Nationals vs Mets, Game 1

[welch]

The Mets bullpen is very shaky. Knock out the starting pitcher and you are good to go.

Insulting!!!

The Mets have Jon Rauch and Miguel Batista (last time I looked...)

[JCA-CrystalCity]

half smokes - how insulting is batting 4th?  rizzo can always have staff geek point to all the lineup construction theory that says it is more important than 3d. 

The guy who worries me the most is LaRoche.  He is due to tail.  Fangraphs had a piece on "should have hit" for wOBA today (complicated measure), and by that measures, LaRoche has been one of the extreme hitters at doing better (.370 wOBA) than the quality of his contact should have resulted (.348 adjusted wOBA).  Lombo of course is even more extreme that way . . .  Least lucky Nat has been Bernie, then RZ.  But let's not confuse RZ's bad luck with good performance (should have a .300 wOBA, which still stinks, but his actual is .286, even worse).

[HalfSmokes]

Zimmerman has been the number three hitter almost his entire career, he's already getting eclipsed by Harper, I would just avoid dropping him in the lineup for a few more weeks, that's just me

[sportsfan882]

Chris Young always owns us. Let's hope the bats wake up tonight

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

The cream of Flushing!

[Frau Mau]

I hope we slap the crap out of the Madoffs tonight.  Shameless bastards even tried to steal Gary Carter Coleman.

FIFY.

[GburgNatsFan]

Shrug. Competition works. Move him. He's not going to sulk.

Zimmerman has been the number three hitter almost his entire career, he's already getting eclipsed by Harper, I would just avoid dropping him in the lineup for a few more weeks, that's just me

[Fan037]

If Zimm is hurt, that's one thing.  If he's in a slump, give him more time.  He'll get out of it.

Let's play ball already!  And let's beat these bums!!

[SkinsNDeacs]

This might be the biggest game of the year so far

[spidernat]

Zimmerman has been the number three hitter almost his entire career,

Mostly by default though. We've had this debate over the years. Ideally, Zimmerman would hit 5th.

[spidernat]

Someone must've said something to FP. He pronounced Laroche's name correctly.

[sportsfan882]

Nice slider

[BerakosVA]

liking that slider

[sportsfan882]

I was just about to say we should walk Wright every time up. And there you go

[mitlen]

Nice slider

liking that slider

...  so let's throw a first pitch fastball to Wright

[spidernat]

I was just about to say we should walk Wright every time up. And there you go

Why? You have repeatedly called him a bum. 

[sportsfan882]

Why? You have repeatedly called him a bum. 

Have you seen him this year? I'd pitch around him all series like we should have done with Hanley, McCutcheon, Stanton, etc.

[BerakosVA]

that is a nasty slider

[sportsfan882]

Nice pitching to Duda. He didn't give in and give him a fastball even behind in the count.

[Squab]

Nasty slider by Zimmermann there.

[spidernat]

Have you seen him this year? I'd pitch around him all series like we should have done with Hanley, McCutcheon, Stanton, etc.

Is David Wright hitting over .300?    He's never done that in his career. That's Zimmerman's territory. 

[J_A24]

Cmon Lombo

[sportsfan882]

Is David Wright hitting over .300?    He's never done that in his career. That's Zimmerman's territory. 

His OPS is well over 1.000

[sportsfan882]

We need to beat on Young early and often. I get pissed when he always owns us with his 85 MPH fastball.

[BerakosVA]

like we've done with Votto and Pujols last year