Gio to Nats

[Baseball is Life]

There's no debating that, adding Gio and Strasburg and Zimmermann coming back at least 80% is going to be bad freaking ass.  My comment was more about the "We'll be competing in X+2 years" mantra.  Feel me?

Feel this. We are contenders in 2012 as of the Gio trade. And we ain't done.

[JMW IV]

Needle in a haystack.

I agree, there are some very intelligent posters here and people you can tell know the game, and follow it. But they are heavily outweighed by the people who's natural disposition is to nag and moan about a move. Later on, some of those people come to their senses, but it's difficult to join a discussion, 10, 15 pages deep and find the two or three posts that actually include legitimate insight or opinion.

To one of the posters that asked if Im active on other boards, I've been posting on message boards for 15 years, and Im only 30. Im extremely active on other boards, from college football to NFL, to NBA, NFL Draft, etc. You name it. I've gotten jobs online because of how active I have been. And without a doubt, this place blows any other site out of the water in terms of how negative people are. Like I said, I love that this place is active and includes a lot of passionate posters, but it is pretty ridiculous to see how negative people can be on every single matter. It's a hard thing to endure when you want to join a conversation, or even just see other people's opinions. I don't even reach a second page on most of the threads, because the first page just kills any desire you have to discuss the topic with people. I know that my opinion will piss off some of the more vocal people here, and I know me stating this isn't going to make people not be so negative, but if people can nag and moan about every move, then Im going to comment on how ridiculous that is.

This team is heading in the right direction and just made a move to improve the club right now, but still factors in being a contender 3/4/5 years from now. People should be loving the trade.

so basically, we've got a thread full of excitement, where the majority of the posters like the move and are discussing where the Nats go from here, what further moves they can make, how good the pitching staff is going to be, and the ones who initially did not like the move are coming around after giving it more consideration, and are showing that they are excited as well.

and you blabbering on about how you hate reading this board because everybody is negative and this board sucks and listing off your entire life of message board posting and this is the worst forum ever and blahblahblahblah.

Awesome.

so....then, moving on.  Prince Fielder and Oswalt = Playoffs in 2012. amirite?

[Baseball is Life]

then, moving on.  Prince Fielder and Oswalt = Playoffs in 2012. amirite?

You are rite. No Prince and Oswalt. Probably right.

[DPMOmaha]

so....then, moving on.  Prince Fielder and Oswalt = Playoffs in 2012. amirite?

If only it was that easy...

[HalfSmokes]

If only it was that easy...

All it would cost is money

I actually think adding those two would get us to at least the wild card

[DPMOmaha]

All it would cost is money

I actually think adding those two would get us to at least the wild card

You'd think, but it's rarely that easy, that's all I'm saying...

[HalfSmokes]

Anything can go wrong, and random guys have breakthroughs- I'd still rather be good on paper and not need as much luck

[DPMOmaha]

Anything can go wrong, and random guys have breakthroughs- I'd still rather be good on paper and not need as much luck

Me too.

[PANatsFan]

You are rite. No Prince and Oswalt. Probably right.

Wilcard looks good. I don't see Oswalt vs Lannan making enough difference to matter.

Yeah, I went there. Remember he was very not good last year (Oswalt) while Lannan was really not bad.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Despite what Borg Ludestones says, I would guess that Lannan and Wang begin as the #4 and #5 starters with the 6th starter / long man getting 15 or so starts.  It'd make sense to slot in regular extra days for both SS and JZ, so I could see Det getting start when we have 8+ games in a row.   This would keep SS pitching late in the year. Mind you, they did not do this with JZ this year, but I could see that as a way to keep the top 6 starters getting all but a few starts, rather than #7 and #8 getting 5 or more starts stacked in September.

[PowerBoater69]

Despite what Borg Ludestones says, I would guess that Lannan and Wang begin as the #4 and #5 starters with the 6th starter / long man getting 15 or so starts.  It'd make sense to slot in regular extra days for both SS and JZ, so I could see Det getting start when we have 8+ games in a row.   This would keep SS pitching late in the year. Mind you, they did not do this with JZ this year, but I could see that as a way to keep the top 6 starters getting all but a few starts, rather than #7 and #8 getting 5 or more starts stacked in September.

Stras will skip some starts on road dates.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Stras will skip some starts on road dates.

I don't care, so long as he's available for division games and games against potential WC contenders in other divisions.  The main thing here is that this team should organize its rotation so that the bulk of the starts that go to starters outside the 5 rotation regulars go to #6 rather than go evenly among 6 -7 & 8.  without Peacock and Milone, there seems to be a bigger drop off from #6 to # 7 an d #8 than last year.   Davey's approach last year was to burn through JZ quickly and yank Livo from the rotation early in order to give SS, Detwiler, Milone and Peacock starts in the majors.  This year a different strategy makes most sense.  Use more spot starts  and skip SS and maybe JZ to lengthen their season and to have the spot starts concentrated on Detwiler.  Unless there is some starter in the system who puts together a year like Milone and Peacock had last year in the high minors, there really is not that many guys you want to give a trial to in 2012.

[PowerBoater69]

I don't care, so long as he's available for division games and games against potential WC contenders in other divisions.  The main thing here is that this team should organize its rotation so that the bulk of the starts that go to starters outside the 5 rotation regulars go to #6 rather than go evenly among 6 -7 & 8.  without Peacock and Milone, there seems to be a bigger drop off from #6 to # 7 an d #8 than last year.   Davey's approach last year was to burn through JZ quickly and yank Livo from the rotation early in order to give SS, Detwiler, Milone and Peacock starts in the majors.  This year a different strategy makes most sense.  Use more spot starts  and skip SS and maybe JZ to lengthen their season and to have the spot starts concentrated on Detwiler.  Unless there is some starter in the system who puts together a year like Milone and Peacock had last year in the high minors, there really is not that many guys you want to give a trial to in 2012.

I didn't mean for that to come off as a negative.  It makes sense for Stras to skip turns and there is no reason to not have those skips occur on the road.  I'd also agree that there should be a regular spot starter, but of course the realities of the regular season will complicate things.

[Vega]

[Nathan]

I like to see that

[hammondsnats]

now get fielder and we're winning it all

[The Chief]

WHO does he remind you of in that picture?

[Tyler Durden]

WHO?

[MarquisDeSade]

WHO does he remind you of in that picture?

Ray Romano?

[Tyler Durden]

Crazy how much the rotation has changed.  It used to be a collection of soft tossers and groundball types.  Now we've got 3 guys at the top who are all strikeout pitchers.

[Kevrock]

Until the Nats change them all into groundball types.

I kid.

[Nathan]

Until the Nats change them all into groundball types.

I kid.

Didn't they already try to do that to JZ?  "Pitch to contact." 

[tomterp]

Ray Romano?

Yep.

Not everyone can look like John Belushi, I guess.
 

[cmdterps44]

Its settled in that we have gio but its still sorta unreal. I can't wait to see how effective strasburg Zimmermannn and gio will be.

[imref]

sorry if this was already posted - just saw it on MLBTR - http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/how-good-is-gio-gonzalez/

ceiling is ubaldo, basement is cabrerra.