Home Run Derby

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.

As a follow up to my Washington N-ASS-ionals post from Thursday, This week’s ESPN’s Power Rankings hit the nail on the head when they ranked Washington dead last.

“Here’s all you need to know about the Nats: Austin Kearns is hitting cleanup, with a .297 slugging percentage.”

Yep, that confirms it, the Nationals suck.

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.

(more…)

  OK, the season is now 22 games old for the Nationals (13.6% of their games are already played), and as of today, they are the worst team in baseball (as the Greek predicted in our 30 in 30 feature) with a record of 6-16.  For a team that won it’s first three games this season, that record is “remarkable” for all the wrong reasons.

How scary is it, by the way, that Christian Guzman leads the team in Home Runs, Runs Scored, Batting Average, OPS, SLG, Total Bases, Hits and Triples.  Let me repeat, Guzman leads the team in Home Runs with two (Shared with Nick Johnson, Austin Kearns and Ryan Zimmerman). Uggh.

A quick perusal of Nats team stats.

• Last in the NL for Batting Average, Slugging, OPS. 
• 14th for Runs, OBP, and Quality Starts. 
• 13th for ERA, WHIP, Saves. 

Where does that leave this team?  Straight to Suckville.   Just another name for the Worst Team in Baseball !  

This team needs to break out the Bull Durham special.

Start breathing through some eyelids, wear the garter (just remember, the flower goes in front, big guy), and when all else fails get Crash to deliver a rain out.

Also remember that HRD predicted that the Nats would go 0-18 vs the New York Mets this season.

In the four games played against the Mets, the Nationals have scored a total of 6 runs to the Mets’ 21, en route to an 0-4 record. 

That’s 4 down and 14 to go for the boldest, most improbable prediction of all (0-18).

By the request of Nationals Nation (wow that takes alliteration to a different standard), I am going to take a look at the Nationals from time to time and see how they are progressing against my “worst team in baseball (WTinB)” tag I hung on them in our 30 in 30 segment. 

Now that the season is through its first 10 game segment, let’s take a look at team and the status of my predictions.

Win Total:I have the under on 71.5 and have the Nats pegged for 65 wins.   The team is 3-7 and a -9 on run differential.  Simple average pace has them at 49 wins (which is meaningless but fun to point out), baseball reference suggests they Nats should be one game better than their record. 

Needless to say, while the poetic 3-0 start was nice, the seven game losing streak shows this team has its work cut out for it.  The Nats are struggling at the plate (Team has a 90 OPS+ and 14th in the NL in OBP) and on the mound (Team has a 85 ERA+ and is 14th in ERA and runs allowed).

Funny thing is the starters, while not good, hasn’t been as bad I thought.  Collectively, they have 5.00 ERA, 2 quality starts, a 1-6 record, 1.50 WHIP, and 2.1:1 K/BB ratio.  Don’t get me wrong, by all definition that is bad, but I was thinking even worse.

The “Strength” of the team, as Nats fans told me, was the bullpen. Unfortunately, they have been bad too.  4.05 ERA, 1.44 WHIP and a 1:1 K/BB ratio (20 walks in 33 innings!!!! BTW the starters have 18 in 54).

It early in the season, maybe things will pick-up for them.  For a good laugh (strictly for the picture and headline), check out the Nationals Enquirer post from yesterday’s game.

Break-out Home Run performer: Elijah Dukes. He’s been on the DL and will be for some time still. 

Disappointing Home Run performer:  Austin Kearns.  None in 33 at bats.  He is playing all the time with Dukes out but needs to warm up.

Bold Statement: 0-18 vs Mets.  first game vs NY on Tax Day at Shea.

Best Case Scenario:Win the inaugural game at the new park…and they did in fine fashion with Ryan Zimmerman’s walk-off.  Which, while unposted, is the first Home Run of the Day selection for the 2008 season (Photo credit:  AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais).  So we check that one off.  Woo-Hoo!!!!

Current WTinB: Detriot Tigers 1-8

Nats: 3-7, 1.5 games ahead.

  OK, Nick the Greek just had the Spring Break from HELL!!!!  If something could have gone wrong it did.  Nine days away from the office, and boy am I happy to be back.  One of the many downsides of all that went wrong (broken sump pump, carpet damage, re-venting my dryer, leak in a sky-light, son with pink eye, and I could go on and on and on) is I completely dropped the ball on the 30 teams in 30 days.

So in trying to keep with the concept, I am going to try to finish the last 17  18 teams (albeit abbreviated) in one sitting.  Kind of like John Candy in the Great Outdoors when he sat down to polish off the old 96′er.

So get some popcorn and sit in your comfy chair because here are the predictions of the last 17 18 teams 

(more…)

 As a tribute to Richie Rich and his other great baseball love, the Toronto Blue Jays, I decided to go old shool on the logo.  I am sure Richie has his vintage Blue Jays cap somewhere.  I remember sitting with him in the outfield of New Comiskey (as it was called at the time of our outing) watching the Palehose and the Blue Birds lock up in a battle of two quality teams. 

It was 1993 and the Blue Jays were the defending champions and the Sox were contending in the AL West and looked like world beaters.  Funny thing is I don’t remember the game too well (unlike my Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS recollection) but I remember Richie’s damn hat (it was the blue road cap, and matching road jersey).

But before I go any farther, please rise and remove your caps as we sing the Canadian National Anthem (and no I am not Canadian).

I had to use a Hockey clip to get the full effect, and no, the tone deaf guy featured prominently in the audio is not me (although I am pretty damn tone deaf).  But enought about the anthem and on to the Blue Jays.

(more…)

 OK, I have taken some time off,  so I am going to fire through about five or six teams in the next couple days to catch-up.  Next up is the last of the light power-hitting teams, the Seattle Mariners.  I base that last comment on their team Home Run total of 153 dingers last year.  The Mariners are at the point of the team Home Run List that is somewhat of a demarcation line because the next lowest total belongs to the Toronto Blue Jays at 165. 

Of course none of this is meant as a slight to the Mariners - whom I think will be the surprise of the majors this year.  If you read our Angels preview, I already said that Mariners will best the Angels by 8 games this year on their way to the AL West crown.  I guess I am a sucker for pitching (kind of ironic given the focus of this site) and the starting five headed by Eric Bedard and Felix Hernandez is the best in the AL West and they are backed up by one the best closers in the game today … Mr Soul Patch, JJ Putz.

(more…)