The Nationals got shut down by Wood, Hill, and Ryu (mostly) and you guys are acting like they're the greatest. Good team for sure but it's really not worth overanalyzing them, us, whoever in the post because anything can happen in a short series.
Zimmerman, Rendon, Harper and Murphy in a row is pants shitting scary? So is Taylor, Seager,Turner, Bellinger and maybe even Puig....
I agree, the Nats are a scary team. But they aren't better than us. Wood, Baez, and Brock just shut them out 2 days ago. We can lose to them, and they are probably the team I am most worried about in all of MLB, but I'm confident as fuck if we play our game, no one beats us.
Against Stras and Max we have Puig as the 5th batter in the lineup. Barnes would probably be the 6th in this situation at 2B. Ethier is the best looking candidate for LF and would bat around 7th. With Grandal catching as the 8th hitter. Against Gio who is another ace caliber pitcher (their 3 is better than our 3) our 5th batter is probably Barnes but this time as catcher. Then behind him at 6th is Logan Forsythe at 2B. After that it gets dicey. Its most likely Kike in LF at 7th and Puig in 8th. Kershaw is an A+ The three guys from the Naths are solid A's and the worst an A- The other two Dodgers are A- at their best but most like B/+ is the most we could hope for.
I would like to see Barnes get starts against right-handed pitching instead of Logan. But they haven't given him any time at second base recently, which leads me to believe they will go for defense first. In that scenario, you have to start Barnes over Grandal. I understand why they continue to give Curtis chances. He likely has the highest ceiling and the most recent track record of success of any of the left-field options. But boy is he bad right now and his defense is horrible. The last time Ethier played every day against right-handed pitching in 2015, he mashed. He's hitting pretty well now too. I think he deserves a legitimate shot. He probably can't play Everyday because of his back, but if he can show some decent bat speed, he should start in left field.
Reasonable post here. I agree for the most part when you take the emotion out of it. But I legitimately and I'm scared s******* of our bullpen. Jansen and Morrow... I'm down. Everyone else scares the crap out of me. That's probably how most teams feel about their bullpen, but our relievers have really shit the bed this month. The way Roberts has managed his staff the past month doesn't give me much confidence he will choose the right guys to place in that bullpen or utilize them effectively. Again, I will hyper analyze with extreme emotion until we actually win a World Series. It's impossible to imagine anything other than disappointment until that bondage is broken.
Yup. Ethier can play 2 games in a row, and if by the third game he can sit and Grandy can start. But more than likely that third game may be vs a lefty so Ethier would sit anyway. But the starter at that point should be Kike. Grandy only starts if we face 3 righty starters in a row so Ethier can rest.
this last time i checked we still had the best record in baseball if anything, those other teams should be fearing us
Hope you're right. Getting through the nlds is pretty tough because of the randomness of it. Making it to the National League Championship Series is a privilege that we have yet to take advantage of.
more worried about the lds tbh should be seven games like the lcs you lose game one of a five game series and you're in a big hole [homo] especially at home
Didn't mean to imply we were a bad team or not capable of beating the Nats. It's just that from pitching to BP to the lineup, they are probably the best rounded team we might face. Their only question mark is outfield defense that will get better when Harper returns to RF. Still, I do like our chances. We won 2 out of 3 with our B team starting pitching, and Ryu was doing well until some bullshit balls the ump called on Ryu to cause walks. And we beat them last year with arguably worse SP and BP and an iffy offense, with the Nats at full strength.