I haven't seen this many blown saves since the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1980! Hey-o!
What? Too dated? Sigh...
I haven't seen this many blown saves since the Navy Seal mission to save the people of Panama in 1989! Hey-o!
What? I'm still not making myself clear? Jesus, people... How about this:
The Nationals are as competent with saves as these two
Look, I haven't bothered reading any other blogs today 'cause I'm just so sick and fucking tired of the bullpen not holding leads. I did some digging, and came up with these stats, all courtesy of baseball-reference.com. I apologize if these were written up by someone else last night or today, but fucking deal with it.
The Nats are tied for the MLB lead in blown saves with 10, Houston being the other awesome team with that many.
The Nats are tied for last in MLB saves, with Pittsburgh at 5. (Can you spot the pattern here? Everyone knows bullpens are weak across the board, but the NL seems to be a little bit shittier than the AL. Which is weird since the AL uses that God damn abomination of a rule, the DH.)
Guess who leads the Nats in saves? My buddy, Joel (no longer being called Hammer Hands) Hanrahan. Guess who leads the Nats in blown saves? That's right, my buddy Joel Hanrahan. But it's cancerous, and spreads throughout the bullpen (Which I hope is not the case with Elijah's leprosy. Gah. Seriously, how much longer is dude gonna wear that thing on his face? That's covering up something awful, right?) as there are only two players on the current roster without a blown save, Kipper Wells and Ronnie Villone.
What's my point exactly? I'm not fucking sure. Maybe I'm thinking Manny has to get Ron in there when the team is ahead more. (He's only entered the game in that situation once, and he held.) Maybe it's time to get Logan Kensing the fuck outta Dodge. (He's 0 for 2 in save situations, and has allowed 45% of his inherited runners to score. Oh... he also has a WHIP of 3.20!!!!!)
I dunno. I'm not sure there are any quick answers at this point. But, if there's one cause I'm behind 100 fucking percent, it surely is this one.
Free Jason fucking Bergmann already!!
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18 comments:
Word.
Fire Kensing.
Bring back Bergy.
Option Rivera and bring up Clippard?
Rivera's already down in Syracuse.
I'm all for the Kensing/Bergy switch.
I'll take Stammen or Clippard (but prefer Clippard, since he seems better set up for an 8th and 9th inning role than Stammen, who seems to be a long inning guy or a starter) in the pen now.
But who to lose to free up that spot? Maybe send Mock to Syracuse to work for a month or so on the closer position specifically?
hmmm...good point, I'd forgotten Saul was already down there.
Sending Mock down to work on learning to be a closer specifically sounds like a good idea too, except that I actually feel better when he's on the mound than I do for either Tavarez or Wells...maybe that's silly, but it is so. Then again, his era so far is either similar to, or less than either of them. So maybe fire one of them too? bring up both Bergy and Clippard? Save Stammen for when someone breaks?
Or wait - how about this? Fire Wells and Kensing, stick Cabrera in the pen, bring up Bergy for the pen, and put Stammen or Balester (who's now had a couple of good starts in a row in Syracuse) in the rotation?
cut bait on Cabrera, bring up Stammen (Balester did NOT pitch well last night ans has been inconsistent at best).
Fire Kensing, bring up Clippard as the closer. He's got some MLB experience, so he shouldn't have the deer in the headlights reaction.
I'd bag Wells for Bergmann and be ready to bring up Colome and Rivera as soon as someone else falters/gets hur.
D-Cab in the bullpen would make my head assplode. Just let him go already.
Mock doesn't have closer stuff.
Put me in the camp of those officially concerned about Balester. He's still young, but this ain't the type of progress you want to see at this stage.
Yeah, Collin's got a 1.85 WHIP, has struck out 25 in 34 IP, and is only averaging 4.85 IP/Start.
I haven't seen any of his games, but it looks like he has only been able to place two good starts back to back once. I hope the kid gets it together. He's still young (23), and has decent stuff, just sucks locating it. (He's still better than Cabrera, though, I contend.)
Clippard intrigues me. He walks too many folks to make me comfortable, but seems to keep the runs from scoring. I'd like to see him over Mock, Wells, or Logan ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME Kensing.
Cabrera to the pen? Aye aye aye! He would become my new Ray King. I would surely be arrested for assault. Shit, they'd have to nail down everything between sections 135 to 143 to prevent a head injury of some form happening to him.
Oh, btw, pipe up a lil' more often, folks. I might sound like I'm all dick jokes and irreverent shit, but I'll throw in some serious Nats talks if prompted.
Good looking out!
Oh, anonymous, I am certainly in favor of Stammen to the rotation in place of DCab.
I was checking my twitter the other day, and someone said, "[Strasburg will be] getting lit up in August. Cool nickname or not, he'll still be a Nat."
I found this VERY offensive, and wrote him back, "to say Stras will be getting lit up just because he's a nat is, well, a complement to DCab"
You DO follow my shitty as Twitter feed, right? Right!?
Wait Ballester pitched last night??
(goes to check farm authority)
fuck.
*at this point I'd like to add the caveat that all my information is old information because I've been in a pain-induced coma from watching too many Nats games earlier in the season, and haven't been able to keep as close of tabs on the team as I ordinarily would...
On the bright side...Perhaps this is the solution?
Liberally borrowed from from Farm Authority, of course...
"The things you find scanning the MiLB.com transaction wire
RHP Terrell Young returned to Louisville Bats from Washington Nationals
Young was the Nats only Rule 5 pick and had been on the 15-day DL all season. This opens a spot on the Nationals 40-man, perhaps for RHP Jesus Colome who eligible to be recalled on Friday."
As for Cabrera to the pen...I'm gonna stand by that. he's been effective in one-to-two inning spurts, but HORRIBLE the second time through the lineup. And I wouldn't use him late in any ballgames as a reliever...never, ever, ever...far too wild...but as a long relief kind of guy? I find that could be interesting.
As for Mock not having a closer's stuff? I'm not smart enough to know whether he does or doesn't, but how come you think he doesn't have it? Seems to me he has everything Hanrahan has, except the porcelain-doll confidence/mental state...
nope, sorry, I'm a twit who doesn't twitter...
But I do follow your dogs (no I'm not a stalker)...one of my own dogs seems to have a bizarre love fetish for Sedona...(spelling? I know I could look it up, but I'm lazy...)
As further evidence as to my laziness...I won't use a proper name cause I can't be bothered to sign up for one...oh, and I would have posted sooner if I'd known I could have done it this way before. :)
love the blog - funny as hell.
I skipped a game because Cabrera was throwing.
Sedona loves Douglas, too.
HAHAHAAH Hi Rebecca!
Yeah, I'm gonna distance myself from the Doctor and say Mock does have closer stuff, he just hasn't been in the role long enough. Throw him down to Syracuse for a few months closing games down there. He'll learn the mentality, pitch selection, and how to appreciate the Big League experience, I say.
Oh. I've heard a lot about Douglas. Did you know that the owners of the male dog pay for the dog wedding? It's true!
The infamous "they" say Mock has a flat fastball. That's all I got. It's flat and eminently hittable. The stuff just isn't there.
The Terrell Young era has ended. I'll remember it fondly.
Doc, you really think Mock's that hittable? I'm not going to say he isn't, but I tend to agree with Phishisgr8...if only because when it comes to young players on the Nats, I am HOPELESSLY optimistic. Well, that and as I said, I feel 10x's better when Mock's on the mound than when either Tavarez or Wells are. His pitches just look better to me.
I also think he has a lot of room to grow as a reliever. Wasn't it just late last year that he was finally converted from a starter?
I'm also holding out hope that Hanrahans grows a pair.
And as for doggie weddings...oh dear lord...please don't put any ideas in Doug's head! I shudder to think what the wedding industry would manage to charge for one of those...
I won't say he's hittable hittable, but I think his stuff is better suited in a middle relief role and not closing games out. Then again, if he has the head for the job, it can't hurt to give him a shot. It's all mental anyways.
Just get three outs, that's what I'd do!
If you would have taken my advice, the very person who plays the position you describe as an "abomination of a rule" would have gotten you a walkoff double with two RBI's for the team I won't mention who happens to be in a certain position atop the standings that I also won't mention.
Flores on DL; Colome, Bard Called Up; Kensing DfA
Well...1 move out of 4 ain't bad, right? Why the hell don't the Nationals like Nieves and Bergman? Colome, with a 0-2 record and 6.10 ERA over Bergman with 1-0 record and 1.35 ERA??? WTF?!?!? And now we're going to have a terrible backstop to catch the Wild Cabrera! I wonder if they have insurance on the granite/slate/empty seats behind home plate?
I knew we'd be seeing Colome the 15th, as that was the first day he was eligible to be recalled thank to JimBo's handling of his contract.
Bard? Really? God. Who is gonna be the everyday catcher? I guess Wil.
Sucks I can't get a 10 minute break from work to throw a new post up, but them's the breaks...
FREE BERGMANN!!!
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