September 12, 2005

Pulling the Plug

  • Braves 9, Nationals 7

It's okay. It was a better ride than we had any right to expect. Going from 67-95 last year to a five game lead in the NL East, and still being in the wild card race on Labor Day? Not bad for the first season of baseball in Washington in 33 years. But it's over now. Yesterday's loss to Atlanta was a sign. The Nats played their guts out and stormed back to take the lead in the late innings, but for once they couldn't hold it. That's because Atlanta has what Washington is missing. Two guys (conveniently both named Jones) who can change the game with one swing of the bat.

Jose Guillen is the closest we come. And Jose is great. An above-average outfielder and hitter. But he can't hit homers at RFK. The Bobby is in his head. So Jose gets tense, thinks he has to hit a dinger every time, and ends up popping out. And there's no one to pick up the slack for him the way Andruw did when Chipper was on the DL.

My biggest concern for next season is where the additional power in our lineup is going to come from. Certainly a healthy Jose Vidro, Nick Johnson and Brad Wilkerson will help. But none of those guys is a 35-40 home run hitter. Assuming (please, God) that Preston Wilson leaves as a free agent, I think the platoon of Ryan Church and Marlon Byrd will replace his power numbers, but probably won't improve on them. Ryan Zimmerman is a good young infielder, but I don't think it's realistic to expect him to hit a ton of home runs his first full big league season. And yes, I do think Vinny will be gone next year.

So next year may be a lot like this year. Pitching, defense and pray for enough offense to get by. Which is fine, but we're going to need to restock the minor league pitching staff this winter.

3 comments:

Watson said...

While I don't necessarily think it means anything, the Nats aren't quite dead yet. With games left against the Phillies and Marlins, it could still be interesting. The fat lady may have started warming up but her royal hugeness isn't ready to sing yet.

DJDave said...

I'm taking the stance that I just don't want to pull the plug yet, but it certainly isn't boding well.

Watson's right in that there are certainly some chances, and we're not mathematically out, but if you shake the magic 8-ball, it isn't saying good things.

Nate said...

Behold the difference between mathematically eliminated and eliminated. For example, the Redskins (1-0) are not mathematically eliminated from the NFL playoffs. Nonetheless, with Mark Brunell at QB they are most surely eliminated from the NFL playoffs.

Likewise, the Nats are still statistically viable. However, being now reduced to 2 starting pitchers, they are no longer in the wild card race. Que sera, sera.