{"id":14774,"date":"2018-05-13T20:04:48","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T00:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14774"},"modified":"2018-05-13T20:05:42","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T00:05:42","slug":"nats-on-a-tear-while-being-hobbled-on-the-dl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14774","title":{"rendered":"Nats on a tear … while being hobbled on the D\/L"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"What<\/a>

What a difference a year makes. Last year he was MLB’s POTM; this year he’s hitting .217 and is now on the D\/L. Photo via WashingtonTimes.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Another day, another D\/L trip.\u00a0 The latest is\u00a0Ryan Zimmerman<\/strong>, whose position is more than ably being filled by\u00a0Matt Adams<\/strong>, heading to the 10-day d\/L with “back soreness” but which we know to be an oblique (which is a notoriously iffy injury, if indeed he has a real injury and this isn’t some sort of paper maneuver to get Adams more ABs.\u00a0 Yes I’m a cynic).\u00a0 This a day after starting catcher and $10M “homage to\u00a0Scott Boras<\/strong>‘ ability to undermine\u00a0Mike Rizzo<\/strong>‘s plans by repeatedly going over his head to ownership”\u00a0Matt Wieters<\/strong> goes down with a “hamstring” injury (btw: he looked like a 50-yr old man running to first base; was it any surprise he came up hobbled?)<\/p>\n

The Nats, as of 5\/13\/18, now have 10 guys on the D\/L<\/a> and an 11th suspended.\u00a0 Only three of them even have a vague return date defined, and one of those is\u00a0Joe Ross<\/strong>, who is recovering from Tommy John and whose return date is listed as “probably 2018.”\u00a0 Nine of the 10 guys (not including Read) arguably are part of the “best 25” that our team would field, meaning we’re playing 9 guys out of 25 who should be in AAA.<\/p>\n

This number of current players on the D\/L, not surprisingly, leads the league<\/a> and their cumulative totals of number of players, games lost and payroll wasted for the season is at or near the top.<\/p>\n

Great.<\/p>\n

Yet, somehow, during this period the team is on fire.\u00a0 \u00a0They’ve won 12 of 14.\u00a0 They’re 13-7 in their last 20.\u00a0 Went into the hot Arizona team and crushed them on their turf.<\/p>\n

What’s going on?\u00a0 How is this happening?<\/p>\n

Part of this is the particular guys getting hurt; i.e. none of the rotation.\u00a0 We’re getting a ton of quality starts, guys pitching deep into the games.\u00a0 Under-rated at the time signing\u00a0Jeremy Hellickson<\/strong> took a perfect game into the 7th.\u00a0 That’s the definition of “found gold” for a 5th starter.\u00a0 \u00a0Five of the top Eight season-to-date guys by bWAR are the 5 rotation members.<\/p>\n

But for the most part it has been part-time players stepping up big time.<\/p>\n