First Ladies of Baseball

Posts by Maggie

Before it’s too late

By on October 11, 2012

Once again I could make an excuse about being a terrible blogger.  I could apologize for not posting my September predictions.  For not posting anything really at ALL during the month of September.  For not having the time to acknowledge the amazing things that this team has done (other than clinching the postseason back on September 20).

Instead I’ve been at games – doing the thing I promised I was doing instead of posting.  I’ve been a fan – eating hot dogs, drinking beer, cheering myself hoarse, high-fiving strangers.  I’ve still been taking lots of pictures and thinking critically about this team, but without the pressure of “How will I write about this for the blog?” I’m able to enjoy this last and sweetest part of the season, and everything amazing that has happened all year long.

I promise to do more later.  There may be some catch up posts with links to pictures if I ever get them from my computer to our picture site.  For now – have this one.  It’s totally out of focus.  But I think it expresses a little bit of the exuberance that was palapable even from the “cheap seats”.  The Nats are going to Game 5.  They’re still in it.  The season isn’t over yet…and I think they can do it!

 

Fans First

By on September 3, 2012

Hey guys -

Apologies on not posting anything for a while. But Ashley has been busy with an upcoming move that is taking up a lot of her time…and I have no excuse.

But really, what we’re feeling like now goes like this: we are first and foremost Nationals fans. We haven’t stopped going to games just because we haven’t been posting. I am sure none of you thought that, but I wanted to clarify. So, what has kept us from posting? Well – have you seen this team? If you haven’t, why are you reading this blog? Seriously though, I think we’ve both been so caught up in the fever of being excited fans this season, that it makes it hard to force yourself to sit down and write? Why sit down and upload a whole mess of photos, when instead you could go to a game, or sit and watch the game on TV?

Because every game is now must-see. Today, our Nats won game number 82 of the year. They’ve achieved their first winning season as a Washington Franchise, the first winning season Washington has seen in baseball since 1969.  And there are still 28 games to go – things can only get better.

We’re just going to sit back and enjoy it – but we promise to get back to blogging when we can.

Still Behind, Still Predicting

By on August 1, 2012

Ok guy (that is, if anyone is still reading), I know we’re behind.  I know we’ve been “bad bloggers” this season, but perhaps it’s because there’s other things we’re doing with our time.  When you’re watching baseball games every night, it’s hard to concentrate on what’s going on on the TV AND to write a blog post.  And then there are the non-baseball things going on in our lives.  In any case, Drew and I are still making predictions, and while I haven’t gotten around to rounding up our July predictions (super quick summary: we weren’t quite optimistic enough), we’re going to put in our August predictions before the month gets too far ahead of us.  And because we’re going for speed here, there won’t be pictures (at least for a little bit).

July 31-Aug 2: vs Phillies

Maggie: I’m thinking at least 2.  They’re having a crappy year, and showing it, but the Nats do have to face Cliff Lee.  (2-1)

Drew: The Phillies team that got swept by the Braves isn’t going to be the team that plays the Nats at the end of July.  2-1, a sweep, both sound good to me. What I care about more is how I don’t dread the Phillies fans this season.  They don’t come to the park with their usual swag and obnoxiousness.  I’m looking forward to the game on the 31st.  Should be a quiet night. [Addendum: After the debacle that wast the first game, I still think the Nats will take 2 of the three games (up 2-1 as I write). However, the Nats showed me some things last night that make me take pause.] (2-1)

Aug 3-5: vs Miami (including doubleheader on the 3rd)

Maggie: We’re playing them at home (as opposed to Miami, where they historically cream us), so I’m happy enough to say (3-1)

Drew: This is another team that will look very different than the last time the Nats played them. I think that Miami’s grand experiment can’t quiet be called a failure yet. Being 14 games back is bad but i still think they might pull out a better record this year than last season.  However, the Marlins are only playing middling baseball. Their FIP and opp. BABIP are middle of the pack as is their offense.  Maggie is right, 3-1 makes sense. (3-1)

Aug 6-9: @ Houston

Maggie: All my past predictions have been so cautious.  They have more losses than we do wins.  I’ll go with a big series win.  (3-1)

Drew: Go BIG Maggie! I’m going with a sweep. Why? Why not!  Interestingly, the Astros have scored runs than the the Marlins. However, they give up runs like Goldman execs get options.  The Nats’ offense has woken up as of late so I’m expecting the pitching to hold off the Astros for a sweep. (4-0)


Aug 10-12: @ Arizona

Maggie: For whatever reason, the Diamondbacks make me wary.  I’ll go with (1-2)

Drew: I do think the the D-backs are going to be a challenge for the Nats.  The Dbacks don’t seem to have much of the Nats’ current bane: Speed. They’re near the bottom in stolen bases and are benefiting from a .317 BABIP from playing in a division with terrible defense.  I see them as the roughly .500 team they are and don’t expect much trouble on the Nats’ part. (2-1)

Aug 13-15: @ San Fran

Maggie: SF Worries me too, but if I’m going to be optimistic, I’m going to be optimistic. (2-1)
Drew: I’m going the opposite way. It’s been a while since the Nats had a west coast swing and the Giants are playing a lot better than last time.  They’re pitching is much improved and their offense seems to be succeeding in playing small ball. That makes me worried because while the Nat’s haven’t been giving up a lot of homeruns, they’ve been losing games on the base paths.  I’m going to say the Nats go 1-2 for this series. (1-2)

Aug 17-19: vs NY Mets

Maggie: This is the right time of year for a late season Mets collapse.  (3-0)
Drew: That’s the boldness I like to see! I, however, do not share your optimism. The Mets have a better offense than I think their record suggests. Their pitiching is only middling with the exception of R.A. Dickey.  I think this series could really go either way but because it’s at home, I’ll say the Nats go (2-1)

Aug 20-22: vs Atlanta

Maggie: I think it would be silly to count Atlanta out since they’re the last team other than the Nats that seems to have any spark in the NL East.  I’ll say Nats win the series, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Atlanta took it instead. (2-1)

Drew: Completely agree. The Braves are my new nemesis.  Despite growing up in Atlanta, I will never root for the Braves.  I think the biggest question will be if Chipper plays in this series.  If he doesn’t (and I hope he doesn’t) then I give the Nats a much better chance of going 2-1. Otherwise it’s a coin flip in my book. (2-1)

Aug 24-26: @ Philly

Maggie: A group of Nats fans will be visiting CBP on Saturday night, and I’ve got high hopes they leave happy.  I say we sweep the series.  (3-0)

Drew: Multiple sweeps! At this point, the Phillies will be at their most dangerous.  By this time they should be close to being eliminated from the playoffs and will be playing for the hell of it (and gobs of cash).  I say they actually have an uptick in performance as a result and take 2 from the Nats.  (1-2)

Aug 28-29: @ Miami

Maggie: Visiting Miami has never been the Nats strong suit.  Thank goodness it’s only a 2 game series! (1-1)

Drew: Can them fish! Sweep! (2-0)

Aug 30-Sept 2: vs St Louis (series continues over the weekend, and the homestand deep into September, no good place to cut off)

Maggie: The Cards are one of those more historically (well, recently historically?) dominant teams.  I don’t see them fading off into the autumn light.  I should end my optimistic month with a won series, but I’ll call it a split. (2-2)

Drew: A four game series with the Cardinals will be a late season treat. The Reds are going to run away with the division but I think the Cards will fight hard for that extra wildcard spot. I don’t think they’ll catch the Nats (if they don’t win the division) but it will be a challenge none the less. A split would be a nice outcome but I think there’s a real chance the Nats go (3-1)


Final Total

Maggie: a ridiculous 22-10.

Drew: identically crazy 22-10

So – are we totally nuts for imagining a 22-10 run over the month of August (plus 1 day in July and 2 in September)?  Let us know your predictions in the comments!

Mid-Season Assessment: “At least we were right about one thing…”

By on July 13, 2012

The Nationals start the second half of what seems like a beautiful season so far tonight.  Back in early April, we posted our predictions for the coming season.  I was fairly optimistic, and Ashley tempered my optimism.  And apparently, we shouldn’t have been quite so moderate in our guesstimations.  Let’s take a look at those prognostications and see just how things stand here before the Nats start up again.


1) Who will lead the Nats in home runs in 2012?

Original Answer: Ryan Zimmerman
Current Leaders: Desmond at 17, LaRoche at 15 … Zimmerman 8

Oh Ryan.  He had a rough first half, and things didn’t turn around until about 3 weeks ago when he got that cortisone shot.  In the mean time, Desmond is having a career season, and Adam LaRoche is getting off to a faster start than usual.
Modified Answer: LaRoche – I’m not sure Desmond can keep up his furious pace through the rest of the season though I’d love to see him try.

2) Who will lead the Nats in RBI?

Original Answer: Danny Espinosa
Current Leaders: LaRoche 53, Desmond 51… Espinosa 24

This prediction was probably wishful thinking in the first place.  Espi had a great first half last year – would it be silly to think he’d repeat?  Maybe he’ll bounce back in the second half this time around, but it looks like it’ll be difficult to catch up with LaRoche and Desi who are running away with this so far.
Modified Answer: If we’re going with the “second place guy takes it” again, then we’ll give it to Desmond.

3) Who will lead the Nats in stolen bases?

Original Answer: Roger Bernadina
Current Leaders: Espinosa 14, Desmond 11, Harper 10 … Bernadina 8

This is a situation where the Shark’s new role as a pinch hitter has hurt him.  He’s still a speedster, as evidenced by the fact that he’s only 6 bases behind Espinosa despite his fractional number of plate appearances.
Modified Answer: Gotta give this one to the Kid.  Harper loves to run, and I have a feeling he’ll do a lot of base stealing in the second half.

4) Who will lead the staff in wins?

Original Answer: Jordan Zimmermann
Current Leaders: Gonzalez 12, … Zimmermann 5

Poor Jordan.  We should have known from last year that the team’s bad habit of not giving him any run support would hold over.  He deserves a better win-loss record (and fingers crossed tonight gives him another W in that column).
Modified Answer: Gotta go with Gio.  He’s a workhorse, and he seems to love pitching in Nats Park.  I have a feeling this one is locked up.


5) Who will pitch more innings for the Nats this season: Chien-Ming Wang, John Lannan, Ross Detwiler?

Original Answer: Ross Detweiler
Current Leaders: Detweiler 78.2, Wang 23.2, Lannan 0

This is one of the few answer’s we’ve got right so far.  Yay us!  With Wang’s hip acting up again, and Lannan pouting in Syracuse, we’ll stick with our original answer.


6) Who will get more at bats for the Nats this season:  Rick Ankiel, Roger Bernadina, Bryce Harper?

Original Answer: Roger Bernadina
Current Leaders: Harper 248, Ankiel 158, Bernadina 111

With Ankiel in a reduced role, Bernadina as pinch hitter, and Harper debuting in the big leagues WAY before anyone expected, it looks like we were wrong on this one.
Modified Answer: Harper.  He’s run away with it so far, and the only way I see this changing is if the worst comes to pass.


7) Date of Bryce Harper’s Major league debut?

Original Answer: June 2
Actual Answer: April 28

We were OH SO WRONG.  But really…whoulda thunk?  And dude is really proving himself.

8) Which minor leaguer are you most interested in keeping tabs on this season (other than Bryce Harper)?

Original Answer: Anthony Rendon or Matt Purke (btw, check out that photo!)

With Rendon essentially out for the season with a broken ankle, and Matt Purke not starting his season until late May followed quickly by a trip to the DL, it seems that both of them won’t be doing much for a while.  In the mean time, we’ll be keeping an ear to the ground about Alex Meyer who did an awesome job at the MLB futures game.

9) How many all-stars will the Nats have?  Who?

Our Answer: 2, Zimmerman and Strasburg
Real Answer: 3.5, Strasburg, Gonzalez, Desmond (withdrew), Harper

Let’s give ourselves partial credit.  Of course Strasburg would go – that was the obvious answer.  But the other 2.5 (we’ll call them that since the Nats technically had 4 all stars, but only 3 showed up) were awesome surprises.  Congrats to the team on making the great leap from the last few seasons when they had someone at the All Star Game only because every team HAD to have someone at the All Star Game.

10) Total wins and what place in the division?

Original Answer: 85, 2nd
Current Answer: 49 wins, 1st in NL-East, 1st in NL, 3rd in MLB … more than halfway there!

This is amazing.  The team currently stands 10 wins behind their entire win total from both 2008 and 2009.  They’ve got 79 more games to win the 36 games needed to meet our prediction.  That’s .456 over the second half of the season.  It’d have to be a big drop-off on the current pace, but that means this team is likely to at least meet and probably exceed our expectations.
We won’t amend our prediction (just because we’re cautious), but yeah.  This is very good.


Essay Question: Single most important development for the Nats this season?

Original Answer: The team really needs to stay healthy. Physically, this includes trying to avoid silly injuries early in the season that could be avoided and not overworking injury prone players. Mentally, the team needs to keep up camaraderie in the clubhouse and not get caught up in early season hype until they’ve proven themselves.

Response to Essay: DAMN STRAIGHT.  How many more games could this team have won early on if they’d had Morse from the get-go?  Had Storen as their closer, and didn’t have to deal with the nagging Lidge elbow-issues.  What if Zimmerman had gotten his cortisone shot earlier?  Or if Werth could have continued producing in his sophomore season without the devastating wrist injury?  If Desmond and Harper didn’t have nagging injuries that they’re playing through (to All-Star caliber), that might be holding them back from their full potential?  Who knows what would have happened…but it would have been fun to watch. Thankfully the camaraderie has been there to make up for the other failings.  This is a team with clubhouse chemistry like you would not believe, and they seem to be having fun, but also being realistic about expectations.  Good on them!

Ok – the second half starts now.  Good luck, boys!

July Prediction Post – Part 1

By on July 3, 2012

Time for another prediction post with Drew from Crunching Through My Day.  We made predictions for both May and June…so let’s see how things go for the month of July!  We’ve both got birthdays at the end of the month, so I know we’d like to see some wins on those days.  I’ll present the first half of the month here, and Drew will show us the rest of the month later this week.

7/3-5 vs San Francisco Giants

Drew: Well now, the G-men have really come on lately and taken the NL West by storm. Does this scare me? Yes actually. It does. The Giants just swept the Dodgers (which killed the Nats back in in May.) In many other ways, the Nats and Giants are similar. Their pitching staffs (staves? What’s the rule here?) are about K/9 and HR/9. The Nat’s pitching staff provides a few extra WAR while the Giants offense beats the Nat’s in that category.  However, with the heat and a tough road trip against the Braves, plus the bottom half of the Nats rotation coming up, I’m going to say the Giants take 2 of the three games. However, the Nat will win on the 4th of July to support Truth, Justice, and The Natiude Way!

Maggie: There is nothing in this world that makes me sadder than missing the Lincecum-Zimmermann matchup tonight.  The game should be epic.  Drew has said with stats and whatnot what I see with my eyes: the Giants are a team that is coming on strong in the middle of the summer, and they should be rightly feared.  Not enough where I don’t think the Nats will take a game…but appropriately feared.  Nats lose the series, 1-2.


7/6-8 vs Colorado Rockies

Drew: The Nat’s took advantage of the thin air (is the humidor still on?) in Colorado to awaken their anemic offense.  I have a feeling that the bats will slow a bit in the warm confines of DC but that the Nats will still beat up on the Rockies. I know the Rockies are probably better than their record indicates but I can’t be much.  When Jamie Moyer is your staff ace at the start of the season, there’s not a lot good things I can (besides the 4.11 FIP and .340 opponent BABIP say enough).  I’m going to say 2-1.

Maggie: Sure, we split the series with the basement-dwellers, but that was at the end of a long series of road trips and homestands against the toughest divisions (the Easts) in baseball.  Can you blame them for “taking a break” and “only” scoring 35 runs during that series?  I have a feeling that once the Nats are back in their stadium, with the top of their lineup that the distinction between best and worst in the NL will become quite clear.  Nats sweep, 3-0.

All Star Game

Drew: As much as I like the pageantry surrounding the All Star game, I’ve got to admit that the AL is probably going to win this year.  They spanked in the NL in interleague play.  I want my NL to win but I’m not going to hold out hope.

Maggie: This is another place where I agree with Drew.  I love that the Nats have 3 players (maybe 4?) in the fight, but when the AL spanks the NL in interleague play, it doesn’t bode well for a reversal at the All Star game.

7/13-16 @ Miami Marlins

Drew: Miami has been a real disappointment so far. I spent the offseason worried that they might steal the last playoff spot from the Nats. Of course that was before the Phillies free fell into almost nothing.  Since then, the Marlins have gotten lucky. They should be about even with Houston and Colorado in terms of wins.  Their pitching has been pretty awful, with the lowest K/9 rate and opponents BABIP of nearly .300. Despite that, I don’t think the Nats can sweep this series. Due to the vagaries in the tea leaves and baseball, I’m saying we split the series 2-2

Maggie: More Miami hate from me.  Watching them suck it up this year has been nearly as enjoyable as watching the Phillies tank.  And because the Nats seem to do well when they play in Florida, I’ll expect them to continue to kick butt and take names in Miami.  Nats take it 3-1.

Look for the last half of July later…

1 Comment

June Predictions – Update!

By on July 2, 2012

We’ve come to the end of another month, and Drew and I are about to post a new prediction post for the month of July (look for it tomorrow night before/during the first game against the Giants).  In the mean time, we’ve got to review the predictions from the month of June and see how what we thought matched up against reality.

vs Braves

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 1-1

Unfortunately, the Nats had to deal with another rain out, but we’ll get to see this game played on July 21st (and Ashley and I may be there)!  So we’ll just say for now that the Nats are living up to expectations.  A half point each…since we don’t know if we would have been right or not.

vs Mets

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 2-1

What can we say?  Psychics-R-Us.  And the Nats?  Kicking butts and taking names. 1 point apiece!

@ Red Sox

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 3-0

This was a turning point.  The Nationals showed that they could really hold their own and thrive against a team that has been quite strong in the recent past.  And it didn’t hurt to give a little payback for the final pre-season game in April.  0 points…not that we’re sad about being wrong.

@ Blue Jays

Drew: 1-2
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 3-0

If you don’t believe that Boston was the turning point, look to this set of games.  Are the Nats for real?  That’s a clown question, bro.  Another 0 points apiece, for being wrong in the best way possible.

vs Yankees

Drew: 1-2
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 0-3

We’d said earlier in our predictions that the Nats were going to lose sometime…it just happened to be in the form of being swept by the Bronx Bombers after sweeping two other AL East opponents.  0 points.  It could be worse though.

vs Rays

Drew: 1-2
Maggie: 1-2
Actual: 2-1

After a tough series against the Yanks, the Nats could have folded.  Instead they came back tough against the Rays to prove that they still had IT and could run with the big boys.  0 points for flipped standings.

@ Orioles

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 0-3
Actual: 1-2

We were both wrong.  Drew was optimistic, I was pessimistic.  The Nats gave us halfway in between.  Not being swept against a surging team?  Pretty good.  :)   0 points awarded.

@ Rockies

Drew: 4-0
Maggie: 3-1
Actual: 2-2

This was a close one.  For the two games they lost, things were close – especially the last game.  So while Drew wasn’t going to be right, it looks like I was a lot closer than I thought.  0 points for the split decision.

@ Braves

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 1-2
Actual: 2-1

Gotta hand this one to Drew.  The Nats seem to have the Braves’ number this season.  Good stuff.  1 point to Drew!

Total Record

Drew: 17-11
Maggie: 15-13
Actual: 16-11

Drew was a bit closer on this one thanks to the missing game, which gave him the correct losing record.  And he wins this month overall, with a score of 2.5 points to my 1.5.  We were both fairly wrong about this month…but in the best way possible!

Look back tomorrow for the first part of our July prediction post, and then keep checking back through the rest of the week when Ashley and I go through a backlog of old games we haven’t posted about!

June 15, 2012: Nationals vs Yankees

By on June 20, 2012

I didn’t think I was going to make it to the Yankees series.  But I had a little luck on my side – Ashley and her husband were out of town for a wedding, and my brother was their dog sitter.  As part of his payment, he received baseball tickets, so I obviously begged to be his date for the game.  Being a generous young man, my brother acquiesced.  How nice!

Of course, after that game, maybe I didn’t want to see the Yankees.  And no – it wasn’t because I was going to see Gio again.  It was because the Nationals played some piss-poor baseball defense.  They’d played so well in Boston and Toronto, sweeping both of those teams, but the team that showed up in Washington this past Friday was not the same team.  Maybe it was the toll of playing hard to close things out for 6 games, or maybe they’d had too good a time at the ZiMS benefit the night before.  Whatever the reason this past weekend was not great.

Things were decently close for 6 innings.  But then after allowing 1 runner to reach at the top of the 7th, Gio was pulled in favor of the recently-returned-from-the-DL Brad Lidge.  Lidge did very little of use – he walked 2, and allowed a single that put the Yanks up by 2.  In 1/3 of an inning, he allowed as many earned runs as Gonzalez did in the previous 6 innings.  CRAZY.  Everyone sitting around me complained, and when I heard later in the weekend that Lidge had been DFA’d, I was not surprised.

I wish that this post were the kind where you know that our team won the next game, so there was no reason to be sad.  But as of the writing, the Nats have not won since.  They’re still more than 10 games over 500, but considering how well they’ve been doing, and how they’ve got guys back in the lineup, you’d hope they’d do better.  How many times can I use the word “they” or a contraction thereof in a sentence?  Apparently 4.

ANYWAYS.  Nationals.  Baseball.  It’s June 20.  It’s officially summer.  Enjoy the good baseball times, be sure to drink lots of water, and put on your sunscreen, or you might end up like this lobster which tackled Teddy!

Full photo set here.

June 2, 2012 – In Which We Make a Choice

By on June 8, 2012

Last Friday night was a rainout.  Stephen Strasburg was supposed to pitch, so for whatever reason, they decided to just shift his start to Saturday instead of skipping him in the lineup and having Gio Gonzalez pitch like he was supposed to.  This was VERY exciting for me.  I’ve had the “luck” this year of so far only seeing two of the Nationals – Gio and Edwin Jackson.  They’re both fantastic pitchers, and I’ve really enjoyed the games I’ve been to, but there have been 4 other guys taking the mound in the first inning, and I wanted to see someone else.  Seeing Strasburg would be a cherry on that cake.  I called Ashley, invited her to come with me, and said I’d pick her up at 2:30, with the expectation that we’d park my car at 3 or 3:15, get to the ballpark by 3:30, and buy ourselves some $5 beers before heading up to my seats.  This was not to be.  Traffic along the 270-spur and the beltway delayed my arrival to Ashley’s house until 3:10.  We got on US-50 (because every other route into the city was clogged) and made our way towards 395…only to be greeted with standstill traffic when we reached that on-ramp.  We looked at traffic on Google Maps, listened to WTOP, and tried to make a detour through Arlington.  We called my mother, and it was at that time (4:00pm) that I made the executive decision that I wasn’t going to sit in traffic for potentially hours to miss the game, and not even see Strassy pitch.  We would make alternate plans.

And so, it was with a heavy heart that Ashley and I drove back towards her apartment, but along the way, Ashley had a great idea.  If we couldn’t watch the game in person with cheap beer, we’d watch it on tv at a bar with GREAT beer.  So that’s how we ended up at Mad Fox Brewing Company in Falls Church.  If we couldn’t be at the game, this is where we wanted to be.  We enjoyed fantastic brews, amazing bartenders (who were sympathetic to our plight), and great people surrounding us at the bar who were interested in talking about the Nats.  Ashley was as happy as it was possible to be in our situation.

I was not.  In fact, I was so sulky, that as I drank my Diabolik Belgian Strong Ale, I kept a list of all the things that made me sad that I wasn’t at the game.  Here is that list:

  • Michael Morse returns (along with the return of a-ha’s Take on Me as his fantastic at bat music)
  • Strasburg (we’ve already discussed this)
  • Beautiful day (probably the most obnoxious part of listening to the radio broadcasters was how many times they reiterated that it was beautiful, perfect baseball weather)
  • Zim in tall socks (we are suckers for this particular uniform choice)
  • Harper crazy eyeblack (from the TV it looked like it was worthy of high-school Harper)
  • Flores home run (I love to jump up and high five everyone around me)
  • Game time 2.5 hours for a win!!! (because 1) it’s a win, and 2) it’s short enough where you can still do stuff in the evening)

So that’s our excuse for not having a gamer for the June 2 game.  Do you think we made the right choice?  Has anyone around here ever sat in crazy traffic for hours for a Nats game?  Are there situations where I would have waited?  Sure – if it were a playoff game.  But it wasn’t.  Speaking of the traffic – does anyone know what caused the city-wide standstill on Saturday?

PS (top photo is honor of today – the 2 year Strasiversary!  Photos from that game here)

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June Prediction Post – Part 1

By on June 2, 2012

Since the “Predict the Nats performance” post was such an interesting challenge (and since Drew and I did fairly well), I think a June prediction post is well in order.  The Nats have a challenging month ahead of them where they’ll be playing the entire American League East over the course of two and a half weeks.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  Once again, we’ll be splitting the predictions in two, with the First Ladies taking the first post, and CTmD taking on the second.  Let’s get started!


Braves (vs June 1-3, @ 29-30, July 1)

Drew: I got a little carried away in my May preview with the ‘S’ word. I was thrilled to see the Nats actually get one sweep and take care of the Bravos in A-town.  These two series are still going to be tough.   I know the Braves have been struggling with injuries but so is everyone else. They’ve been pretty good team so far, with strong BB% and wOBA even with a mediocre pitching staff(1.03 HR/9 and 4.06 FIP). Despite that, I think the Nats have this group of Braves number. Since last season the Nats have played really well against the Braves. I’m going to say the Nats go 2-1 in both series and wind up 4-2 for June.

Maggie: This coming week is a big opportunity for the Nationals.  They’ll be facing two division rivals, and one of those is the Braves, who they just swept.  The Nats will (hopefully!) be getting some players back from the DL (can you say Michael Morse?), so they’ll continue to win.  But after a long division road trip, I’m thinking they’ll be tired and don’t see them sweeping the Braves again.  By the time we get to the end of the month, the Braves should have more players back and the Nats will be playing at Turner field again.  I have a feeling this will be a turning point for Atlanta, so I’m only giving the Nats 1.  (2-1, 1-2; 3-3 for the month).


Mets (vs June 5-7)

Drew: I’m still not sure I can buy the Mets as real.  Their defense is pretty shaky with a .307 BABIP (3rd highest in the NL), they still give up more than HR per game, they strike out 21% of the time(5th most in all of baseball), and they’ve actually given up more runs than they’ve scored (214-234). These are not the makings of a winning team.  No matter how they keep winning I can’t believe this team is for real until some of those stats take a more positive turn. I’m going to agree with Maggie on this one and go 2-1.

Maggie: The Mets have been a real surprise this season – maybe more so than the Nationals since everyone was still ragging on them at the beginning of the season and was talking up the Nats.  The Nats haven’t played them since their second series, so I have a feeling it will be close, but as a homer, I’ll give the Nats a slight edge. (2-1)


Red Sox (@ June 8-10)

Drew: No one in Boston was really jazzed about the Sox over memorial day. They dropped 2 of 3 to the Rays and there isn’t much buzz. The thing is, they’re not playing terribly. Yeah, they’re last in their division but they’re over .500. In most other divisions they’d be competing for second.  They’re offense seems to be performing with a solid wOBA (3rd in the AL, 4th overall), a decent BB% (ok, they strike out a fair amount too).  Their pitching has been atrocious. The Nats have been a little bit inconsistent  bat wise but I’m still going to pick their pitching to carry this one and say 2-1. I’d like to see a little revenge for April 3rd.

Maggie: The Red Sox have been really struggling this year.  Of course, struggling in the AL East means sitting at .500 and still being in 5th place.  This is definitely not the team that dominated for a stretch in the mid-aughts, so I’m giving the young and surging Nats a slight edge here (though it will be close playing at Fenway). (2-1)


Blue Jays (@ June 11-13)

Drew: I have no idea what to make of the Blue Jays (really resisting the urge to call them the BJs).  They’re playing about as expected from a run production stand point.  But since they’re in the AL, and Canadian I don’t know anything else about them. Flipping a coin here aaannnnddd….. 1-2. Nats gotta lose some time right?

Maggie: The Blue Jays are another team that have “struggled” this year (though currently sitting just over .500), but they haven’t had a real signature dominant win within their division.  I was originally thinking the Nats would take just 1, but will bump that up to 2 since they may have a decent cheering section considering the franchise’s former base in Canada. (2-1)

We’ll finish things out tomorrow!

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