{"id":4793,"date":"2012-10-04T12:27:03","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T16:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=4793"},"modified":"2012-10-04T12:27:37","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T16:27:37","slug":"jimmy-rollins-time-for-philadelphia-to-sleep-in-the-bed-theyve-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=4793","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Rollins; time for Philadelphia to sleep in the bed they’ve made."},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of Nat Enquirer; this video of Jimmy Rollins<\/strong> classlessly giving the Nats zero credit<\/a> for having the best record in the majors in 2012.<\/p>\n

Specifically, “With us healthy, they\u2019re a second-place team. But we weren\u2019t.”<\/em><\/p>\n

But that’s the problem that Rollins needs to understand; when you build your team on the backs of aging players … you’re NEVER going to be as healthy as you expect to be. \u00a0There’s a reason the Nats didn’t lose ONE start to injury all year; our pitchers are younger and healthier. \u00a0Philadelphia has built a rotation of aging stars and free agents. \u00a0Cliff Lee<\/strong> missed 3 starts this year, Cole Hamels<\/strong> missed a couple, and\u00a0Roy Halladay<\/strong> missed 7 or 8. \u00a0Those guys are 33, 28 and 35 this year. \u00a0They’re not getting any younger and likely will miss starts again in 2013.<\/p>\n

How about Philadelphia’s positional players? \u00a0Ryan Howard<\/strong> only played 71 games. \u00a0Chase Utley<\/strong> only 83. \u00a0Placido Polanco<\/strong> just 90. \u00a0 Carlos Ruiz<\/strong> missed all of August. \u00a0Maybe you can argue that the two big names from this list should start 2013 healthy and that may make a difference. \u00a0Fair enough, except that Howard is 32, Utley is 33, and both now have a slew of injuries on their resume. \u00a0Nobody should assuming those guys are playing 150+ next year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Washington had a TON of time<\/a> lost to injuries in its offense. \u00a0 Desmond<\/strong> missed a month. \u00a0Morse <\/strong>missed two. \u00a0Werth<\/strong> missed half the season. \u00a0Zimmerman<\/strong> lost a few weeks. \u00a0And we went through no less than SIX catchers on the season. \u00a0And the team persevered, struggled offensively most of the early part of the year, and maintained its lead.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia made its choices, signing major dollar contracts to extend its own guys and to buy its rotation and its key bullpen members. \u00a0And now you have to live with those decisions, which leave you with an aging roster overpaying for the decline years of your players. \u00a0Meanwhile Washington rode the wave of 100-loss seasons, committed to building its farm system, didn’t overpay for Free Agents, and now sits with one of the youngest teams in baseball (3rd youngest pitching staff and youngest on-field staff), with a below-average payroll and the best record in the majors.<\/p>\n

Sour Grapes Jimmy Rollins. \u00a0You should get used to 3rd place because its probably where the Phillies reside for the next several years, until you can jettison your ill-signed contracts and start over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of Nat Enquirer; this video of Jimmy Rollins classlessly giving the Nats zero credit for having the best record in the majors in 2012. Specifically, “With us healthy, they\u2019re a second-place team. But we weren\u2019t.” But that’s the problem that Rollins needs to understand; when you build your team on the backs of aging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[912,399,246,247,114,115,513,136,1025,119,675,36],"class_list":["post-4793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonnatsbaseball","category-natsgeneral","tag-carlos-ruiz","tag-chase-utley","tag-cliff-lee","tag-cole-hamels","tag-ian-desmond","tag-jayson-werth","tag-jimmy-rollins","tag-michael-morse","tag-placido-polanco","tag-roy-halladay","tag-ryan-howard","tag-ryan-zimmerman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793","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=4793"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4795,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793\/revisions\/4795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}