{"id":2013,"date":"2011-07-23T09:11:07","date_gmt":"2011-07-23T13:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2012-11-15T10:56:18","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T15:56:18","slug":"nats-rotation-cycle-20-goodbadsoso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=2013","title":{"rendered":"Nats Rotation Cycle #20: good\/bad\/soso"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2030\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/HernandezLivan_APWashington-Times.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2030\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2030\" title=\"HernandezLivan_APWashington Times\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/HernandezLivan_APWashington-Times-300x187.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"187\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/HernandezLivan_APWashington-Times-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/HernandezLivan_APWashington-Times.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2030\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Is Livan Hernandez pitching his way out of the Nats rotation?  Photo: AP<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The All-star break comes in-between rotation cycles 19 and 20 for the squad.\u00a0\u00a0 At this halfway point, only two of our starters have made all 19 starts (Livan and Lannan).\u00a0 Zimmermann missed a start when the Pittsburgh &#8220;rainout&#8221; in May and Marquis missed a start to serve out his suspension for the beanball series in Arizona.\u00a0 Gorzelanny missed the first rotation through, then missed another 4 starts to injury (those being taken by Maya).\u00a0 Lastly the rescheduling of Zimmermann&#8217;s missed start into a 4th of July doubleheader called for a spot start from Detwiler.\u00a0 That&#8217;s 19+19+18+18+13+4+1 = all 92 starts so far this year.\u00a0 You have to think that the consistency out of the rotation is one of the big reasons this team is doing so well.<\/p>\n<p>The all-star break also gives the squad a chance to slightly re-order its rotation, since most of the guys will be on major rest.\u00a0 You can&#8217;t take your #1 starter and have him become the #5 though b\/c of days rest.\u00a0 But the team does seem to be slightly modifying its order.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll go out in the 2nd half with Livan, then Lannan, then Gorzelanny, then Marquis and with Zimmermann 5th.\u00a0 The move of Zimmermann to 5th seems like yet another attempt to preserve his arm, despite what Johnson is telling the press.\u00a0 He seems set to hit his 160 innings limit in mid-August now, by which point we should start seeing alternatives in the rotation.<\/p>\n<p>Good<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>John Lannan<\/strong> evened both his W\/L record and the team&#8217;s season record to .500 with a 5 2\/3 inning, 2 run outing against the Braves on Saturday 7\/16.\u00a0\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t the cleanest outing for Lannan (5 hits and 4 walks in less than 6 innings) but he worked around the baserunners and kept the potent Atlanta offense off the board for the most part.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jason Marquis<\/strong> gave his team exactly what it needed on 7\/18 (<a href=\"http:\/\/washington.nationals.mlb.com\/mlb\/gameday\/index.jsp?gid=2011_07_18_wasmlb_houmlb_1&amp;mode=wrap&amp;c_id=was\">box\/gamer<\/a>): lots of quality innings to rest a bullpen that was shredded by Gorzelanny&#8217;s injury and (in my opinion) mismanagement by Davey Johnson (see bullet points below).\u00a0 Marquis went 8 strong innings, giving up only 6 hits and striking out 9.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bad<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Livan Hernandez<\/strong> kicked off the 2nd half with an awful performance in Atlanta on 7\/15 (<a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.mlb.com\/mlb\/gameday\/index.jsp?gid=2011_07_15_wasmlb_atlmlb_1&amp;mode=recap&amp;c_id=was&amp;partnerId=rss_was\">box\/gamer<\/a>).\u00a0 He only lasted 4 innings, giving up 8 hits and 6 runs (3 earned).\u00a0 The Braves hitters were tattooing his pitches, which he regularly was floating over the plate.\u00a0 As the TV announcers said, Hernandez is a guy who depends on working the corners and keeping his pitches under control.\u00a0 Friday he was routinely hanging curveballs over the plate and missing his spots and it showed.\u00a0\u00a0 I wonder at what point the team gives up on the Hernandez experiment; his inconsistency on the mound has to be baffling and he&#8217;s now thrown enough lemons to make him the worst of our starters statistically.\u00a0 I can see Livan getting moved for a low-end prospect and one of our promising starters from AAA getting plucked to finish out the season.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jordan Zimmermann<\/strong> had an uncharacteristically bad outing on 7\/19, getting touched for 6 runs in 5 innings against the lowly Astros to take the loss (<a href=\"http:\/\/washington.nationals.mlb.com\/mlb\/gameday\/index.jsp?gid=2011_07_19_wasmlb_houmlb_1&amp;mode=wrap&amp;c_id=was\">box\/gamer<\/a>).\u00a0 These are not the kind of innings we want out of Zimmermann before he gets shut down in August.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mediocre\/Inconclusive<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tom Gorzelanny<\/strong> only lasted 2 innings in his 7\/17 start (<a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.mlb.com\/mlb\/gameday\/index.jsp?gid=2011_07_17_wasmlb_atlmlb_1&amp;mode=recap&amp;c_id=was&amp;partnerId=rss_was\">box\/gamer<\/a>) against the Braves before twisting his ankle on a play at the plate, putting the bullpen into all-hands-on-deck mode.\u00a0 For the most part, the bullpen was ineffective, with <strong>Henry Rodriguez<\/strong> giving up the lead, <strong>Sean Burnett<\/strong> looking horrible, and <strong>Tyler Clippard<\/strong> striking out 4 in 2 innings but giving up a game-tying homer in the 8th.\u00a0 It remains to be seen if Gorzelanny is going on the DL, but the injury didn&#8217;t seem that bad.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Starter Trends<\/p>\n<p>Lhernandez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 great,bad,good,bad,(break),bad<br \/>\nLannan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 good,good,bad,incomplete,(break),good<br \/>\nGorzelanny\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 bad-&gt;dl,bad,good,good,(break),incomplete<br \/>\nMarquis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 bad,great,bad,soso,(break),good<br \/>\nZimmermann \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 good,great,good,good,(break),bad<\/p>\n<p>Relievers of Note and other News<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>JC Romero<\/strong> experiment didn&#8217;t last very long; he was <a href=\"http:\/\/\/\">released on 7\/13<\/a> after putting up good numbers in AAA.\u00a0 Goessling guesses that perhaps  he had an out clause in his contract calling for his release unless he  was promoted.\u00a0 I&#8217;m surprised he wasn&#8217;t kept around a bit longer, given <strong>Doug Slaten<\/strong>&#8216;s continued DL stint and <strong>Sean Burnett<\/strong>&#8216;s troubles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ben Goessling<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masnsports.com\/the_goessling_game\/2011\/07\/chien-ming-wang-throws-six-shutout-innings-in-latest-rehab-assignment.html\">reports on<\/a> one of <strong>Chien-Ming Wang<\/strong>&#8216;s latest rehab starts on 7\/14, 6 shutout innings with zero walks and where he hit 94mph in Harrisburg.\u00a0 I&#8217;m beginning to think that Wang&#8217;s actually healthy again and that the team may start looking to move <strong>Jason Marquis<\/strong> or <strong>Livan Hernandez<\/strong> sooner than later to make room for him.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ross Detwiler<\/strong> looked nearly as bad in relief as Livan did during his start on 7\/15, requiring 47 pitches to get through 2 innings.\u00a0 This was a perfect opportunity to shut down an offense that perhaps wasn&#8217;t in need of scoring any more runs on the night (especially behind Tim Hudson) but he continued to allow the game to get out of control.\u00a0 If Detwiler doesn&#8217;t put something together this season, the team is going to have a very difficult decision on its hands.\u00a0 He&#8217;s out of options (Gee, thanks for the 2007 callup Jimmy Bowden!) and clearly would be given a flyer by another team (as a first rounder lefty starter who reaches 94mph).<\/li>\n<li>Speaking of Detwiler, why exactly do we have him as the &#8220;long man&#8221; in the bullpen if he&#8217;s not available as that long man because the team wants to keep him on some sort of &#8220;every 4 days&#8221; starting-esque schedule?\u00a0 The Long man needs to be available for exactly the kind of situation we faced on 7\/17, when Gorzelanny came out after 2 innings.\u00a0 Instead its all-hands on deck since Detwiler had pitched two days prior.\u00a0 In this situation i&#8217;d far far rather still have <strong>Miguel Batista<\/strong>, who ably fit this role in 2010 and wouldn&#8217;t have cost a ton of money for 2011.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chien-Ming Wang<\/strong>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.mlb.com\/news\/article.jsp?ymd=20110716&amp;content_id=21869644&amp;notebook_id=21869638&amp;vkey=notebook_was&amp;c_id=was&amp;partnerId=rss_was\">next start will be in AAA<\/a>, per <strong>Bill Ladson<\/strong>&#8216;s published report on Sunday.\u00a0 This should be the best test yet for Wang&#8217;s recovery.\u00a0 He&#8217;s looking like a good bet to join the rotation when he&#8217;s done with rehab.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The All-star break comes in-between rotation cycles 19 and 20 for the squad.\u00a0\u00a0 At this halfway point, only two of our starters have made all 19 starts (Livan and Lannan).\u00a0 Zimmermann missed a start when the Pittsburgh &#8220;rainout&#8221; in May and Marquis missed a start to serve out his suspension for the beanball series in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[506,182,37,80,181,42,105,39,43,41,173,51,108,176,128],"class_list":["post-2013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","category-natsrotationreview","tag-ben-goessling","tag-bill-ladson","tag-chien-ming-wang","tag-doug-slaten","tag-henry-rodriguez","tag-jason-marquis","tag-jc-romero","tag-john-lannan","tag-jordan-zimmermann","tag-livan-hernandez","tag-miguel-batista","tag-ross-detwiler","tag-sean-burnett","tag-tom-gorzelanny","tag-tyler-clippard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2013"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5225,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions\/5225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}