Posts Tagged ‘LOLNatinals’

According to Yahoo! Sports, Werth may need to lose the beard.

“The team policy is, facial hair is OK, but it’s got to be groomed,” Rizzo said Monday night. “It’s got to be nicely … professionally groomed.”

Good thing he won’t have to grow a playoff beard in Washington.

7 years. $126 million. Washington Natinals.

Can’t really blame the guy for cashing in on his only opportunity as a free agent. He never really had a true free agency period, since he was pretty much an unknown before the Phillies gave him a second chance in the majors. We all knew this was coming, especially after his breakout 2009, followed by declining the Phillies extension offer this past summer. Still doesn’t make the sting feel any better.

We knew the Nationals were going to at least attempt to make a big move this offseason, but few probably took them seriously. You’re not making the playoffs in the foreseeable future, especially if Strasburg is done until 2012. So why overbid on a free agent that’s going to make a minimal impact on your current team? Losing Adam Dunn hurt, but replacing him Werth isn’t magically going to equal wins. They gain 1.1 WAR from last year… yippee!

It’s really Ruben’s fault for letting it come to this. Rather than continuing Gillick’s plan (signing under the radar players – Dobbs, Werth, Durbin, club friendly deals – Rollins, Utley), he has constantly bid against himself on free agents and current players. His biggest mistake is always being ready to offer one too many years (Lidge, Moyer, Ibanez, Blanton), which has now spilled over into our ability to keep key pieces on our team (Werth, Lee). We could have had Werth if we really wanted him, but Ruben’s too nearsighted to plan ahead for the future. We’re officially losing the 2nd best OF in all of baseball (15 WAR over his last 3 seasons), because Ruben’s about a proficient at managing salaries as Andy Reid is at managing the clock.

Blame Ruben’s inability to be even a competent general manager, not Werth’s decision to leave.

Pictured: Fail.

We won our first game of the season for the first time since 2005 B.C.. Truth be told, it felt like a lot longer.

Conclusions can hardly be drawn one game into the season. Right now, Placido Polanco is on pace for 972 RBI, and the Nats pitching staff is on pace to walk 1,458 batters. Okay, that last one might actually happen. After today’s game, we know the following pieces of information: The Phillies’ lineup is really good, the Natinals (this is the proper spelling) kind of suck, and Roy Halladay is a finely calibrated pitching machine from a galaxy far, far away. None of this comes as a surprise to anyone. But we did see some very encouraging signs, as well as a few things to be worried about.

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Fail

Well, since I promised to cover ALL the NL East teams, I suppose I have to take a trip down I-95 to cover the Nationals.  They’re like the fat kid you grew up playing sports with.  Bless their hearts, they try their best… but you know eventually they’re going to be sucking wind within 5 minutes, or blowing chunks on the side of the field.

Granted, they are getting better.  They have the tools to possibly pull 70-75 wins out of their collective asses.  But will that be enough to drag them out of the NLE basement?  Did Grizzly Adams have a beard?

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