A.J. Cole getting his MLB debut. Photo AP
PSA: your 7-13 Nats are now on a pace to finish 57-105. Or about 50 games in the Wins column away from where some pundits were talking.
And now instead of our $210M stopper Max Scherzer, we’ll be giving the ball to an untested rookie A.J. Cole to stop an ugly 6-game losing streak. This is the same Cole who we saw this spring look rather hittable while giving up 9 hits and 4 walks in 10+ MLB spring innings. Of course, his track record speaks for itself at Syracuse: he’s yet to take a loss in 14 AAA starts dating to mid-last season. And he’s been on literally every single Nats prospect top 10 list since the moment he was drafted in 2010, so certainly we’re all experiencing some “prospect fatigue” with him despite the fact that he just turned 23.
Don’t get me wrong; i’m happy he’s getting a shot and look forward to seeing if his apparent lack of deception (in my eyes) can be overcome against a team of professional hitters (even if its just the Braves).
Now, that being said … why the heck are we not using Tanner Roark?
Wasn’t the WHOLE POINT of putting 5-win Roark in the long man role so that we could, you know, use him as the first alternative starter in case of injury?? That was the argument we all made, right? Instead of sticking Roark in AAA to maintain a starter’s schedule, he was (in theory) going to be available out of the pen as needed.
Except now we hear that, thanks to his basically being used now as a right-handed middle reliever (you know, the type that you can find on the waiver wire every day, or on the FA market as we speak), he’s not stretched out enough to actually make the start. Matt Williams was quoted by Chelsea James in NJ as saying that Roark could “only go 50-60” pitches before needing relief. Well … if that was the case, then give Roark the start, let him go 5 innings and THEN use Cole. Or call-up one of the “long men” in AAA who are actually suited for this role. Guys like Lively, McGregor, or Meek. No room on the 40-man you say? Well then put one or both of the guys who are on season-long/season-ending injuries (Erik Davis and Craig Stammen) to the 60-day and make the call.
I just don’t get it. Who is the better pitcher, Roark or Cole? Who has demonstrated over parts of two MLB seasons that he’s a highly effective pitcher when given the chance?
I hate to sound negative, especially with a 7-13 team that clearly has offensive issues. But don’t be surprised if Cole is shelled early, knocked out and Roark gets the d*mn ball anyways in the 3rd inning and pitches for another 4 in mop-up duty. Yeah; every team uses a 5-win starter as a mop-up guy. That’s effective use of your resources. Hey, i’ve got an idea; if you’re going to waste Roark in the pen in low-leverage middle relief appearances and then not bother to use him when you actually need him, why not just frigging trade him? Lets trade him for someone who can catch the ball when its hit to them, or can hit better than .135 (Uggla) or even .215 (Espinosa).
Generally speaking, we’re seeing a pretty “worst-case” collection of issues. The already-thinned bullpen suffered two very bad losses. Our Cy-Young quality starters have struggled. Our best hitter can’t bend his knee without pain. We may have just lost Escobar (one of the guys actually hitting) to a hand injury thanks to a patently dirty slide. And we’re depending on starters who shouldn’t even be on MLB teams. Where’s the leadership? Where’s the veterans rallying the clubhouse? Where’s the manager leading the troops? Where’s the frigging defense (22 errors in 20 games, leading the league)? Have you ever seen so many non-error defensive blunders in such a short amount of time? How do you fix this?
Rant off.
Amen. One would have thought that Roark was the #6 starter, and Treinen the #7. The one point on Roark I’ll concede is that as overworked as the bullpen has been, they can’t afford for him to start and then not be available for five days. They also can’t afford to lose Treinen out of the bullpen mix right now, either.
Should we view it as a positive that since the Nats have given up 8, 6, and 8 runs in the last three, the bar for a “quality start” for the kid is set pretty low?
I don’t know what the answers are. This team just isn’t playing good baseball right now, nor playing with any enthusiasm. For the second year in a row, the Nats have come out of spring training playing terrible defense. Perhaps it is Desmond who should be moved to 3B, as he’s looking pretty bad at SS right now.
In a related note, since we’ve now gone through more 3Bs than we can count, I guess this puts to bed once and for all the thought that Zimmerman will be moving back across the diamond. If it hasn’t happened now, it seems unlikely that it will.
And yes, like Karl noted in his last comment, I had also looked to see how Clippard is doing. I’ve got no regrets on the Escobar trade. He’s been a significant upgrade on A. Cabrera and should be a good bridge in the INF going forward. I just hope all he has are cuts. His hand/wrist jerked pretty violently.
KW
28 Apr 15 at 12:40 pm
Amen. What is the f—-n point of keeping Roark as a long guy if he can’t fill in these exact types of situations.
I like Cole and hope the team will rally around him, but Roark D-E-S-E-R-V-E-S starts like this one. It’s terrible leadership to dump Roark behind Cole (even if he does well) – what kind of message does it send to others on the team?
Andrew R
28 Apr 15 at 1:45 pm
I will concede this point (which I meant to put in the post, but will say here). I do believe that pitchers become “accustomed” to being relievers versus starters, and that the switch doesn’t necessarily happen overnight. Thanks to all the injuries, you can make the argument that the team had no choice but to ask Roark to be the new Craig Stammen … to be a 6th/7th inning righty to get the games to Barrett/Storen … and now he’s “stuck” in that role since he’s no longer on the 5-day starter schedule.
Completely agree though with the “message” this is sending. And i dunno what that message is. Unless (and this is me hedging/giving MW the benefit of the doubt) the situation is as i just noted, and Roark is completely aware and on board with what’s happening … even though he accomplished what he did last year and is now giving up starts to AAA guys.
I guess i’m thankful that Roark is a pretty team-friendly/affiable guy who is happy to be there in some ways (and I base this somewhat on my brief interactions with him at a golf event two years ago … super nice, approachable, deferential, etc). Other guys may have demanded trades (John Lannan, anyone?)
Todd Boss
28 Apr 15 at 3:04 pm
Just because Roark doesn’t complain, doesn’t mean he’s happy. The guy is a good soldier, but who knows…
Andrew R
28 Apr 15 at 3:10 pm
This comment makes me think about the old saw “clubhouse chemistry” … Jon Heyman reported that the clubhouse was “dead” the other day.
Todd Boss
28 Apr 15 at 4:44 pm
Boz went WAY out of his way to sing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” all through his chat today. There seemed to be more Nats questions than Wiz and Caps combined. I’m not panicked, but I’m concerned, with the chance of worry on the horizon. I would say that the team needs someone like Davey in the locker room, but even he couldn’t figure out what to do with the crew in 2013 when things went south.
For now, play them one at a time, guys.
KW
28 Apr 15 at 6:10 pm
Just a thought, but Roark not yet having registered a strikeout in 9.1 innings pitched this year might have something to do with this decision–not that I agree with them that it’s the right decision to pass him over.
As to what to do to fix this? Gads, there is only so much you can do when so many players are underachieving. But anyway, here are my humble suggestions:
1). Drop Werth to 7th in the order until he starts hitting. He’s KILLING this offense batting 3rd.
2). Call Taylor back up immediately–use him as a super-4th outfielder. Start him once a week each for Werth and Span and make him the top RH pinch hitter otherwise.
3). Convert Taylor Jordan to reliever at Syracuse and call him up if he pitches well in that role.
4). Assuming Escobar is not seriously hurt, release Uggla and call up Cutter Dykstra. The latter could hardly be worse and has the advantage of being a decade younger.
Otherwise, they just have to hope that Rendon gets back soon and that RZ, JZ, Strasburg, Gio, Werth, Span, Rendon & Desmond start playing better. Because if they don’t, 57-105 is not outside the realm of possibility.
Karl Kolchack
28 Apr 15 at 7:29 pm
Shocker; Cole’s given up hits to like 6 of the first 10 batters he has faced … and my grim prediction is coming true.
Todd Boss
28 Apr 15 at 8:01 pm
Eek gads…has any Nats’ minor leaguer had a worse 1st MLB start than this one. Poor Roark…what do you suppose he’s thinking as he warms up getting ready to pitch in this debacle?
Karl Kolchack
28 Apr 15 at 8:01 pm
Fire Matt Williams. Roark should have started and now he’ll be used up anyway.
Andrew R
28 Apr 15 at 8:02 pm
… Andnow its NINE to One in the second inning and guess who is warming up in the pen?!? Why its none other than Tanner Roark!
Why f*cking bother warming him up now, Matt Williams? You’re win expectancy is probably 0.001% being down 8 runs in the 2nd inning. What a disgrace.
Todd Boss
28 Apr 15 at 8:07 pm
Could not agree more Andrew.
Todd Boss
28 Apr 15 at 8:07 pm
Much as I agree that MW has been lousy this year, this debacle was Rizzo’s call. If Cole was still at Syracuse where he belongs, Roark gets the start as he should have.
Karl Kolchack
28 Apr 15 at 8:11 pm
I just don’t get this at all.
Todd Boss
28 Apr 15 at 8:17 pm
Great job by Roark stepping up, doing his job, and limiting the damage. What a way to quietly prove your point.
But I agree; I have no idea what Rizzo was trying to do here, just as I don’t know why he called up Rivero over Grace.
Meanwhile, the offense has scored seven (thus far) off Teheran and is actually threatening to show some signs of life. Could a spark actually come out of this darkness?
KW
28 Apr 15 at 9:10 pm
holy sh*t its 11-10.
Todd Boss
28 Apr 15 at 9:46 pm
Of course, Uggla goes off right after I advocate for him to be run out of town. 🙂
Karl Kolchack
28 Apr 15 at 10:28 pm
Well that was a fun game, but the heroes were Uggla, Lobaton, and Span – Des/ZImm/Werth/Harp were 2 for 17. Great win, but if those guys don’t step up, this will be a nice anecdote to a bad season.
Looks like Cole wasn’t ready…
Still… Fire MW.
Andrew R
28 Apr 15 at 11:38 pm
For the record, because I’ve rarely been right about anything this season, I did predict Uggla revenge on the last post. Very, very sweet. Whether it will be the ultimate “turning point” for the team will remain to be seen. It’s still one game at a time.
As for Cole, was this just one bad night in a bad situation, or should we ramp up the worry that he’s looking more like a AAAA guy? He certainly didn’t do anything to improve his trade value.
Martin was optioned for Cole, but presumably they’ll reverse that immediately as the bullpen threw about a thousand pitches last night (actually 119).
KW
29 Apr 15 at 5:24 am
I’m in shock, seeing the final score today. I turned it off in disgust when the Braves scored to make it 12-10, figuring that was it. Amazing.
Todd Boss
29 Apr 15 at 8:55 am
Cole looked every bit as bad as his line. 90-91, not much movement, and everything dead center of the plate and high. Of course he should get several other chances, but he didn’t look like a major league pitcher to me.
As for Roark, this move was made in spring training. Once Scherzer was signed and Roark lost his starting spot, I raised the question of whether Roark had more value to the club staying stretched out as a starter in AAA for exactly this reason. Keeping him and Treinen in the pen meant that their choices for spot starts had to be Cole or Jordan. I still think this is relevant to ask: should Roark or Treinen be sent down to AAA and get stretched out, rather than stay up in the pen. I’d be ok with either, not both, but I do think that is the right move. Otherwise we are stuck with Cole, who doesn’t look ready, or Jordan, who might be but I’d like more options.
As for Martin, I don’t think they can bring him back right away unless there is an injury. I thought the rule was that you had to stay down for 10 days.
Wally
29 Apr 15 at 9:01 am
Completely agree with andrew – nice win but I’d feel better if our main guys were driving it. Without them, we go nowhere.
Wally
29 Apr 15 at 9:03 am
On Cole … as you could tell from my rant, I was not impressed in ST with him, at all. Not enough velocity to get around mistakes, not enough movement in his pitches to miss bats, not enough deception in his delivery to gain any additional advantage. Now, there’s successful pitchers in the majors who don’t have 95mph heat … but they COMMAND their fastball. Maybe last night was a Cole aberration; certainly you can understand a kid being scared sh*tless, excited, overamped on his MLB debut, and thus misses his spots. Certainly he was missing up all night … a tell-tale sign of someone over throwing and/or not repeating his delivery.
Martin coming right back: correct, he has to stay 10 days unless there’s an injury. Escobar to the DL could pave the way for a free return. Or, as I’m now reading, Reed Johnson looks like he’s out for a while too … so i’m guessing they do Martin for Johnson, then option Cole for Johnson’s replacement (den Dekker or Gwynn).
Todd Boss
29 Apr 15 at 9:11 am
The ‘missing up’ point is why I am willing to give Cole something of a pass (that, and he seemed a couple ticks below his reported usual velocity). He is a sinker ball pitcher, and virtually nothing sank.
But I will say that based on everything I have seen, next year when JZim and Fister leave, Roark and Treinen should be the two guys in the rotation, with Jordan as #6, then Cole or maybe Ross or Voth.
Wally
29 Apr 15 at 10:13 am
Hopefully Cole goes back to AAA angry and figures this out. I’d also like to see him wear a different jersey # when he comes back – that felt a little silly to me…
I’m still hoping for Giolito early next year in the rotation…
Andrew R
29 Apr 15 at 10:18 am
On a few points of the above…
1) Roark-Cole: This is not the Tanner Roark we know and love. And the obviousness of the idea is such that I am sure they bandied it organizationally and took a chance on Cole. Great when you get a spark, awful when he gets shelled. It’s hard to argue with your point, but I could not get exorcised over it.
2) The lack of depth in the organization of power and offensive spark is exposed with just a few injuries. That was the risk they took when trading Souza, and Werth’s shoulder problems were unknown at the very least to us. To me, that was the single worst karma of the offseason and until Werth anfd the team’s offense turns it around, it will still burn me up.
3) The decision not to trade surplus starting pitching (and free agents to be) is also one on the hot seat. The team has not showed dominant starting and the offensive woes are real. But the defensive woes were unpredictable and raise the issue of what return would be equitable?
4) In that regard in particular, Rizzo has earned trust. As I noted in the last thread, he may well have bought low on Escobar, all the more critical because of Desi’s walk year. Nobody envisioned Escobar’s catalytic effect and the impact of his presence on an otherwise dull bunch.
forensicane
29 Apr 15 at 11:21 am
I firmly believe the team would NOT have traded Souza if they had known Werth was going to have surgery. Souza traded on 12/19/14, Werth announces his need for surgery 1/18/15. Just bad timing there. Souza was very hot for TB, has cooled this week, but no argument the team wishes they still had him. That might be an interesting hypothetical; would you in hindsight still do the Souza deal given what’s coming back and what it means for the future of the team? It may not be that simple of a question yes or no.
Trading pitching: i’m guessing Rizzo just dind’t get an offer that made him pull a deal. Would it have been worse to have traded (say) Zimmermann for some lesser collection of players and have us all collectively be going “i’d rather just have Zimmermann for 2015?” Because I’m sure i would have said it if the return wasn’t overwhelming. I mean, look what David Price fetched … and he was a lot more accomplished and had more years of control, and we all thought THAT was underwhelming.
Todd Boss
29 Apr 15 at 11:51 am
Another random question; do you think Andrelton Simmons play was dirty? I do, but i’m a homer. Is it an excuse to be just a “clumsy runner?” as Atlanta-apologists (and their manager) have said?
Todd Boss
29 Apr 15 at 11:52 am
On the Simmons slide, it was certainly aggressive – but Escobar didn’t really give him a lane to the bag. The ball beat the runner pretty badly, if Escobar just gives Simmons a lane and tags him as he goes by then there isn’t any discussion. Besides that, kicking the ball out of an infielder’s glove is pretty much as old as baseball. This time the glove went with the ball and the hand was vulnerable. Simmons did start the slide very late, and really is lucky that he didn’t seriously injury himself on the bag.
Like everyone else on the staff except for Scherzer and Thornton, Roark has been getting hit. It’s hard for me to get too exercised about the starting call. Cole had a nightmare start, but I largely write that off to nerves. I thought his ball had decent run on it, but he was up in the zone. Even then he got a lot of ground balls, but none of them had the decency to be at infielders.
Speaking of which, Uggla was the savior last night with the bat, but he had a pretty bad day with the glove. No errors, but no range and no ability to jump, either. Oh, and he played one double play ball with his chest (although he was able to salvage a FC).
I think that Rizzo pulls the trigger on the Souza trade ten times out of ten because of Turner and Ross. Souza has three positions to play (LF, RF, 1b) and all of them are blocked in DC for the foreseeable future. You can fantasize about moving Werth, but it’s just not going to happen. And frankly, Werth is still quite likely to have a better season than Souza this year. I like Souza, but it’s hard to ignore that Werth has put up 4.7 and 5 WAR seasons the last two years.
John C.
29 Apr 15 at 1:00 pm
I think Rizzo was asked if he still would have done the deal, and said yes, but really, what could he say? I don’t mind the trade as much as I mind not taking steps to get a quality back up once the Werth injury was known (and also with the knowledge of McLouth recovering from a similar one). It has the feel of pinching pennies at the wrong time.
I completely agree that Rizzo would have traded JZ for the right offer; that he wanted to trade him, even. But forget Price, the Samardjzia trade is probably the right comp. If you liked that deal for OAK, then be upset. If you hated it, then you think Rizzo did the right thing. Fister would have been even less of a return. But here’s the thing: both guys are showing noticeably less velo this year, in addition to bad results. Maybe there was something there last year that we didn’t notice but teams did, and is why a market didn’t materialize? Hard to know.
But let’s all acknowledge this: there has been a fair amount of criticism of the Scherzer signing, but can you imagine how you would feel about the Nats, short term and longer term, if he wasn’t here right now? I know it is only 1 month, but wow.
Wally
29 Apr 15 at 1:06 pm
Oh, and one thought about the last night’s epic comeback: for a “dead” team with no leadership they sure did show some heart and courage. Even when the Braves kept scoring, the Nats just kept coming and ran them down in the 9th.
It’s almost enough to make one consider the possibility that the team has guts, heart, courage … and even leadership. Except that we all hate Matt Williams, so he couldn’t possibly have anything to do with that.
John C.
29 Apr 15 at 1:09 pm
I don’t think the Simmons quasi-slide was ‘dirty’. Hard and perhaps unnecessary, but when compared to some of them where the guy goes out of the basepaths at 2B, it seemed like it was in the ‘too hard’ but not dirty camp. Although I don’t agree that Escobar should have given him a lane to slide in. That’s kind of like blaming the victim. Maybe he could have tried to tag and move his hand away, but otherwise I think he played it that way he should have.
Wally
29 Apr 15 at 1:32 pm
Simmons tag: There’s some fault on both sides. He went in very hard, spikes high. That said, my first thought when I saw it was similar to John’s – it looked like a swipe-tag situation. And it’s not like Escobar would have been unfamiliar with setting up for one after facing zillions of base stealers at the 2B bag. Now, “clumsy runner” is a pile of BS. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Souza trade: It’s well-represented in these pages that I liked Souza a lot. But he was really blocked here, by guys whom the Nats are going to be paying a lot of money for a long time. They obviously didn’t want to consider him for CF. They got two former first-round picks for him, and Turner has been progressing faster than it was reasonable to hope. When the Nats traded Souza, they didn’t know that Werth needed surgery, nor did they suspect that it was going to take McLouth and Goodwin so long to bounce back, or that Span would get hurt. Taylor was the ready reserve. They just didn’t know that they would need more than one. (Taylor just recalled for Reed Johnson.) But you’ve got to look ahead, and if I could get Turner I did know that Werth was going to have surgery, I think I still pull the trigger. I don’t think there’s any doubt now that we’re moving on at SS, and Turner and Escobar give us a heck of a lot more on that front then we had before the offseason.
Dugout: Was more alive last night than I’ve seen in a long time. Credit that to whatever or whomever you wish. Winning cures a lot of things.
KW
29 Apr 15 at 2:18 pm
5) The biggest byproduct of last night may prove to be the production of Denard Span. Historically, whenever he has ignited, the team’s fortunes have soared. The problem in 2013 was that it only happened late in the year. But as bad as the defense had been, if he can spark at the top of the order and provide a steadying defense, it bodes well.
Moreover, Ramos, Zimmerman, and Desmond have all been dreadful at the plate. All of them are capable of carrying the team offensively. Unfortunately, both Zimmerman and Ramos have gone through lengthy periods of lack of pop as well. I don’t include Werth here because there is no telling when his production will return; however, if Span is heating up, perhaps the example can spread to other of the Nats MIA key bats.
6) Pedro Severino is a useful cautionary lesson for all of us and the inclination to throw in the towel at this stage. After starting the season at 0-22, he has actually taken his average over .300, and even hit a couple of home runs the other night. And it is not even May yet! Severino is fixing to make the Ramos conversation in 2016 very similar to the Span-Taylor conversation we will be having as early as July. We have been waiting for Ramos since his arrival. Will he finally dominate when the Buffalo hears the hooves of Severino and his exciting tools a’ coming?
7) What, indeed, if Span repeats the success of last year, offers a hometown discount, and Taylor dominates – with no other OF prospects beyond A+? Taylor needs to play every day, but easing him with starts all around the outfield and late inning work on defense, eventually ramping up to take over full time in 2017 for Werth has its merit as well. He is a star and I can totally understand why they would bet the future on him rather than Souza with only one spot emerging in the OF to be.
8) The minor leagues, from a standpoint of position players and our prospects, have been a great disappointment in the early going. Skole, Bostick (both flagging while repeating a level), are conspicuously underperforming, Stephen Perez has fallen on his face at AA and Read and the rest of the Hagerstown lineup look suspiciously like the Auburn punchless bunch. Vettleson, Bautista, and Benincasa are already injured. Very few players have taken their game to another level that heralds them to be in a top prospect conversation. My take on the fastest risers (not top prospects) this far is: Severino, Turner (though he may be hurt), who has been succeeding in AA, Austen Williams, Alec Keller, and Phillips Valdez – and that’s about it! Yecch. Only Difo, Kieboom, and Renda are really showing up as advertised. Everyone else (save Martinson before he goes on a bad streak) is pfffft.
9) The organization is unbelievably rich in starting pitching, particularly at the lower levels. So much so, that Giolito, Lopez, Silvestre, and Dickson remain unassigned on April 29. Wihtout any intel, I can see Lopez starting at Hagerstown just to get live innings in because of the crowd at Potomac and Harrisburg, then moving up as players get promoted or released. So in some ways, and that includes Jackson Reetz, Anderson Franco, Victor Robles, Bryan Mejia, and Edwin Lora, we aren’t seeing anywhere near the full hand that we will come May-June.
10) Which brings me to the defense and how we cannot evaluate the pitching staff without appreciating that this team has leveraged its defense. When you have a pitch to contact pitching philosophy, if the infielders stink or are not gelling, it HAS to impact the pitcher’s approach and the pitcher mentally. We have all been pleasantly surprised by Zimm defensively. But who would have ever thought of him as the infield anchor? Clearly the season will evolve. The defense has to improve because this underperformance is unsustainable.
11) The discussion about Souza is not one of “would you have done this if you knew Werth was injured?” I don’t think they would have, and I think Boras buried Werth’s injury because Boras is an attorney and that is what attorneys do for their clients who have upstarts nipping at their heels with transcendent catches to preserve no-hitters and 400 foot power pedigree. The more intriguing question to deliberate is, “Would you have placed a premium on acquiring Trea Turner (so far proving the Nats braintrust right) if you knew Escobar was a controllable asset you might really want to replace Desmond with in 2016? I suppose the answer is yes, but it is not so obvious.
12) So we are left, on the starting pitching front, with Fister/Zimm/Strasburg, an underperforming Roark, an underperforming Treinen, and no starters at AAA among the vaunted “nearly ready” who have dominated and have been elbowing their way in to the conversation. As the weather warms up, that may change. And we may yet be rewarded in our patience with a resolution of the starting pitching glut as other teams continue to lose key starters early enough in the season to overpay.
All in all, this has been a miserable start for the organization. And maybe Matt Williams is a big part of the problem. But there are so many story lines as detailed above that can, from a probability standpoint, reverse from a broad-based organizational malaise. Keep the faith.
forensicane
29 Apr 15 at 2:19 pm
Wow. Sammy Solis. Sammy f’in Solis. WAs little as we have seen of Solis, so little, it’s as if they are bringing Sidd Finch right to the majors.
forensicane
29 Apr 15 at 2:32 pm
Next up on the shuttle is: Solis! Get ready Matt Purke and is John Lannan available? But seriously, Solis looked really good a few years ago – hopefully he’s a servicable lefty.
Andrew R
29 Apr 15 at 2:40 pm
Whatever could be wrong with Rivero? What bad timing to become incapacitated from a GI bleed.
forensicane
29 Apr 15 at 2:47 pm
More from As the ‘Pen Turns: the Nats just signed Valverde to a minor-league deal. Hard to believe he has much left in the tank, but we’ll see.
Love the Sidd Finch reference re Solis.
KW
29 Apr 15 at 3:15 pm
Simmons tag: I think it was dirty. At the very best case it was inept. He was out by 10 feet and instead of just sliding for the base he went spikes up right into the guy’s hand. If you’re out by 10 feet and then try to injure the guy in April … its dirty. If you make that slide in the playoffs in a tight game? Different situation. Context is everything. If it was me, I’d be telling my teammates to spend the rest of the Atl trip trying to pay back the favor frankly.
Solis: cannot believe that callup. amazing.
Forensicane: have not read your manifesto yet. 🙂
Todd Boss
29 Apr 15 at 3:54 pm