Monday, June 13, 2005 |
Welcome Back, Jose: Angels 11, Nationals 1
But no explosions on the field today, unless you count the Angels' against Esteban Lousy Loiaza. The Chisox erstwhile Cy Young candidate got the hook after a surprisingly short three innings, failing to get an out in the fourth after D-Mac homered, leading into a pair of singles by Cabrera and Kennedy.
I haven't said enough nice things about Adam Kennedy lately. He's hitting like a house afire -- .333/.409/.333 over the last week -- and continues to be the team's best defensive option at second base bar none. He's made consistently stellar plays over the last week that are just jaw-dropping. I'm gonna miss him when he goes.
Vlad's 4-4 night, including a bomb, drew all the headlines, as well it should; it represents his first extra-base hit since May 16, and only his eighth home run all year. But to my eyes, the real hero was Dallas McPherson, who didn't get a single strikeout, and punished a ball well over the centerfield fence. As well, Juan Rivera got a shot at glory with a shot into the right field pavilion. It's become obvious now that Rivera won't progress much as a player unless he gets a bunch of playing time, and so he probably needs to be traded. Figgins, with his triple, continued a nice stretch of hitting, and Erstad's 3-4 night extended his hitting streak to 12 consecutive games. One hell of an offensive performance by everyone.
Paul Byrd came up with a fine outing, the kind I had envisioned when he signed. Even Esteban Yan managed to avoid sucking. However, the Nats aren't a particularly good-hitting team, something Oleanders And Morning Glories mentioned in a recent post:
So the Nats acquire the mantle of "interesting". That's a big step up from "utterly, completely, and totally irrelevant", which they were in Montreal. Some years ago, Voros McCracken published a well-researched article implicating the former Expos' ownership, but I've always found something a little missing about his explanation. Sure, a terrible divorce gutted the team's finances, and MLB pulled an extremely unsavory maneuver by allowing Jeffrey Loria a way out of the Expos franchise. But at the same time, even when the team was doing well in their best year of 1994, they were only averaging 24,000 a game! The morality play of mean old MLB chasing baseball out of Montreal has a visceral appeal. It's got a lot of sympathy behind it as well as some facts, but it still misses the sniff test that Washingtonians have slammed the door on this year. Despite last year's horrible 67-95 to look forward to, the capital is spinning RFK's turnstyles at a dizzying pace.
- I believe that the Nats strength is very good relief pitching. I believe that they have talent and depth at this position. I also believe the Nats have very good starting pitching. These aren’t hard things to believe. I believe that if their starters remain healthy the pitching can carry the team, and keep it in the playoff hunt all year long. Maybe, just maybe, it can be good enough to sneak the Nats into the playoffs.
- I believe that the Nats offense is mediocre at best and is not going to get much better. They are 15th in the NL in runs, but not far from 11th. 11th is still not good. I believe that the return of Vidro will only be countered by the continued decline of Castilla as the year wears on his body, and the “return to good” by Nick Johnson and Ryan Church/Marlon Byrd.
- I believe that these two things make the Nationals the most fun team to watch in the majors this year. Four out of every five games are guaranteed to be close.
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