Started off with the Wainwright dealing last night. Should be another entertaining season. As a Mets fan, this is the most excited I've been for a season in at least 5 years. The return of Harvey has me giddy. Obviously the Nats the preseason favorite to win it all with that insane pitching staff, but there are a lot of teams that can compete for the World Series this year.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
GO NATS!!! Rockin my curly W hat at work today. I can't wait to get up to the ballpark this year.
O-R-I-O-L-E-S Orioles!
Wherever you spend opening day, at least you won't have to pee in a cup/on a wall/in your pants like those at Wrigley!
My Cubbies were disappointing for me last night. Lester wasn't sharp, didn't hold runners well, and 2 of our catchers had a bad throw that let guys get to third (also, why won't Castro back up Lastella!?!). However, with all those mistakes only 3 runs were given up, and the bigger problem was the 0 for 12 or 13 that the Cubs went with guys in scoring position. No team, no matter how talented, can overcome that.
This is the year!
If the Nats can't break through, I'll pull for the cubbies all the way.
The pieces are there, but this is going to be a tough puzzle to solve. Although, if anyone can put it together Theo and Joe Madden seem to be the right guys to do it. Also, Kris Bryant showing up mid-month should help give some momentum after what I expect to be a slow start.
Well, this season has started, so it'll be time to wait until next year any day now.
Ha yeah really, but it drives me crazy all the "next year the Cubs will be a playoff/potential world series team" THERE ARE STILL 161 GAMES LEFT (anger not directed at you).
I heard there were some bathroom issues at Wrigley with the construction still ongoing. Was not a pretty scene mixing Chicagoans with a lack of facilities.
http://thebiglead.com/2015/04/07/wrigley-importing-port-a-pottys-so-fans...
Yeah I heard about that. Not a fan of the new scoreboards, but I understand the bathroom renovations and am surprised they didn't prepare themselves better since they knew how many people were going to be there. That being said I always felt like the urinal troughs at Wrigley were a bonding experience even if they were something I'd never use outside of the friendly confines and I'm a little sad to see them go.
So yesterday they postponed the game 6 hours before first pitch for "rain". I say "rain" because it never did. Seems very convenient
The one thing I don't miss about Chicago is sometimes things did seem a bit shady. Kinda like Chicago style voting: vote early, and vote often.
My unsolicited prediction:
The Nationals rotation is about as foolproof a way to 90+ wins as you can get, no matter who's around them. But as we've seen the last two postseason trips, it doesn't guarantee anything to be a top seed.
I'm not convinced the offense has been fixed for a deep October run, just not enough high average guys. And the best hitters from last year (Span, Rendon) are currently injured. To make a deep run i think Harper needs to be pushing .300. Zimmerman also has to stay healthy enough to replace LaRoche's RBI production as a middle-of-the-order slugger. Desmond has great power for a shortstop, but I'm not convinced he has the plate discipline to be a great RBI guy like last year (91). The bullpen has a lot of unknowns, but if there's a real problem it's easy to find spare arms.
I may just be jaded from DC sports, but I think the Nationals lose in the NLCS. An essentially 6-deep pitching staff (Roark if needed) is only so useful when the rotation is pared down to 4. I think the offense holds up for one round, but not two.
I agree with everything you said except this. See Game 2 of the NLDS last year against the Giants. Petit came in as a reliever and shut down the Nats for 6 innings. Seemed to help them quite a bit there.
I'm also convinced something big will happen at the trade deadline for the Nats. Both Desmond and J-Zim are due to become free agents. I can see Rizzo dealing J-Zim for a bat to try to push for the postseason.
Seeing it once was enough haha. I can't say you're wrong, because every good arm can be useful. We'll have to see if Matt Williams uses starters in high leverage situations though. Roark only pitched 2.2 innings last playoffs, and they had that 18 inning marathon.
If J-Zim gets traded for a bat mid season, he'd better be one hell of a player.
I don't want to see him go (he's probably my favorite Nat), but they haven't signed a new deal yet and they just gave Scherzer more money than the GDP of the Marshall Islands. If he hits the open market I don't see him staying since his production has been better than any other Nats pitcher over the last 3 years and he's workhorse.
Hopefully Zimmerman's shoulder holds up...
Washington's pitching rotation reminds me of the Braves rotation in the early/mid-90's when they went to 4 World Series in 6 years, but only won 1.
The problem is that a deep rotation is mostly beneficial for the marathon that is the regular season. Once you get to the playoffs and short series, you may not even get a chance to use all of those arms. The bullpen is much more important in the playoffs.
But hey, you can't win the World Series until you get the playoffs, so the Nationals have put themselves in a great spot to at least do that.
DC Sports: Playoffs go past the 2nd round?
I was watching a Caps game last year, and the announcer called them the Braves of hockey.
I would add that playing the Phillies and Braves 38 times this year should make the path to 90+ wins easy for any contending team. The Nationals haven't had any trouble beating up on the bottom feeders for the last few years anyway though, so I think it will be much more telling to see how they fare against playoff caliber teams rather than the total wins.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
okay this thread can fade away again now. Football season!
I hate the Bryce Harper. That is all.
Why?
Another question: Why?
Bryce Harper arrogant and lacks class. He is the Nationals Yasiel Puig.
That's such a tired argument.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/nationals-journal/wp/2013/07/05/bryc...
Well, I hate him because he seems to always rake against my Braves.
In my case it's a respectful hate.
That I can understand, just not the blind "doesn't play the game the 'right way'" crowd
Its not blind at all. I've seen him play and he is a jerk. He has a bad attitude. He doesn't show respect.
I've met him in person, and he's not a jerk.
He has had some aggressive moments (like every other major league player), but it's mostly played up because he's Bryce Harper.
And honestly, the last thing the MLB needs is less personality.
I'm sure being upset at striking out and having fabulous hair is super disrespectful
Piling on here, but this is an uninformed argument. Bryce gets negative treatment because of ESPN. If you want to hate something, hate ESPN.
You can't just dismiss my opinion because you disagree with it. Opinions this wide spread always have some merit more or less. I liked the guy as a rookie but he has done things that make him look like a jerk and you just choose to ignore it.
What has he done? You're saying things like "he is a jerk" and "doesn't show respect", but not providing any examples. Right now it's just an unsupported opinion, so there's not much to have a back and forth discussion about
No one is dismissing your opinion. They are just challenging you to back it up.
...I just want to point out that the O's fan is defending Bryce Harper here...
He doesn't respect opponents, he watches homeruns, he throws his helmet when he strikes out, he doesn't run out ground balls, he. He is the Johnny Manzel of Baseball.
1) that's fairly nebulous.
2) everyone does, and he runs the bases remarkably fast afterwards
3) he should realize not every at bat will be a hit and get over them. But he's said he's mad at himself, generally not the umpire/other people. This one I'll give you, it's a bad look. But it's a crime of passion and competitiveness, not a lack of respect imo
4) he did that once to excess and got benched. He's generally mister hustle, to the chagrin of many fans who are tired of him landing on the DL for running into things
With #2 and #4 especially, it seems like you're holding him to a higher standard. Almost every baseball player will watch a home run, and almost no one runs full out on routine plays. Choppers to third? He tries to beat out infield singles all the time.
And with regards to that last point: he's actually a successful major leaguer, not dealing with substance addiction, and plays for a great team. "Johnny Manziel of baseball" my ass
I'm sure the scuffing up the opponents symbol screams respect. "Everyone does" is weak. He doesn't need to have a substance abuse problem or play for a bad team to be the Johnny Manziel of baseball.
I don't know whether he did the Braves logo thing intentionally or not. I know he says he didn't, and that Braves fans/media got really upset about it. If he did it on purpose, congratulations for getting under a 21 year old's skin I guess. Personally I thought the whole #RespectTheA thing was just as dumb and childish as anything he might have done.
What does make him like Johnny though? That one I legit don't get. Maybe I'm just taking it too literally
He's immature and in the spot light.
I guess we have an immature basketball coach...
Braves fans, who idolize a scumbag like Chipper Jones, taking issue with Harper...
Does name calling make you feel good about yourself?
You called him a jerk and compared him to Puig and Manzel.
Pot, kettle and all that.
-hokiemacho
Ill just edit him and call him a scumbag to make it even then
Chipper cheated on his wife.
Harper scuffed a logo in the dirt.
Totally the same.
Out of all people, a Braves fan should know that many players admire their home runs, since it happened all the time to them in 2013. Or was that just Brian McCann overreacting every time? It's a shame he's not there to police them anymore.
This was the HR that Harper "admired" and then got beaned for. If this is considered pimping a HR, has there a HR hit in the big leagues that wasn't pimped in the last 10 years?
Also, a brief history of players who are nefarious jerks for pimping their HR's (also known as GREAT BAT FLIPS). Please let me know which one of these guys you'd like to smear next!
Evan Gattis
Wil Myers
Edwin Encarnacion
David Ortiz
Dexter Fowler
Prince Fielder
Kevin Frandsen (lol)
Justin Maxwell
Cody Ross
Wil Myers again (He's the Padres' Puig! More like Wil Manziel!!)
Carlos Quentin
Jayson Werth
Wil Myers (FOR THE THIRD TIME?!? BAN HIM FOR LIFE!)
At least Harper didn't do this:
This is my favorite part of that whole thing.
Ok I'm just gonna say this knowing I'm in the minority with a bunch of hardcore baseball fans here: the whole proper respect thing in baseball is sooo tired. Like in basketball and football, there isn't a night that goes by that there isn't a verbal exchange or fight that breaks out over petty stuff like this. But for baseball fans, if a guy even remotely comes across as a showboat, it's like that guy doesn't play the game right and everyone hates him for the rest of his career. I don't know, it just seems kinda elementary. Similar thing for NASCAR. I know very little about the "sport", but it's like fans just hate a guy for the rest of his career due to his cocky or pompous personality. In basketball and football, if you make a sick play and do a little jigg every now and then, who really cares? Fans love that crap. But in baseball, you look at a pitcher the wrong way once and you're referred to as "jerk" from other fans for the rest of your career. Kinda childish in my opinion. Okay, end of rant.
Hockey and it's fans are the same way. Respect is really big in both sports. A lot of "unwritten rules" in both too.
I completely understand where you're coming from. But, when you're around the game your whole life, the "unwritten rules" of baseball just become second nature.
Also, I think part of it stems from the fact that these players are playing 162 games in 183 days. When you spend that much time doing anything, the "right way to go about things" becomes extremely important. No one wants to deal with a jerk when it's 100 degrees outside in July and they haven't had an off day or seen their family in weeks.
The unwritten rules are necessary during the regular season mostly because of what you said. It's a long season with up and downs for everyone and they're needed to keep the peace, if you will. What bothers me is when players try to enforce them during the postseason. That's when players should be watching homers, celebrating big plays, etc. to pump up their teammates and the crowd. The playoffs rely on energy and that energy shouldn't be governed. I think if there was more of this type of energy in the postseason there might not be as much of the baseball is losing viewers narrative.
Speaking of which, did anyone see this little number? LINK
Pagan and Norris literally exchanged words over spat gum. Just complete nonsense in my opinion
Yeah, I'm not a huge baseball guy. I get in the mood to watch a game but it's probably like my 4th or 5th sport. I don't understand the whole unwritten code of conduct. If you don't like someone showing you up then stop them. It's kind of like all the flopping and whining to officials in soccer. I get it's part of the culture of the sport but I just don't get it.
All that being said, as an occasional baseball watcher who doesn't have a horse in the race reading this thread
Yeah I consider myself a pretty casual Nats fan just because the Skins and the Wiz are my other two teams, but I've never really loved baseball an incredible amount either. I'll watch no more than probably 15 games over the summer and probably attend 1 or 2 if I'm lucky, but I completely agree with your point about settling it yourself and stopping the other person. If you get under Kobe's skin you can expect a knuckle sandwich, not a passive aggressive knuckleball to the ear.
Look at all the respect, its all over the field!
All four of these are ridiculous arguments.
He doesn't respect opponents
1. What?
he watches homeruns
2. If I hit a ball that far, I would watch it too.
he throws his helmet when he strikes out
3. Throwing your helmet a few times over the course of 162 games isn't a big deal. Anthony Rizzo slammed his bat to the ground in frustration on Sunday night and no one batted an eye. What's the difference?
he doesn't run out ground balls
4. Harper is notorious for his hustle. There are exactly zero players in the MLB that can say they've run out every single ground ball in their career.
Most of the hate is from:
- the media attention
- the expectation that he is the next greatest MLB player, which leads people to want him to fail.
- he kinda' looks like that frat/bro/douche that you hated in college.
- he did a few shitty things as a minor leaguer.
But since he's been in the majors, he hasn't been anything other than a professional baseball player. I think you hate him the same way you hate Pete Rose (pre-betting scandal).
I should have known that by posting an unpopular opinion that it would just open the conversation up for some people to shit on the team I like just because they don't agree with my opinion. Well done, you showed me.
With all due respect you did lead with your chin, if you will, on a number of your comments. Expect people to punch back, especially since many Nationals' fans were the ones you went after
You're as pathetic as your team
I dunno, it seemed to me that people were just pointing out that many aspects of the team/players you like were no different than the team/players that you don't like.
Compound that with the fact that there seems to be a decent amount of venom in the rivalry between the Nationals and the Braves and it leads to some salty replies.
A completely legitimate response would be "because he plays for the Nationals"
Opening day happened already? I could've sworn we had extended spring training until 2017. Are you saying that's just the Braves and all the other teams are playing for real? Oh well, at least
BJMelvin Upton Jr. is finally gone.BUT SO IS CRAIG KIMBREL
*insert sad face here*
Kimbrel (along with Simmons) was one of my two favorite players on the team to watch.
While I understand (and think it was good) the trade in terms of where the organization is in it's rebuild, it's sad to see him go. Hopefully we can find another flamethrower to slot at the back of the pen by time we're competitive again.
Freeman might be giving out a lot of hugs this year
Just found out on Wednesday that AJ Pierzynski doesn't hug.
There was thereafter a disturbance in the force.
His heir apparent was Shae Simmons, who is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery.
So excited to spend this afternoon/evening at Nats park! If you're there, come say hey, I'll be standing behind section 105.
I was so tempted to grab tickets. Alas, I want tickets for caps/wiz playoff games... I don't know what to do with 3 good teams in town
and save some $$ for some skins playo......ok...I tried. I can't say it with a straight face.
Wait, you think the Wizards are a good team?
Damn, I was hoping no one would notice haha. They aren't great, but they are in the playoffs. So in this case I'm gonna consider them a "good" team, at least in the eastern conference
In that case, being a "good" team in the Eastern conference is about as hard as getting a participation trophy in a youth soccer league.
Yeah I was just messing with ya. Hey, we beat Memphis the other night. That was a pleasant surprise
Dodgers got this, sorry cubbies BTTFII is not Nostradamus... ;)
Maybe it is. Nostradamus isn't known to be the most accurate guy, he just had diarrhea of the mouth and occasionally got stuff right. Back to the future 2 made enough "predictions" that a couple of them were bound to end up right...
I mean....
I posted this on twitter already, but it bears repeating...GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER, VIRGINIA!
Also, they are expected to announce that the Nationals will be hosting the 2018 All-Star Game today.
lolz no love for the Mets anywhere. Maybe they should move to Albuquerque
Many of the same people have issues with the NFL it seems.
In case it's hard to tell, a solid 50% of VA (geographically) is in Cowboys colors.
Man those VA areas that are for both the Cowboys and the Yankees are really screwed up on their pro sports fan loyalties. What gives? /s
It's no first at bat homer against King Felix (Mike Trout), but Harper just took Bartolo Colon deep. He seems to like opening day
So what does everyone think about the Porcello extension with Boston? Initial reports put it at $82.5 mil over 4 years ($20.625 mil AAV).
IMO, the deal is great for Porcello. That's a lot of money for a guy without a dominating (or good, or decent, or average) strikeout rate, and he'll still hit the open market again after his age 30 season. The average annual value seems extra steep considering how deep pitching will be in FA next offseason (Price, Cueto, Zimmermann, Samardzija, Iwakuma, Fister, Latos, Leake, plus Greinke if he opts out).
IMO, it's an overpay. You mentioned the strikeout rate which is one of the reasons I've never really been a fan of his. I do think it's about as good an overpay as you can have though - it's Boston and they can find money if needed, he's going to be in his prime years over the course of the deal and he's been durable throughout his career. There are worse guys they could overpay and I don't think it rules Boston out from trying to get another pitcher next year if they feel they need it.
He's a groundball pitcher who has a pretty stout defensive unit behind him. He should do well in Boston throughout that contract. Especially if they are mashing the ball like they did yesterday against Hamels (who many are predicting will be in the Boston rotation by the time the playoffs roll around).
(Red Sox fan)
I love it because of his age. You get his 27-31 years, not his 33-37 years like you would have if you spent that on Sheilds.
I don't completely buy that his problem was the Detroit defense, but I do buy that he has a chance of being a solid #2 this year and into the future.
I just don't see Cherrington throwing down $25M+ in AAV to a pitcher in his 30's. They tried that with Lester, their guy, and they still got outbid. I'm sure they like Zimmermann, Cueto......maybe even Price (although he really doesn't have a lot of fans in Fenway). But I doubt they like those guys enough to actually land them. I expect to see them make a move for a guy like Sonny Gray next year with all the talent the Sox have coming up.
Yeah, the reason the deal makes sense is that even though he doesn't fit the profile as a really dominant pitcher, he's still a ways away from declining whereas many of the other guys I listed will be around 30 when signing. He's got a higher floor and a lower ceiling than the other guys, and the lack of strikeouts are what scares me about the $ amount, but at the end of the day he only got 4 years, not the 5-6-7 that really frighten me about pitchers.
you wash that filthy mouth! Cueto is staying in Cincy!
If you've got $200M, he will.
I spent yesterday at the Opening Day parade followed by tailgaiting and watching the Reds start shittsburgh's season off with a L. Opening Day is nearly a holiday in Cincinnati.
I'll take an opening day loss over the knowledge that my team will be fighting for last place with the brewers.
Let's go Bucs!
Even though he plays for the Mets, I can never not love Curtis Granderson. Every year, he makes it a point to talk about 4/16 victim Brian Bluhm, one of his biggest fans.
http://www.blessyouboys.com/2007/4/17/142136/280?_ga=1.190807203.9238826...
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/31761/grandy-honoring...
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/yankees-curtis-grande...
David Wright is also a Hokie (even though he was committed to play ball at GiT, his brother is a VT grad and he's a lifelong Hokie football fan). He helped fundraise for 4/16 victims as well:
http://abcnews.go.com/abcnewsnow/ESPNSports/story?id=3210048&page=1&sing...
Wright has a Hokie helmet in his locker as well. Both him and Granderson are really great guys.
Apparently this happened on the Cubs broadcast. They are really struggling so far this season:
In case you missed the issues: Local Cubs Broadcast Intro Is Just A Disaster
is the season over yet?