Diamond Nuggets for 3/07/10

Spit and Vinegar:  Grizzled veteran Jamie Moyer is in Phillies camp this spring after three surgeries since the end of last season. The 47 year old went under the knife to repair three torn muscles in his groin and abdomen – injured in a late September relief outing. The $8 million man will join just 14 other players to compete in four decades. Moyer began his career in 1986 with the same Cubbies team that featured Ryne Sandberg and Ron Cey. To give some indication of his toughness, assuming an average 100 pitches per start (since I’m not counting some 60 relief appearances), Moyer has thrown 60,000-plus pitches in his career. 

Trivia Time: Which of Moyer’s teammates on that 1986 club went on to win two World Series Championships with another team?   

Swing and Miss? In the bottom of the second inning of a Cincinnati/Cleveland pre season game on Friday Redlegs right fielder Jay Bruce was called for a swinging third strike. Ordinarily that shouldn’t be a cause of dispute but Bruce’s wrists never broke and his hands hadn’t gone through the plane of the plate. But his bat did. In Bruce’s attempt to check his swing his bat broke in half and the top portion missed the pitch for strike three.  Bruce is a big kid, but I gotta believe it was the narrow bat handle that was the culprit. 

Say What? I guess the good ol days of players coining a phrase like “hit ‘em where they ain’t” or “give him some chin music” are long gone. The players are better educated than they’ve ever been and maybe the game’s gotten too sophisticated – or we have. But things may have hit a new low this week when a term best associated with Hegelian philosophy crept into the baseball lexicon. In response to a question about the growing trend of veteran players vying for a job as non-roster invitees outfielder Cory Sullivan told a USA Today scribe that it’s just part of the business now.  “It’s the zeitgeist of baseball,” he said.  Where’s Tom Hanks when you need him? 

“There’s no zeitgeist in baseball!”

Trivia Answer: Which of Moyer’s teammates on that 1986 club went on to win two World Series Championships with another team? Terry Francona, manager of the 2004 and 2007 Boston Red Sox. C’mon. You knew there’d be one Red Sox reference here didn’t you?

It’s not often you see a walk off grand slam in person — so it’s easy to get giddy. And that’s exactly what happened here in Washington. During Wednesday night’s post game radio gabfest (which followed the Nats’ dramatic grand slam walk off over the loathed Mets), callers predicted “big things” for the Anacostia Nine: ”With these young guys, we should be in the wild card hunt next year,” one said. Another chirped in: “We’re only a couple of pieces away.” That last little phrase bears reflection, especially since we’ve heard it alot lately. In fact, we’ve even heard from team officials. “We are tremendously excited. The next big step is right there to be taken,” Stan Kasten told Thomas Boswell in today’s Washington Post. “This is not a great year if you want a Sabathia or Mark Teizeira. But the players who are available are just what we need: a veteran starter in the rotation, two more arms in the bullpen and a middle infielder who helps our defense.”

Well, Stan oughta know. Right? But you have to wonder, honestly, if what he (or some of our giddy fans) think is really true. Are the Nats really only one or two players away from contending? Or even three or four?

Just as Justin “Walk Off” Maxwell was crossing home plate in Washington on Wednesday night, up the road in Philadelphia, the Phuzzies were putting ten runs on the board to capture their third consecutive N.L. East Division Championship. While the Phillies clinched (and fairly easily, at that), no one in Philadelphia thinks they’re a shoo-in to capture their second World Series. There’s good reason for the skepticism. The Phillies can’t find a dependable back-of-the-bullpen guy (Brad Lidge has blown eleven save opportunities), they strike out too much in key situations (Ryan Howard hits ‘em long, or not at all) and one of their most dependable starters, Jamie Moyer, is finished for the post-season. Of course, Nats’ fans can be forgiven for taking this amiss: the Phillies are in the playoffs, and for the long-suffering D.C. red-and-blues that ought to be enough. Philadelphia should just stop whining and play the game.

But here’s the deal: while hobbled and uncertain and filled with angst (and now not picked to take it all), the Phillies are a tough, smart, experienced and deep team. They’re the kind of team that regularly gets in the playoffs. What will it take for the Nats to do the same? What would it take for Rizzo’s Nine to become Ruben’s Nine?  The one piece of good news is that the Nats have a head start: we have hitters — and they compare well with the biggest boppers in the Phillies’ line-up. Or do they? The Nats have two guys (Zimmerman and Dunn) with over thirty home runs this year. The Phillies have four: Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez. Their shortstop, Jimmie Rollins, has had an off year: he’s hit only 21. So Phillies fans (awake at night; worried – tossing and turning) keep asking: what is it that we have to do to get Jimmy Rollins back on track? Here’s an idea: trade him to the Nats. We’ll take 21 homers from a shortstop, or fifteen. Hell, we’d take ten. And we wouldn’t call it a slump.

Then there’s the pitching. The Nats are only a couple of pitchers away from contending. That isn’t bad really. I mean, think of all we’ve developed so far. Why, there’s John Lannan and there’s . . . ah, John Lannan . . . and there’s . . . well, there’s Stephen Strasburg (maybe) and Jordan Zimmermann (when — and if – he gets healthy), and there’s Craig Stammen and J.D. Martin and Ross Detwiler. So it’s true: if all works out as planned, the Nats will have a steady starting staff. But let’s not kid ourselves: even if all goes as planned it won’t happen next year, and maybe not the year after. Right now, the Nats have John Lannan, who’s good enough to go 17-9 on a good ball club. But that’s it. John Lannan (I’m with ya John, I’m all for ya), is – - what — we — have. What do the Phillies have?

They have a pretty decent starting staff, despite the problems they’ve had with it this year: Cole Hamels and J.A. Happ and Joe Blanton are all top of the rotation guys and any Nats fan would love to have any of them. But Philadelphia (just for the record) wasn’t satisfied with just those guys: so in mid-season they signed up future hall of famer Pedro Martinez and traded for Cleveland ace Cliff Lee. And it’s a good thing they did, because their innings eating get-em-on-the-outside corner bioman (Jamie Moyer) went down with a lower abdominal strain. That’s alright: the Phillies starting staff is so deep they actually might not need J.A. Happ in the starting rotation for the playoffs. He’s not good enough. Can you imagine? He’s not good enough – and he could be the N.L Rookie of the year.

Then there’s the bullpen. The Phillies are worried about their bullpen and they should be. Brad Lidge is suffering, Ryan Madson doesn’t seem cut out for the closer’s job and the rest of them (the tough middle of the game guys) are good, certainly better than average — but you wouldn’t want them closing games. So the bullpen is a mess: but it’s better than Washington’s — and not by a little bit. Park and Romero and Walker and Meyers (Meyers!) and all of those guys who come in and pitch and pitch and pitch: there are teams in this league who would kill to have them, any of them. Including the Nats. 

So here’s the arithmetic, though admittedly it’s very unscientific. For the Nats to be the Phillies (that is, not to just contend, but to have a shot at winning the N.L. Least — perhaps the least competitive division in baseball), they (we!) need two more 30-plus home run hitters, a shortstop  in a slump (who only hits 20), three more starters (and maybe more, if one goes down — as happened to the Phuzzies) and a bullpen where there are two closers (or more) and two set-up men who can carry the team through the eighth inning, plus a lot of moving pieces — including a guy who can hit a home run in the playoffs to win a game and (oh yeah), a catcher who stays healthy. And the Nats need team defense and speed and (on top of everything else) they need to have a mix of veterans and youngsters.

But don’t get me wrong: I am all for getting the “couple of pieces” that will make the Nats better. I will be there, at Nationals Park, next year, re-upped, for twenty-plus games to see the Nats carry on. And I’ll be there whether they win or lose. But that’s because I’m a fan of the Washington Nationals: not the Washington Dreamers. We’re a couple of pieces away, alright – a couple of pieces away from maybe (maybe) being a .500 ball club. Maybe.

So Let’s Put A “Curly L” In The Books: The “Jim Riggleman” era began in Washington last night, with a loss to the Chicago Cubs. Nats fans and baseball analysts and columnists who follow the team are so downhearted, however, that they seem to see no diffence between this “era” and the last. Indeed, the same plague — poor fielding and a collapsing bullpen — seem as ever present now as it did before the all star break. It’s hard to blame anyone for not noticing any difference between last night’s loss and (say) the embarrassing play of the team in Colorado and Houston. But there were, in fact, some fairly obvious differences. Cristian Guzman, for instance, seemed reenergized, snagging two tough grounders that (I can’t help feeling) he would have booted under Manny. And Alberto Gonzalez went two for three at the plate, raising his batting average to .342. Take a bow Manny. Alberto’s hitting is a confirmation of the ex-Manager’s judgment that the kid at second is now ready for prime time, a decision that Riggleman has (thankfully) endorsed. As for Guzman, I get the impression that Riggleman had a little chat with him — or maybe he didn’t have to. 

The NL “Least”: The Nats are the only team in the NL East to not be playing an inter-division rival. While last night’s head-to-head games were hardly the last that the Phuzzies, Chokes, Phish and Chops will have with each other (or with our Anacostia Boys), they were emblamatic of the kinds of knock-down-drag-outs (or perhaps “surrenders”) that are likely to characterize the rest of the season in the NL East. New York’s tussle in Atlanta with “the Chops” not only resulted in an Atlanta win, it symbolized the kinds of problems the ailing New York 9 is having. Chipper Jones stroked an RBI single in the seventh to break a 3-3 deadlock and the Braves went on to win 5-3 in nine. The new Mets’ savior, Jeff Francoeur, went 0-4, with an infield single that scored a run. That’s about standard for the whiney Francoeur, who was swapped for the appropriately named Ryan Church in a straight-up trade of “we-don’t-want-him-anymore” outfielders. The Mets bullpen, a weakness last year but a strength this year, failed to hold the Chops — with the otherwise lights-out Pedro Feliciano serving up the Jones game-winning RBI in 1/3 or an inning’s work.

In Miami, the little engine that could — Jamie Moyer — hooked the Phish, holding them to one hit in seven innings of work. You have to wonder what the Marlins are going to do the rest of the way: their starting five looks suddenly vulnerable and their “closer by committee” plan hasn’t ever worked for anyone. That leaves the Phish depending on the bats of Emilio Bonafacio, Jorge Cantu, Dan Uggla, Hanley Ramirez and Jeremy Hermida to generate runs, which is not such a bad bet were it not for the fact that the Miami front five went 1 for 14 last night. Okay, so Jamie Moyer isn’t Tim Lincecum, but you see the point. Calling Moyer ”that wily and crafty veteran” doesn’t compensate for a night in which Miami failed miserably to show the Phuzzies that they were going to fight them for the division flag. 

If last night is any indication, the Mets, Marlins and Braves are going to have trouble staying with the Phillies, with the Phuzzies having the inside track on winning the division. The Mets are not only hobbled, the horses they were depending on to put them back in the post-season are not producing: David Wright has suddenly and inexplicably lost his home run stroke and no date has been set for the return of injured semi-stars Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran. And Mets fans counting on the return of Jose Reyes will just have to wait: the everyday shortstop is still nursing his nagging calf and there’s a growing feeling he might be done for the year. But that’s hardly the worst problem facing the Chokes: the team has no starting rotation outside of Johan Santana and screaming and yelling that Mike Pelfrey is the answer doesn’t make it so. He’s not. After working through the off-season to remake “the great collapsable bullpen,” Omar Minaya can feel good that the Chokes have one of the best core of relief pitchers in the game — and very little else. Certainly Minaya must be calculating his own future, knowing full well that this time the Mets’ ownership will look for someone else to fire besides the manager.

The Phish are flopping, the Chokes are choking, and the Chops are struggling. Which is to the point: in comparison to the NL West, where the Dodgers, Giants and Rockies are likely to fight it out for the division flag (and the likely NL wild card birth) and in comparison to the NL Central — where only the Pirates seem out of the running — the NL East looks more like “the NL Least,” with a team that is the worst in baseball and three others that are in various states of collapse. The result is that the division will probably be sorting itself out fairly soon – especially if Philadelphia lands fireballer Roy Halladay in a trade.

But even without Halladay, the Phuzzies are putting distance between themselves and the rest of the division, with Florida five games back and Atlanta six. Halladay will be added, then, though not to finish the Phish, choke the Chokes or sink the Chops — the Phillies are looking ahead to the post-season: to the Dodgers, Cards and Giants. The disparity in talent in “the Least” is obvious: Philadelphia has everything it needs to take on the other NL contenders in the post-season, while the Braves, Marlins and Mets are trying to solve major problems. It’s painful to say it, but if the Nats had any kind of a team at all . . .