Dibble's Comment on "Quality starts"

Rob Dibble talks out his ass for a few minutes out of each telecast, but it really what they pay him to do. And it is better that the team's color guy is a straight shooter than somebody who gushes over everybody and everything. He did make an interesting point about how MLB defines quality starts.

A quality start is defined when a starting pitcher pitches at least 6 innings and gives up 3 or fewer earned runs. He then went on to state his case that Jordan Zimmerman, despite his first inning struggle, made a quality start and got his team back in the game. Sorry Rob, just like how MLB defines wins, saves, etc., you can't argue quality starts... or any statistic for that matter. But the fact is, once he served up those balls for Kemp and Blake, he retired 16 of 19 batters, and even threw a double play ball in there to quell a rally in the 6th. Six runs is not insurmountable, and by working several quick innings, he lulled the Dodgers to sleep, and once Wolf was off the hill, the Nats' bats woke up. Even the ball Kemp hit out wasn't a bad pitch, low and away; Kemp is a beast and will occasionally do that.

The Nats are now 8-11-1 since sending Milledge down, with that 1 being in good shape to add to the 8 in a few months.

Dibble made one other observation about Angel Campos tightening up the strike zone once the game got close. I doubt it was a conscious decision, and I disagree with Dibble's assessment; the strike zone was fine later in the game. Some umpires will call a blowout more liberally just to keep the game moving, prevent tempers from flaring. It plays to the advantage of the pitchers, and the Dodgers relievers didn't seem to take advantage of the edges of the plate.

Good win... now let's dump all this steroid talk in LA for some old fashioned managerial turmoil in the desert. AJ Hinch is a smart guy. Oakland pitchers used to lobby Art Howe to get him behind the plate even though he couldn't hit a lick. Once the Big Three came up, they worked exclusively with Ramon Hernandez and Rick Peterson, and Hinch's baseball IQ was expendable. Should be an interesting series.