The Sunshine Squad 2023: Gotta be better, right?

[imref]

Reasons for optimism in 2023:
1. This team has been pretty decent this Spring
2. JoJo Gray looks like JoJo deGrom
3. Cobin seems to be fixed
4. Gore > Fedde, Williams > Sanchez, Kuhl > Rogers
5. CJ Abrams is going to be a stud
6. No stars to trade at the deadline, no team to blowup
7. Ticket prices will be very cheap on secondary markets
8. The bully looks pretty solid
9. Smith and Candy have to be better in 2023
10. A full season of Joey baseball
11. Ruiz locked and loaded behind the dish for the next decade
12. The kids are coming

[JCA-CrystalCity]

13.  Fredericksburg is a short drive from DC, and Harrisburg and Wilmington are doable for a day game.

[Natsinpwc]

Reasons for optimism in 2023:
1. This team has been pretty decent this Spring
2. JoJo Gray looks like JoJo deGrom
3. Cobin seems to be fixed
4. Gore > Fedde, Williams > Sanchez, Kuhl > Rogers
5. CJ Abrams is going to be a stud
6. No stars to trade at the deadline, no team to blowup
7. Ticket prices will be very cheap on secondary markets
8. The bully looks pretty solid
9. Smith and Candy have to be better in 2023
10. A full season of Joey baseball
11. Ruiz locked and loaded behind the dish for the next decade
12. The kids are coming

Forgot short lines in the rest rooms.

[welch]

Wilmington and H'burg doable from NYC. All those youngsters moving up. And Wilmington has the great Claymont Steak Shop a few miles north of downtown.

Sadly, the Brass Rail steak shop, Allentown, has closed. My old boss, Art Lee, took me there every time we drove to Rockville in the late '90s, and it stuck whenever I drove I-78 to DC. Art became a programmer at the GE Erie plant in the late '60s, and had grown up in Allentown, PA.

[IanRubbish]

The offense has shown no signs of life, and will likely be awful.  No power, no patience, near the bottom in Spring OPS. 

The pitching has been way better than expected.  While Spring stats can be very distorted, the team is among the leaders in fewest walks given up and is 5th in ERA.  Staying in the zone could help the starters do better than last year's regular season league worst pitches per IP and IP per start. 

I'd bet on a lot of 3-1, 2-1 kind of games that contribute to MLB's attempts to set speed records, with a win total in the high 60s, maybe 70. 

[imref]

The offense has shown no signs of life, and will likely be awful.  No power, no patience, near the bottom in Spring OPS. 

The pitching has been way better than expected.  While Spring stats can be very distorted, the team is among the leaders in fewest walks given up and is 5th in ERA.  Staying in the zone could help the starters do better than last year's regular season league worst pitches per IP and IP per start. 

I'd bet on a lot of 3-1, 2-1 kind of games that contribute to MLB's attempts to set speed records, with a win total in the high 60s, maybe 70. 

KC and the Angels are 1 & 2 in OPS this Spring.  Cincy is 7th. Oakland is 8th. Spring training team stats are meaningless.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

KC and the Angels are 1 & 2 in OPS this Spring.  Cincy is 7th. Oakland is 8th. Spring training team stats are meaningless.

yabut Rendon is feeling healthy and raking.  That's what you want to see. Health.

[comish4lif]

Is there a Legion of Doom thread as a companion thread to the Sunshine Squad?

[Five Banners]

Is there a Legion of Doom thread as a companion thread to the Sunshine Squad?

That’s the Gameday Threads

[GburgNatsFan]

 

That’s the Gameday Threads

[IanRubbish]

Nats killer Rhys Hoskins is out for the season.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Nats killer Rhys Hoskins is out for the season.

It's like the rabbi's blessing for the Czar in Fiddler on the Roof: "May G-d bless and keep the Czar . . . far away from here." We wish Rhys a full recovery over the next offseason.

[Mattionals]

It's like the rabbi's blessing for the Czar in Fiddler on the Roof: "May G-d bless and keep the Czar . . . far away from here." We wish Rhys a full recovery over the next offseason.

One day I'll try out for community theater to perform the role of Tevye.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

One day I'll try out for community theater to perform the role of Tevye.

It was such a great performance by Topol in the movie that they named a toothpaste after him.
https://www.himmelgroup.com/topol

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

14. Glass half full - aside from chowdahpocalypse in August we get the AL East home games out of the way by the end of April

[imref]

Williams and gore are pretty good.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I think it's good that we don't have huge expectations out of the staff. If they end up with an ERA of 4.50, we'll be happy. That'd be almost a run and a half improvement, and wouldn't put them out of the bottom 10, but it would not extremely stink.

[HalfSmokes]

I think it's good that we don't have huge expectations out of the staff. If they end up with an ERA of 4.50, we'll be happy. That'd be almost a run and a half improvement, and wouldn't put them out of the bottom 10, but it would not extremely stink.

If that’s the bar for satisfaction, then I want Fredricksburg pricing

[Elvir Ovcina]

If that’s the bar for satisfaction, then I want Fredricksburg pricing

Just wait until you see the exceptions for the lineup, then.  You'll want them to pay you just to show up.

In all seriousness, the Sunshine case is indeed the pitching staff.  You hope the bullpen stays decent, the starters are good enough to get them the ball with a chance to win most games, and the lineup has enough speed and defense to scratch out runs. 

On paper, at least the OF defense plus Abrams should be pretty good, and that'll help a lot. I think people underestimate how much Garcia at SS killed the first third of the season.  It's very hard to win with a shortstop who can't play the position.

[Natsinpwc]

Just wait until you see the exceptions for the lineup, then.  You'll want them to pay you just to show up.

In all seriousness, the Sunshine case is indeed the pitching staff.  You hope the bullpen stays decent, the starters are good enough to get them the ball with a chance to win most games, and the lineup has enough speed and defense to scratch out runs. 

On paper, at least the OF defense plus Abrams should be pretty good, and that'll help a lot. I think people underestimate how much Garcia at SS killed the first third of the season.  It's very hard to win with a shortstop who can't play the position.

I don't think Garcia was on the team first third of last season.  Was that other guy from KC.  Point taken though. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I don't think Garcia was on the team first third of last season.  Was that other guy from KC.  Point taken though. 

Maikel Franco at 3rd, Alcides Escobar at SS, and Cesar Hernandez at 2d. Yeesh.

[Mattionals]

Maikel Franco at 3rd, Alcides Escobar at SS, and Cesar Hernandez at 2d. Yeesh.

And Cruz at DH.

[welch]

Our song:

[JCA-CrystalCity]

whenever I think of "(You Gotta Have) Heart," why do I think of Hannibal Lecter approving?

[welch]

whenever I think of "(You Gotta Have) Heart," why do I think of Hannibal Lecter approving?

Maybe because you are too young to think of Bucky Harris -- the manager, Bennie, is made to remind the audience of the great Stanley Raymond Harris, who managed the Nats' 1924 World Champions and the Yankees 1947 C=champions.  And the owner looks like Clark Griffith. Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo was based on Roy Sievers, who was from St Louis and Bill Veeck's Browns. The encroaching "Baltimore Orioles" dumped Roy when they moved Veeck's team to that minor league town up the Baltimore Washington Parkway. The Griffiths began moving the LF fence when Sievers arrived in 1954 and started hitting homers.