{"id":717,"date":"2011-03-12T08:29:26","date_gmt":"2011-03-12T13:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=717"},"modified":"2011-03-12T08:29:26","modified_gmt":"2011-03-12T13:29:26","slug":"dc-ibwa-pre-season-nats-poll-unsolicited-opinions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=717","title":{"rendered":"DC-IBWA Pre-Season Nats Poll (unsolicited) Opinions."},"content":{"rendered":"
I’m a relative newcomer to the Nats blogosphere;\u00a0 soon I hope to be invited to be part of the “DC Internet Baseball Writer\u2019s Association<\/a>” an unofficial BBWA-esque group of just the DC guys.\u00a0 Dave at Nats News Network<\/a> (who sometimes references my posts … thank you!) posited these pre-season Nats predictions to the group.\u00a0 Here’s the sum of their answers<\/a>.\u00a0 Since I love sharing my opinions on hypothetical questions as much as the next guy, here’s my thoughts.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1)\u00a0 Who will lead the Nats in home runs in 2011?\u00a0 Zimmerman<\/strong>: tough call though, I’m guessing that all three guys in the 3-4-5 range finish with close to the same numbers.\u00a0 I’ll guess Zimmerman goes for 30, Werth 28 and LaRoche 25.\u00a0 Their numbers last year respectively were 25, 27 and 25.\u00a0 I think Zimmerman rebounds to repeat his 2009 numbers, Werth slightly down-ticks by not having Citizens Bank Park to hit in, and LaRoche consistently continues his typical production.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2)\u00a0 Who will lead the Nas in RBI? Werth<\/strong>, if only because he’s hitting behind Zimmerman.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
3)\u00a0 Who will lead the Nats in stolen bases?\u00a0 Desmond<\/strong>.\u00a0 Most will say Morgan by default.\u00a0 I’m thinking Morgan may not hold onto the starting job for long, and we’ll be looking at Desmond in the leadoff role before you know it.<\/div>\n
<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
4)\u00a0 Who will lead the staff in wins?\u00a0 Livan<\/strong>: I see another season of Livan going 12-12 and the rest of our squad struggling to reach 200 innings.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
5)\u00a0 Who will lead the staff in saves?\u00a0 Storen<\/strong>: I think he’ll continue to be put into that role by virtue of his better control and more experience in the role as compared to Henry Rodriguez.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
6)\u00a0 Which starter will lead the team in starts?\u00a0 Livan<\/strong>: no question; he hasn’t missed a start since he defected.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
7)\u00a0 Who will pitch more innings for the Nats <\/em>this season: Chien-Ming Wang, Yunesky Maya, Ross Detwiler?\u00a0 Yunesky Maya<\/strong>: I think Maya’s the first call-up and sticks in the rotation once he gets there.\u00a0 Wang may not get called up til May and there’s no guarantee he performs (or is healthy), while Detwiler may be trade bait on account of the logjam in the majors.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
8)\u00a0 Who will get more at bats for the Nats<\/em> this season:\u00a0 Rick Ankiel, Jerry Hairston, Alberto Gonzalez?\u00a0 Ankiel<\/strong>: Gonzalez is closer to getting released than making this team, and Hairston is only going to be a once a week starter.\u00a0 Ankiel has a legitimate chance of winning a starting role on this team.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
9)\u00a0 Who will get more at bats for the Nats<\/em> this season:\u00a0 Ivan Rodriguez, Jesus Flores, Wilson Ramos?\u00a0 Pudge<\/strong>.\u00a0 I think Pudge is still the starter and probably starts 4-5 of every 7 games this year.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
10)\u00a0 How many all-stars will the Nats have?\u00a0\u00a0Who?\u00a0 Tough call.\u00a0 I’m going to be an optimist and say Two.\u00a0 Zimmerman <\/strong>and Werth<\/strong>.\u00a0 I think the team gets some recognition, especially if we’re hovering around .500 for a good portion of the season.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
11)\u00a0 Total wins and what place in the division?\u00a0 75 wins, 4th place<\/strong>.\u00a0 The Mets seem like a trainwreck and could slip to last place.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
12)\u00a0 Single most important thing for the Nats this season?\u00a0 Don’t stick with under-performing starters; give our starting pitching depth a whirl and see if someone from Maya, Wang, Mock, Detwiler or even Gaudin can actually produce at the major league level.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here’s a few other questions worth asking:<\/div>\n
1. Who makes the squad as the #2 catcher, Flores or Ramos?\u00a0 I was going with Flores<\/strong>; older, more track record of production at the MLB level.\u00a0 But Ramos<\/strong> seems to be winning the positional battle right now.\u00a0 It makes sense for Flores, who hasn’t played in nearly 2 years, to put in a few games in AAA to get back into the grind.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2. Will Ryan Zimmerman have a top-5 MVP finish?\u00a0 I’ll say no<\/strong>; but as soon as the Nats are playoff contenders Zimmerman will start to become listed regularly in the MVP conversation.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
3. Who will win the 5th Starter role?\u00a0 Barring injury, I say Gorzelanny<\/strong> by virtue of his (lack of) options status.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
4. Is Riggleman on the hot seat at all in 2011?\u00a0 I say no<\/strong>, by all accounts the team is more professional this year and that reflects well on the manager.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
5. Who “wins” the starting left fielder job?\u00a0 Morse<\/strong>.\u00a0 I’m going to be confident that Riggleman is going to put out the best player.\u00a0 Morse is hitting the cover off the ball this spring, and while Bernadina isn’t far behind Morse also was the superior hitter last year.\u00a0 Ankiel is falling behind and looks to be the 4th outfielder.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
6. Does Morgan hold onto his starting job?\u00a0 Not all season, not at this rate.\u00a0 5\/26 in the spring with a bunch of boneheaded plays in the field and on the basepaths.\u00a0 I really believe that the team should give the CF starting job to Bernadina.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a relative newcomer to the Nats blogosphere;\u00a0 soon I hope to be invited to be part of the “DC Internet Baseball Writer\u2019s Association” an unofficial BBWA-esque group of just the DC guys.\u00a0 Dave at Nats News Network (who sometimes references my posts … thank you!) posited these pre-season Nats predictions to the group.\u00a0 Here’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":800,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}