{"id":4123,"date":"2012-04-11T08:42:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T12:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=4123"},"modified":"2013-08-29T13:50:39","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T17:50:39","slug":"nats-rotation-cycle-2012-1-goodbadsoso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=4123","title":{"rendered":"Nats Rotation Cycle 2012 #1: good\/bad\/soso"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4127\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/detwilerross_Cathy-T-via-nationalsdailynews.com_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4127\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4127\" title=\"detwilerross_Cathy T via nationalsdailynews.com\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/detwilerross_Cathy-T-via-nationalsdailynews.com_-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/detwilerross_Cathy-T-via-nationalsdailynews.com_-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/detwilerross_Cathy-T-via-nationalsdailynews.com_.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4127\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surprise 5th starter Detwiler turned in your best outing of the first Rotation Cycle. Photo Cathy T via nationalsdailynews.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It has been so long since I did one of these, that I nearly forgot that I used to do them \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>For the uninitiated, I try to do a quick recap of our starters each turn through the rotation, culminating in 33 &#8220;rotation cycle&#8221; posts that can be seen if you click on the &#8220;Nats Rotation Review&#8221; category tag to the right.\u00a0 If I&#8217;ve seen the game, I&#8217;ll give more detailed analysis based on my observations.\u00a0 Otherwise I&#8217;m recapping the box score and interpreting the stats to come to a conclusion.\u00a0 The focus is on the starters, but there is a section for relievers and the offense.<\/p>\n<p>The classifications are not very scientific; usually good, bad or mediocre\/soso.\u00a0 If someone is great or awful, we&#8217;ll note that as well.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Good<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Stephen Strasburg<\/strong> looked healthy and in command on opening day 4\/5 (<a href=\"http:\/\/washington.nationals.mlb.com\/mlb\/gameday\/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_05_wasmlb_chnmlb_1&amp;mode=wrap&amp;c_id=was\">box\/gamer<\/a>), getting a no decision after 7 complete innings.\u00a0 His line: 7ip, 5 hits, 1 ER, 5K and 1BB.\u00a0 More importantly he was only on 82 pitches through 7 innings, a very efficient work day.\u00a0 A couple of these hits were relatively weak (one an infield pop fly that fell between 4 infielders, another a scoring issue that probably was a hit).\u00a0 Its not difficult to look unhittable when its 41 degrees and the wind is blowing in, but Strasburg seems to be adopting the same strategy as his compatriot <strong>Jordan Zimmermann<\/strong>: pitch efficiently, pitch to contact, and keep your pitch counts down so you go deeper into games.\u00a0 It may not be as flashy as a 14-K effort, but if it leads to wins everyone is happy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jordan Zimmermann<\/strong>&#8216;s first start on 4\/8 (<a href=\"http:\/\/washington.nationals.mlb.com\/mlb\/gameday\/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_08_wasmlb_chnmlb_1&amp;mode=wrap&amp;c_id=was\">box\/gamer<\/a>) was just as effective as Strasburg&#8217;s; unfortunately for Zimmermann he went up against a buzz-saw in Jeff Samardzija and his offense couldn&#8217;t help.\u00a0 Zimmermann took the loss on a day when he went 7 complete innings on just 80 pitches, giving up 6 hits, 0 walks and one earned run.\u00a0\u00a0 This is the classic adage of why W\/L records are misleading; if Zimmermann pitches this way all year as our #3 starter we&#8217;re going to go far.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ross Detwiler<\/strong>&#8216;s rotation spot won&#8217;t be going away any time soon if he continues outings like 4\/10 (<a href=\"http:\/\/washington.nationals.mlb.com\/mlb\/gameday\/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_10_wasmlb_nynmlb_1&amp;mode=wrap&amp;c_id=was\">box\/gamer<\/a>).\u00a0 5 innings, 2 hits and a walk with 6 Ks to earn the win.\u00a0\u00a0 Detwiler picks up where he left off last summer and gives immediate validation to the <strong>Lannan<\/strong>&#8211; demotion decision.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Bad<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yes, its bad when your marquee off-season acquisition <strong>Gio Gonzalez<\/strong> fails to get out of the 4th inning in\u00a0 his debut start.\u00a0 Gonzalez struggled with control and with effectiveness on 4\/7 (<a href=\"http:\/\/washington.nationals.mlb.com\/mlb\/gameday\/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_07_wasmlb_chnmlb_1&amp;mode=wrap&amp;c_id=was\">box\/gamer<\/a>) and gave up 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks.\u00a0 He did have 6 strikeouts in his 3 2\/3 innings, so there&#8217;s that.\u00a0 His fastball was hopping; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brooksbaseball.net\/pfxVB\/pfx.php?month=4&amp;day=7&amp;year=2012&amp;game=gid_2012_04_07_wasmlb_chnmlb_1%2F&amp;pitchSel=461829&amp;prevGame=gid_2012_04_07_wasmlb_chnmlb_1%2F&amp;prevDate=47\">95mph<\/a> in the first two innings, averaging about 93 on the day.\u00a0 He threw mostly fastballs but wasn&#8217;t getting the swing-and-miss effect like he needed.\u00a0 Of course, an outing like this isn&#8217;t helped in the analysts&#8217; minds when <strong>Tommy Milone<\/strong> (the 4th best prospect sent the other way in the trade) pitched 8 shutout innings in his debut.\u00a0 Lets hope this is first-start jitters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Mediocre\/Inconclusive<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Edwin Jackson<\/strong>&#8216;s 4\/9 start (<a href=\"http:\/\/washington.nationals.mlb.com\/mlb\/gameday\/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_09_wasmlb_nynmlb_1&amp;mode=wrap&amp;c_id=was#gid=2012_04_09_wasmlb_nynmlb_1&amp;mode=box\">box\/gamer<\/a>) wasn&#8217;t bad, but it wasn&#8217;t as effective as we would have liked.\u00a0 He was a victim of the long-ball, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk in 5 innings.\u00a0 He did have 6 punchouts on a night where he threw a ton of off-speed stuff (only <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brooksbaseball.net\/pfxVB\/pfx.php?month=4&amp;day=9&amp;year=2012&amp;game=gid_2012_04_09_wasmlb_nynmlb_1%2F&amp;pitchSel=429719&amp;prevGame=gid_2012_04_09_wasmlb_nynmlb_1%2F&amp;prevDate=49\">42 of his 78<\/a> pitches were fast-balls; he threw a ton of sliders on the night).\u00a0\u00a0 The homer he gave up ended any chance of his getting a W on the night on a game that was more or less thrown away by replacement starter <strong>Henry Rodriguez<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Starter Trends<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>MLB Trends (through Detwiler 4\/10 Cycle 1)<\/p>\n<p>Strasburg\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good<br \/>\nGonzalez\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0bad<br \/>\nZimmermann\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good<br \/>\nJackson\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0soso<br \/>\nDetwiler\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0good<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Relievers of Note and other News<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>So far its looking like <strong>Brad Lidge<\/strong> may be the steal of the FA market.\u00a0 He&#8217;s throwing well, his slider is back and he&#8217;s closing out save opportunities for just $1m.<\/li>\n<li>So far, its looking like the &#8220;bad&#8221; <strong>Henry Rodriguez<\/strong> from 2011; a 0.00 ERA but a 2.25 whip and a loss by virtue of his own throwing error.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ryan Mattheus<\/strong> isn&#8217;t doing himself any favors right now and may not be long for this bullpen.\u00a0 Of course then again its looking like <strong>Drew Storen<\/strong> is closer to Tommy John surgery than returning to the field, having visited <strong>Dr. James Andrews<\/strong> this week.\u00a0 Meanwhile, surprise 25-man roster includee <strong>Craig Stammen<\/strong> is performing decently in a swing-man role and looks to stick.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Thoughts on the offense<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Adam LaRoche<\/strong> comes out on fire, a shock considering he&#8217;s usually a slow starter and the fact that he looked beyond awful in the first game, waving weakly at curveballs in the dirt.\u00a0 <strong>Ian Desmond<\/strong> looks like the Desmond of September, which is great news.<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, in a completely unsurprising development <strong>Roger Bernadina<\/strong> has started out the season 3-for-20.\u00a0 Why aren&#8217;t we looking for a CF again?<\/li>\n<li>Too bad <strong>Chad Tracy<\/strong> doesn&#8217;t have any OF flexibility; he&#8217;s looked great off the bench so far.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Overall Summary<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Can&#8217;t argue with an away series win, despite the weakened nature of the opponent in Chicago.\u00a0 We could get a second away-series win tonight if one stud young Ace (Strasburg) can beat one come-back Ace (<strong>Johan Santana<\/strong>).\u00a0 That&#8217;s the way to go in baseball; play .500 on the road and play .600 ball at home and you&#8217;re a 90 win team in an era where 90 wins almost certainly guarantees post-season play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It has been so long since I did one of these, that I nearly forgot that I used to do them \ud83d\ude42 For the uninitiated, I try to do a quick recap of our starters each turn through the rotation, culminating in 33 &#8220;rotation cycle&#8221; posts that can be seen if you click on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[184,298,835,98,253,385,181,114,842,348,39,43,167,51,86,38,853,34],"class_list":["post-4123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsrotationreview","tag-adam-laroche","tag-brad-lidge","tag-chad-tracy","tag-craig-stammen","tag-edwin-jackson","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-henry-rodriguez","tag-ian-desmond","tag-james-andrews","tag-johan-santana","tag-john-lannan","tag-jordan-zimmermann","tag-roger-bernadina","tag-ross-detwiler","tag-ryan-mattheus","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-tommy-john","tag-tommy-milone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123","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=4123"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7555,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions\/7555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}