I have been accused by my good friends at the Nationals Enquirer of being a “pathological Nats-hater” but I must say that the Nationals are my second favorite team. Well, at least for this weekend anyway. They get the honor of filling in the blank of my regular quip:
“My two favorite teams are the White Sox and whoever is playing the Cubs”
Of course, not expecting any chance of a win this weekend at Wrigley for the Worst Team in Baseball, I must say I was pleasantly surprised to see this team clobbering the Cubs 10-5 in the 9th.
No wait, 13-5!!! And to make it even better, ex-White Sox Willie Harris (you know the man who scored the final run of Game 4 in the 2005 World Series) jacked 2 Home Runs and knocked in 6 runs. Wooo Hoo!!! Go Nats.
Wait…Willie Harris has 12 Home Runs this year. Tied for the TEAM lead. OK, it is official. The Nats are not only the Worst Team in Baseball…They are the Worst. Team. EVER. Willie Harris leads the team in Home Runs. You got to be kidding me.
Funny thing is, it happened once the past three seasons (Dodgers in ‘06, Red Sox in ‘07, White Sox in ‘08), but apparently these things come in threes, because the first three occurences took place in a four year span (Braves in ‘61, Indians in ‘63, Twins in ‘64). Again for scale, 3 Home Run Games occurred 19 times the past three years.
God, I hate the Yankees. This latest reason is courtesy of Hank Steinbrenner:
I think it’s very simple, we’ve been devastated by injuries. No team I’ve ever seen in baseball has been decimated like this. It would kill any team. Imagine the Red Sox without [Josh] Beckett and [Jon] Lester. Pitching is 70 percent of the game. Wang won 19 games two straight years. Chamberlain became the most dominating pitcher in baseball. You can’t lose two guys like that.”[emphasis added]
OK, we know what Erin Andrews thinks of Joba(/snark), but is there anyone who truly believes he is the “most dominating pitcher in baseball” with his 89 innings pitched this season and 113 innings in his career?
Really, He’s better than Cliff Lee and Brandon Webb? or CC Sabathia or Roy Halladay? or Carlos Zambrano or Jake Peavy? He’s not even better than two Red Sox pitchers mentioned by Hank himself. Hell, he’s not better than John Danks and about 30 other pitchers.
Yes, Hank…Joba is good. Really good. In fact, he may be an all-star one day, but can we save the hyperbole? You made your point, the Yankees had a lot of injuries. Problem was, they were having a hard time competing before the injuries. God forbid that the Yankees are….wait for it…..a mediocre team. *Gasp* That can’t be!
And, what’s with the name Joba anyway? Nice little story on wikipedia there, Justin! Boy, if I changed my name to one of my nicknames growing up, I would be Chewbacca the Greek!
Better yet, Chewy the Greek. My wife would love that! Gotta go, I heading to the courthouse right now.
I have always been a firm believer in the power of baseball. I still well up when Terrence Mann, aka James Earl Jones, gives his “People will come” speech to Ray Kinsella, aka Kevin Costner, in Field of Dreams.
And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray.
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.
I found myself thinking of that movie moment driving up the Edens Expressway Friday Night as I made my way home from the White Sox-Red Sox game at the Cell. You see, the night before, my buddy, Brian, who works for ESPNZone, called me up to offer an extra ticket to the game.
It’s not like we don’t enjoy pointing out each other’s bonehead statements (we do), but I take particular joy in pointing out that Richie was much too quick to to lump Mark into the “not so great after the fat contract” category.
Yes, Buehrle was mediocre at best through May 8th when Richie penned his observation, even his next three starts after Richie’s post fell into that Mediocre blah. But come the beginning of June, things have changed and Mark is earning his paycheck.
Since June 1, Mark has had 10 starts, 9 of them quality starts. He failed to go 7 innings only twice and pitched 8 innings 4 straight games. He gave up more than 3 ER once.
His June stats: 6 Starts, 4-0, 1.60 ERA, 45 IP (out of 54 total innings for those 6 games, the bullpen thanks you Mark), 1.02 WHIP. His July stats:2-2, 2.63 ERA, 27.1 IP (out of 36 possible), 1.17 WHIP
So put that in your pipe and smoke it, Richie
FYI…Nick the Greek is headed to our Northern Neighbors for a two week vacation with very little access to the internet. So I will disappear again for a while.
I know the Twins are a good team, but anyone who thinks they have a shot at the AL Central is insane, and it has nothing to do with four of their starting pitchers never pitching 200 innings in a season (Blackburn, Baker, Perkins, Slowey - Hell, Baker is the only one with 100 IP in the Bigs prior to this season).
Nope, like most things in this country, you can blame the Republicans.
Starting August 21st, they go on the road for 15 straight in 16 days (LA, Oak, Sea, Tor) because of the GOP convention (Sept 1-4), then get to come home for 6 games (Det, KC) before heading out for another 10 games on the road in 10 days (Bal, Cle, TB). That is 25 road games in a span of 33 days with only two days off with six days at home.
So blame the Republicans, Twins fans.
Unless you are up 5-6 games by August 21st, chances of holding the division will be poor. This team (like most) is below .500 on the road.
Everybody remember that old SNL feature back in the 90’s, Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey. My favorite went something like…”I think it would be funny that if you were skydiving and your parachute didn’t open that you pretend that you were swimming.”
Anyway, since it seems like I don’t have the time to be too creative or lengthy in my posts, I figure I could at least put a thought or two down for people to ponder.
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.
Pinch-hitting is hard enough. Sit on your duff for 7+ innings, get the notice that you are probably going to get at bat if the situation is right, go take a couple swings in the cage behind the dugout, swing the donut a bit, and go out there down by 1 run and 2 runners on and 2 out.
Oh, and you get to face Hank Steinbrenner’s favorite Yankee (but not Erin Andrews), Joba Chamberlain. A single ties the game, but why not over-deliver? Second pitch he sees … ding dong, the pitch is dead.
And while Joba had a bad night last night, “his” team in the HRD, The Joba Rules, is building a nice cushion in our contest. Through May 5th, The Joba Rules had a seven Home Run cushion in the contest and was on the doorstep of breaking 100 Home Runs to date.
I think we might have found a new HRD whipping boy.
Entries (RSS)
