Washington Nationals

TiqIQ Series Preview: Phillies @ Nationals by Bart Johnston, TiqIQ TiqIQ has teamed up with ScoreBig to bring you a discount on Washington Nationals tickets. If you're a new customer, use the code TIQIQ10 to make an offer and save $10 off your purchase. Tickets remain available for the weekend tilt against the cross-divisional rival Phillies. The series average for a single ticket is $49 with the Saturday game being the most expensive. On Friday the Nationals tickets average is $45 with a get-in price of $9. On Saturday, the average ticket is $53.20 while the lowest price is $14, and on Sunday the average price is $49 with the lowest price at $11. With the Nationals looking to get the season back on track and reel in the division-leading Atlanta Braves, these tickets provide a great opportunity to support the team in the great May D.C. weather. When the Washington Nationals return to the friendly confines of National Park, it will be the first time they have played at home in nearly two weeks. Following a ten-day West Coast swing, the somewhat struggling Nats will look to get back on track with a weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies before the Baltimore Orioles stop in for a two-day midweek series in the Battle of the Beltway. Outfielder Bryce Harper returned to the Nationals’ lineup on Monday after being sidelined for the final two games of the Padres’ series with a bruised left knee. Harper, in his second year in the majors, leads the team in homers with 11 and is the only player on the squad with double digit home runs. He is an integral part of the team, mainly batting third or fourth in the lineup, and is hitting .288 on the year, also tops on the team. Along with third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, Harper has 22 RBI’s which also leads the Nationals. Without Harper in the lineup, Washington struggled to get the bats going against the Padres and lost both games without him. They did not fare much better on Monday in San Francisco though, falling 8-0 to the Giants as an all-too-familiar problem scoring runs manifested itself once again in the 2013 season. Despite a relatively solid pitching staff, the Nationals have scored the third fewest runs in the majors and will look to get back on track against a Phillies’ rotation which has given up the fourth most runs in the National League. On Friday, Washington will send Jordan Zimmermann to the mound, who boasts a stellar 7-2 record to go along with a 1.62 ERA. Zimmerman allowed only two runs on seven hits in a complete game his last time out. The Phillies have righty Kyle Kendrick pitching who also has a sub-3.00 ERA (2.82) and a 4-2 record for a team which has also struggled with scoring runs this year. In the final two starts the Phillies will likely send out righty Jonathan Pettibone who is 3-0 on the year with a 3.00 ERA and then a struggling Cole Hamels on Friday who is now 1-7 on the season. The Nationals will likely start Dan Haren on Saturday and perhaps Zach Duke on Sunday, but Duke struggled in his last outing, and first start of the year, on Monday giving up 4 runs on 7 hits in just 3.1 innings.

The process of putting Danny Espinosa back together again continued Monday at AT&T Park. Manager Davey Johnson sat the struggling second baseman, who is 1 for his last 28 and batting .163/.191/.260 on the season, in favor of Steve Lombardozzi. … Continue reading →

Right out of the box today with the report on Matt Cain before the Giants face off against the Nationals at AT&T Park. Early Career to Present Cain has enjoyed a productive career with San Francisco, averaging +3.8 fWAR and +4.28 bWAR per season since 2006. These values mean that he has been a really good pitcher, and Cain showed a flair for perfection last year, too. But the more numbers-inclined frequently approach Cain's success with caution. Or, as Dave Cameron at Fangraphs explained in April 2012 after the big righty signed a five-year, $110M extension, Matt Cain is a good pitcher. How good he’d perform in another set of circumstances – different ballpark, different division, different pitching coach, etc… – isn’t quite as well determined, but we’ve got a pretty good idea that Cain is good at preventing runs in the context he’s currently in. Over the last six years, he’s thrown 1,300 innings and posted an ERA- of 80, meaning that he prevented runs at a rate of 20 percent above average. Quantity and quality is a good package. It just doesn’t predict future success as well as you might think. 2012 was a good year, But Cain hasn't pitched very well in 2013; his 5.43 ERA and 5.30 FIP are quick ways to support this conclusion. What gives? 2013 Struggles: Why? Many of Cain's 2013 component numbers are similar to his career averages: Stat K% BB% AVG BABIP Fly Ball% Fourseam velo Slider velo 2013 20.6% 7.1% .233 .242 42.0% 91.4 MPH 86.9 MPH Career 20.2% 8.2% .222 .263 43.8% 92.4 MPH 86.3 MPH Indeed, several of the above metrics are actually better this year. Sure, you could quibble on the fastball velo, but many pitchers see an increase in speed as spring turns to summer. Furthermore, his pitch usage has remained largely the same as last year, albeit with a few more sliders to right handed batters: And now, time to exhume the lede: A big part of Cain's poor start in 2013 is attributable to his absurd rate of home runs to fly balls. Consider that in over 1,500 career innings before this year, the Giant posted a HR/FB% of around 7.0%. That's an above-average mark. This year? 18.3% of fly balls are sailing out of the yard. That's a batting-practice pitcher rate, and it's about 7% greater than the league average. The raw number of round-trippers -- 13 -- is also a league high. Although righties have hit him better this season, lefties have still popped 5 of those 13 home runs. Problem Pitches Here is the breakdown of homers by pitch, HR/(FB+LD)%, and overall 2013 usage per Brooks: 2013 Pitch Home Runs HR/(FB+LD)% [Career] Overall Usage Fourseam 6 12.2% [5.7%] 44% Sinker 2 40.0% [7.8%] 5% Slider 3 9.3% [5.8%] 27% Curve 1 16.6% [7.4%] 11% Change up 1 20.0% [8.1%] 13% The sinker is getting hit bad, but he doesn't throw it often. For my money, the difference in fastball results seems the most salient; it's normally been the least-HR prone, but batters have flipped the script this year. Cain isn't safe in any count, as he has given up home runs on the first pitch, when even, when ahead, and when behind. Batters have hit 30% of their home runs against him on the first offering. In sum, he's over half-way to last year's homer total (21) in just a quarter of the innings. It's been bad for Cain all-around. How Bad? On the one hand, it doesn't seem reasonable to believe that his HR/FB% will stay this high all year. The stat varies a lot, but this level of variance -- from a pitcher who is often on the good side of the metric, no less -- is surprising. On the other hand, look at where (and how far) the homers have been hit: via www.hittrackeronline.com Eleven of the thirteen home runs above would leave 20 or more of the 30 MLB parks. So, batters aren't really hitting cheapies. A few have been well-placed -- see the one above the "n" in "l

So Stephen Strasburg will need to be almost perfect to help save Davey's sinking ship tonight. Up above, video of Strasburg doing an interview with Dr. Dre's Beats TV during the Nats stop in LA, in which he discusses how his grandmother taught him to play baseball, and reveals what's on his iPod: "I'm extremely eclectic. I got a little bit of everything. I got some Wale, Lil Wayne, Slipknot, Incubus, Garth Brooks, Jason Aldean." Befriend Nats Enquirer on Facebook. Follow on Twitter. Related articles Homecoming King Davey on Strasburg: "Where we needed him to pick us up, the air went out" Strasburg on Strasburg: "Not good enough." Oh, f*ck. Stephen Strasburg has tightness in his forearm... Gio Gonzalez's collection of Nats starting rotation bobbleheads

Photo by USA TodayAtlanta Braves (26-18)The Braves have turned in four straight wins after sweeping the Dodgers and taking the first of a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins. They are now 3.5 games ahead of the Nats in the N.L. East as Washington is headed in the other direction with three consecutive losses. Freddie Freeman and Justin Upton have led the way on offense with five RBI each in their last six games. Julio Teheran made two solid starts recently, allowing just three runs through 14 1/3 innings against Minnesota and Arizona.While they are winning on the field, the Braves were dealt some more bad news regarding their bullpen. Lefty setup man Eric O'Flaherty is scheduled to have Tommy John surgery this afternoon, keeping him out at least a calendar year. They also lost another lefty out of the bullpen in Jonny Venters who had the same procedure last week. Jordan Walden, who would be their next setup option, also remains out with shoulder inflammation.Player of the Week: 1B Freddie Freeman - 6 H, 2 2B, 5 RBI, 4 BB, 2 RRead more »

Into the middle of May, Jim Johnson was untouchable, on a streak of 35 consecutive saves. Fast forward a week and he’s a struggling closer looking for a break. That’s life in the ninth inning. It’s time for an audit in Baltimore. Johnson suffered a couple of blown saves last week, mostly death by a thousand cuts (with one homer mixed in). His squandered opportunity from Monday came on one pitch , a plate-centered fastball that Travis Hafner deposited into the Oriole Park seats in left-center field. Baltimore eventually lost the game in ten innings, its sixth straight defeat. “We will figure it out,” Johnson told the team’s official site . “I’ll figure it out. There’s no other option.” Orioles manager Buck Showalter quickly gave Johnson a vote of confidence after Monday’s loss. “Come back tomorrow and watch it again, he was one pitch away,” Showalter said to Orioles.com . “Jimmy’s a very consistent human being. Professional and a great teammate. We didn’t do enough to win tonight. … It’s frustrating for him, but he wasn’t the only one who could come out of this game a little frustrated.” View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Washington Nationals News

In an article by FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal this morning, Washington Nationals' skipper Davey Johnson is asked the possibility discussed everywhere on Nats' sites in recent weeks of bringing 2011 1st Round pick Anthony Rendon up to take over at second for struggling infielder Danny Espinosa. Rendon started at second last night for Double-A Harrisburg, going 1 for 4 with a double to leave him with a .346/.482/.654 line so far in his second pro season in the Nationalns' system. So is he being groomed to take over at second, Mr. Rosenthal asked? Johnson's response: "We like him – we like him a lot," Johnson said of Rendon. "But putting him at second at the major-league level, he’s not there yet. He’s not (playing second) specifically. He’s just occasionally going over there." "We like him – we like him a lot," Johnson said of Rendon. "But putting him at second at the major-league level, he’s not there yet." -Davey Johnson on Anthony Rendon to FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal The start at second last night was just Rendon's fifth. He's made most of his starts at third, though the Nationals do have him playing around the infield this season. Johnson goes on to say that Steve Lombardozzi and Triple-A infielder Zach Walters are currently above Rendon on the depth chart at second behind Espinosa, but as the bow-tied FOXSports.com reporter notes, neither Espinosa, Lombardozzi or Walters are hitting right now, and Rendon is kind of crushing. The way Davey Johnson was talking in an interview posted on MASNSports.com yesterday, however, it doesn't sound like the team is ready to give up on Danny Espinosa just yet, in spite of the fact that the infielder, who's playing with a torn rotator cuff, has a .163/.191/.296 line over the first 37 games and 141 plate appearances of the 2013 campaign. Espinosa, who is 1 for 24 on the current road trip, sat last night, but worked out with the Nationals' hitting coach before Monday night's game in AT&T Park in San Francisco. "I think he's a little beat up," Johnson said in explaining the decision to sit him in the first game with the Giants, an 8-0 loss. "I wanted him to sit back again and relax a little bit. He had a little early session with [Rick] Eckstein, our hitting coach, and I think that went real well. I hate to just single him out, but he's certainly not doing the things he knows he's capable of doing. So it's frustrating for him and he feels a lot like he's letting everybody down, but he's trying to do his best and sometimes just getting away from it a little bit helps." "When you don't do the things you're capable of doing, it kind of beats you up," Johnson said. "It can wear on you." - Davey Johnson on MASN on Danny Espinosa By "beat up," Johnson said, he meant that Espinosa was struggling mentally. "When you don't do the things you're capable of doing, it kind of beats you up," Johnson said. "It can wear on you. You expect to do things -- to keep improving and do them at a higher level and he's taken a step or so back, so, but he's still a tremendous player, still got tremendous talent and I haven't given up on him by any means." "You have to have patience with young players," Johnson concluded, "And I know that our fans and ownership and everybody else, they expect us to play good and do well and believe me, of all people, I'm the one that expected the most and how you handle adversity is a large part of your success. And we'll get through this. Coming into this year I felt like Danny was a key guy that if he started doing the things that I know he's capable of doing, it could make the year a whole lot of fun."

Bryce Harper since April 27th. .143 / .271 / .286Sad thing is I'm looking so much at terrible hitting stats these days I had to sit here for a second and think if a .286 SLG was actually all that bad.It feels awful but that was basically a throw-away game. They were fine losing it (and they did). Its not the end of the world. Let's re-iterate the point from yesterday. You can win enough games to make the playoffs even with 3 mediocre months of baseball. The Nats haven't even finished the 2nd. As bad as it looks now, there's plenty of time for this to become water under the bridge. Thank the Nats that went 7-2 to start the year and 10-4 from late April to early May for that.Think about that. The Nats finished up a 10-4 run... 11 days ago. Not even 2 weeks ago. Remember all the untucking? Of course there are more hurdles to overcome. Mattheus broken hand (given that athelets have done this numerous times over the years you think clubhouses would have a designated padded punching wall). Werth continuing to age like the finest China doll. Rizzo refusing to give in on his initial plan for the season (one LH in pen and he's a mediocre long man, H-Rod still there to do... something?, a bench made up of uniforms stuffed with straw) that at this point has gone terribly awry. But still, after all this, one game over .500. If they can pull out a win in either of the next two games, they'll be at .500 staring at 11 of the next 16 at home with series versus the Phillies, Mets and Twins in there. All teams worse than them. An extended West Coast swing is not about gaining ground, it's about holding it. They can still manage that. Then comes the time when they should make their move. We hope.

The end of a tough road trip may not be the right moment, but the time is coming for the 2013 Nationals to fish or cut bait. The basic facts were laid out in a USA Today article Monday that cited the Nationals' offense as 29th in batting average and OBP, and 27th in runs scored among major league teams. It did not get better last night as another struggling pitcher, Ryan Vogelsong, found his A-game against the Nationals, crafting a three hit shutout over five innings before leaving with a broken hand to lower his ERA to 7.19 for the season. Eric Stults? Vogelsong? They they might as well be Bob Feller. The bottom part of the batting order cannot hit much of anything. Tyler Moore, Roger Bernadina and Danny Espinosa were a combined 1-for-11 on Sunday. And for the season, their combined efforts have been woeful. Moore and Bernadina were key bats off the bench in 2012. Yet this season, they have looked lost at the plate, overmatched. Moore is hitting only .127 and it is going to take a lot of 3-for-4s to pull that up. The chance he will do it at the major league level is becoming more unlikely with each passing day. Bernadina has done little better, though he has more of a proven track record than Moore. His outfield defense is impeccable and it is easier to make a case for Bernadina as a bench player than for Moore. Then there is Espinosa. Everything pointed to Espinosa having a breakout year based on his play in March, but when a batter only puts the ball in play 70 percent of the time like Espinosa, the odds are always against you. Espinosa led the National League last season with 189 strikeouts and though his pace has declined slightly this season, it is still at the upper limits of all major leaguers. As good as his defense is, the question is whether a team that has as many offensive holes as the Nationals do this year can afford to carry a glove man who can neither get on base nor move the runners when needed. Last season, the team's offensive woes were addressed by the call-up of Bryce Harper and there are similar places to look for relief in 2013. At Triple-A Syracuse, Chris Marrero is showing signs that he has found the power stroke that made him a first-round draft choice in 2006, 15th overall. He is hitting .306 with eight home runs this year, and he has played in the majors before. He is no naïve rookie, but a proven talent waiting for his chance. He deserves his shot. He is not Adam LaRoche at first base, but he has played the outfield as well as first base during his minor league career. He is Moore all over again, but with a better chance to hit major league pitching. It is time to let Moore find himself again in Syracuse and give Marrero his shoes to fill in Washington. Anthony Rendon earned a shot in spring training and were it not for his need to play every day, he might have broken camp with the Nationals when they headed north. But he looked very good filling in for Ryan Zimmerman at the end of April and since returning to Harrisburg has hit over .400 with an OPS of 1.145. He showed remarkable agility at third base while filling in for Zimmerman. The question is whether he can handle second base with equal dexterity. He has played the position for the Senators and also for Rice in college. The question as to where he will play in the majors has a short term answer: second base. Espinosa is the best defensive player on the team, and there is no way that Rendon can replace his glove. But Rendon flashed some impressive leather during his brief tryout several weeks ago and he has the chance to hit for a significantly higher average than Espinosa with more power. And then there is his strike zone judgment. His OBP during his cup of coffee was .367 and it has been .435 at Harrisburg so far. Bringing up Marrero to strengthen the bench and giving Rendon significant playing time at second base are painful decisions. But watching the bottom part of the order put zeroes on the board is not fun with Dick and J

Unbelievably, Maya gets another MLB shot. Photo Al Bello/Getty Images Hey, we’ve all been there Ryan Mattheus. But clearly Mattheus never watched Bull Durham; Crash Davis‘ last lesson to Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh involved exactly what Mattheus just did to himself.  If you’re going to punch something … NEVER punch with your pitching hand. And then in an even worse move, Mattheus hid the injury from his manager until it was too late to call up someone, meaning the team was short a reliever for last night’s SF game (a predictable 8-0 loss as Zach Duke even more predictably got hammered for 7 hits and 4 earned runs in just 3 1/3 innings). We may even have an issue with Henry Rodriguez, who apparently “grimaced” as he was throwing one of his FOURTY SEVEN pitches last night, a ridiculous amount of pitches for a max-effort guy who should normally be throwing half that in an outing.  Don’t be surprised to see news of him hitting the D/L either. So, with the bullpen shredded and now devoid of basically anyone who can throw significant long innings for the next couple of days, the team called up Yunesky Maya to provide some cover.  Maya has been awful in AAA so far this year (1-4 with a 5.07 era) but he’s the best option on the 40-man roster for what they need right now.   They’re also planning on calling up lefty Fernando Abad, one of their slew of lefty minor league free agents who has been excellent in AAA this year.   Abad will likely be a one-for-one replacement for Mattheus when he hits the D/L and has earned his way back to the majors.  Abad will require a 40-man move; he will be the 40th guy on the roster.  Maya likely switches places again with Eury Perez once the bullpen can catch its breath. A better more interesting question may involve the fate of Duke.  He’s been awful this year, barely appears because of it, and when he is called upon to provide the one thing the team needs from him (an effective spot start) he fell on his face.  He’s not given this team anything close to what Tom Gorzelanny gave us for the past few years, and I’m beginning to wonder if the team really made the right decision keeping Duke over Gorzelanny.  Duke only makes $700k a year (versus the 2yr/$5.7M deal that Gorzelanny got from Milwaukee) but with the marginal value of a “Win” on the open market being in excess of $5M these days, have the Nats ended up being penny wise but a pound foolish? Regardless of the “hindsight is 20/20″ analysis with Duke versus Gorzelanny, I have a feeling we may be seeing another move in the near future; the DFA of Duke and the call up of either J.C. Romero or newly acquired Xavier Cedeno. Both are lefties, both are veterans, both are pitching really well in Syracuse, and both seemingly can do no worse than Duke has done.  This isn’t as exciting as seeing a prospect get called up (for example; Danny Rosenbaum or Erik Davis), but with any more injuries we may get there.