Author Topic: Nationals in the national media  (Read 2872 times)

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Offline OldChelsea

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #50: September 20, 2012, 01:00:13 PM »
From ESPN.com: the match story mentions the incident (http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=320919320) without mentioning Porter. The 'Sweet Spot' blog mentions this in passing as well but again without mentioning Porter (http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/29092/dodgers-living-on-the-edge) - key quote (emphasis added):

'The Dodgers scored three runs in the third inning. Kemp and Gonzalez drew key walks, and Hanley Ramirez and Ethier knocked in runs. They scored three more in the fourth. Kemp had an RBI single. He later scored a controversial run (replays showed he hadn't crossed the plate before a tag was made on Gonzalez). It was just the second time the Dodgers had scored at least six runs in 18 games. They'd scored two or fewer in nine of those games.'

---

Wonder why the journos are so deferential toward the umpires - do they think Richie Phillips still runs the umpires' union and is going to sue them or something? Or is it just the same old deference to 'big market' and other 'royal favourite' clubs....

Offline wj73

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #51: September 20, 2012, 02:26:57 PM »
No mention of the phantom run at all in the LA Times report on the game:  http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-0920-dodgers-nationals-20120920,0,4071109.story  The report is all about how wonderful Kemp is and what a great player he is. The full description of the third and forth inning:

Quote
The offense came to life in the second game, which would have been pitched by All-Star fireballer Stephen Strasburg had the Nationals not decided to shut him down for the season. Strasburg is in his first full season back from reconstructive elbow surgery.

The Dodgers pounded his replacement, John Lannan, for three runs in the third inning and three more in the fourth.

That's it.  I guess it's much more fun to beat the Strasburg-shut-down dead horse story than discuss the phantom run, caused in part because aforementioned Kemp wasn't hustling.   :evil:

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #52: September 20, 2012, 02:58:02 PM »
Well, the phantom run only affected the playoff scenarios for 6 or 7 teams - the best record (nats/ cinci), the division (nats / braves) and the second wild card (LAD, St L, Mil, Phi).  Why mention it?

Offline PC

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #53: September 20, 2012, 04:43:47 PM »
From espn's resident Nats hater:

keithlaw keithlaw

Quote
9 "@Steveospeak: scale of 1-10 how bad was the call by the HP ump in the Dodgers-Nats game, when Zim clearly tagged runner heading to 3rd"

:shock:

Offline imref

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #54: October 07, 2012, 11:20:05 AM »
D.C. sports (and the Nats) featured in this month's ESPN The Magazine.

http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/espn-the-magazine/


Offline OldChelsea

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #55: October 07, 2012, 11:22:33 AM »
D.C. sports (and the Nats) featured in this month's ESPN The Magazine.

http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/espn-the-magazine/

(Image removed from quote.)

...and unlike SI, this cover really is DC.

Offline PC

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #56: October 07, 2012, 09:14:01 PM »
Quote
Matheny makes first big blunder of playoffs

We'll be doing a lot of quick takes on managerial decisions in this space during the postseason. As always, ultimately it's the players who win and lose games, but it sure is fun to second-guess some of the key moves.

Mike Matheny perfectly executed the first major blunder of the postseason in the eighth inning on Sunday. The situation: The Cardinals leading the Nationals 2-1, two outs, runners on second and third, the pitcher's spot due up. With right-hander Mitchell Boggs pitching, Davey Johnson sent up lefty Chad Tracy to hit.

Matheny went to his lone lefty in the 'pen, Marc Rzepczynski.

Johnson countered with right-handed Tyler Moore, who flared a 2-2 fastball down the right-field line for a two-run, go-ahead single.

You can say it was bad luck for the Cardinals since the ball wasn't hit hard. But it was bad process. The main argument here is that Boggs is a better pitcher than Rzepczynski. The second argument is that it should have been obvious Johnson would hit for Tracy once Rzepczynski entered. The third argument is that Moore is a more dangerous hitter than Tracy. So there was really no reason for Matheny to bring in the reliever they call "Scrabble." Boggs versus Tracy or Rzepcynski versus Moore? Easy call. (And that's without even getting into the option of bringing in closer Jason Motte for a four-out save.)

Rzepczynski got some big outs in the postseason a year ago for the Cardinals, but wasn't as effective this season. Right-handers hit .259/.323/.459 against him; overall, he allowed seven home runs in just 46.2 innings. Moore hit .247 against left-handers but has big power, hitting 10 home runs on the season in just 156 at-bats. Tracy is a veteran pinch hitter who had only nine plate appearances all season against lefties; Johnson wasn't going to let him hit there.

Matheny's in-game strategy drew a lot of criticism from Cardinals fans this year: too many sacrifice bunts, ill-advised intentional walks and so on. This decision won't alleviate those concerns about the rookie manager.

Johnson, of course, was weaned in the '80s, managing against Hall of Fame skippers such as Whitey Herzog, Tommy Lasorda and Dick Williams. He played under Earl Weaver. Nobody is going to beat Johnson in a chess match. More importantly, the Nationals have multiple weapons off the bench. Like his Mets teams in the '80s, Johnson carries some guys who can hit in Tracy, Moore, Roger Bernadina and even Steve Lombardozzi. As I wrote earlier, the Nationals have a big advantage over their NL counterparts in bench strength.

There's a lot more we could write off this game. The Cardinals managed only two runs off Gio Gonzalez, despite Gonzalez walking seven in five innings. They later loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh, but the Nationals escaped with a force at home and double play.

The Cardinals will regret missing those scoring opportunities. But Matheny should regret the tactical error he made.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/29815/matheny-makes-first-big-blunder-of-playoffs

Offline tomterp

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #57: October 07, 2012, 10:17:35 PM »
Solid piece, totally agree with it.  Davey pulled the right strings pretty much all game long.

Offline GoodOmens

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #58: October 07, 2012, 11:04:04 PM »
Solid piece, totally agree with it.  Davey pulled the right strings pretty much all game long.

Yup the more I watch him manage, the happier I am that Riggo left in a temper tantrum. Davey is solid. The behind the scenes strategies is what really makes this game enjoyable for me.

Offline R-Zim#11

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #59: October 07, 2012, 11:34:18 PM »
Yup the more I watch him manage, the happier I am that Riggo left in a temper tantrum. Davey is solid. The behind the scenes strategies is what really makes this game enjoyable for me.

Not only that -- you just know Davey really loves this team...

Offline GoodOmens

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #60: October 07, 2012, 11:58:32 PM »
Not only that -- you just know Davey really loves this team...

Ha yup. There are three camera cuts I love: When they show Gio smiling, when they show Davey smiling and when they show the team doing the shark chomp hahaha.  I really hope they can keep him around for a while.

Offline CALSGR8

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #61: October 08, 2012, 12:14:54 AM »
Arrggg.  Battery dying!

Love Davy and this team!

Online Smithian

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #62: October 08, 2012, 12:45:16 AM »
I liked Riggleman before his temper tantrum. I think he was pretty good about making common sense decisions. He was your typical MLB manager.

Love Davey. Even though I may not always grasp the intricacies of his decisions or even notice them, I do trust he is winning the battle against other managers.

Riggleman managed games. Johnson manages the season. He's playing chess when most managers are playing checkers.

Right now there isn't a manager in the playoffs that will do better than Johnson at putting guys in the best possible spot. Just comes down to them doing their jobs.

Offline PC

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #63: October 10, 2012, 01:36:41 AM »
Quote
Nationals sure could use Strasburg
Ken Rosenthal

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Sorry, it’s time to utter the “S” word.

Heck, some of the Washington Nationals’ players are saying it, with very little prompting.

 “If we had ‘Stras, we’d be up 2-0,” one player told me Tuesday.

Meaning, if Gio Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg had started the first two games of the Division Series for the Nationals, the team would be leading the St. Louis Cardinals, two games to none.

Instead, the series is tied at one game apiece as it moves to Nationals Park, where all of the remaining games will be played, if necessary.

Of course, no one can say for sure what might have happened if Strasburg had pitched, just as no one can say for sure that the Nationals chose the right course by shutting him down after his Sept. 7 start.

The downside, though, is now frighteningly clear.

Ask the Texas Rangers. Ask any team to experience disappointment in October. The opportunity to win a World Series often is fleeting. And the emptiness that occurs when a triumphant regular season ends in a stunning postseason defeat is an emptiness that resonates for a long time.

The Nationals finished with 98 wins, most in the majors. If they lose this series — the first postseason series in Washington since 1933 — the questions about the Strasburg Shutdown will only grow more pointed, not only from outside the organization, but also from within the Nats’ own clubhouse.


The players aren’t about to go on the record with their dissent and create a distraction in the middle of the playoffs. But they are as divided about the decision as the rest of us, have been from the start. And it’s not just veterans who are frustrated with the move, it’s younger players, too.

Not that the clubhouse sentiment is unanimous: Some Nats admire general manager Mike Rizzo for taking a long-term view and “sticking to his guns” in trying to protect Strasburg.

One of those players, though, acknowledges that only a World Series title will shut down the debate over The Shutdown.

“We’ve got to win it,” that player said. “We’ve got to win it to make it go away.”

The Nats didn’t need long to discover how difficult that mission will be.

Their first opponent is the defending World Series champion. And their vaunted rotation, without the mighty Strasburg, suddenly looks less than imposing.

Gonzalez was jittery in Game 1, walking seven. Jordan Zimmermann was dismal in Game 2, lasting three innings. Next comes Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler, who — in a pair of late-September starts against the Cardinals in St. Louis — combined to allow 16 runs (11 earned) in 3-2/3 innings.

Such numbers mean only so much — “at this point, what you’ve done in the regular season, it’s nonexistent,” Jackson said Tuesday. Then again, the Cardinals’ next two starters are Chris Carpenter and Kyle Lohse. The matchups — on paper — would appear to favor St. Louis, at least until Gonzalez faces Adam Wainwright in Game 5, if necessary.

Would Strasburg have made a difference? Again, no one can say for sure. But to yet another Nationals player, the answer was obvious.

“He would have lengthened out our rotation to the point where teams can’t stay with us,” that player said.

Still, most people understand why the Nationals capped Strasburg at 159-1/3 innings when he had thrown only 44-1/3 the previous season, his first coming off Tommy John surgery.

While some old-school types rankle at any arbitrary innings limit, it stands to reason that allowing Strasburg to take a massive jump would have jeopardized the long-term health of his arm.

My beef with the Nats — and the beef shared by many rival executives and some of the team’s own players — is that the club designed a plan for Strasburg and refused to deviate from it, insisting that there was No Other Way.

That was simply not the case.

The Braves found another way for their own Tommy John success story, righty Kris Medlen, allotting him roughly the same number of innings as Strasburg but limiting his workload by using him as a reliever until July 31.

Strasburg is a different animal, the former No. 1 pick in the draft, a pitcher the Nats wanted to develop as a starter, and only a starter.

Well, they could have preserved him for the postseason by bringing him along slowly, delaying his 2012 debut until say, May 1. They also could have built “breathers” into his schedule, buying time by spacing out his innings.

They chose neither course.

The Nationals contended that briefly shutting down Strasburg and starting him up again would have increased the strain on his arm. Yet, teams rarely mind when a pitcher misses a short amount of time with say, a minor leg injury, knowing it will freshen his arm in the middle of the 162-game grind.

As for the the Nats’ decision to include Strasburg in their Opening Day rotation, I’ve got a simple response to those who say that club officials could not have known that the team would contend all season.

Really?

During my first visit to Nationals’ camp in late February, manager Davey Johnson greeted me by saying, “I don’t think it’s a secret that we’re going to be pretty good.”


Maybe the Nats wouldn’t have gotten off to an 18-9 start if they had held off on Strasburg; the team went 5-1 in his starts during that stretch. But by manipulating Strasburg’s schedule, the Nats could have ensured that he would be available in October, when the game matters most.

Instead, the best pitcher in this series is confined to the dugout, reduced to a cheerleader.

Strasburg, in his next-to-last start, pitched six shutout innings against the Cardinals on Sept. 2, striking out nine, allowing two hits, walking none.

I’m thinking it. Some of the Nats are thinking it. A whole lot of people are thinking it.

The Nationals sure could use that guy now.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/washington-nationals-missing-stephen-strasburg-presence-in-the-postseason-100912

Offline PC

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #64: October 10, 2012, 01:53:40 AM »
I would rather have had anybody covering this series than this snake.  ANYBODY!

Quote
Heck, some of the Washington Nationals’ players are saying it, with very little prompting.

 “If we had ‘Stras, we’d be up 2-0,” one player told me Tuesday.

Who the hell would say this to him?  >:(

Quote
The Braves found another way for their own Tommy John success story, righty Kris Medlen, allotting him roughly the same number of innings as Strasburg but limiting his workload by using him as a reliever until July 31.

Whose team is still playing, asswipe?

Quote
Gonzalez was jittery in Game 1, walking seven. Jordan Zimmermann was dismal in Game 2, lasting three innings. Next comes Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler, who — in a pair of late-September starts against the Cardinals in St. Louis — combined to allow 16 runs (11 earned) in 3-2/3 innings.

Such numbers mean only so much — “at this point, what you’ve done in the regular season, it’s nonexistent,” Jackson said Tuesday. Then again, the Cardinals’ next two starters are Chris Carpenter and Kyle Lohse. The matchups — on paper — would appear to favor St. Louis, at least until Gonzalez faces Adam Wainwright in Game 5, if necessary.

Chris Carpenter is still injured and the last time Jackson faced the Cardinals, IN WASHINGTON, he dominated them and the the two times the Nationals have faced Lohse this season, the Nationals are 2-0.  Same with Wainwright, the last two times the Nationals have faced him, the Nationals are 2-0.  So much for favor.

Offline CALSGR8

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Re: Nationals in the national media
« Reply #65: October 10, 2012, 05:45:40 AM »
Do or die,as far as National Media is concerned its all Strasburg all the time.  No other team member or Pitcher exists.  Never mind Gio qualifying for Cy Young award or anything else.

If we win. Its despite being without Stras.
If we lose. Its because of the pulling of Strasburg.

As far as the Media is concerned we're the Washington. Strasburgs!