Guardado to a Minor League Deal

If there is one thing Eddie isn't, it's everyday. Most 39 year old "athletes" with his body type are long done with professional sports, though there are exceptions (David Wells). He gave the 2-seamer/cutter a shot last year to extend his career and scrapped it mid-season. His velocity is way down across the board, especially on his slider, and his release point is all over the place.

I see him being a valuable set-up man under two conditions. First, if he figures out that 2-seamer/cutter; he needs to be able to occasionally get out right-handed hitters. And second, if he can share a little of his baseball IQ and experience with the band of young misfits running around Nats Park. Most likely, he gets a shot or two early, struggles with command and velocity, and sees much the same results as Ron Villone.

Riggleman Makes Another Boner

The seventh inning got out of hand in a hurry. It started off nicely, with Clippard getting two quick ground out, then plunking Chase Utley. These things happen. However, after just 7 pitches, Riggleman lifted Clippard for Burnett. If this was going to be an option, why not bring in Burnett to face Utley as well? The logistics of making the move at THAT point escape me a little. Burnett battled, but eventually walked both to load the bases. Not great, but considering neither produced a run, not a loss... yet.

Now it is decision time. Bases loaded, two out, two righties left in the bullpen (because lefties are not an option against Jayson Werth): Jason Bergmann and Mike MacDougal. Maybe three if you want to roll out Saul Rivera. We will ignore some of the dead AA weight in the pen, like Zegovia, Kensing, etc. One of these pitchers is an accomplished fly ball pitcher with a history of gopherballs. The other is a sound ground ball pitcher with a reputation of walking too many hitters. The fact is that this season, Bergamnn has struggled with his control and has a similar BB/9 ratio to MacDougal. Unless you are going to test the moxie of one of the rookies, the smart money is on the guy who can keep the ball in the park. Riggleman chose wrong.

The argument that maybe he was saving him for the ninth holds no water, as the Nats were losing by a run. The only way to make the ninth relevant was to not give up four runs on one swing of the bat.

Ron Villone, Lefty Specialist?

Nats fans were treated to an extra special bullpen implosion last night, featuring a cameo from Nati-pos legend Livan Hernandez. Personally, I like the move for the remainder of the season. Livan is clearly a hittable, AAAA caliber pitcher at this point of his career, but he has destroyed the Nats this season. He has the unique ability to weather a shelling when his pitches aren't doing what they are supposed to and stay in a game 6+ innings. This move should save the kids' (Lannan, Stammen, Balester, Mock, and Martin) down the stretch. Plus, I have so many good fat jokes that have gone waste without Dmitri Young to kick around... Ronnie Belly-ard should not have to feel the wrath every day.

The bullpen, on the other hand... yikes. OK, they were not spotted a lead. Jay Bergmann came in and did his job, allowing 2 H, 1 R, against the Cubs top of the order. Though had he not put Koyie Hill on base, he may have been able to avoid the 3-4 guys.

To start the the next inning, Riggleman made the classic mistake of "playing to their weakness" instead of "playing to his strength." Fukudome does not hit lefty pitching AT ALL. Villone, however, cannot retire lefty hitting AT ALL. Riggleman chose his weakness and was granted with a rally starting single.

There is no use piling on Jorge Sosa. This is the type of pitcher he is, a tweener who never developed the repertoire to become a starter, but lacks the consistency to be trusted in relief. And honestly, he has been fine when entrusted with a lead, but he has really struggled in non-save/hold situations. It is little early to kick him to the curb; he is 100x better than Logan Kensing. Get him a lead and see if he gets his head in the game.

The most frustrating part of the whole ordeal is Riggleman pulling Bergmann after he had slammed the door on Lee and Ramirez the inning before. The strength in that matchup would have been to challenge Fukudome with the better pitcher, rather than making an unnecessary personnel move to attempt to play to the opponents weakness. Instead, Villone lumbers out of the pen and six runs later the lead is insurmountable.

Villone, with his inability to get lefties out is like a man without a trade. The Nats keep setting him up for failure by sending him into get nickle-and-dimed to death. Bring him into a longer relief role, and he'll eventually get pounded by righties, too. There is no easy solution, and it isn't like he is serving up bombs. Two baserunners per inning is unacceptable at any level, and while it may not be showing up in his own stats, he is putting more pressure on the rest of the bullpen. Much like Livan Hernandez, he is probably best suited to eat low leverage innings and leave the LOOGY work to Sean Burnett.

Great Relievers

* Converted to reliever

* Deceptive delivery

* Devastating changeup

* Closer mentality

Who am I talking about? Trevor Hoffman or Tyler Clippard? See, you didn't know right away. Clippard was swapped from the Yankees last season, and the organization immediately began transitioning him to a reliever. After dominating AAA competition, he has stepped into broken bullpen and taken the ball in almost every type of situation. The results have been nearly 3 K/BB and a sub 1.00 WHIP. To say he has been the Nats best reliever is like saying Teddy is the worst racing president. A decision going forward will have to be made as to who is going to close games next season. While I would prefer such a valuable commodity not get pigeonholed into a role that may not see many opportunities, away from other high leverage situations, Clippard belongs in the closer's role.

Hell, Hoffman was even drafted as a SS, suffered a couple serious arm injuries, and has continued to own the 9th. MacDougal is a great comeback story, but going forward, Clippard should own the 9th when possible.

Bullpen Issues

* How is Jorge Sosa different than anybody DFAed? In fact, I'm pretty sure Jesus Colome just stole a new identity.

* Logan Kensing was awful his first stint, and has been awful this time up.

* Who gets moved to the pen when JZimm comes off the DL? Kensing likely goes to Syracuse, and I'm guessing Stammen will get relegated as his innings get up there.

100th Post- Lots Going On...

I was going to discuss the closed polls results, and how three of the four options had been rendered obsolete. However, Mr. Rizzo has been busy, closing a couple deals.

Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan for Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett

The easiest thing to do is to break this into two separate trades, OF for OF, P for P. From the Nationals perspective, given the players involved, it was an offer Rizzo couldn't refuse. The two areas that needed to be addressed were the bullpen and the defense. Nyjer Morgan more than addresses the defense. He can play CF if necessary, which will allow the Nats to keep Dunn, Willingham, and Dukes fresh in the corners. Harris loses out the most in the deal, as he will probably see his playing time cut in half. Burnett is Rizzo's dream... a left-handed, ground-ball, relief pitcher. He has battled back from injury to become a solid major league reliever and will be under control for a couple more seasons. He will benefit from working with two veteran LOOGYs in Villone and Beimel.

So what did the Nats give up? Starting with Hanrahan, since fans have been dealing with his shenanigans all season. Hanrahan was great last year, but pretty well abused. 84 innings of relief on 69 appearances is a number relievers build toward. Hanrahan had been a starter in 2006 and 2007. Basically, Hanrahan could get back to his 2008 form with a couple months off, but does that even make him as valuable to the Nats as Burnett? Villone is 40. Not quite. Lastings Milledge, on the other hand, doesn't need rest. Who knows what he needs... for him to make up for his defensive deficiencies, he needs to hit as well the premier corner outfielder in the league. Nick Markakis is a good young comp. Does anyone believe that is possible for Milledge? Sure, maybe for a couple months, but he is a natural underachiever, a tease. Guys like JD Drew show flashes of their potential, but rarely put it together for 162 games, and that the player the optimists refuse to see in Milledge. However, after watching him play first hand for a few years, the patterns are obvious.

It is difficult to criticize the Nats for making this move. Milledge offered the current major league roster nothing. Hanrahan had been banished to the mop-up role. Burnett will pitch high-leverage innings and Morgan will start in the outfield five days a week. Honestly, what are the Pirates going to do with the players they got? This trade gets a solid B+ for now and really will not look bad unless Milledge turns into Sammy Sosa.

...

Man, does Elijah Dukes ever field a ball cleanly in the outfield? Stammen's third time through the order woes continue, further indicating that he may have more work to do in AAA before formally claiming a rotation spot for next season. Not sure what is wrong with Nick Johnson, but he isn't showcasing his talent very well for contenders right now... Guzman has made up for a rough outing at the plate with a great dive and throw early in the game. Zimmerman, on the other hand... woof, 3 error games aren't helping the pitchers, especially the relievers. Clippard may not have the stuff to be effective for long runs, though his delivery can be deceptive enough to kill AAA guys.

...

To the poll. The Nats have officially addressed the bullpen. Colome and Tavarez are crappy guys, but almost every team has one of them. Teams try to get a few innings out of them before they wear out their welcome. Manny isn't going to be fired in the immediate future, and Rizzo has earned the right to see his handiwork through. The Nationals haven't dealt Nick Johnson, and have made a few moves that may make that unnecessary. Tough to really say what additional moves can be made to improve a team that dominates innings 1-5, but then stagger back to the clubhouse two out of three times. I'll try to think of a new poll, maybe two.

The symmetry for The Bombs is beautiful, 50 posts in May, 50 in June... it will be difficult to keep that pace through July, but the staff at The Bombs will try.

Scott Olsen Goes 7 Deep

Disappointing the bullpen imploded again (yes, 3 walks and 2 extra base hits to get 3 outs fits the description). This is doubly disappointing, as Marlins scrap heap find Dan Meyer appeared in his 37th game of the year and escaped without yielding his eighth earned run.

Olsen, on the other hand, probably shocked everybody associated with the organization by finding his fastball/slider combo and embarrassing the Marlins for seven innings, really only slipping up while facing the bottom of the Marlins order in the third. I hope to get the pitch f/x on this this week to see if this was 2006 Scott Olsen coming back, or a flash in the pan performance because he's pissed at the Marlins.

Who knows with these characters...

More Moves

Scott Olsen in, Shairon Martis to Syracuse

It was inevitable that Scott Olsen was going to take someone's spot. The assumption was that it should be Jesus Colome's spot, moving Stammen to the bullpen, and that made sense based on Colome's numbers. However, Stammen is just beginning to get comfortable as a starter. He is still prone to the big inning, but is striking batters out at a reasonable rate and getting to the seventh inning occasionally. Stammen will be removed from the rotation at some point, but more likely to be shut down for the season.

Martis, on the other hand, has been laboring mightily since his shutout of the Cardinals May 2nd. He has basically been the right-handed Barry Zito. He isn't striking anyone out, he's walking too many, and he is throwing too many pitches per inning. His stuff is not unacceptable; he has just gotten into the habit of nibbling and isn't consistently hitting his spots. The demotion will give him a chance to pitch more aggressively without the fear of getting pounded by the likes of Raul Ibanez.

The key here, believe it or not, is keeping Colome on the roster. He is more or less scrap heap, so he has no trade value and the Nats don't really have a stake in whether or not they abuse him. Joel Hanrahan, on the other hand, has some potential and trade value. He is still young, and if he can get his slider/changeup worked out (right now they are the same pitch), his fastball will not be pounded. Whether or not Hanrahan is hurting is irrelevant (though his workload last year is daunting); the Nationals do not want him to be perceived as a AAAA pitcher, especially since he cannot be demoted to AAA to work on his stuff. In the meantime, the Nats will want to work him into low leverage situations and limit his innings. Having Colome around will allow them to do that.

Odds are, Hanrahan will be back to his 2008 form sometime before next season. Martis will find his way back to the rotation soon enough, whether it's because Hanrahan gets moved, Colome get demoted, somebody gets hurt, etc. He is a baby by starting pitcher standards and the time on the farm will be better for his long term health.

I give this move a B+, actually. They had no choice bringing Olsen back, and showed some decent foresight protecting two of their better assets.

More Poor Tactical Decisions

I know the Nats are short on quality relievers, but why MacDougal Saturday night, down two in the ninth with the bottom of the order coming up? Sunday is a day game, so rest will be shorter if they need him to go more than three outs in the heat. Yes, he has only pitched once since June 20th, but all the more reason to get him into the game Sunday, like with a chance win.

I'm not sure who calls the shots keeping the bullpen fresh, but Hanrahan's arm is dead (more on that shortly) and Tavarez is likely to be the next to start getting fatigued.

Clippard Up

Wells down.

Can't say that I am surprised. Wells is a failed starter who was failing in every capacity as a reliever. Unable to throw strikes is no way to go through life, son.

Clippard was closing at Cuse, so in the off chance MacDougal needs a day off (that would be a good thing) or implodes (bad thing), he will probably be given the first shot. Everyone else in the pen has already failed to some degreee.

If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say...

Then don't say anything at all... at least that is what my mom used to tell me.

Of course, this has to be in reference to the Nats bullpen, which was up to its old tricks last night. The problem appears to be that these guys do not have an "out" pitch. Hell, MacDougal has just taken to throwing his fastball every time. And it's working for him. Most power relievers rely on either a plus slider or changeup to offset their fastball. The problem with guys like Wells, Hanrahan, Villone, and the scores of pitchers sent away, is that they are struggling to get strikes with their secondary pitches. This is why they are getting swatted. Villone was good for several weeks before he lost the touch on his slider.

Sadly, Julian Tavarez has emerged as a useful cog because he has secondary junk. He just isn't good enough to be relied upon for an extended period of time. The bullpen is improving as guys like Beimel and MacDougal have a defined role and can execute. But until they can get back down to eleven reliable pitchers (six bullpen guys), sending these one pitch guys out there for three or more innings will always have opposing batters salivating over the next fastball.

The Bullpen Nails One Down

Well, John Lannan deserved this one. I know the dozens of people watching at home cringed when Manny emerged from the dugout and signaled for a reliever. It got dicey when Brett Gardner started running wild (stole on a pitchout, not easy) and MacDougal lost A-Rod. But MacDougal trusts his stuff, and he's worked the end game before. Cano had been lighting up the Nats, but he kept railing him with that fastball, and Cano kept stabbing, hoping for a mistake. I was hoping he change his plane, get him chasing a high fastball or one low and away, but he kept putting it knee-high, 4 inches out, 96 mph and tailing away. Finally, Cano did what he was supposed to, rolling the designed double play ball to second.

They get Joba today at lunch. The Nats got their one to avoid the sweep, and can fluster Chamberlain by working longer counts.

Rays the Series Preview

No Steaks, just baseball nonsense.

Friday: Craig Stammen vs. Matt Garza

Saturday: Jordan Zimmermann vs. Andy Sonnanstine

Sunday: Ross Detwiler vs. James Shields

To put the last week in perspective, if you remove the high and low values, the Nats are averaging a little over a run and a half per game (overall, it was 17 runs in 8 games, 7 coming during Lannan’s CG). That makes winning very difficult. The pitching staff has held up their end of the bargain, giving up just 3.5 runs/game (removing the high and low values). Lower scoring games are more manageable, but holy crap guys. Manufacture a run. It looks like the Nats bullpen may finally have rounded into form, though I think Colome or Tavarez will get the boot once Kip Wells returns. This is extremely good news.

The Rays are much better than their .500 record indicates and should have no problem taking at least two of three, though a sweep is likely. Now that they have moved Kazmir to the DL, their rotation is deeper than almost anyone, especially if they don’t allow Andy Sonnanstine to pitch on the road. Their weakness, which the Nats can pounce on, is their bullpen. It isn’t awful, but they just aren’t as effective as last season. The Nats, scored 6 of their seven runs in the Reds’ series after the fifth inning. If this is trend, they may be able to steal a game or two.

In steps Lee Corso: NOT SO FAST. The Rays are the highest scoring team in baseball and sport the second highest run differential in the league… and they are at home. Corso then puts on a Ray Romano mask and the home crowd goes wild.

The important thing for the Nats will be if J Zimm gets his pitches. After pitching in the rain last Thursday after the rain out, his schedule was off so the skipped start was probably a wise decision. Hopefully he continues to throw strikes. Adam Dunn will be at DH, which should vastly improve the defense, and the turf should help the infield out. This give Manny fewer options in the outfield, but Willingham, Harris, and Dukes would be the most productive bet for all three games.

The Nats are my Ray of cloud on a sunny day...

Amazing...

The lack of accountability is staggering. First there was the Colome/Zimmermann/Hernandez debacle... apparently the Nats do not take infield practice.

Then last night happened. Detweiler came in and did exactly what he needed to do. He threw strikes, he got people to swing and miss, and he got to his spot in the batting order a second time. He went to showers in position to collect his first win, despite the shoddy defense behind him. Then the bullpen attacked... all of them. Nobody should escape the wrath. Seriously, is David Cone out there? There has to be an explanation.

It is a simple lack of accountability. There isn't any punishment for not being prepared, for lack of focus. Relievers jaunt in out of the pen without a plan. Stranding runners, strategically allowing the run to get an extra out... no plan, just wayward pitches. Granted, the Nats have trotted a few pitchers not capable of getting major league hitter out... that is on management. But most of these guys have been around the block and have done this job before.

Ryan Wagner retired. His numbers did not reflect it, but he was improving and getting closer. He is still young and hopefully his shoulder gets right and he gives it another go, Chris Hammond-style. Seriously though, if your only motivation was to play with this dysfunctional bunch, would you fight the pain?

Nationals Baseball

Where games feature four blown saves that result in a tie to be finished two months later.

Bullpen Woes

Could it be that Houston has worse issues? The sixth inning has been generous, yielding five last night, six today.

Of course, he who taketh also giveth away, this time in the form of Julian Tavarez, who hopefully will be out of baseball again by the end of the week. He is one of the few pitchers on the roster who can strike anyone out, but he has now given up 12 runs in less than 11 innings. Bring on Ron Villone!