Fire Matt Williams! (2015) - Standard Decision.

[Elvir Ovcina]

McLouth and Espinosa were worse than anything on the bench now. Bar none. Defense is not a need right now. Hitting is. Scheirholtz hit so poorly that no one is bothering with him this year.

Y'all is panic monkeys.

If you have players who are terrible hitters like Johnson and Uggla, they might as well be able to play defense to be of some use.  Last year's bench was terrible - as evidenced by players like Hairston and Schierholtz - but this one is worse.  They can't hit or field.  It's like a whole crew of Chad Tracys.  No panicking here - the pitching will return to form and it'll be fine, but I'm failing to see why having players who are terrible hitters but good defenders (last year) is worse than players who are terrible at both (this year).

[Slateman]

If you have players who are terrible hitters like Johnson and Uggla, they might as well be able to play defense to be of some use.  Last year's bench was terrible - as evidenced by players like Hairston and Schierholtz - but this one is worse.  They can't hit or field.  It's like a whole crew of Chad Tracys.  No panicking here - the pitching will return to form and it'll be fine, but I'm failing to see why having players who are terrible hitters but good defenders (last year) is worse than players who are terrible at both (this year).

Hariston was awful. He was basically there to hit Cole Hamels.

Scheirholtz didn't start with the Nationals. And again, no one has seen fit to sign him. Same thing with Kevin Frandsen.

No one is hitting outside of Escobar. Blaming the bench is stupid.

[APBA Baseball]

There is no good reason why Dan Uggla is on this team. This guy has been a stiff for years now. Now back on topic of firing Matt Williams, I'm all for it. I don't believe its going to happen--but I'm in favor of it. Listen, we're all baseball fans here and we've all seen a team take off before when they hear a different voice. This team needs a major wake-up and getting rid of the this manager is Step # 1. It's not like we'd be firing Sparky Anderson.

[tomwvr]

He needs to go . With as hot as the Mets are and as bad as we are we won't have a chance to catch them in another month.

[MarquisDeSade]

Let's all calm down, it's still April. freak Matt Williams though.

[PebbleBall]

I think there are two scenarios with Matt Williams.  Either the team pisses the season away by June, or they win enough games on talent to make the postseason and he pisses it away in October.  I don't know which is the best case since the latter would mean we're saddled with him for another year.

There are a lot of places where you could lay blame right now.  But you can't overhaul the roster or the front office, so keep it realistic and kick the manager out of town.  It might be a panic move, but it's better to do it too early than too late; and with JZ, Desmond, Fister, and Span headed for free agency a panic move is in order.   The good news for the Lerners is you can always find a manager with no experience to pay 450k.

[mimontero88]

Honestly, even if this ship gets right I've given up on Matt Williams being the guy who can take us to a championship.  Consistently poor decision-making leads to consistently poor results.  I don't think his bullpen management has been the worst as I do think some of the problem has to do with the Blevins trade and injuries to Stammen and Janssen but it certainly isn't good and his lineup cards look like he's using an RNG for his decisions.  This can't keep happening.  Margin for error goes way down when you are dealing with a lot of injuries and the manager becomes much more directly relevant to the results a team has.  I think we've seen the real Matt Williams even though I think talent will ultimately get us to the playoffs.

[Elvir Ovcina]

Hariston was awful. He was basically there to hit Cole Hamels.

Scheirholtz didn't start with the Nationals. And again, no one has seen fit to sign him. Same thing with Kevin Frandsen.

No one is hitting outside of Escobar. Blaming the bench is stupid.

I'm not blaming the bench, merely pointing out that this year's bench is worse than last year's.  Schierholtz does have a contract, albeit in Japan.  Frandsen is in AAA with Arizona, and I'd rather have him here than several players on our bench.  But until the starters perform, it doesn't really matter.

[Slateman]

Honestly, even if this ship gets right I've given up on Matt Williams being the guy who can take us to a championship.  Consistently poor decision-making leads to consistently poor results.  I don't think his bullpen management has been the worst as I do think some of the problem has to do with the Blevins trade and injuries to Stammen and Janssen but it certainly isn't good and his lineup cards look like he's using an RNG for his decisions.  This can't keep happening.  Margin for error goes way down when you are dealing with a lot of injuries and the manager becomes much more directly relevant to the results a team has.  I think we've seen the real Matt Williams even though I think talent will ultimately get us to the playoffs.

I agree with this. The championship years for this team will be about five years from now. Harper and Bryce will be gone, Giolito will be a legit ace, and all the guys that Rizzo has drafted this year and next year will be in the big leagues.

[whytev]

I'm not blaming the bench, merely pointing out that this year's bench is worse than last year's.  Schierholtz does have a contract, albeit in Japan.  Frandsen is in AAA with Arizona, and I'd rather have him here than several players on our bench.  But until the starters perform, it doesn't really matter.

The Marlins have an injured OF, and they're playing Ichiro Suzuki right now. Now that's a 4th OF!

[Mathguy]

It's possible the Nats will keep one of them between Harper and Bryce

I agree with this. The championship years for this team will be about five years from now. Harper and Bryce will be gone, Giolito will be a legit ace, and all the guys that Rizzo has drafted this year and next year will be in the big leagues.

[Slateman]

Horrible mental preparation of this team. The mental errors are simply inexcusable.

[mimontero88]

Horrible mental preparation of this team. The mental errors are simply inexcusable.

And when a team of players not known for serious mental mistakes (save Desi) is making a lot of them, there's a common denominator.  And that common denominator should be fired.

[Kevrock]

Williams might get fired, but I doubt he taught Ramos to run players back to the bag in a run down.

[GburgNatsFan]

It's possible the Nats will keep one of them between Harper and Bryce

[whytev]

And when a team of players not known for serious mental mistakes (save Desi) is making a lot of them, there's a common denominator.  And that common denominator should be fired.

The defensive coordinator?

[PebbleBall]

Williams might get fired, but I doubt he taught Ramos to run players back to the bag in a run down.

It's another nail in his coffin.  The fact that he may be fired before he calls a team meeting speaks volumes about the level of accountability expected from the players.

[DPMOmaha]

lulz at people thinking Williams' seat is even warm.

[mimontero88]

lulz at people thinking Williams' seat is even warm.

Oh, it's definitely warm.  With this team's expectations coming into the year and some pretty obvious managerial errors in some big spots, you have to think there's a chance.  I don't think it will be too soon (I hope I'm wrong about that) but if this keeps up into the middle of May, he's probably gone.

[PebbleBall]

lulz at people thinking Williams' seat is even warm.

If it's not the team has bigger problems than we think. 

[stoneghost28]

Matt Williams isn't making the players fail to hit 

I'm in the camp of managers don't matter near as much as they do in basketball or football. I think Matt Williams is fine but would not really care if Knorr took over.

Until they singlehandedly make epic, brain dead decisions in high leverage situations that determine whether you play on, or go home in October.

Then being a colossal self-aggrandizing idiot do matter.

The nightmare back then was that he had the colossal hubris to completely shred the argument of those that claimed, "he'd learn from this," well, read his quotes afterwards, if those quotes echo his long term philosophy and approach, then he learned nothing whatsoever from it and is just as likely to carry out absurdist decisions stubbornly until the team glumly climbs onto the bus, and heads to the airport yet again, like the Caps five years ago, best team in the league, but colossal chokers when it matters most.

Im hopeful that he can be canned for this, but I tend to doubt it.

Team is definitely injured, but with that rotation, there really is no excuse to be playing sub .500 ball.

Glad that when I put some money down on over/unders during the NCAA tournament, i ended up grabbing the Royals (over 81), the white sox (under 81), and grabbed the Dodgers (7.5-1), and Cardinals (12-1) for the World Series. Don't see a champ in the AL, and figured I could get better odds on the Nats if I felt like betting them after a lousy April, just never anticipated it being this awful, and this awful means I'm probably gonna pass entirely on the idea.

Still plenty of baseball to play, but this looks ghastly.

[DPMOmaha]

Oh, it's definitely warm.  With this team's expectations coming into the year and some pretty obvious managerial errors in some big spots, you have to think there's a chance.  I don't think it will be too soon (I hope I'm wrong about that) but if this keeps up into the middle of May, he's probably gone.

According to whom? I've not seen any indication from people who's opinions matter that's the case.

[DCFan]

The team has thrown in the towel on Williams and given up. We need a change at the top (again).

[PebbleBall]

According to whom? I've not seen any indication from people who's opinions matter that's the case.

Why do you need to?  As Matty would say, "they know."

[BigMeech]

This franchise is doomed if they're not at least considering having Matt Williams take the fall.