I Hate you Now Leave me Alone September 10, 2010

My mind races. I can feel the fear rising up in me as he nervously inches towards me. This short slightly overweight goofy looking guy in glasses is making a beeline right for me. This isn’t right. If I was standing in front of an elevator or a staircase I might understand, but I’m not. I am standing next to the exit to the bathroom at PNC Park and this dorky looking Pirates fan is heading straight for me. Maybe he wants to tell me to go fuck myself because the Nationals just finished taking their first road series since May by outscoring the Pirates 17 to 3 in the last two games, but that isn’t it. When he gets to me he asks me where I am from. I want to tell him I am from where he thinks I am from. How many fucking Nats fans aren’t from the DC area? I really just want to tell him to fuck off, but I answer his question honestly but tersely.

Obviously he doesn’t get the message as he has  follow up questions. He asks if I am in town for the whole weekend. The fact that it is Sunday afternoon should give that one away, and I don’t know how to answer this retard. I simply tell him no I am leaving when my friend gets through desecrating a stall at PNC Park. I actually leave that last part off and just tell him no. He of course has more questions and comments. I really want this to end. I have no idea why this guy is talking to me. Do I look interesting or interested? He keeps going though. He tells me that Zimmerman made a good play at third. My response is, “I know.” Zimmerman does do it all the time after all. He is the best defensive third baseman in baseball.  Lucky for me I see my friend exit the bathroom and with no further words I am gone. I look back briefly and sad lonely eyes are following me. I feel no remorse I fucking hate strangers and I hate it more when they talk to me.

This instance of a stranger talking to me is nothing new. It has happened in nearly every city I have travelled to this year to watch baseball. From a Nats fan in Ohio telling me his life story and why he is a Nats fan to a guy in Philly wanting to stop me so he could chat about Strasburg’s injury and Jim Riggleman’s handling of pitchers. It happened a few other times in Pittsburgh as well. Mostly the topic of conversation is Strasburg and if I think he will come back. Well I know he will come back. The problem is he might break down again or not be the same pitcher, but he will return to the mound and statistics show that he most likely will be the same pitcher.

The topic of conversation here isn’t Strasburg. It is strangers trying to have conversations with me. I don’t know why it happens. Maybe because I am a Nats fan on the road they assume I know something about the Nationals. I do probably know more than most non-diehard Nationals fans, but I don’t think I know that much more than any other Nationals fan. I simply like to travel and like to watch baseball when I travel. It is funny because no stranger tried to talk to me in Chicago or Milwaukee, but that time I was with my Asian friend and maybe they think I am his translator or something and don’t want to start an uncomfortable conversation. Well I got news for you strangers out there; every conversation you start with a stranger is fucking uncomfortable. It is weird to think that at some point in time all my friends and I were strangers, but I met most of them in some form of schooling, and if you think about it your classmates aren’t really strangers.

 It is for that reason that I think I would be open to a fellow Nats fan talking to me, but some beady eyed chubby Pirates fan is a no go. Although I have to say when a random pizza delivery guy in Cleveland decided to talk to me it was kind of cool, but he was there and I was there. We were both in the places we were supposed to be going about our daily business and he decided to talk to me. After a minute or two I did want to get away, but it wasn’t the same kind of confusion mixed with fear that I suffered in PNC Park.

The waitress at the Original Oyster Bar kidding us about the Nationals is one thing as is the guy sitting next to us at a bar, but it is an entirely different thing to approach a stranger out of nowhere and start jibber jabbering and trying to make conversation. It isn’t nice or fun to feel trapped. I had to wait for my friend to get out of the bathroom. Looking back right now I just realized I could have just run off to the team store and sent a text message, but I am a much faster thinker in hindsight. At that moment I was trapped in a little corner of PNC Park. A corner where no human being not exiting the bathroom would have a reason to be. Why this little turd felt the need to walk up to and then start talking to me is beyond me. Of course now I also feel bad about calling him a turd. He is probably just some socially awkward guy that feels any fellow baseball fan is a possible friend.

I just dislike people. I dislike crowds. The worst place in the universe to me is the grocery story. I stopped eating cereal because the isle is always too crowded. My wife now does all of the grocery shopping and I can’t be happier. When I do have to go to the store it is always a scary time. People are rushing around me and darting in front of me. One woman was tailgating me the other day with her cart. I stopped to pick up some beer and she almost ran into me. Listen sweetheart it is a grocery store people buy things. They ain’t there to take a stroll through the fucking cheese isle. Also walk how you fucking drive people. Walk to the goddamned right.

I guess the point is it doesn’t really matter where I am in the world I dislike strangers, and I dislike it even more when they approach me for no good reason to have a conversation I am not interested in. I can sit and watch a ballgame in complete silence, lost in deep thoughts and meditation, transfixed by the beauty of the game on the field. The last thing I want is my fortress of solitude to be broken into and have to listen to some guy asking my opinion about many various things. Maybe I should just have a business card made up with various web addresses on it of where my opinions can be read. Of course there is a reason I don’t have many friends and never seem to have fun at social functions, but hey if I cared I wouldn’t be me.

Exploring My Nerd Tendencies September 9, 2010

Do stat nerds like being called stat nerds? Would they prefer to be called something other than that, like sabrminded or number cruncher? I don’t really consider myself a stat nerd. Maybe others would. When I talk about batters I don’t even look at batting average and RBI. I want to know the triple slash and more importantly the OPS. Of course even with those numbers there is more to look into. Every stat can be broken down by situation. What is a batter slugging with men on base, how often they reach base on the road, every little bit of information we could ever want is out there, and thanks to the internet any average Joe can look it up.

It is funny to think about this. To think if someone wants to be called a nerd. We wouldn’t walk up to an overweight person and ask if they mind us calling them Leviathan. Could you even imagine walking up to a person of a different race and asking if they liked to be called whatever they wouldn’t like to be called. I can’t imagine people liking to be called nerds, but maybe they do.

There is an entire subculture of people that hang out at comic conventions dressed in customs of their favorite characters. Then again this is sports we are talking about. Sports are not the domain of nerds and geeks, but sometimes they are. Sports are made more by the people that watch them than the people that play them. Both are needed to make everything work, but why can’t the observer be someone more interested in numbers and math than other aspects of the game, or maybe all aspects of the game appeal to them and they just like to play armchair GM.

What makes a person anything is an odd question. Being a nerd is based more on a person’s taste in entertainment or in this case views on baseball. Stat nerd is a bit of a pejorative term. It carries with it a negative context that I can’t imagine many people liking. In a way I embrace my nerdom. I may qualify as a stat nerd although I don’t think I do it doesn’t matter what I think, and I am a blogger so there is a big point against any argument I have, but besides the baseball thing I like to play video games (mostly RPGs the nerdiest of all), I listen to bands like Iron Maiden and Iced Earth, I enjoy the Star Wars movies (but only the first three), I am antisocial and like to keep to myself, and I have a giant comics collection and am currently trying to get back into comics (by the way check out the Luna Bros they are local and amazing).

What this all means is I have nerd tastes, but I don’t wear glasses except to read, I go to the gym on a regular basis, and I like sports. Of course my liking of sports could be seen as a nerd quality as well since I like it in the nerdy way. I may talk at times about the poetic beauty of the game, but the fact that Willie Harris makes diving catches and looks like he is really playing hard doesn’t mean I don’t think his numbers can be and should be replaced. I actually don’t think Willie Harris should be replaced. He can play all three outfield positions, can every now and then crack a homer, and in a pinch can even sub in the infield. I just don’t think he should be the first bat off the bench.

If you met me somewhere and just saw me and judged me by appearance I don’t know if you would call me a nerd. My tastes do learn towards the nerd side, but I don’t think I would like to be called a nerd. I might hit you, and it would most likely hurt. It is an insult to call someone a nerd, so no I don’t think stat nerds like to be called stat nerds, because I wouldn’t like to be called a nerd. Oh, sorry to cut this short Mother needs her breakfast and I am still in my Spider-man underoos on the basement computer.

Out of the Cave August 2, 2010

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 1 Corinthians 13:11

Baseball might be the greatest sport on earth. In what other sport can abject misery turn to joy so quickly? Sitting there Saturday night waiting for Brad Lidge to not be Brad Lidge and slam the door on the Washington Nationals while listening to thousands of Phillies fans cheering on their hometown team was misery. Then it happened. With one beautiful swing of the bat Zimmerman recreated the famous NLCS moment and made all the Phillies fans feel like Brad Lidge in that moment. I am sure you have seen the picture. Pujols is in the background admiring his homer and Lidge in the foreground staring at it, mouth agape in complete and utter shock and realization at what he had just done. When the news comes that Brad Lidge has retired it will be that moment that imagine that is burned into everyone’s mind. That is Brad Lidge. 

That moment Saturday night before the ball had even left the ballpark every Nationals fan rose in admiration of Ryan Zimmerman. Everyone stood to witness the joy, the miracle he had brought us. He had turned a sure Phillies victory into a defeat. I am sure the Phillies percent of winning at that time was in the high 90’s. With one swing of the bat Zimmerman turned what was almost a statistical certainty into an anomaly. The Nationals fans in the stands were filled with feelings of joy and euphoria. Cheers erupted in celebration of some being greater than us, one that can deliver miracles.

It was also on this day that Adam Dunn was not traded. That he would remain a Washington National. Earlier that day Peter Gammons wondered why the Nationals would trade Adam Dunn. He believed Dunn was a big part of the ball club and could help the Nationals win sooner rather than later. After the trade did not occur Buster Onley exclaimed that he was confused as to what the Nationals were doing and didn’t understand it. Onley should call his former colleague he can explain. The difference in the way MLB network and ESPN treat baseball is night and day. The ESPN analysts are still shackled in the cave watching a puppet show they believe to be reality. They do have a few good ones, but with the advent of MLB network it can be reasoned that guys like Kurkjian and Stark are not long for ESPN.

The day before the trade deadline was when the Nationals made most of their moves, and one of those moves made me sad. Not because I loved the player. In fact I didn’t care for them at all. Cristian Guzman was traded to the Texas Rangers for two AA pitchers. If they turn out to be another Chico and Mock it is a good deal. Guzman was not helping the team and him batting second was not good in any way. Despite his high average he was not a good hitter. My friend loved him. He enjoyed when he would come to bat and it was like an event in the stadium. It wasn’t some mortal being likely to swing at the first pitch and ground out softly it was Cristian Guuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzman. He was here to save the day and get a table turning hit. In my friends mind Guzman was always the underdog hero.

That is where the problem lies. I tried to explain to my friend that Guzman simply wasn’t a good player. I pointed out his OBP his SLG, WAR, VORP, wOBA, and every other advanced metric I would pull off the internet, but he wouldn’t listen, and he was the smart one. Why should he listen to me and let me ruin his fun. It is fun to believe that guys like Guzman, Nieves, and Harris can deliver the same type of moments that Zimmerman can. We believe what we believe because we have left the Cave and seen the light. When someone new comes to baseball we try and help them to see the light the way we see it, but not all people want to. They want to live in the dark world of the Cave where Guzman is good at the game of baseball. They want to think and reason with the mind of a child. The announcer says his name with such emphasis he must be good. They want to argue not with stats or logic, but with tide turning base hits and small sample sizes.

This year my friend has come to baseball. He has gone with me to Pickles to drink $2.50 beers and watch the Nationals lose to the Orioles. We have gone to Nationals Park and seen Stephen Strasburg. He has come to baseball with a mind different from mine. He does not see things the way I do, and I times I regret the fact I see the way I do. The game would be more fun if I could believe in guys like Guzman. If I could look at the old style stats and see a good player. The term ignorance is bliss exists for a reason. We want to think the steak is a steak and not some gruel being feed to us through a tube by machines. Opening your mind to a higher level of thinking sometimes closes it to a more enjoyable way of living.

A Return to Innocence July 28, 2010

Lacking understanding is dangerous. I don’t want the first thing I say on here to be how I never liked Cubs fans, but I never liked Cubs fans. At the same time I lacked understanding. I didn’t understand that the same Cubs fans that invade out of town parks are the same as the Penguin fans that don’t know what Fort Duquesne is, why someone would want fries on a sandwich, or can’t name even one of the three rivers. Maybe next time the Cubs come to town to play I will ask one of them if they know what in the hell a sports pepper is.

One more thing about me before I get to what I want to talk about, I am not a lifelong baseball fan. I simply never got the opportunity. I am from an area that didn’t have baseball for most of my life, and the closest two cities with baseball are crime ridden cesspools. I also have no connection to those cities. I would make a bad bandwagon fan. I am just too disloyal to areas that aren’t my home. However that fact that I am a more recent convert to the church of baseball makes me no less devoted. My father may have never gotten the chance to hold me in his arms and try to explain the rules of a game to a person whose understanding of language was to point and cry. I never got the chance to beg for balls from anyone in a uniform that walked by. There are certain things a child can get away with that an adult can’t. I will never get those moments back.

Upon entering Wrigley Field I saw again with the innocent eyes of a child. It was like my first time seeing a baseball diamond: the beautiful green of the freshly mowed grass, the bright and lively ivy climbing the outfield wall, and the contrast of the red brick walls surrounding the field. I walked out behind home plate just to get a closer look. The usher didn’t ask for a ticket or try and tell me I couldn’t be there to watch them water the field. She instead talked about how beautiful the place is and how I could get a first time visitors certificate. The only other stadiums where I have been this close to the field have all been minor league parks. I know it is a cliché, but Wrigley Field just felt cozy. It felt like when the action started I was going to be part of something.

The true appeal of Wrigley Field isn’t that it is cozy or that fans are all on top of the players, but that if you close your eyes you can see the stands filled with men in three piece suits, ladies in sun dresses, and popcorn venders with trays and funny red striped shirts. Wrigley field takes you back to innocence. It gives back what was lost. Part of my childhood that was stolen from me was returned when I saw Wrigley Field. My dislike of Cubs fans is now reserved for those whose grandmother’s second cousin’s best friend once changed trains in Chicago.

Wrigley is a shrine to the game of baseball. Seeing it is the same as seeing the Parthenon or Notre Dame Cathedral. For those in this world and in this country that claim America has no culture I would suggest they check out Wrigley Field. It is a place that exists out of time, but in lockstep with time. The Parthenon is a ruin whose function is debated, a person can see a sparsely attended church service at Notre Dame, but Wrigley Field is bustling and full of life. The game of Baseball is timeless in itself. Seeing it played in a living monument can only make it more special. A visit to Wrigley Field is not just a trip to see a monument of the game, but for any baseball fan it is a journey of self discovery and greater understanding.

A Blind Defense of Inception July 16, 2010

http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/can-someone-please-explain-inception-me

This won’t be about baseball. I do sometimes have other interests and one of my interests that has waned since getting married is going to the movies. Inception is a movie that I want to see. I think it might be worth the $20 or so I have to pay to see it with my wife. My nephew sent me the above link this morning and after what I wrote about why I enjoy baseball one line in particular stood out to me.

“But he’s clueless about how to deal with reality, honest emotions or relevant issues.” If I wanted those things I wouldn’t need to go to the movies. I could hire someone to walk around and film me for a day and just watch it whenever I wanted to see reality. I am not really even sure what the term honest emotions means. I can understand the idea of someone faking happiness or sadness, but that is what actors do. They are paid to fake emotions. So, again if we want honest emotions the only thing to do is live our own lives and wait. Actors on the screen will never give you honest emotion. I am pretty sure at the end of “Titanic” when Leonardo is sinking into the ocean I highly doubt that Kate Winslet is really sad. There can be no honest emotion in that situation because in reality no one is dying. They are probably about to share a cup of coffee with each other and discuss how they felt the scene went. It is a movie full of actors faking emotions. No matter how real the emotion on the screen looks it is faked.

Of course the last bit of that quote is the most bizarre. I don’t really want to see a movie that deals with relevant issues. If I wanted that I could just turn on the news and I can listen to Dan Rather tell me about relevant issues. I am also not sure how one would define relevant issues. It changes the world over. The main goal of any form of art is to be timeless. For some reason earlier this week I was thinking about “The Wizard of Oz” it amazes me that the movie was made in 1939 and is a fond memory of every generation of children born after that date. It is simply amazing to think that one day my children will hide behind me when the wicked witch of the west first appears on screen, and that this movie came out before some people’s grandparents were born.

I expect the art and entertainment I enjoy to be a reflection of reality, but like all reflections it is distorted. The truth held within art is not going to be apparent to all. It is these nuggets of truth that remain behind in the reflection that makes art interesting to me. I know all there is to know about reality. I live it every day. The truths I wish to discover through art are truths that extend to some plane of being beyond reality. Of course I haven’t yet seen “Inception” and have no idea if it is good, but I have heard good things about it. It sounds like the type of movie I enjoy. A thinking man’s movie. Kind of like baseball is a thinking man’s sport. I guess I am nothing if not predictable.

Clinical Obsession July 12, 2010

This past Saturday I took my mother to watch the Nationals lose to the San Francisco Giants 10-5. On the way home she asked me a question I could not answer, a question that I simply found puzzling. She, like I guess all mothers do, asked this question in the form of a statement. She said, “I hope you haven’t become obsessed?” The motherly concern is slightly touching, but I think my confusion comes from the very nature of the sport of baseball. I am die-hard baseball fan. I don’t think a day passes that I don’t read an article on fangraphs or look up a players stats on baseball-reference.com, and no night passes that I don’t watch a baseball game in some form or another. I am even going to drink a beer and watch the homerun derby tonight. I will get annoyed at Chris Berman, but it is the only baseball I will get tonight, and when winter rolls around I will watch the Caribbean Series when it is on MLB network. Simply said being a baseball fan is being obsessed.

Even if you aren’t a slightly insane person like myself, but still watch baseball then in a way you are obsessed. Baseball is on during the perfect time of year to lead to obsession. Unless a person is really interested in summer shows like “Rookie Blue” or reruns of “Glee” then baseball is the only thing to watch.  

The lowest common denominator of sports information is sports radio, and this is the time of year they hate the most. Baseball is hard to talk about. It is a sport that has to be understood in order for intelligent discourse to take place. The caller can complain about a guy not hitting enough homers or having enough RBI, but if the radio host adds no insight then they have failed. So, in order to not fail they mostly ignore its existence and complain about the lack of football. Football is a completely different sport. Someone can watch every football game and understand more about it than other people, but the only time they lose is a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon. Baseball takes away three hours every night.

Most people simply don’t have the time to invest in really following a team. It is even more of an investment to get down to all the smaller parts of what makes up a team. Knowing the minor leaguers and the prospects is an investment of time. Keeping up and understanding the latest stats and trends in the game is another investment of time. Trying to argue your views vs. another fans view on a message board is yet another investment of time. And between all this life has to be lived. Money needs earning, wives and girlfriends need attention, family needs visiting, and god forbid someone die or get married.

(Once a college friend of mine got married during baseball season and I lied and said I had prior commitments so I could go and watch a meaningless game between the Nationals and Cubs. My favorite Uncle also happened to die during baseball season and my father and myself rushed home from the funeral Sunday morning to watch the Nationals take on the Marlins. When planning a family the birth month of my child will revolve around the baseball season so as not to disturb anything. And I myself had a January wedding just so it would avoid any aspects of baseball.) 

The nature of baseball is obsession. Even if someone wanted to it would be very hard to follow any other sport as closely as all of us die-hard baseball fans follow baseball. All the information we need to know nearly everything there is to know about baseball is right there at our finger tips. The internet has made being a baseball fan even more time consuming and wonderful. If I wanted to know what Adam Dunn is hitting on Tuesdays after an off-day in which it rained I am sure the information is out there. Baseball lends itself to so many things. People could spend hours arguing the strategy of bunting or discussing the joys of watching Pujols bat.

This season alone I am on a record pace of attending sixty games. I have been to 33 games so far this season. All but three of them have been Nationals games. Two of them were Orioles games when the Nationals were out of town, and one was a Harrisburg Senators game when Strasburg was pitching. Baseball has become a part of my being. I can’t say the moment this happened or why it happened. It is just something that does happen. I don’t know if I would call it an obsession though. Obsession implies danger. It implies that I would stalk Strasburg just for a chance to steal his dirty underwear and sell it on e-bay.

When I was in Cleveland a random Nationals fan ran up to me and he seemed very excited about something. He seemed to really have something important to tell me and was bouncing like a six year old that needs to pee. Without me even opening my mouth he proceeded to tell me how the Cleveland police told him that the Nationals were staying at the Ritz or Hyatt or some other fancy hotel. I really didn’t care. I don’t really want to meet the Nationals players away from the field. My pleasure comes from watching them play the game of baseball. There is a poetry and beauty in watching people that are this good do what they are great at. Seeing them in street clothes drinking beer in a hotel bar is not really the way I want to see my ball players. I don’t want to know what they do when they aren’t playing baseball. That is their free time when they are human and I want my ball players to be mythic beings, and they are only that when they are playing baseball.

After the crazy stalker told me this news of where the Nationals were staying he ran off in the opposite direction I presume to tell more people that he was insane and going to stalk the Nationals. That might be obsession. I am not there. I do spend countless hours reading about baseball in books and on the internet, and I spend even more countless hours watching the game of baseball. I plan my travels and vacations around baseball (next weekend I am heading up to Chicago for Cubs vs. Cardinals, Brewers vs. Nationals, and White Sox vs. Mariners).  Whenever someone asks if I have plans I always check the baseball schedule before I can answer. Baseball may consume large quantities of my time, but I am no more obsessed than other normal baseball fans.

I don’t care what hotel the players stay at. I don’t wait by the player parking lot for the chance to see them drive away. I simply watch and enjoy the game of baseball. For me it is a passion not on obsession.

The Adam Dunn Question July 8, 2010

There is a pleasure derived from watching Adam Dunn swing a bat. He is a big lumbering mountain of humanity. He is someone that has stepped out of the pages of folk tales, a mythic hero like Paul Bunyan or Hercules. He is strong, fierce, determined to give it his all in every plate appearance. There is no beauty or poetry in the way Adam Dunn plays the game of baseball just like there is no beauty in watching a lumberjack fell a tree. It is pure force and power. His mighty swings can crush the soul of the pitcher and his epic strikeouts leave his own fans wondering what might have been. It is just a known that if his bat made contact that ball wouldn’t be coming back.

The question now surrounding Adam Dunn and the Washington Nationals is what to do. Adam Dunn is a force at the plate and in the clubhouse. He is a big goofy likeable guy to the players on his team, and he is a feared leviathan to opposing pitchers. The problem is one that baseball teams face often, and whatever the answer I for one hope it involves Mike Rizzo being smarter than me.

Last night watching Adam Dunn crush homer after home and break the heart of San Diego pitching brought a tear to my eye. I like watching Adam Dunn play the game of baseball. He has his issues. He isn’t very sharp when it comes to situational hitting. He approaches every situation with one goal: smash the baseball into the farthest reaches of the heavens. His goal seems to be to knock Artemis from the sky no matter what the game situation is. This leads to strikeouts with a runner on third and less than two outs where a long fly ball or just a ball in play would score a run. Adam Dunn isn’t that type of player though. His approach is to kill baseballs.

Adam Dunn isn’t a complete hitter, but he is a consistent hitter.  He has had six straight seasons with forty are near forty homers (he fell short of the mark last season with 38 homers). This season he ranks 7^th among first baseman with a .939 OPS ahead of such names as Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder. The only two NL first baseman he is behind are Joey Votto and Albert Pujols. Adam Dunn for his career has put up a slash line of .251/.382/.523. Those are pretty decent numbers for an offensive player. People can bring up defense, but first base is an offensive position and on the scale of defensive importance it might rank dead last.

It simply cannot be argued that Adam Dunn is not a productive major leaguer. The issue is what can Adam Dunn be signed for, and what can he be traded for. I would bet that if you asked a GM to tell you what kind of deadline partners they dream of the answer would be a team in the White Sox position. After an altercation between GM Kenny Williams and manager Ozzie Gullien it was presumed that Williams might be on the hot seat. Then the White Sox got hot and found themselves right back in a division race. The problem is the Twins might add Cliff Lee, and the Tigers have the AL frontrunner for MVP in Miguel Cabrera. The fact is the White Sox are catching neither team. However the White Sox think they can catch both teams. All they need is a little power, and they are looking for Adam Dunn to provide it.

The information we know so far is that the Nationals have supposedly asked for either Gordon Beckham or Carlos Quentin. I think it is more likely that the source mistook his conjunctions and the Nationals asked for Quentin and Beckham. Beckham after having an excellent rookie season is in what is either a sophomore slump or gigantic downturn from which he will never return. Carlos Quentin is a decent right fielder that is just starting to find his power stroke. Getting both these players would fill two needs for the Nationals. Another option would be to enquire into the availability of recently called up prospect Viciedo to be paired with either Quentin or Beckham. This would allow the Nationals to fill the hole left by trading Adam Dunn with a cheaper and younger alternative to Adam Dunn allowing them to save money for a possible run at Cliff Lee in the offseason.

The other alternative is to keep Adam Dunn and resign him. Dunn’s value is now in question after the Phillies signed Ryan Howard to a ridiculous contract. Reports on Twitter last week from Buster Olney were that four years and $48 million should be enough to get Adam Dunn signed. If these numbers are to be believed then a deal is most likely eminent.

There is no one sure path to contention. The Nationals could resign Adam Dunn only to watch him blow out a knee and never play again. Dunn could be traded and help the White Sox make the playoffs resign with them and be the second coming of Frank Thomas. The only sure thing about the future is that it is unsure. Neither option that the Nationals now face is the correct option. Both options could be a path to contention, and whatever happens hopefully turns out to be the best decision for the future of the ball club.

Understanding the Beauty of Ryan Zimmerman July 6, 2010

There is a quiet beauty in the way Ryan Zimmerman plays the game of baseball. The effortless dives towards the foul lines, the barehanded scoops on slow rollers, and the quiet stance with his arms raised and eyes lowered, it all just seems so easy.  If the statement were made that Ryan Zimmerman is a great player many people, including Nationals fans, would argue. How can someone that makes everything look so effortless be great?

It is this stoic nature that makes Zimmerman great. I myself doubted his greatness before the season began when I read in column after column about how Zimmerman was one of the fifteen to ten best players in baseball. I cast aside the first few writers with mild suspension, but then Posnanski said it. He is the great vindicator of any baseball opinion. I read his opinion that Zimmerman was not just a good player, but a great player and suddenly I could ignore it no longer.

I thought back to a moment watching Wes Helms and Garret Atkins playing third base in the playoffs. Everything to the left side of the infield seemed to be a hit. On slow rollers I thought, “That’s an out.” Then as if by magic no third baseman appeared to snatch up the ball and throw onto first. The pitcher and the catcher were too late. I wondered where the third baseman could be. I half thought that maybe the shift was on for that hitter or some other defensive oddity. It just didn’t make sense that the third baseman wasn’t there to field the ball. Then a hard grounder was smashed to the left side just out of the short stops reach, and I wondered how it even got to the short stop.

It was then that I realized that Zimmerman had spoiled me. Watching Zimmerman play defense every day would be like only watching Hitchcock. Having no point of reference and seeing something great everyday makes the greatness fade to the expected. I was expecting Wes Helms and Garret Atkins to make plays that they don’t make, plays that only seem ordinary when a defender of Zimmerman’s ability is on the field. I had lost my point of reference. To me Zimmerman was the ordinary.

It is Zimmerman’s nature that makes you accept this. He doesn’t celebrate wildly after every off balance throw. He is quiet and plays as if he expects to make the great plays. It is ordinary for him to do something extraordinary. It is nothing special to witness diving stabs, dives over tarps, barehanded pick-ups, and walk-off homeruns. Of course that last item is an offensive item. It wasn’t until last season that Zimmerman really grew into himself offensively. He had always had his moments, but last year was the start of something special.

Zimmerman’s offense is ignored even more than his defense. His stance at the plate is nearly flawless in its silence. His hands sit raised out over the plate above the letters. His front foot back ready to step forward as his hands lower. His eyes locked in awaiting the pitcher to make his delivery. He is not a menacing presence at the plate like Albert Pujols or Ryan Howard. He doesn’t instill fear into the hearts of opposing fans and pitchers alike. Maybe it is just they don’t know enough of Zimmerman, or maybe it is just that he doesn’t seem menacing. His swing is as effortless as his defense, and when he does get a hold of a ball it seems to glide through the air as if it is take a stroll through the park. His smashes off the outfield wall come on swings that just look so easy it is believed that anyone could swing a bat like that.

When Zimmerman struggles it frustrates behind belief. Everyone has seen what he can do and how easy he makes it look. Why can’t he just do it all the time? He can just flick his wrist and hit the ball 400 ft the other way. He knows the strike zone so why did he just watch strike three? It is hard to imagine someone so gifted, so natural and smooth struggling and still not looking like they are trying. It has to be a question in some people’s minds if Zimmerman would just show a little emotion and care then maybe he could be even better. Maybe the struggles would evaporate and the season would be one long hot streak. That isn’t how baseball works. There are players that grunt and groan with ever stroke. There are those with violent swings. Then there are players that it just seems to come natural to.   

Zimmerman’s quiet nature and effortless play make it hard for people to see his true greatness. Seeing him everyday makes it even hard to realize just how good he is. His type of greatness is the kind that isn’t noticed until it is gone. It is just there. It is expected, and it seems eternal in its grace. It is hard at times to truly appreciate Ryan Zimmerman. It is hard to see greatness in a quiet, serene nature encased in a player that goes about his business and makes it all seem easy.

Don’t Call Before October June 30, 2010

If the Nationals go on to lose 100 games and last night’s win becomes completely meaningless then this might be the longest summer of my life. I can say with confidence than I am looking forward to OCTOBER more than Dane Cook ever did. The reason for this is I once again bet against the Nationals and sacrificed my ringtone rights, but this time all the way until the end of the season. If anyone tries to argue that the post season counts I will make them look up the meaning of post. It is when the Nationals season ends which could be argued happened when they got swept by the Orioles, but the technical season ends when thirty teams have played 162 games or all division races have been decided.

I guess this could go down in the category of sacrificing to the greater good of the team I cheer for. There was just no way the baseball gods were going to let a fan say something so dumb and get away with it. Now I am stuck listening to Lady Gaga whenever someone calls me, and it isn’t just any Lady Gaga song. It is the worst possible song. I hadn’t even heard the song until I made my ringtone, but this thing going off in public is going to be worse than what it must be like to look like Sheamus. I don’t even remember what it was that I said that stuck me with Lady Gaga the last time, but it wasn’t this bad as I choose the song.

The Nationals played a clean crisp game last night and it looked like the middle of the order might be waking up, and with Nyjer actually hitting and Bernadina in the two hole there were people to drive in. I have been down on Guzman this season, but I can say I like him a lot better batting 7^th than I do batting 2^nd. His game changing hits just have more impact either with guys on base or when he can turn the line-up over to a suddenly productive top of the order. Nyjer still looked sloppy at times and actually almost got picked off on an RBI single. I have never seen a hitter picked off after getting a hit, but if anyone can do it Nyjer can. He just hasn’t been playing smart baseball lately and I seriously question his baseball IQ.

If the team can continue to play sharp for the rest of the season it won’t look as bad as it was starting to look like it could. It was starting to look like the Nationals were ready to make a run at 100 loses for a third year in a row, but I think there are as many games off that pace as they are off the division lead. Meaning it would take a monumental run for them to achieve either.

I also started to wonder if Dibble has missed the last few games. He was talking about how the Nationals during their poor stretch have had to play catch-up and it is hard to win when you are constantly behind by four or five runs.  Against the Orioles the Nationals blew leads of 6, 5, and 3 runs and were playing ahead for most of those games. Looking back even further they won the series against the Royals and the game they lost they lost by a score of 1-0. Looking back further and they got swept by the White Sox by the scores of 2-1 in extra innings, 1-0, and 6-3, and in the final game they actually had the lead for a bit before blowing it. In order to find this type of occurrence Dibble was talking about you have to go back almost two weeks to the Cleveland and Detroit series. I think Dibble might have just gotten stuck in 2009 mood since the team looked like that on Monday, and just started to repeat the things he said last season. It was just odd to hear when it really wasn’t the reason the team had been playing poorly recently.

I also wonder if I tag Rob Dibble if he will ego search and find this blog like Jeff Pearlman. I am more worried about someone calling me in public right now than semi-known baseball people ego searching and stumbling upon my blog.

Strasburg and Strikes June 24, 2010

The big Strasburg debate of the day is if a pitcher can throw too many strikes. I remember reading one time that Bob Gibson did not like the philosophy of the waist pitch. He felt that if you had a hitter in the hole you attacked. I am also not sure that a ball off the plate has to be a waist pitch. Strasburg has such an amazing curve ball and change-up that if he threw them in the dirt that a lot of batters would swing. He can also throw his fastball high in the zone to get swings and misses. I also don’t know if a set-up pitch would count as a waist pitch. A 99 MPH fastball inside right under a batter’s hands would certainly back him off the plate and set him up for a curve or change-up on or slightly off the outside corner. This of course is all part of pitching.

People say that Strasburg and all young pitchers come up to the Major Leagues and are still learning how to pitch. I sometimes wonder why. If I know this stuff I am certain pitching coaches and managers know it. Do they just not tell the pitcher, or is it more a matter of learning how to do it. The only thing a good pitcher should really be learning is the individual hitters. If a pitcher doesn’t know that he needs to change speeds and move the ball around the zone and sometimes expand the zone then they might never learn it. These are just concepts that make up pitching. Some guys just don’t have the talent to hit the spots needed to be a pitcher. It isn’t like they aren’t trying or just don’t know. It is simply that guys like Tony Armas Jr. and Daniel Cabrera can’t.

The real thing that should be taken out of this start by Strasburg wasn’t whether or not he threw too many strikes, but that he didn’t have his best stuff. His fastball velocity was down, he wasn’t locating it like he can, and it happened to be humid and in the high 90’s. The Royals batting order are slap hitters that are just looking to put the ball in play. Mitch Williams on MLB Network said he felt Strasburg would do better against teams with more power hitters, because he is likely to get more swings and misses. The way Strasburg had to battle the heat, not having his best stuff, and the slap hitting Royals all over the bases this might have been his best start, or at least the one where we learned the most about him.

I was at a game one time where Cole Hamels couldn’t through his fastball for strikes and his change-up was being hit. He didn’t give up. He didn’t let the hitters beat him. Instead he stopped throwing those two pitches early in the count. He got ahead with his curveball and then would either throw the change-up in the dirt or his fastball up. He ended up lasting six innings and only giving up a couple runs. It was really a great pitching performance. In baseball more is always learned about a player when he fails.

It was interesting to see how Strasburg handled not having his best fastball, but it was still a 97 MPH fastball that he could locate. It will be interesting to see what happens when he goes out there and has nothing, to see if he can make the adjustments and survive, or if he gets knocked around what happens in his next outing.  I am also very interested to see what happens when Strasburg has everything working. Strasburg is going to be a very fun pitcher to watch.   

I do not think yesterday was an issue of Strasburg throwing too many strikes. I think it was more an issue of battling not having his best fastball, and the heat. He even admitted after the game that the 0-2 pitch he threw to Jose Guillen wasn’t in the location that he wanted. He wanted to go up and out of the zone, but the pitch ended up right down the middle and Guillen just blooped it over the infield. The Royals were just looking to put the ball in play, and they did it enough to win, as the Nationals failed to score any runs. The line-up will come around at some point. Zimmerman, Dunn, Willingham are one of the better middle of the orders in baseball.