Offseason moves?

[Slateman]

Ya.... Hope the nats get a go manager. A little off topic here. Slate Orakpo is playing like garbabge? See ya on the skins forum. He just had a sack boy.

http://www.wnff.net/index.php?topic=28639.msg1292899#msg1292899

you are right he hasnt been that good has he? it would essentially be signing morse again. we gotta get some older guys on shorter deals. i like beltran.

I mean, what if he's this good because of the PEDs and we sign him and he turns in to Melky

[sph274]

i was being serious, i looked at his stats and they arent that impressive. decent amount of hrs but he is really just a DH.

[Slateman]

Yeah, given how our current CFer is hitting, I'd take that

[welch]

- New manager, from outside the organization, believing in a National League style of play: bunt, hit&run, steal bases, force the other team to play perfect defense. Hit nice homers whenever, but don't wait for them. Contrary to Earl Weaver (and Boswell), if you score a run early that's one run you don't have to score late. Every run counts. Just keep at it.

- Worry about the hitting. This team does not even think they can hit.

- Fix the relief pitching. Kroll and Abad are fill-ins, pitching because HRod and Duke failed. OK. Done. Find the next Gorzo.   

[Mr Clean]

- New manager, from outside the organization, believing in a National League style of play: bunt, hit&run, steal bases, force the other team to play perfect defense. Hit nice homers whenever, but don't wait for them. Contrary to Earl Weaver (and Boswell), if you score a run early that's one run you don't have to score late. Every run counts. Just keep at it.

- Worry about the hitting. This team does not even think they can hit.

- Fix the relief pitching. Kroll and Abad are fill-ins, pitching because HRod and Duke failed. OK. Done. Find the next Gorzo.   

You sir are a genius. 

[Mattionals]

- New manager, from outside the organization, believing in a National League style of play: bunt, hit&run, steal bases, force the other team to play perfect defense. Hit nice homers whenever, but don't wait for them. Contrary to Earl Weaver (and Boswell), if you score a run early that's one run you don't have to score late. Every run counts. Just keep at it.

- Worry about the hitting. This team does not even think they can hit.

- Fix the relief pitching. Kroll and Abad are fill-ins, pitching because HRod and Duke failed. OK. Done. Find the next Gorzo.

New manager willing to hit and run more makes sense.  The approach every time seems to be to "look for the home run" in every swing.  That only works for Desmond, mostly because when he misses it, he ends up with a double, lol.

I think the team "thinks" they CAN hit, but they think about it way TOO much.  Couple that with always trying to hit homers and you end up with the flat style of play we currently watch.

Abad probably is a fill in.  Krol has the "stuff", but being 22 in the majors after being called up too early from AA to fill a need probably has got him a bit "in over his head".  He also has looked gassed lately and although he is a former starter, the jump to the bigs and hitters actually laying off junk pitches probably forces him to be "too fine" and overthink his pitches.  I see him as a valuable long term piece, just one that will get better with more experience.  Kind of reminds me of Clip in 2009 and 2010, when he kept getting all those "vulture wins" from blowing leads and getting bailed out in the next inning, lol.

[DPMOmaha]

- New manager, from outside the organization, believing in a National League style of play: bunt, hit&run, steal bases, force the other team to play perfect defense. Hit nice homers whenever, but don't wait for them. Contrary to Earl Weaver (and Boswell), if you score a run early that's one run you don't have to score late. Every run counts. Just keep at it.

- Worry about the hitting. This team does not even think they can hit.

- Fix the relief pitching. Kroll and Abad are fill-ins, pitching because HRod and Duke failed. OK. Done. Find the next Gorzo.   

I like all of that except the bunting. 

[comish4lif]

I like all of that except the bunting. 

I want one of those shirts.

[GburgNatsFan]

There was a game, the week after Eckstein left, where Rendon was on first and Zimm was at bat and, for whatever reason, Davey was forcing the issue. Two strikes, Rendon moving with every pitch.

Zimmerman never looked so alive and attentive. I think these guys can do more than they think. They're just never challenged to do much except take huge cuts.

New manager willing to hit and run more makes sense.  The approach every time seems to be to "look for the home run" in every swing.  That only works for Desmond, mostly because when he misses it, he ends up with a double, lol.

[UMDNats]

I like all of that except the bunting. 

god, brian is the best. wish more were like him. a smart anchor who isn't just regurgitating crap

[blue911]

I want one of those shirts.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/gigawatt121/works/10514224-stop-bunting-white-text

[comish4lif]

http://www.redbubble.com/people/gigawatt121/works/10514224-stop-bunting-white-text

$26.59? That's a lot for a t-shirt...

[TigerFan]

$26.59? That's a lot for a t-shirt...

But... It's cool...

[Displaced Bucco]

Here's the t-shirt I want:
http://chicagosportsshirts.com/Shirt_Pages/ApocalypseCub-RED.html

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Nats are last in the NL in swing % but second in the NL in the % of pitches in the strike zone.  They are in the middle on zone contact %, out of zone contact %, and (of course) overall contact %.  They also see the second highest % of first strikes in the league, despite have Ian Desmond getting 11% of the plate appearances.

Davey has been on their case all year about being more aggressive.  Their selectivity is not leading to more contact when they do offer and they let more strikes go by than any other team.

I don't know what you do to make these guys more aggressive.  Maybe doing a few more hit and runs - not so many that it is an expected tactic that can be defeated by throwing more slop and letting hitters get themselves out, but enough so that hitters think swing when it is likely they will get a strike.

[Smithian]

When people talk about wanting more small ball, remember lots of people complained about Riggleman's over managing. If the 2011 club had a strength it was small ball along with pitching and defense. The team was very good at hitting behind runners, bunting guys over, hit and runs, double switches, and so on. People complained about that. There is no such thing as a balance people will enjoy, unless we're winning.

As far as productive outs (getting something from an AB), Washington is actually #1 in the majors in productive outs according to ESPN. We just stink in general so even though we get production out of plate appearances, we much more need players who will drive the ball and make things happen more than tinkering from a manager.

[RobDibblesGhost]

As far as productive outs (getting something from an AB), Washington is actually #1 in the majors in productive outs according to ESPN. We just stink in general so even though we get production out of plate appearances, we much more need players who will drive the ball and make things happen more than tinkering from a manager.

Wow, that's a surprising stat.  I would have thought we would have been somewhere in the bottom five.

[HalfSmokes]

As far as productive outs (getting something from an AB), Washington is actually #1 in the majors in productive outs according to ESPN. We just stink in general so even though we get production out of plate appearances, we much more need players who will drive the ball and make things happen more than tinkering from a manager.

yay

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-truth-about-productive-outs/

[PC]

Wow, that's a surprising stat.  I would have thought we would have been somewhere in the bottom five.

It's surprising and completely false.  The Nationals are a below average "productive out" team.

[Smithian]

It's surprising and completely false.  The Nationals are a below average "productive out" team.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/productive?tp=team

[PC]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/productive?tp=team

"The Nats can’t sacrifice bunt or execute basic situational hitting."

This is easy enough to prove, thanks to baseball-reference.  The Nats are on the low end of successful sacrifice bunts at 69%.  However they aren't far from average. It would take only 2 of those failed bunts (in 61 attempts) to be successful to get the Nats to average status. To get to an incredible success rate the Nats would need 8 failures to be successes. How many games does 8 successful bunts change? They aren't going to score in all these attempts, and certainly not win all those games. More damning is taking a look at where the other teams fall. The only two teams worse than the Nats at sac bunting? Atlanta and Los Angeles. The best teams? Philadelphia and San Francisco. 

BR also has a stat called "productive outs" which measures a mish mash of moving runners over and sacrifice flies and stuff.  The Nats are not great here either, but again are not far off the average. They sit at 30% the NL average is 31%  It would only have taken 4 or so failure to be successes (out of 366 times) for the Nats to be average. The best teams are only successful around 35% of the time. And again, two very good teams (Atlanta and St. Louis) are actually worse at this than the Nats, while San Francisco and Miami are in the Top 3.

http://natsbaseball.blogspot.com/2013/08/losing-is-fundamental.html

[spidernat]

As far as productive outs (getting something from an AB), Washington is actually #1 in the majors in productive outs according to ESPN.

championship!

[Smithian]

championship!

Solid selective quoting.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

When people talk about wanting more small ball, remember lots of people complained about Riggleman's over managing. If the 2011 club had a strength it was small ball along with pitching and defense. The team was very good at hitting behind runners, bunting guys over, hit and runs, double switches, and so on. People complained about that. There is no such thing as a balance people will enjoy, unless we're winning.

As far as productive outs (getting something from an AB), Washington is actually #1 in the majors in productive outs according to ESPN. We just stink in general so even though we get production out of plate appearances, we much more need players who will drive the ball and make things happen more than tinkering from a manager.

I remember when ESPN first came out with its "productive out" metric, it was inversely correlated with wins.  Whether teams that can't win try more small ball to get at least some runs, or whether small ball actually results in fewer runs (and worse teams) is the question. 

It is very unhealthy that we think a team lacking a middle of the order bat just needs to bunt more and advance runners by groundballs that are weak enough not to be double plays.  If you design a team around that stuff, you will not score enough to win consistently. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

yay

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-truth-about-productive-outs/

you beat me to it.  What a strange obsession this productive out stuff is.

It's like what Patton said.  You don't win a war by dieing for your country.  You win by making the other guy die for his country.  You don't win by hitting into outs.  you win by not making outs and turning the other guys contact into outs.  Very simple.