader Ted writes:

“Hey guys, how about an update about your prediction that the Nationals would be the worst team in baseball. It’s the All-Star break and guess what? They are the worst! Let their fans know it.”

Well, Ted…ask and you shall receive.  Not that this shocks anyone,  well except the delusional Nats Fans that were pissed by my prediction of them being the worst team in baseball, but the Washington Nationals are exactly that.  THE. WORST. TEAM. IN. BASEBALL.  Before going to the stats, let’s review the Greek’s preseason prediction for the Washington Nationals.

Reader’s Digest Version of my predictions: The line-up stinks; the pitching sucks; the team will win 65 games; Elijah Dukes will outperform Home Run expectations, Austin Kearns will underperform them and my personal  favorite, the team will go 0-18 vs the Mets.

Well starting at the end, the have 4 wins against the Mets so far with 9 more games to play.  So much for bold predictions.  Austin Kearns? 4 HR in in 185 ABs. Check.  Elijah Dukes? not much better 6 HR in 172 ABs.  Injuries kept out the entire month of April and he is now again on the DL. Missed that one.

Now to the meat and potatoes.  65 Wins.  At 36-60, the Nationals are on a torrid pace for 61 wins.  Ugh. 61 Wins.    While the MLB record of futility is safe, there is a real chance this team won’t win 60 games.

Just how bad are the Nats? They have the worst run differential in the majors at -117.  No other team is even in triple digits, San Diego is 2nd with a -91.   And how about this.  Not only does the pitching suck (11th in the NL in ERA, 14th in BAA, 13th in WHIP, 15th in OPS against), the offense sucks even more (last in the NL in BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, Runs).

The 2nd half won’t be any easier as the team has more road games (35) than home games (31) and start the post all-star break with 16 of their next 22 on the road, where they have won 16 games all season.  Couple the lost season so far with playoff clubs looking for bullpen arms, the Nats will soon trade away the only mediocre pitching they have as Jon Rauch and Saul Rivera will probably be dealt.

The Nats should bring up the top prospects and see if they can play at this level.  This leads me to believe the Nats will not hit the 60 win mark this year. This team is, without question, the worst team in baseball.

So in honor of the passionate Nats Fans that ripped me in March, I thought I would highlight the best comments from that post.

MrLogical 3/5/08:

“The worst team in the league? I know they’re not going to be great, but what? The Marlins, Pirates, Royals, and “Rays” are better teams? Add to that the Reds, Giants, Orioles and White Sox, and those are all the teams the Nats finished better than last year despite all the pre-season stories about the Nats making a run for the Tigers’ record for futility.”

Not that I thought the Rays and the White Sox would be so strong, but hey, It’s nice to see that mrlogical thought the Nats were better than 8 teams (over 1/4th of the league).

Matt 3/8/08:

“You truly are a moron. How could they be in 4th place last season in the NL East and now be the worst team in baseball? They did nothing but add better players and were hit with terrible injuries.”

Just let that one soak in.  Because Matt’s next comment was even better.

“Do you think starting pitching is the only key ingredient in baseball? Their bullpen is the envy of the NL East (without question) and the Triple-A claim (notice it is Triple-A, not AAA) is accurate, but anyone worth their weight realizes that the Colorado Rockies rode a “Triple-A” staff to the World Series last season. If you are talking about “teams” you have to realize that it is much more than what is on the Opening Day 25-man roster. The Nats jumped 20 TEAMS in the rankings of their minor league system and had the best draft in baseball according to every publication.

Then, in terms of adding players of significance since Opening Day 2007: Pena, Milledge, Nick Johnson, Lo Duca, Estrada and A. Boone…Not saying that’s murderers row, but it is foolhardy to look at a couple of boxscores and records and make a claim like this is the “worst team in baseball.” After May 11, the Nats played .500 baseball…”

That’s was fun.  and finally…

Thorne 3/14/08:

“Worst team? C’mon.
Their line-up actually looks pretty good.
Guzman isn’t that bad. Prior to getting injured last year he was hitting over 300 and was class on OBP was around 400. their bullpen is above average and their starting pitchhing isn’t too good but you never know…if Hill & Patterson stay healthy they could be “average””

Don’t fret Nat fans, your misery will be over soon.  Only 66 games left to play.  If they can play at a .560 clip the rest of the way, your team can match last season’s 73 win total.  Good Luck.

Oh, and one final thought.  I do realize that many of my preseason predictions sucked (see the Seattle Mariners), but where is the fun in writing an entire post on those shitty predictions?  I just hope my “Cubs win the World Series” prediction is wrong.

Let the Second Half Begin!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 12:17 am and is filed under 2008 MLB, 30 Teams in 30 Days, Nationals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.