{"id":6135,"date":"2013-03-13T10:56:41","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T14:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6135"},"modified":"2013-03-14T09:22:42","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T13:22:42","slug":"one-positive-to-having-our-guys-in-the-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6135","title":{"rendered":"One Positive to having our guys in the WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mar 12, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; United States pitcher Gio Gonzalez (47) delivers a pitch against Puerto Rico at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports<\/p><\/div>\n

(Don’t you hate it when a pro writer totally scoops your blog post, and you find out 5 minutes before you go to post it? \u00a0Tom Boswell<\/strong> wrote on this exact topic<\/a> in today’s Washington Post).<\/p>\n

James Wagner<\/strong> of the\u00a0The Washington Post touched on it in a 3\/13\/13 article<\/a>, but I’ll repeat it here; we’re seeing both Gio Gonzalez<\/strong> and Ross Detwiler<\/strong> compete, and compete well, for Team USA right now. \u00a0Gonzalez threw 5 scoreless innings in the Round 2 opener<\/a> against a tough Puerto Rico side, and Detwiler finished up the do-or-die win against surprising Italy by throwing 4 innings of 1 hit ball and earning the save (and the game ball; what a fantastic souvenir).<\/p>\n

Now, I’m on record<\/a> stating that having our pitchers (specifically) in the WBC is bad, both anecdotally from past experiences and statistically (see the linked post for statistical studies showing across-the-board regression among WBC pitchers). \u00a0However I wonder if there’s an upside to having (specifically) Gonzalez pitching in this competition. \u00a0I wonder if we aren’t getting some free “seasoning” of Gonzalez by exposing him to the same playoff atmosphere that he failed in last off-season.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez may not have factored into either decision in last year’s NLDS, but nobody would argue that he pitched well. \u00a0In two starts he only lasted 10 total innings, had 11 walks, a 1.70 whip and was just wild. \u00a0110 pitches to get through 5ip in game 1, 99 in game5. \u00a0Cardinals players were quoted as saying he “looked scared” on the mound. \u00a0Is it all because it was his first time in the limelight? \u00a0Did the pressure get to him?<\/p>\n

Well, the pressure didn’t get to him against Puerto Rico. \u00a0If Gonzalez has “grown up” a bit because of the WBC and can go back to being the Ace\/Cy Young candidate in 2013’s playoffs, the Nats will be far better positioned to advance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Don’t you hate it when a pro writer totally scoops your blog post, and you find out 5 minutes before you go to post it? \u00a0Tom Boswell wrote on this exact topic in today’s Washington Post). James Wagner of the\u00a0The Washington Post touched on it in a 3\/13\/13 article, but I’ll repeat it here; we’re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1583],"tags":[385,1478,51,125],"class_list":["post-6135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral","category-world-baseball-classic","tag-gio-gonzalez","tag-james-wagner","tag-ross-detwiler","tag-tom-boswell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6135","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=6135"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6157,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6135\/revisions\/6157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}