The Possible Culprit behind Guzman's suckiness........

[JMW IV]

From Barry Svrluga's Chat today:

Pentagon City, Va.: Welcome back Barry, we missed you.

I realize it is a small sample, but Guzman has been respectable over the last few days. Is he benefiting from a new routine, better coaching, extra BP, etc.?

Barry Svrluga: Where Guzman is concerned, the Nationals will take a small sample. Yes, he has tried to change his approach recently after a talk with some of the Nationals front office staff. They want him to go back to who he was in Minnesota, when he put most of his weight on his front foot when he hit and drove hard grounders through the infield and line shots to the gaps, rather than sitting back and flailing away. We'll see if it holds up. The offense needs whatever help it can get.

wait wait wait wait wait: Guzman was using some kind of altered approach for the past 4 months while he hit .185? And now all of a sudden they are encouraging him to go back to the approach he used to hit .260 over his career? Either somebody messed up in waiting this long in some sort of failed experiment or he's just gotten lucky the past two games.

Barry Svrluga: Draw your own conclusions. They've tried all kinds of approaches with him.

so the Nationals Front Office/Coaching Staff told him to change his hitting style....and it didn't work, thus his season-long slump??  and NOW they are asking him to go back the hitting style he used in Minnesota that worked?

is our front office and coaching staff COMPLETELY full of Morons?

[JMW IV]

and if all this is true, is there possibly still hope for Guzman, now that the Front Office has figured out that they don't know what they are doing?

[Dave B]

i wrote that in the chat.  i'm glad somebody else picked up on the absurdity of it.  i figured i misunderstood svrluga and he would say what he really meant.  i didnt really know what "draw your own conlculsions means".  does that mean he agrees with what i wrote, but cant really say it?  I still refuse to believe it is true that guzman has been forced to use some altered approach this whole time, considering all anyone has been saying is that they wished he would do what he did in minnesota.

unless maybe early on, they changed his apporach and told him to go back to what he did last year acouple of months ago, but they f-ed him up so bad he cant.

I can't believe that three days ago they said "go back to your old way" and he did so successfully the past two games.

[Dave B]

also i'm not celebrating just yet with guzman. i want to, but wont after another month. he did have an 11 game hitting streak in late april and those couple of good games in anaheim and texas

[mar (AKA pasqual AKA JMG)]

To me this reads like front office staff (Larkin? Boone?) have intervened, countermanding McCraw who had (presumably) suggested the changes to Guzman.

You don't usually define the hitting coach as front office staff; usually that refers to those working out of the GM's office like Larkin, Boone, Cardenal, etc.)

Am I crazy?

[Dave B]

yeah youre right. but regardless.  this had to be corrected before august.  even if guzman himself was like "f-you mccraw. i'm doing my thing"

[mar (AKA pasqual AKA JMG)]

yeah youre right. but regardless.  this had to be corrected before august.  even if guzman himself was like "f-you mccraw. i'm doing my thing"

yeah.
You kind of get the feeling there has been an uncomfortable relationship between Boone, Larkin, etc and Frank, McCraw all season.

One the one hand, it looked to me like Bowden had hired a coaching staff in waiting, hoping he could fire Frank, which, not surprisingly, might have pi$$ed Frank off. Other hand, it seems unlikely Bowden can fire frank or anyone else without Bud's approval so you got this kind of two camps thing going on.

[Montcobaseball]

I have said all along, without any response or comment, that the secret to the failure of this team is going to be revealed at a later date.  It will be something that few have considered but along the line of what is being discussed here.  If there was a real owner or president of the team it would have been addressed a long time ago.

[esoteric]

I have said all along, without any response or comment, that the secret to the failure of this team is going to be revealed at a later date.  It will be something that few have considered but along the line of what is being discussed here.  If there was a real owner or president of the team it would have been addressed a long time ago.

Well, you could TELL US, or you could just remain all cryptic and mysterious.

What's your theory?

[Montcobaseball]

I don't know what the problem is.  I meant that sometime in the future it will be revealed and people will be surprised.  I have no idea what it is but it will be something along the lines of dissension, incompetent management and coaches, etc, and things that have been hinted at on here.

[Dave B]

those arent "secrets". those are things that just happen.  a secret would be "all the players are robots controlled by bud".