PB69 presents "Fire Dave Martinez" (2018)

[Smithian]

A bunch of guys - about half -  in our lineup are going to finish with an OPS+ over 110 (Zimm, Harper, Murphy, Rendon, Soto) with other contributors like Adams, Turner, Reynolds, Eaton over or around there, too.

Our rotation has 5 guys (counting Stras) with ERA+ over 100. A number of relievers are going to finish with ERA+ over 100 (Doolittle, Miller, Grace, Collins, Suero, maybe Hollard or Glover).

But yet, we suck. Weird year. Timing seems like it was most important as we have never had all the facets clicking.

It does seem the whole sum of the parts should add up more than it has. Pythagorean shows we should be at 67-53, which would make sense. Our 1 run game record is a disaster and we've gone some weird stretches where it feels a lot of pieces are clicking but the 10 game record will still be right at .500.

I am writing a lot of this off to bad luck and our offense/bullpen alternating stretches of quality production.

If a year from now we are having the same talk with a much larger sample size, then it is time to look at Martinez and wonder if he is the issue.

[NatsAllThe Way]

I am reaching the point of just shrugging about this season. A bunch of worst case scenarios came true at the same and they are still hanging around .500. A couple smart moves this offseason and I look forward to a huge bounce back. This feels like 2013.

You must have forgotten, Nats can't compete after this season, Harper's last year, yada yada.

[Natsinpwc]

You must have forgotten, Nats can't compete after this season, Harper's last year, yada yada.

My fingers were just caught in that window slamming. Ouch.

[NatsAllThe Way]

I don't know about the 1 run game and bad luck argument .  To me, and this is just common sense to me so I guess it's old school... but a good team with a good manager turns a lot of 1 run losses into 1 run wins, and a bad team with a bad manager would turn a bunch of 1 run wins into 1 run losses...  does that make sense?

And what about 2 run losses and 2 run wins?  Those are close games too, what is our record on those?

[HalfSmokes]

I don't know about the 1 run game and bad luck argument .  To me, and this is just common sense to me so I guess it's old school... but a good team with a good manager turns a lot of 1 run losses into 1 run wins, and a bad team with a bad manager would turn a bunch of 1 run wins into 1 run losses...  does that make sense?

And what about 2 run losses and 2 run wins?  Those are close games too, what is our record on those?

If that were true, you’d expect a strong record in one run games to be repeatable

https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/3/15/4105922/one-run-game-performance-unsustainable-orioles

[tzinc]

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/nationals-firing-dusty-baker-continues-to-show-front-office-cant-seem-to-get-it-right-with-managers/

yup!

[Jeff in Gaithersburg]

So in 2019 the Nats will be stuck with a clueless manager who has completely lost the clubhouse and couldn't seem to inspire a starving cat to eat a bowl of tuna at this point.

[Greg_SRT]

So in 2019 the Nats will be stuck with a clueless manager who has completely lost the clubhouse and couldn't seem to inspire a starving cat to eat a bowl of tuna at this point.

I mean, if the cat won't eat... what the freak you gonna do

And why would you bother with tuna? They like Meow Mix

[LoveAngelos]

He just needs to lead and leading is not flipping tables . He needed to show his players he could and had the confidence to make the right managerial decisions for the team. I think that ship has sailed and sunk in the Eastern Branch aka Anacostia River

[rileyn]

He just needs to lead and leading is not flipping tables . He needed to show his players he could and had the confidence to make the right managerial decisions for the team. I think that ship has sailed and sunk in the Eastern Branch aka Anacostia River

Leadership is inspiring others to accept and achieve the collective goals.  There are plenty of ways to do that.  His only method was to cheerlead and try to keep the locker room from feeling overburdened to get over the hump, and then cross his fingers in October that we would break through.  He is an exposed, empty suit (uniform) now.

[PowerBoater69]

Galdi on 980 just did a nice wrap up of the game, he played three clips from the Martinez post game interview, it's just cringe worthy. Mumbling, repeated "you know"s, clichés, non sequiturs, how is this supposed to be our top guy. There is no hope in Nats Town until Martinez is gone.

[varoadking]

Galdi on 980 just did a nice wrap up of the game, he played three clips from the Martinez post game interview, it's just cringe worthy. Mumbling, repeated "you know"s, clichés, non sequiturs, how is this supposed to be our top guy.

You ever listen to Rizzo?

[HalfSmokes]

Who’s next up for a manager position that no one actually wants, because that’s who we’ll be getting if we dump another manager

[Slateman]

You ever listen to Rizzo?

Or Dusty

[UMDNats]

Galdi on 980 just did a nice wrap up of the game, he played three clips from the Martinez post game interview, it's just cringe worthy. Mumbling, repeated "you know"s, clichés, non sequiturs, how is this supposed to be our top guy. There is no hope in Nats Town until Martinez is gone.

how is that different than 95% of interviews in sports?

[PowerBoater69]

how is that different than 95% of interviews in sports?

1) he's in management, he's supposed to be able to communicate. 2) he's not like 95% of the other sports figures, he's in the bottom 5%. I would not have him speak to represent my business.

[PowerBoater69]

You ever listen to Rizzo?

Complete opposite. Rizzo is sharp, to a fault, short, snippy, arrogant. But always smart and confident.

[Slateman]

Complete opposite. Rizzo is sharp, to a fault, short, snippy, arrogant. But always smart and confident.

We're talking about Stuttering Mike Rizzo?

[varoadking]

Complete opposite. Rizzo is sharp, to a fault, short, snippy, arrogant. But always smart and confident.

 

[DPMOmaha]

A ton of good stuff here from Dusty. It's behind a paywall, so I won't post the bulk of it, but Dusty has a lot to say about the Nats and his time in DC.

Rosenthal: Bryce Harper struggled for two-plus months. He didn’t struggle for two-plus months when you had him…

Dusty: I know.

https://theathletic.com/477001/2018/08/17/rosenthal-dusty-baker-opens-up-on-the-nats-his-career-racism-the-state-of-the-game-and-the-smell-of-collusion/

[UMDNats]

Nice revisionist history from Rosenthal and Dusty.

In Dusty's first season Harper had an .814 OPS, significantly lower than his OPS this season. From June 1 to August 1 2016 he had a .714 OPS.

Rosenthal is a great reporter but he's ignoring reality to fit a narrative and Dusty is happy to oblige because he feels slighted.

[imref]

FWIW, Davey handled the game well last night, nice job with the defensive substitutions and the bullpen.  I'm glad he went with Koda in the closer role over Holland.

[Slateman]

A ton of good stuff here from Dusty. It's behind a paywall, so I won't post the bulk of it, but Dusty has a lot to say about the Nats and his time in DC.
https://theathletic.com/477001/2018/08/17/rosenthal-dusty-baker-opens-up-on-the-nats-his-career-racism-the-state-of-the-game-and-the-smell-of-collusion/

Nice revisionist history from Rosenthal and Dusty.

In Dusty's first season Harper had an .814 OPS, significantly lower than his OPS this season. From June 1 to August 1 2016 he had a .714 OPS.

Rosenthal is a great reporter but he's ignoring reality to fit a narrative and Dusty is happy to oblige because he feels slighted.

I guess we're also going to ignore Bryce struggling in September and October of 2017 too.

From May 1 to July 31 (3 months), Bryce Harper hit .220   /.370/.367. That seems like struggling to me.

[UMDNats]

I don’t know how much time I have to bring another team back, or if I have the desire to do so. I look at my situation on a small scale kind of like Barack Obama’s. He wouldn’t have gotten nominated for president unless we were in a bad way. We were in a terrible, terrible way. It’s the same way in baseball. Most minorities inherited bad teams.

Dusty Baker got hired to a team with Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Trea Turner, Gio Gonzalez...

He also has claims of racism/minority managers going to crappy teams but Dave Martinez is Puerto Rican. So is Alex Cora. Dave Roberts got hired by the Dodgers. There are plenty of non-minority managers of crappy teams, too. crappy teams hire new managers. Should the Cubs fire Maddon just for craps and giggles?

He comes across as blaming everyone but himself. I like Dusty a lot as a manager but this is just such sour grapes and Rosenthal lets him go unchecked. He makes claim after claim and Rosenthal laps it up. That's baseball media in its truest essence.

[Slateman]

Dusty Baker got hired to a team with Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Trea Turner, Gio Gonzalez...

He also has claims of racism/minority managers going to crappy teams but Dave Martinez is Puerto Rican. So is Alex Cora. Dave Roberts got hired by the Dodgers. There are plenty of non-minority managers of crappy teams, too. crappy teams hire new managers.

He comes across as blaming everyone but himself. I like Dusty a lot as a manager but this is just such sour grapes and Rosenthal lets him go unchecked.

Internally, it was a mess. They'd just had the star player get choked out on live TV in a game, and then have the one who committed the assault go back out on the field. Internally, and team cohesion-wise, the team was a mess.

Talent wise, the team was damn elite. Again, some revisionist history, but Dusty isn't entirely wrong on this.

And maybe he's talking about historically? Martinez and Cora a rookie managers. Dave Roberts was hired in 2015.