Think the series on position battles is a great idea, would be enlightening & entertaining at the same time... go for it!

That would be awesome, Barry... The outfield should be a fun one for you...

RE: outfield

If you could include in that particular discussion a list of credible free agents or players that you might have heard are available for trade... since I think almost everyone believes that there are changes in the outfield coming...

Barry,

That would be amazing! I know that I would read it at least 3 times. I can use different computers too, that way the boss man can't track my hits!

Barry Svlurga = My Hero

Interesting that Flores isn't getting the start vs. The lefty.

I'm more and more thinking he will be in AAA next year so he can play every day.

Disregard that RHP tonight...doesn't pay to read and blackberry while driving.

BTW Salt Lake City is beautiful this time of year.

Williams is a righty, so Schneider's start makes sense.

Anyone else curious to see how Bacsik does in this band box? He's prone to long fly outs, but I'm hoping he can keep them off balance.

I'm glad Lannan isn't going up against Oswalt. I was considering his first month in the bigs, and the matchups he's had, and it's pretty amazing how he's been battling several of the aces around the league in a short time.

I'm so confused why they would bring Langerhans back for September when they have guys to check out if they can play or not. What do they need to decide/learn looking at Langerhans?

Its too bad out Langerhans. I thought he was gone. Thats why I am interested in this series Barry is proposing. Id like to know who we can count on being here next year, and who is likely to be let go after the season.

Ugh, FLop.
Nice shot, but if you're gonna stand and stare in the box, you gotta stop on 2nd!

Love the idea Barry - could you include the best prospects at each position?

... go for it Barry. I never say No to work ... that someone else offers to do.

Anyone see the Orioles score tonight? 30-3, Texas. That's right, 30 runs. Wow.

How about a slaughter rule for dem O's hun?

Barry,

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!! I've been so excited the past couple of days with the progress of the team, in particular the achievements of Willy Mo and Tim Redding that I've been actively seeking exactly this type of information. Unfortunately, now that anyone with a job and a keyboard can blog about anything and 12 year olds can pass off opinion combined with questionable motives as facts by updating a Wiki, I would love to see this type of info from a reliable source. In addition to Free Agent/Contractual status for the coming year and beyond I'd be interested in years of service, arbitration eligibility, and option status club or player. Thanks!

Debbi Does ... Minute Maid?

Ugh - Zimm with 2 backward K's with runners in scoring position.

This blue and the Nats lack of swinging is making Woody Williams look like Brandon Webb!

Now Bacsik, keep the ball down and let's take advantage of some of these calls too!

Hmm. Now two posters named Kevin. All yours, man. I hope the enthusiasm is real, at least.

"Hmm. Now two posters named Kevin. All yours, man. I hope the enthusiasm is real, at least."

Sorry... Honestly didn't look close enough. As the new comer I'll concede to the elder statesman. I'll just prepend my first initial as a differentiator. Boring I know but I'm too old to call myself something like "Gn@tsPh@n" and be able to look at myself in the mirror.

As for the enthusiasm, proud card carrying member of the section 526 club. "Mr. Nosebleed Section Ticket Holder Guy" holds a special place in my heart.

No, friend- what you said was close enough to what I was saying fairly recently that I thought you were teasing, believe it or not.

Sorry about that. Anyway, it is high time I revert to lurking.

Great play by Nook. That hill is absurd.

I love listening to Charlie - another great call.

--------------------------

Great play by Nook. That hill is absurd.

Posted by: MKevin | August 22, 2007 09:25 PM

So I'm stuck in Salt Lake City on a business trip and can't see the game. Maybe that's best the way they're playing so far.

Anyway I'm watching the pafres wallop the Mets and the announcers have twice talked about Peavy being traded before he becomes a FA since it is very unlikely SD can shell out the bucks to re-sign him (they quoted his price as about 18 mil/yr)

When is Peavy a FA and what might we be able to offer SD to get him in a Nationals uniform for next year?

I was thinking a package deal of Redding, Church and Balester.

I'm getting the feeling that Woody Williams is WMP's worst nightmare (or else Wakefield).

Who would've thought Woody would have Zimm's number so bad? Zimm hasn't had a decent swing in 3 ABs and is looking like a little leaguer seeing a curveball for the first time.

BTW, something tells me Woody would make a good pitching coach some day.

Heckuva job Nook on that ridiculous injury-in-the-making hill

I take it back, I so wish I could see this game. Nice shot Kearns, we're right back in it!

Oye! Texas is already up 3 - 0 in the nightcap. Fairly predictable. Playing another 9 innings has to be the last thing in the world you want to do after getting battered by 27 runs less than an hour earlier.

Barry, I vote yes. Giddy up....

Florida's losing to Seattle 1-3.

Listening to mlb audio. Man, I can't wait to go back to archives and see Nook's catch "diving UP the hill" (Charlie repeated it about a dozen times, clearly in awe!)
And the crowd stood and cheered?? First, it must have been an amazing catch. Second, what a classy bunch of baseball-loving fans they are!!

Here we go... into the pen... rally cap time.

BTW, yes Barry on your suggested series.
I'm fast becoming your mom: curse the man who dares speak ill of you.

Are you guys serious about the 30-3 score? Jeeeezus!!! That's just wrong.

Yep... 30 - 3 but they've tied up the nightcap 3 - 3.

That would be great since the salaries and contract length is not as readily available to the average fan as batting average ERA etc.
Maybe you could discuss how many pitchers will likely be in Spring training (less than 37?) and how that is done contract-wise. Were most of them signed to minor league contracts? How much did it cost the Nats this year for those pitchers?

What a great 11 pitch at bat for Kearns.

And then WMP strikes out to end the rally. Grrrr I think that might be the game, damnit!

You can find contract info on most players at www.mlb4u.com

Remember when the Nats were the ones that were supposed to be historically bad? Looks like most people were off by about 37 miles.

Bummer for Mike Bacsik. A smirk crosses my face, though, when I think of how I got his autograph in my scorebook the day after his first appearance, another tough-luck loss. (Bloggists are thus warned to apply a heavy discount to my periodic praises.)

In any event, after his outing in SF, he'll not want for autograph hounds.

... As if Church doesn't have enough to worry about, the AP gamer called him "Eric."

Ouch!

Is it just me, or does the DC baseball team have the EXACT opposite result as the DC soccer team when they both play on the same day?

do it.

Oh yeah, and Barry --

I think doing things like having "three in a row" as the title of one's blog post prior to a game fall under the same category as calling a no-hitter before the end of a game. Read: BAD LUCK. :-}

"it is high time I revert to lurking."

No reversion to lurking allowed! That goes for you too MKevin! One post a day, mandatory, for Barry's numbers so he gets more money. Even if he does ignore our pleas for information about his status next year.

How many years do you think that Saltalamacchia will remember the night he went 4 for 6, with two home runs and 7 RBI?

Better question, how many years old will his grandchildren be when they tire of hearing the story told?

*That's 4 for 6, 2 HR, 7 RBI, AND A WALK.

And as I read this unbelievable feat (second only to Chicago Colts 36-run victory in 1897), there's this in the Texas Senators - ahem - gamer:

'"It was great to be a part of," said third baseman Travis Metcalf, who was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma before the game. "It was amazing in capital letters."'

That's a much nicer memory than John Lannan's first game!

A question on this box score. Why did Littleton earn a save when the score was 14-3 when he came in the game?

Littleton was credited with a save because
(a) he finished the game that his team won;
(b) he was not the winning pitcher; and
(c) he pitched three full innings.

There are alternatives to (c), the most common being (as with the Chief) that a pitcher goes one full inning with no more than a three-run lead.

And, yes, Littleton could have entered in the seventh with the score (say) 30-3, given up 26 runs and still been credited with the save because he would have pitched three full innings.

Such is the fatuity of the save statistic. The "save" as a statistic yet lives because it is easy to compute by rote.

But, not unlike batting average or RBI, the bare save number can lack useful context. Don't expect anything better to be adopted any time soon, though.

Barry, the position breakout idea is brilliant. Particularly if the contract status, etc., is included, as you propose.

It'd be a nice bonus to hear comps for the positions we've been wondering about, such as CF. That could include things like Granderson's stats and arb-eligibility (or lack thereof) (and WHY the hell was he left off the All-Star ballot? I wrote him in a bunch of times), Beltran's contract status, etc.

Can't wait to see what I find when I land in Bangalore Saturday morning.

In the last post, estuartj asks: "Can we use all those fielding stats to see how much of an improvement Fick is over DaMeat defensively?"

We sure can try. Barry may well have more and better stats than the ones below, but here goes.

There are twelve NL first basemen that have played at least 681 innings in the field in 2007. Among them, Albert Pujols is first in ZR (.863) and OOZ (44).

Da Meat, with 731 innings logged, is twelfth of this group in ZR (.653) and eighth in OOZ (16).

Fick has played 251 innings at first, with a ZR of .778 on 6 OOZ. To compare him to the group of twelve, let's suppose his innings were tripled to 753; that would make his ZR fourth in rank in the qualifying group -- barely behind Adam LaRoche -- and his tripled OOZ, at 18, would be seventh.

"I'm thinking Fick's defense isn't nearly as much better as his bat is worse."

Eschewing the attempt to quantify the difference precisely (which Barry or Baseball Prospectus can do better anyway): You're right.

So is Mike Bacsik the guy that gets displaced when Bergmann returns or do they send down Lannan or wait until September 1?

My new Guess the Rotation for September 1 is: Hill, Redding, Hanrahan, Bergmann, and Lannan. I assume Patterson will get in their before the end of the year - probably at Lannan's expense. I don't expect Bowie, Bacsik, or Chico to make a start in September unless a double header is required. I don't think Detwiller, Baelester, or any of the other pups will get the call either. So there my bold rotation picks just 8 days away from September 1.

Love the series idea, Barry.

This is the only morning all summer that I've been glad to see the Orioles coverage hog almost the entire front page of the Sports Section in the $0.35 edition. Thirty runs!?! Incredible. It's the only thing worth putting Barry's gamer byline back on Page 6.

Love the series idea. Especially if you can give comps of available free agents. Like others said, that data is harder for us to find.

Speaking of stats, does anyone know of a database that can be accessed during the season for stats? Specifically, I want to be able to filter by position and then dump it into Excel so I can calculate averages by position. And of course, it would have to have some saber stats, I like the RC/G personally.

Natbisquit, on the guess the rotation, I believe Lannan is about to be shut down. Manny has said he doesn't want anyone getting more than 15 percent more innings than the previous year. I don't remember the exact numbers, but the result is that Lannan could only pitch 13 more innings so I think he only has 1 or maybe 2 starts left.
I think Chico will start again when he come back and Balester will probably be called up but won't start
I hope you're right about Patterson, but he'll need to make a rehab start very soon.

Congrats all - Nats Journal is now listed on WaPo.com homepage under "discussions." Those posts on Barry's long break really paid off.

uhhh, please don't read and blackberry while driving, estuartj. We need don't need any of our bloggers to go on the DL, or worse

---

Disregard that RHP tonight...doesn't pay to read and blackberry while driving.

oops, make that header "opinions;" subhead blogs. Nana's bifocals need tweaking.

I had the same thought, Juan-John: the Nats Journal Prediction Whammy (NJPW) strikes again...

---

Oh yeah, and Barry --

I think doing things like having "three in a row" as the title of one's blog post prior to a game fall under the same category as calling a no-hitter before the end of a game. Read: BAD LUCK. :-}

I had the same thought, NFinA (although I do love seeing my guys on p. E1, and above the fold). Nothing like a little Schadenfreude with the morning cuppa joe (heh-heh). I particularly enjoyed reading the "By the Numbers" data. Interesting that former Nat Marlon Byrd played a role in the win. The curse of MASN, anyone??

---

Nats Fan in Annandale opined:

It's the only thing worth putting Barry's gamer byline back on Page 6.

Kearns had two great ABs last night. In the sixth, with the count 3-0, he takes a low strike. Thinking it's a ball, he proceeds to step out of the box towards first. Ump calls a strike, Kearns looks a little surprised, then smashes the ensuing 3-1 delivery to left for a HR.

Then, in the eight, with a 0-2 count, a patient Kearns runs the count full, then fouls off - and I was counting - three hundred and forty-six pitches before coaxing out the walk.

Some of that is lost in the box score. Kearns looked good last night.

That was a great catch. It's up on the official site now - everyone who didn't see it should go take a peek.

As for Astros fans, they're a fun bunch. I caught an Expos/Astros game in 2004, and two guys behind me performed their own cheer throughout the day:

Guy 1: Expos!
Guy 2: Suck!
Guy 1: Astros!
Guy 2: Rule!
Guy 1: Yeah!
Guy 2: Yeah!
Guy 1: Yeah!
Guy 2: Yeah!

Basic, sure, but pretty funny as it was performed (maybe I only thought it was funny because Livan and the Expos won). And it went on and on and on, regardless of the score.

But they probably only cheered because Houston fans haven't had a lot to cheer for this year.

-----

And the crowd stood and cheered?? First, it must have been an amazing catch. Second, what a classy bunch of baseball-loving fans they are!!

"So the recent discussions y'all have had about Logan and his future and Schneider/Flores, etc., have got me to thinking about rolling out a series over the next week or so, breaking down each position with stats and contract status, etc., and then letting you guys discuss the future of each position on this team. Would y'all be interested?"

YES! Please...

John in Mpls: "Then, in the eight, with a 0-2 count, a patient Kearns runs the count full, then fouls off - and I was counting - three hundred and forty-six pitches before coaxing out the walk.

Some of that is lost in the box score. Kearns looked good last night."

John -- I think you mis-counted. I tallied three hundred and forty-seven pitches. Of course, I was on my eighth beer after the three hundredth pitch, so I may be off by one or two.

Funny stuff. Thanks for the morning chuckle.

John Mpls: good call on giving Kearns some credit for those at-bats. As someone who has been on his case this season, I have to agree with you that these at-bats show what he is capable of doing when he's patient and not trying to repair his whole season with one at-bat.

The 11-pitch walk in the eighth was a beauty. He stuck in there against nasty slider after nasty slider to work a walk. And, thankfully his homer killed the shutout worries; posting a bagel would've been a real streak killer!

Anyone else think the Nats made Woody Williams look like a Cy Young candidate last night? Sheesh - that liberal strike zone makes him VERY effective with all that junk!

Fellow Journalites, quick question.

I want to check out my first P-Nats game before the season ends, and want to take advantage of dollar mondays. How is traffic from DC to Woodbridge on Mondays at 7pm? Is it that bad or do you have any insider tips or info? Thanks!

John in Mpls: "Then, in the eight, with a 0-2 count, a patient Kearns runs the count full, then fouls off - and I was counting - three hundred and forty-six pitches before coaxing out the walk."
_____
I love these subtleties of watching a live game closely. I remember noting a similar at bat awhile back, might've been Kearns then too, but I forget. Loved it.

I would like to see a series on position by position breakdown - could you include pitcher - starting and relief, too? This team has some intriguing decisions to make in the off season - on players, payroll, marketing.

G-town:

The only way I know of to get to a P-nats game during the week and arrive sane -- if you're going on your own -- is to get a couple blow-up dolls and use the HOV lane.

Juan-John,

Roger that, HOV or die. Will start recruiting now. Thanks!

"... As if Church doesn't have enough to worry about, the AP gamer called him 'Eric'".
______
Sheesh. Can't believe they would mess up "Ryan" with this team...

Hi John in Mpls, and ShawNatsFan who wrote:

"John Mpls: good call on giving Kearns some credit for those at-bats. As someone who has been on his case this season, I have to agree with you that these at-bats show what he is capable of doing when he's patient and not trying to repair his whole season with one at-bat."

... a question for you statisticians, in regards to Kearns's or anyone's quality ABs.

... how does SABR and MoneyBall figure the runs producing ability of a prolonged AB? I suspect if they touch on it at all, it would have something to do with running up the pitch count for the opposing pitcher. Anyone have any ideas or insights into this?

ATTENTION SPORTSWRITERS WRITING ABOUT THE NATIONALS:
When in doubt, use "Ryan".

"RYAN" - ADD
When using pictures of Nationals players, be sure to use pictures of and correctly identify the Ryan in question. Don't put up a photo of Zimmerman for an article about Church.
-------
ATTENTION SPORTSWRITERS WRITING ABOUT THE NATIONALS:
When in doubt, use "Ryan".

Posted by: NatsNut | August 23, 2007 11:21 AM

See you at the new post, guys.

Editor Gremlin, funny!

Speaking of sports writers and gremlins, I was interested to read an Astros piece on a loss to the Nats earlier this week where they called the Nats "one of the worst teams in baseball." I've been musing over this phenomenon for some time now, and hav developed a theory on the continuing "lowly" and "worst" descriptors for our guys. As I recently posted on a fan forum, my theory is that most sportswriters, a lazy and curmudgeonly lot [Ed: present company, even when in bitter mode, is excepted, of course], set function keys for the Nats on their computers at the beginning of the year. When hit, the F keys would spit out "The Washington Nationals, the worst team in baseball." Once the Nats started improving, the writers got tired of constantly having to re-calculate the standings and edit their F key text (sample: "The Washington Nationals, the second worst team in baseball," "The Washington Nationals, the third worst team in baseball," etc.). So, some of them changed their F key text to say "The Washington Nationals, one of the worst teams in baseball," others went with the simpler (and even lazier) "the lowly Nats." And now you know the rest of the story...

make that have, not hav

I just heard that Ross Detwiler will be on WaPo Live on Comcast SportsNet tonight. He'll be taking email questions at wpl@comcastsportsnet.com