Well, what did you expect him to do after booing him for 5 innings? (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Nats are through their first week. They’re 3-3. The sky is not falling, as opposed to general sentiment coming out of the opening series.
Here’s a quick summary of what happened in the last week or so:
1. The Nats faced this gauntlet of Starters: Jacob deGrom, Noah Snydergaard, Zack Wheeler, Zach Eflin, Aaron Nola and then Snydergaard again. That’s one hell of a way to start your season; these 6 games include four starts against guys who are all in perhaps the top 5-6 starters in the NL, last year’s Cy Young Winner, last year’s 3rd place Cy Young winner and a guy who had a 111 ERA+ in 2018 (Wheeler).
This is one heck of an ask for any team, and the fact that the Nats beat Thor, battered Nola and snuck out third win is pretty good.
2. The Nats managed to lose BOTH of Max Scherzer‘s starts. That’s not good, but also not really predictive. The Nats went 22-11 in his 33 starts in 2018.
3. The team lost Trea Turner to a broken finger, watched Matt Adams flip over a railing and land on his head (dtd with a sore back), and watched Anibal Sanchez get pegged with a 100+ exit velocity line drive on his hip flexor and hobble out of his first start (also dtd). That’s not good.
4. The team’s bullpen collectively has a 9.64 ERA (improved by yesterday’s win to now “only” be 29th out of 30 in the sport). Ironically, despite being 29th in ERA they’re somehow 3rd in fWAR. This is probably due the fact that their FIP is like 6 full points better than the ERA, with hitters pummeling the bullpen arms to the tune of .453 BABIP. They’re going to get better and have more games like the last one we just saw (where four guys white washed the Mets to end Strasburg‘s last start).
5. Trevor Rosenthal has now faced seven batters and retired none of them. Now, to be fair, I thought the ump in Wednesday’s game was really squeezing both sides, so it wasn’t like he was all over the place … but this is not a good sign. He needs a confidence booster game and soon.
6. All in all, our big three starters have looked pretty solid: Corbin‘s nifty QS, Scherzer striking out 12 on opening day, and Strasburg’s sub 1.00 FIP all giving me some good confidence. Sanchez is a battler and I like him as our fourth, and I hope he isn’t affected longer term.
7. On the offensive side: Rendon: wow. Dozier: geeze (just 2 for 22). Soto and Robles are doing precisely what I’d like them to do. Otherwise … its hard to really pass too much judgement against a squad that’s faced four Cy Young candidates in six games.
8. In general … the Nats have a good shot at sweeping in NY given who is going for us next (Corbin and Scherzer), then return to Philly and probably face more of the same until they get to their mid-April slate of easier opponents (Pitt, SF then Miami). I like the team’s chances of sitting somewhere in the 12-8 or maybe even 13-7 range by the time they finish the Miami series on 4/21/19.
Lastly …..
9. Bryce Harper played two games here; he wiffed in his two first at-bats to the utter glee of the “fans” who had clearly only purchased tickets to boo him (or wear t-shirts that spelled out TRAITOR prominently in the outfield), and then he did this in his next eight plate appearances: three singles, a double, a homer and three walks, reaching base in 8 consecutive plate appearances, helping to push his current seasonal slash line through the first week to the gaudy .500/.652/1.840. I had a sneaking suspicion that Harper was going to just blow up in 2019, especially hitting in Philadelphia, and if the Phillies make the post season I think Harper is a shoe-in for his second MVP.
Tangent question: Harper continually manages to be voted as “most over-rated” player in anonymous polls and in biting commentary all around the sports-internet. This baffles me honestly; over-rated compared to what? I mean, the guy has 6 all star appearances, a rookie of the Year and a unanimous MVP through his age 25 season, to go along with between 27 and 31 WAR depending on the system. Ask yourself this: what exactly does he need to do in order to NOT be “over-rated?” If he put up another season like he did in 2015 and ran away with the MVP, would he then stop being over-rated? How many MVPs does he need? If your answer includes something along the lines of, “well he needs to lead his team to a playoff win” then remind yourself that Mike Trout has never won a playoff GAME let alone a playoff series and went 1-15 in his sole ALDS appearance.
I just don’t get the general vitrol that surrounds Harper sometimes. Especially with respect to what we now know about his contract situation. The Nats offered him deals that included massive amounts of deferred data going out decades and that, even in a conservative analysis, were probably 40% less in net present value than what he eventually signed in Philadelphia, but yet somehow he’s the bad guy and the Traitor and the money-grabbing bastard here? Where’s the vitriol for the ownership group, that opportunistically offered him a *lower* contract as their follow-up offer in December? What did people expect Harper to do? Just accept 40% less than what others were offering him just to appease DC-area residents who may attend 2-3 games a year because that’s what they think they’re “owed” as fair-weather fans? Let me know the next time you change jobs so I can tell you that you should take 40% less in salary and just stay with your same employer instead of taking the better offer to move on.