Simulated Gameday Experience

So I get the idea that Spring Training is supposed to be a time for hope, rebirth, and warm fuzzy feelings that make you excited about watching baseball for the next six months.  My problem is that the franchise I’m dumb and/or crazy enough to follow decided to spend most of their offseason talking about moves that were progress and great for the franchise and generally the kind of treading-water crap we’ve come to expect from the likes of Baltimore and Pittsburgh.  I should be excited over these guys?

-          Jason Marquis is a heavy groundball pitcher (although likely not as heavy as he was in 2009) whose 2009 numbers were helped thanks to a low HR/FB rate – in Coors, no less – and a .291 BABIP.  Both of those – especially given the Nats’ infield defense, figuratively anchored by 3B Ryan Zimmerman and literally anchored by “1B” Adam Dunn – aren’t likely to improve, and this is a guy who was touted as the Nats’ #1 starter.  This is a guy who doesn’t strike people out and hasn’t had an ERA under 4 since 2004; this guy is an ace?  This is the guy who can turn around the Nats’ pitching woes?  The only thing working in Marquis’ favor is that he doesn’t get injured; the advanced readers have already determined that a guy with a 4.48 career ERA who doesn’t get injured sounds exactly like an innings-eater.  The Nats have decided to make an innings-eater their #1.  What?

-          Matt Capps is a decent, but not good reliever – who is the Nats’ de facto closer.  Amazingly, a 5.80 ERA is a step up from last season’s bullpen and the walking firebomb of Joel Hanrahan and Mike MacDougal; note that this isn’t a statement saying Matt Capps is good.  HIs peripherals are decent, but relievers with decent peripherals are pretty common, and I’d rather have ’08 Capps (who didn’t walk anyone) than ’09 Capps (with the highest walk rate of his career).  Nothing to be excited about, since he got non-tendered by the freaking Pirates of all people

-          Adam Kennedy?  Oh boy; he’s again, a decent but not great second baseman, the kind of guy you don’t pay a ton for if you can’t find anything else better.  The problem here is that, quite frankly, this team isn’t doing shit in 2010; why pay money for a guy when you have someone (in this case, Ian Desmond) who might not be any better than Kennedy, but is under team control?  How does Kennedy end up as the starter?  This signing would’ve made a heck of a lot of sense had Desmond been the starter and Kennedy been the primary MI backup – 400 ABs isn’t bad – but that wasn’t the case.

-          Pudge Rodriguez at this point shouldn’t occasion comment, but while I’m slagging the free agent signings it’d be remiss to not say anything since he will be a Hall of Famer at some point.  Of course, those seasons happened a while ago and at this point Pudge is the near definition of a warm body, which isn’t actually a half-bad idea given Jesus Flores’ current and likely future spot is at DL.  Still, he’s also a 38-year old catcher which means there’s a good chance he’ll spend at least part of the year slotted at DL2, at which point you’ve dropped a fair chunk of change on the modern-day equivalent of Crash Davis.  Oh boy.

If you’re trying to build a fanbase – which, given how long the Washington franchise has been the Washington franchise, seems like a good idea – what do these moves do?  (And if someone says “well, they tried to sign Teixiera last season”, for shame – he’s not on the team, and this isn’t horseshoes.  If you pat the franchise on the head and say “aw, at least you tried”, what kind of message are you sending?  Get the signature and we’ll congratulate you for spending money.)  Sure, people have heard of Rodriguez at least, but he was that guy who was awesome with the Rangers back in the ‘90’s and – hey, lookit this calendar I have over here.

Going further, does Eric Bruntlett make you excited?  How about Mike Morse?  What about the decaying corpse of Cristian Guzman?   The fabled youth movement is either injured (Jordan Zimmermann, last seen having his best season at any level before visiting Dr. James Andrews –see you in 2011, kid; Jesus Flores, last seen on the side of a milk carton in Viera, FL), not ready (Strasburg, Drew Storen to a lesser extent, Chris Marrero, repeat as necessary) or not actually a movement (Craig Stammen, come on down!), leaving the team to pin its hopes on …who, exactly?  Zimmerman is coming into his own, and Josh Willingham and Adam Dunn at least act like a competent offensive core, but Dunn gives an amazing amount of his offense back on defense (last season: -36.3 runs below replacement in the field); even if he upgrades from a defensive black hole to merely a singularity that’s not necessarily good except if everything looks a little bit red when you put on your glasses.  Nyjer Morgan had his best season ever at 29, and Elijah Dukes still hasn’t been consistent enough to matter.  Everyone else has gaping holes in their game (most of which manifest in the form of being unable to recognize four pitches outside of the strike zone in a single at-bat) which I’m sure won’t be an issue at some point this season.

There just doesn’t seem to be much of a direction for this team right now, and watching to see where things go from here quite frankly isn’t that exciting.  This team is headed more or less in a circle this season, to the point where there’s a very real likelihood they’ll rush the best prospect this franchise has seen since Pedro for the purposes of selling a few additional tickets.  2010 doesn’t make a damn bit of difference; don’t act like it’s pivotal.  I’d be less pissed if GM Mike Rizzo had come out and said “we need some warm bodies to get up to a 25-man roster that won’t make MLB think about implementing relegation”, because at least it’d be honest.

Tags: baseball