Poll

Who Should Start Opening Day

Strasburg
39 (72.2%)
Gio
3 (5.6%)
Zimmermann
12 (22.2%)

Total Members Voted: 54

Author Topic: Who should start opening Day  (Read 2518 times)

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Offline Ray D

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #50: March 14, 2014, 04:00:55 PM »
And why do we care about populating Mets stadium, anyway?

Offline Ray D

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #51: March 18, 2014, 09:39:48 AM »
Unless I missed it, Williams has yet to announce the starter. At what point during the end of spring training does a team start to get its rotation in order?  Two starts?  Then by my calculation to opening day starter would have pitched this past Sunday (march 10).  Nats played split Squad with Zimmermann and Gio starting.  Can we then infer that it's one of those two?

Offline nobleisthyname

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #52: March 18, 2014, 10:23:10 AM »
Fortunately there are more than just counting stats to measure a pitcher's skill.

Strasburg led all Nats starters (I'm leaving Tanner "Five Starts" Roark out) in:

ERA
FIP
xFIP
SIERA
K%
GB%
WHIP

And those are just the surface stats. He also led all the starters in stats like SwStr% and Contact% which suggest better stuff.

Strasburg was the best pitcher for the Nats last year. He's the most talented. He deserves the ball in game one.

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #53: March 18, 2014, 10:28:36 AM »
Fortunately there are more than just counting stats to measure a pitcher's skill.
...
Strasburg was the best pitcher for the Nats last year. He's the most talented. He deserves the ball in game one.

WAR which takes into account innings pitched puts Zimmermann first. The number of innings a pitcher goes matters. Zimmermann put up a 3.6 era in the 7th inning, drop that out (making his innings pitched look similar to Strasburg) and his pheripheral stats start to rise

Offline Baseball is Life

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #54: March 18, 2014, 12:56:31 PM »
We will know real soon who will start OD by the way Williams lines up his rotation. He strikes me as the kind that will wait a long time to announce it though.

Offline Ray D

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #55: March 18, 2014, 01:47:20 PM »
We will know real soon who will start OD by the way Williams lines up his rotation.
As I said (a few posts back) you would think he'd set up his rotation with at least two starts to go. If so, it's narrowed down to Zimmermann and Gio.

Offline nfotiu

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #56: March 19, 2014, 08:05:20 AM »
As I said (a few posts back) you would think he'd set up his rotation with at least two starts to go. If so, it's narrowed down to Zimmermann and Gio.
Nah, with Strasburg pitching before Gio/Jordan, I suspect that they will keep that order.  Otherwise, Strasburg would be pulling up the rear?  If Strasburg starts tomorrow, I assume he is the opening day starter.

I suspect we see
3/20 Strasburg
3/21 Gio
3/22 Zimmermann
3/23 one of Fister/Roark/Jordan
3/24 one of Fister/Roark/Jordan
3/25 Strasburg
3/26 Gio
3/27 Zimmermann
3/28 one of Fister/Roark/Jordan pitching against minors/prospects or simulated game
3/29 one of Fister/Roark/Jordan at Nats park
3/31 Strasburg starting the season

Offline Baseball is Life

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #57: March 19, 2014, 11:59:13 AM »
Nah, with Strasburg pitching before Gio/Jordan, I suspect that they will keep that order.  Otherwise, Strasburg would be pulling up the rear?  If Strasburg starts tomorrow, I assume he is the opening day starter.

I suspect we see
3/20 Strasburg
3/21 Gio
3/22 Zimmermann
3/23 one of Fister/Roark/Jordan
3/24 one of Fister/Roark/Jordan
3/25 Strasburg
3/26 Gio
3/27 Zimmermann
3/28 one of Fister/Roark/Jordan pitching against minors/prospects or simulated game
3/29 one of Fister/Roark/Jordan at Nats park
3/31 Strasburg starting the season

If this is right, who do you think will pitch the Home Opener? Not the fourth starter, I hope.

Offline nfotiu

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #58: March 19, 2014, 12:46:20 PM »
If this is right, who do you think will pitch the Home Opener? Not the fourth starter, I hope.
I don't think they are going to concern themselves too much with trying to have a marquee guy for the home opener.  My guess is plan a is Fister/Jordan/Strasburg for the Braves series, and plan b would be Roark/Jordan/Strasburg.  My bet for the home opener is Fister for a few innings with Roark ready to come in and pitch 4-5 innings.

Offline blue911

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #59: March 19, 2014, 03:42:03 PM »
They're going to announce it after tonights game. Per Lord Wilhelmstadt

Offline Ray D

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #60: March 19, 2014, 03:45:06 PM »
Per Lord Wilhelmstadt

Hoyt's brother?

Offline Ray D

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #61: March 19, 2014, 03:48:07 PM »
I don't think they are going to concern themselves too much with trying to have a marquee guy for the home opener.  My guess is plan a is Fister/Jordan/Strasburg for the Braves series, and plan b would be Roark/Jordan/Strasburg.  My bet for the home opener is Fister for a few innings with Roark ready to come in and pitch 4-5 innings.

Why don't they just assume that any combination of our starters will win two of three from the Mets, and focus on the Braves series?

If we can position our 1,2, and 3 starters against the Braves we have a good chance to win 2 of 3.  If not, we may be lucky to win 1.

Offline PowerBoater69

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #62: March 19, 2014, 08:47:41 PM »
Quote
Charlie Slowes ‏@CharlieSlowes  16s
Matt Williams names Stephen Strasburg Nats opening day starter.

Smart decision, they all get pretty much the same number of starts and we don't want to cause snit.

Offline PowerBoater69

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #63: March 19, 2014, 08:58:12 PM »
Gio and JZ are two and three, Williams really shaking things up.

Offline Baseball is Life

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #64: March 19, 2014, 09:23:12 PM »
They have an off day in NYC, so they can skip the fifth starter (or Fister if he's still hurt) and bring back Stras and JZimm on Sat. and Sun. vs. Braves.

Offline nfotiu

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #65: March 19, 2014, 10:59:10 PM »
They have an off day in NYC, so they can skip the fifth starter (or Fister if he's still hurt) and bring back Stras and JZimm on Sat. and Sun. vs. Braves.
Zimm would be on short rest if they did that.  The off day is after the season opener.  It looks like they are lining up Jordan as #5, so I suspect they're keeping Roark and Fister on the same schedule and keep that 4th spot as one of or both Fister/Roark.   

Offline Baseball is Life

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #66: March 19, 2014, 11:02:37 PM »
Zimm would be on short rest if they did that.  The off day is after the season opener.  It looks like they are lining up Jordan as #5, so I suspect they're keeping Roark and Fister on the same schedule and keep that 4th spot as one of or both Fister/Roark.   

Correct. My bad.

Offline skippy1999

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #67: March 19, 2014, 11:32:26 PM »
Smart decision, they all get pretty much the same number of starts and we don't want to cause snit.
Was there ever any doubt? :shrug:

Offline CALSGR8

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #68: March 19, 2014, 11:43:02 PM »
It's announced.  It's Stras!

Offline 3bside

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #69: March 20, 2014, 07:55:39 AM »
So if Fister isn't ready, that means they start Roark or Jordan opening day here against the Braves.  Hope they're up to it.

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #70: March 20, 2014, 09:08:02 AM »
My quibble with this is that they should give the 3d start to either the Fister Fury or the Mouse that Roarked and give JZ the home opener.  That's not just based on the "honor" concept, but also on the early April schedule.

Looking ahead, there's a series at ATL on the 4/11 -13.  Gio will likely go on 4/2 (@ Mets), 4/8 (Marlins), and 4/13 (@ ATL).  Whoever goes on 4/4 pitches again on 4/10 and misses the 2d Braves series.  The starters on the April 5th and 6th will go twice against the Braves, going on the 11th and 12th.  One of those will be Strasburg.  Going Roark, Fister, Strasburg for 4/4 - 4/6 would line up Fister, Strasburg, Gio for the second Barves series.  Starting SP 5 on 4/3 keeps him out of the two Barves series, would give Fister Fury and Stras two starts v. ATL, and JZ and Gio one each. 

Offline nfotiu

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #71: March 20, 2014, 10:11:45 AM »
I don't think you worry about trying to line up your starters for series in April.  That just sounds like you are trying to be too smart for your own good.  They do that, and then you get a rain out, and then everything is messed up anyway.  Besides, we'll be going against Atlanta's #7 and #8 starters anyway and they may not even be our top competition this year.

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Who should start opening Day
« Reply #72: March 20, 2014, 01:50:57 PM »
I'd rather let the 5th starter get in 3 starts against crud teams before going v. St. Louis than have be fed straight to the lefties in the Barves line up.