Poll

What aspect of the team's performance is your biggest concern? (Vote can be changed)

Offense
25 (71.4%)
Defense
1 (2.9%)
Rotation
9 (25.7%)
Bullpen
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 34

Author Topic: What is your biggest concern about the 2011 Nats? (Ongoing Poll)  (Read 1268 times)

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Offline The Chief

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Seems to be a lot of talk about this, so I figured why not keep a running poll going?  Vote is changeable but you can only vote for one thing at any given time.  If anyone thinks I've missed something, feel free to suggest and I'll add it to the poll.

Offline PC

  • Posts: 47236
JAYSON HAYNES-WERTH!!!

...no, not really   :)

I put him on the list of problems, not at the top but somewhere on it.

Offline DPMOmaha

  • Posts: 22875
The back half of the pen.  Clip, Storen, Burnett and to a lesser extent Coffey and Slaten, I'm not concerned about.  I think the offense and defense will be fine.  I think the rotation will be about what I expected them to be, unspectacular but steady.  I'm not saying there aren't things I'd like to see improved, but nothing that's not worse than I thought it would be other than the back half of that pen.

Offline cmdterps44

  • Posts: 15551
  • Future
Offense, for now.

If we remove Broderick and Gaudin, we would have a "respectable" bullpen again.

As for the offense, we have Morse on a "slump" and LaRoche has a possible candidate for the DL. If that happens, say hello to Hairston/Nix everyday (I hope the FO has the right mind to call up CM and just let him play). While Desmond has been finally coming around, he is not a lead off hitter. That's another thing we can talk about.

Offline APBA Baseball

  • Posts: 954
I guess I have two concerns right now:

1) Over the course of the season, this pen will give us ulcers.

2) I find some decisions that are made at both the G.M. and manager levels very troubling. An example of my concerns happened today- its bad enough, IMO, that Werth is hitting # 2, but with LaRoche out of the lineup you have to drop Werth down a couple spots and get the threat of his bat in the middle of the line up. I don't care what he's hitting, his presence needs to be felt in the heart of the order, moreso when LaRoche sits.

Offline KnorrForYourMoney

  • Posts: 16254
  • pissy DC sports fan
Offense, by far.

Ankiel, LaRoche, Pudge, and the bench (I can't stress this part enough, hi Hairston/Cora) = guys I expect to be bad

And almost everyone else is somewhat of a question mark.  I only have any reasonable expectation of Zimmerman and Werth having decent years at he dish.

It's too bad we couldn't have signed that guy who went to the White Sox.  What was his name?  Alan Gunn?  I know he's the undisputed worst defender of all time, and makes you wish you could have Carlos Baerga in leatherpants playing the field for your team instead, but I'm pretty sure he hits fairly well.

Oh well, I'm just "beating a dead horse" so I'll stop now.

Offline cmdterps44

  • Posts: 15551
  • Future
It's too bad we couldn't have signed that guy who went to the White Sox.  What was his name?  Alan Gunn?  I know he's the undisputed worst defender of all time, and makes you wish you could have Carlos Baerga in leatherpants playing the field for your team instead, but I'm pretty sure he hits fairly well.

Oh well, I'm just "beating a dead horse" so I'll stop now.

No silly, its Adam Dunn! He would be amazing in this lineup :(

Offline DPMOmaha

  • Posts: 22875
1) Over the course of the season, this pen will give us ulcers.
I don't think it will once they make the changes necessary, which should come withing the next week to 10 days.  Once Bally, Kimball and Rodriguez get up here, that should be a pretty filthy pen.  All pens blow leads, but that one shouldn't blow many.

Offline cmdterps44

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Forgot to say timely hitting as well.

Offline NattyTime

  • Posts: 153
Im actually comfortable with our bullpen. Not as experiened as it could be, but we have enough talent there. I was really disappointed we didnt retain Dunn too. We made him an offer though didnt we? He just turned it down..

Im most worried about our offense. I dont think Werth is as advertised. He got alot of help in front and behind him in the Phillies lineup, help that he wont see here unless Zimmerman really blows up. The problem is whatever department we lack in, were going to have to make up for it elsewhere, and I dont think we can whether its offense or defense.

Offline Obed_Marsh

  • Posts: 7593
Our roatation will kill us once we get past the small sample sizes.

Offline cmdterps44

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  • Future
Our roatation will kill us once we get past the small sample sizes.

I can see this. Our rotation seems just like last year but instead of Atilano/Martin (for now) we have Zimmermann and Gorzelanny. So if these 5 are able to stay with us, I don't see anything terrible happening compared to years past. The lame thing is that we don't have Strasburg coming up in June :(

Offline DPMOmaha

  • Posts: 22875
Our roatation will kill us once we get past the small sample sizes.
If they hit a run of injuries like they did last year, it will.  If we have to get too far past Detwiler and Maya.  If we have to go 9 or 10 deep, we'll be in trouble.  If we can keep it at 7 or 8, we won't be embarrassed too much by the rotation.  

Offline Nathan

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  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Our roatation will kill us once we get past the small sample sizes.
That's what I voted for.  I expected less offense and a worse bullpen than last year.  Right now, we are scratching close wins with starting pitching that is going to get worse, as things normalize.

Offline Coladar

  • Posts: 2826
So let's see here. Our leadoff hitter is hitting .219 with a .242 OBP. Our #2, $1 billion dollar hitter is hitting .226. And the guy I've never been able to stop hyping, now that he's won the job, is hitting .130.

So yeah, spending money and totally redoing our 1 and 2, which was our biggest problem last year, not only didn't fix anything, if anything, it's even worse right now. Our bullpen, we've got options in the minors. Our rotation, we've got options in 2012. Our 1 and 2, and offense overall? Not so much.

Offline aspenbubba

  • Posts: 5543
Yeah, It was I who voted for the defense and I include base running in that area of concern even though it truly belongs in the offensive category. Hairston and Werth have both cost us games eight games in.These are vets and are supposed to be leading by example. I have yet to see any improvement over the  comical errors of years past.

I think Gaudin and Broderick need to go.Broderick probably has one or two more opportunities to prove that he should be on the 25 man.

Offline comish4lif

  • Posts: 2934
  • Too Stressed to care.
I voted for Offense, but the choice that I was looking for was the "construction of the team". Morgan had a terrible 2009 in the leadoff slot, we trade him, and are left w/o a leadoff hitter.

I just don't think the roster looks like it represents a cohesive plan.

Offline PowerBoater69

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Overall depth, we can win some games with the line-up, rotation, and pen that started the year, but we are weak in the OF and pen, and other than catcher we are in real trouble when guys start getting hurt.

Offline HalfSmokes

  • Posts: 21588
I said rotation, but would change it to bench, I guess a good utility player is a luxury, but we have wholly terrible bench players (except Ramos), some of whom will end up starting when the injury bug hits

Offline John

  • Posts: 121
Easily the offense.

Leading the way ---
As soon as I heard LaRoche had a labrum issue I was worried. He would have been a great replacement for Dunn but it doesn't look like that is going to work out. He was a big key to this season.

IRod needs to go to the bench, I was never comfortable with Ankiel in center and Morse apparently left his bat in Florida.

I'm not worried about Werth. I still expect him to be the team MVP this season.

Offline Tyler Durden

  • Posts: 7970
  • Leprechaun
I voted rotation.  If the question is asking about the biggest season-long concern going forward, it's probably going to be the rotation.  We're probably in the bottom 5-10 in baseball there.  A 4ish ERA from Lannan, Marquis, and Gorzelanny is probably the best we can expect.  Who knows what Livo will do.  And Zimmermann is kind of a wild card for the 150 innings or so that he'll get.

If the question is asking about the biggest concern so far, it's probably the offense not being able to generate enough hits.  They're getting on base at an OK clip due ot the walks, but they need to drive those guys in at some point.  Morse and LaRoche are so ice cold right now.  But over the course of the season, the offense will work itself out and we'll be in the middle of the pack there.  The rotation isn't going to get any more dependable unless we bring in new personnel.

The defense - they've brought in a bunch of players who are supposed to be solid defensively.  I don't know why they've begun making mistakes now that they're in Nationals uniforms.  Sucks for us, but I don't htink it will continue.

The pen is a relatively easy fix.  Broderick needs to be in AAA one way or another.  If Gaudin doesn't cut it, then cut him lose.  Pitchers like that are fairly easily replaceable.  Same goes for Coffey.  And they have several right handed relievers who are very tough on lefties, so that may make a Slaten optioning less painful if it comes to that.

Offline Coladar

  • Posts: 2826
Honestly, reading more about LaRoche, maybe it should instead be our training and medical staff. Any idiot without medical training knew when they read he had torn his labrum that it wasn't good news, at the start of a 162 game season no less. Then they say hey, he's fine, he can play the entire season. And less than a week in, what happens? A tear that might have gotten better with rest gets worse. Now he's not even playing, but still not DLed. Then he'll come back, if he doesn't already need surgery, play some more in pain, until it's unrecoverable and requires surgery and a lost season.

Genius move there, because a guy doesn't need surgery yet and can barely still play, let him keep playing, at the start of the season!!! From Strasburg, Wang, etc. Etc. Etc. How badly can our staff have misjudged Wang LAST year and he still isn't playing? Wtf? Look at all the injuries we have had over the past five years that we've all said is the result of bad training and a bad medical staff. And still it continues, and still it costs us. This thing with LaRoche is the worst though. Start of the season, heck, still in ST, Labrum tear, and they let him keep going. Just plain stupid.

Offline MarquisDeSade

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  • Captain Sadness
Genius move there, because a guy doesn't need surgery yet and can barely still play, let him keep playing, at the start of the season!!! From Strasburg, Wang, etc. Etc. Etc. How badly can our staff have misjudged Wang LAST year and he still isn't playing? Wtf? Look at all the injuries we have had over the past five years that we've all said is the result of bad training and a bad medical staff. And still it continues, and still it costs us. This thing with LaRoche is the worst though. Start of the season, heck, still in ST, Labrum tear, and they let him keep going. Just plain stupid.

You left out the biggest failing by Our Washington Nationals®™ medical staff - Jason Marquis and the bone chips.

Offline Evolution33

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The offense doesn't concern me and every team is playing crappy defense right now. I really don't know what it is. I kind of feel it might be the weather or just a SSS. As far as the offense they are getting plenty of men on and one of these games they are just going to bust out. The starters are doing pretty well when you think about how Nats starters have started seasons in years past. The bullpen will be fine. My biggest concern is Riggleman. This guy is just making some seriously terrible decisions. I wrote up why I thought last nights decision was the worst on the year so far. Even worse than LaRussa's back to back IBB to put the winning run on third with 2 outs. http://blownsavewin.com/?p=1423

Offline Kevrock

  • Posts: 13788
  • That’s gonna be a no from me, doge.
Starting rotation, definitely.