The Washington Nationals have signed versatile veteran infielder/outfielder Mark DeRosa to a one year contract, the club announced today. This is a no-brainer: we’ve always been fans of DeRosa, who is a welcome addition to the Nationals’ bench. He can hit and field, is a great presence in the clubhouse, and is a steady veteran of the type that Davey Johnson likes. That said, DeRosa had an up-and-down year in 2011 — though mostly down. He suffered a nasty wrist injury, which limited his season to under 50 games.
The signing of DeRosa, which has been expected, fills one of the team’s identified needs: putting together a bench that surpasses the poorly performing bench of last year. DeRosa is a plus, a kind of Jerry Hairston, Jr. player but with more stuff at the plate coupled with the ability to play any number of positions. Additionally, DeRosa said that he wanted to play for the Nationals after it became clear that his time in San Francisco was up. DeRosa is just three years on from his best years as a player when, after a doubles-heavy tenure with the Rangers, he was signed as a free agent by the Chicago Cubs. In 2008, he hit .285 with 21 home runs.
DeRosa has to show that he’s healthy; in his case, passing a physical is more than just pro forma. DeRosa’s wrist injury last year (on a checked swing, no less), might have ended his career, and some Nats fans are concerned that his wrist is now “shot.” If that’s the case (which will become clear, we assume, in Spring Training), then he might not have the late-inning pop that has become his trademark.
But this is a plus, and a big one. DeRosa could fill a yawning need at first base. Adam LaRoche spent last season injured and Chris Marrero’s torn left hamstring will make him uncertain for Spring Training. Then too, though no one will mention it, Ryan Zimmerman has had problems staying healthy — and the Nationals simply cannot afford another power void season at third base. So, if all goes as unplanned planned, we could be seeing a lot of DeRosa in 2011.
It’s a lousy realization, but it’s true: the Washington Nationals have a very good bullpen; but if Wednesday night is any indication, the Braves’ bullpen is better. After giving up a home run to the relentless Michael Morse, the Braves’ bullpen of Eric O’Flaherty, Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel came on to pitch three innings of perfect (hitless and walkless) baseball, and the Nationals went down to defeat in Atlanta, 3-1.
Of course, one of the reasons the Braves’ bullpen is good is that they follow a solid starting staff. On Wednesday, the starter-of-choice was Derek Lowe, the tough veteran who has had his ups-and-downs, but who seems to match up well against the Anacostia Nine. Wednesday was no different. Lowe pitched a solid, if not brilliant, six innings. He gave up just three hits while striking out six.
While Nats’ skipper Davey Johnson criticized his team for not being aggressive at the plate, he praised Lowe. “He kept the ball down pretty much all night,” Johnson said. “I thought he really had command of the outside corner. He pitched a good ballgame. We didn’t get much offensively. I like us being aggressive. I thought we got some pitches to hit, but some days it’s like that.”
But Johnson’s most effusive praise was reserved for Braves’ relievers, fast becoming acknowledged as the best in baseball. “Their back side of the bullpen has been almost unhittable. You have to get the Braves pretty early,” Johnson said. The truth is in the stats: O’Flaherty picked up his 25th hold, Venters his 28th, while Kimbrel notched his 41st save. Kimbrel’s save set a rookie record.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: For some reason, the Braves have always produced good power hitters. The current generation’s long ball artist, Chipper Jones, compares well with Braves’ great Eddie Mathews who (if it weren’t for Mike Schmidt) would be considered the best hitting third baseman of all time. There’s also Henry Aaron (of course), who defined greatness for the Braves.
It wasn’t so long ago (the Nationals were playing out in Los Angeles, to be specific) that we wrote about walk-off grand slam home runs. They’re really, really unusual — a walk-off grand slam that results in a single run victory has happened (by our count) just 25 times in major league history. A two out walk-off grand slam is even more unusual. And, as we noted in our previous post, an inside the park walk-off grand slam home run has happened just once.
Which makes last night’s walk-off grand slam off the bat of Brian Bogusevic in Houston (albeit, on a 2-2 and not a 3-2 count, but wouldn’t that be something) even more special. The fact that thousands more watched it live than normally would have (during an MLB “live look-in”) is stunning.
The GWRBI (GS) came off the arm of Chicago reliever Carlos Marmol and sent the fans in Houston into ecstasy, and it was a bomb: Bogusevic scorched the ball to dead center and it hit above the yellow home run line in Minute Maid Park. A shot. The grand slam gave the Astros a 6-5 victory.
That’s five walk-offs in a single night in baseball, equaling the season record of five set back in late May. Still . . . still, the Houston walk-off was the most uplifting (so to speak) and jaw-dropping. Oh, and Bogusevic’s walk-off grand slam was hit by a pinch hitter . . .
So here’s the thinking, or presumably so: because the Nationals are near dead last in hitting in the majors, the powers that be have decided to shift the batting order, moving players in and out of the lead-off spot and juggling through a series of middle-order options in an attempt to “get the bats going.” Nothing seems to have worked, though sometimes (as with putting Jayson Werth up top), the attempts have been pretty creative. The most recent thinking is that what the Nationals really need is a good lead-off hitter, a set-up guy that would allow big-bangers like Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse (and, ostensibly, a revived Werth), to drive him in.
The thinking isn’t all the bad, though it comes with some caveats — it’s made on the assumption that Roger “The Shark” Bernadina is not built to lead-off, that the Werth experiment was more an attempt to get him going than to really fill a top-of-the-order need and (embarrassingly), Rick Ankiel just hasn’t worked out. Which leaves the Nats where they are: searching for a lead-off hitter with a high OBP who can also play centerfield. The latter requirement is apparently the result of front office thinking that Bernadina who sometimes is (but mostly isn’t) the team’s go-to guy at the top of the order. Three names have been mentioned.
The most recent is Julio Borbon, the Texas Rangers’ sometime lead-off guy who is currently playing in Triple-A for the Round Rock Express — “an athletic position player” who (whether he worked in the lead-off spot or not) could hit for average, get on base, be a threat on the base paths and be a solid defensive outfielder. Borbon might be a good choice, and perhaps cost less than the other two names mentioned: the Rays’ B.J. Upton or the Astros’ Michael Bourn. The problem with both of these latter “solutions” is that they would be expensive — with teams around the league apparently agreed that the player-to-get would be reliever Tyler Clippard, one of the very best set-up men in the game.
When the MLB-best Philadelphia Phillies roared into town on Monday with Doc Halladay (he of the 2.56 ERA) scheduled to be on the hill, the woeful Nats line-up had every right to be shaking in the their boots. But despite their .230 team batting average the Nats held their own by slamming three homers and totaling 10 hits on the day. Even so, they went down in a 5-4 defeat.
But another one-run loss needn’t have been the ultimate result given the beautiful chance the home town nine had to put some points on the board in the seventh. Down by a run the Nationals had runners on first and third with no outs — thanks to a lead off double by Alex Cora and a bunt single by Ian Desmond. With the Phillies infield playing in, the Nats had Cora running on the crack of the bat. Unfortunately, Rick Ankiel delivered a swinging bunt back to the box and Hallady fielded it cleanly, delivered another strike to the plate and catcher Carlos Ruiz relayed the ball to third-sacker Placido Polanco who put the tag on Cora. The unusual 1-to-2-5 play took the wind out of the Nats’ sails and they never threatened again.
Was it bad luck that Cora was running on contact — or a bad call by Riggleman? My guess is neither. Forget about luck. If you make enough plays you’ll win. And it wasn’t a bad call; it was an aggressive one. And it’s just what the Nats need. If Ankiel’s grounder was a couple of feet to the left Halladay doesn’t reach it . . . and it dribbles toward second. Score tied.
It wasn’t meant to be: the Nats didn’t help themselves with seven strike outs, including one for each of the top five spots in the lineup (Espinosa K’d twice). The Nationals are second in the majors in strikeouts with 412 for the year and that may be part of the problem. When a team strikes out 25 percent of the time, the ball isn’t put in play often enough — and there aren’t Nats on base to make good things happen. If you strike out, you can’t hit and run, or steal a base. When you strike out, you don’t have the opportunity to make your own good luck. And that’s what the Nats need right about now.
You can’t mention the words Milwaukee Brewers without adding “surging” — as in, the “surging” Milwaukee Brewers. After taking three from the Colorado Rockies that left the Helton’s reeling, the Brewers decided that they’d had enough of Corey Hart’s 0 for 11 start of the season, and the big bopping right fielder victimized the Nationals with three home runs and seven RBIs.
But even without Hart’s heroics, the Nationals would have fallen to the Brewers’ bats: the Anacostia Nine accounted for eight hits (which included a Michael Morse dinger) and just three runs — but the game was not as close as the final 11-3 score indicated. Without pitching the team is starting to look like road kill to the rest of the National League. Washington starter Tom Gorzelanny looked particularly ineffective on Monday, giving up eight hits and six runs over five innings. The Brewers, meanwhile, are just three games behind the Cardinals in the N.L. Central, as the Reds have dropped six in a row.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines:Adam LaRoche was put on the 15-day DL with a sore shoulder. But it might be worse than fifteen days. Isn’t there a pattern here somewhere? Last year, Jason Marquis had much the same problem, tried to play through it — and couldn’t. It took a second year for the free agent signing to work out. With Ryan Zimmerman out until June, LaRoche sidelined and Rick Ankiel rehabbing, the Nationals are playing with one-third of the starting line-up they started with in April . . . Stephen Strasburg is now throwing off a mound, which means that he’s playing catch off a mound, not pitching off of one. Hey great. See you in 2012 . . .
Book ‘Em Danno: Joe Torre, MLB’s head of baseball operations has fined Nats’ G.M. Mike Rizzo an undisclosed amount of cash for confronting umpires after Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Mets in New York. Rizzo and Nats’ catcher Ivan Rodriguez were upset with a call on Jayson Werth that snuffed out a late inning Nationals rally, and confronted the umpiring crew in a stadium tunnel after the game. Rizzo had no comment on the fine, except to say that he would always stick up for his team and organization. “I’ve always got the manager’s, the coaches’ and the players’ back,” Rizzo told a reporter. “Whenever I need to put myself on the line to do so, that’s my job, so I’m willing to do it.”
Ya just gotta love Mikey (and we sure do), but maybe he’s gotta bigger problems than umpires. Yardbarker has put together stats on Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche’s slumps and concluded that the first two months of the season are actually “among the worst months these guys have ever had.” A quick scan of the stats shows this is probably so; and leads us to the conclusion that as statistics are only terrific when predicting past performances, they show what we’ve been saying all along: Adam LaRoche needs shoulder surgery, and Jayson Werth needs Ryan Zimmerman . . .
You can’t blame Nationals fans for celebrating: after two embarrassing shutout losses in New York, the Nationals rapped out nineteen hits and scored 17 runs in a badly needed win against their rival Orioles. Danny Espinosa was the team’s heaviest hitter, going 3-4 and notching five RBIs. The Nats’ power surge also included home runs by Jayson Werth (who had two), Roger Bernadina, Laynce Nix, Wilson Ramos — and of course Espinosa. That’s six Nationals’ home runs in one game, something that Nationals fans never see.
Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter was philosophical about the loss: “I think it was probably a given they were going to hit better as the season progresses. It’s just unfortunate it was against us.” That was probably news for Nats’ fans, who have been increasingly critical of the anemic line-up and wondering when things were going to change. But Friday’s game was a sign that perhaps the Nationals have gotten on track. Jayson Werth seems to think so: “I think everybody knows we have been struggling with the bats and not getting hits,” he said in the visitor’s clubhouse following the win. “It has been a long time coming. We have a good team. Hopefully we can build on this and keep going.”
Unfortunately for Washington, starter Jason Marquis didn’t stay in the game long enough to profit from the Nats’ outburst. The Nationals’ righty, who has returned to the form he showed for the Colorado Rockies’ in 2009, was pulled by Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman after four — and was damned mad about it, showing his emotion in the dugout after he was lifted. Riggleman said he’d never seen Marquis so angry. Marquis shrugged off the incident: “I want to be out on the field, battling out there with the teammates,” he said. “It’s a one-game thing. So I’m going to go out there, do my work like I always do, prepare for the fifth day, take that ball and be ready to get a W.”
But the story of the game was the Nationals at the plate: the 17 runs were a Nationals record, and nearly every slumping player contributed: Ian Desmond was 2-6, Wilson Ramos was 3-4 and Jayson Werth brought his batting average to .247. And despite the lifting of Jason Marquis (he simply looked ineffective), the Nationals got a solid three innings performance from maybe-he-can-hit-the-strike-zone after all Henry Rodriguez.
The other piece of good news (though it’s almost, dare we say, predictable now) is the Nationals were perfect in the field. Which is pretty good commentary on the game: when the team puts it altogether, they look almost (almost) unbeatable.
