{"id":12542,"date":"2012-09-04T05:30:37","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T09:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=12542"},"modified":"2012-09-04T05:30:37","modified_gmt":"2012-09-04T09:30:37","slug":"the-washington-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/09\/the-washington-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Since I\u2019ve moved out here to the D.C. area I\u2019ve been obeying the baseball anthem that one should \u201croot, root, root for the home team\u201d so I\u2019ve been following the Washington Nationals.\u00a0 That has been a grim undertaking for the last few years.\u00a0 But this season they have the best record in baseball!<\/p>\n

On the surface, the main difference would appear to be the impact of two young baseball prodigies and #1 draft picks, centerfielder Bryce Harper and, especially, pitcher Stephen Strasburg.\u00a0 There is, however, much more to it than that, including dramatically improved defense.<\/p>\n

Strasburg is a fun pitcher to watch, throwing fastballs approaching 100 mph fastball with pinpoint accuracy, curveballs that are practically unhittable, and confusing changeups that go 87 mph.\u00a0 But despite his 15-6 record, the Nationals are planning to shut him down on September 12 in the middle of a potential run for the World Series.\u00a0 They are babying his surgically-reconstructed arm, which he blew out after only a few games when he first came up in 2010.\u00a0 He had the Tommy John surgery and team officials, following medical advice for someone who has never pitched a full season and wanting to keep him on the roster for a long, long time, decided to limit him to 170 innings.<\/p>\n

\nThose team officials, of course, never dreamed the team would have so much as a shot at the playoffs, so that made sense.\u00a0 But now, many people are saying, this could be the Nationals\u2019 year.\u00a0 They may never get this close again.\u00a0 The kid is still strong.\u00a0 (In his last start he struck out 10 Cardinals.)\u00a0 Across the nation on sports talk shows, people are calling the Nationals\u2019 leadership wusses.\u00a0 This is the time to go all in!\u00a0 Let Strasburg pitch!\n

It\u2019s odd that you don\u2019t hear that line of reasoning very much here.\u00a0 For one thing, Strasburg may not even be the Nationals\u2019 best pitcher.\u00a0 Gio Gonzalez has more wins (17).\u00a0 Jordan Zimmerman, through most of the season, has had a lower E.R.A. (under 3).\u00a0 And the guy who will replace him in the lineup, John Lannan, used to be the Nationals\u2019 number one pitcher, starting on opening day twice.\u00a0 But the pitching staff is so loaded he had to spend the season up to now in the minor leagues!\u00a0 Now he\u2019ll be the fifth starter, though once the playoffs begin with their travel days, a four-man rotation is plenty.<\/p>\n

I like how the esteemed sportswriter Tom Boswell writes about this:<\/p>\n

Sometimes numbers are more eloquent and sadder than words because they are harder to refute. In a weak year among NL powers, the Nats will seldom have a smoother path to a pennant. Look at the pitching hegemony the Nats would have brought to bear in the postseason when all teams use four starters. They\u2019d have four of the top 15 in ERA among all starters in the NL. Only one NL team has more than one such pitcher (the Giants).<\/p>\n

Also, the Nats would send out four of the top 15 NL starters in WHIP (walks and hits per inning), as well as four of the top 21 in lowest OPS (on-base-percentage plus slugging).<\/p>\n

Finally, the Nats would have an overpowering staff with four of the top nine average-fastball-velocities in the NL. That\u2019s almost insane.<\/p>\n

On top of all that, the Nats would finally, if they stay intact, have their best seven hitters at the top of their lineup and their entire seven-deep bullpen all healthy at the same time. All season the Nats have waited for this full complement of top players. All in all, it\u2019s a mighty powerful mixture.<\/p>\n

Too bad: After 79 years waiting, we\u2019re left with \u201cmight have beens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, I\u2019m sorry. I seem to have made a minor mistake in my calculations. The team I have just described is the Nationals without Strasburg.<\/p>\n

The four-man rotation, primed for October that I\u2019ve described is Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

via Strasburg shutdown? Nats can still be a playoff powerhouse \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I\u2019ve moved out here to the D.C. area I\u2019ve been obeying the baseball anthem that one should \u201croot, root, root for the home team\u201d so I\u2019ve been following the Washington Nationals.\u00a0 That has been a grim undertaking for the last few years.\u00a0 But this season they have the best record in baseball! On the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2104,2334],"class_list":["post-12542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-washington-nationals"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Washington Nationals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since I've moved out here to the D.C. area I've been obeying the baseball anthem that one should "root, root, root for the home team" so I've been\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/09\/the-washington-nationals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Washington Nationals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since I've moved out here to the D.C. area I've been obeying the baseball anthem that one should "root, root, root for the home team" so I've been\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/09\/the-washington-nationals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-04T09:30:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/09\/the-washington-nationals\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/09\/the-washington-nationals\/\",\"name\":\"The Washington Nationals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-04T09:30:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-04T09:30:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Since I've moved out here to the D.C. area I've been obeying the baseball anthem that one should \\\"root, root, root for the home team\\\" so I've been\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/09\/the-washington-nationals\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/09\/the-washington-nationals\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/09\/the-washington-nationals\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Washington Nationals\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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