Washington Nationals News: Rotation questions loom for Nats
By Pablo Roa
Good afternoon DoD readers, and welcome to today’s District Daily! Get caught up on the latest Nats news with some great Washington Nationals articles form around the web below.
In today’s Daily, Federal Baseball’s Patrick Reddington discusses the decisions that the Nationals will soon have to make regarding their starting rotation. As Reddington notes, both Doug Fister and Stephen Strasburg will soon be coming off the disabled list and the Nationals will have to decide whether or not to send Tanner Roark back to the bullpen to make room for both players.
Before the season started, sending Roark to the bullpen was a no-brainer. While Roark was dominant as a starter last season, the team already had a seemingly unstoppable rotation of Max Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann, Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Fister; there simply wasn’t room for Roark in the rotation.
But after the first few weeks of the season, it became clear that the rotation had its weaknesses—namely Fister and Strasburg. Both pitchers were extremely inconsistent to start the season and both landed on the disabled list. Now, with both players set to come back in the very near future, the team must decide whether to continue with the hyped rotation it carried into the season, or send one of its stars to the ‘pen.
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Also in today’s Daily, the Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes discusses the offensive improvement of outfielder Michael Taylor.
Be sure to checkout the articles below, they’re definitely worth the read. And as always, stay tuned to DoD for all your Washington Nationals needs.
Washington Nationals’ rotation questions loom
(Patrick Reddington, Federal Baseball)
Doug Fister is scheduled to return to the Washington Nationals‘ rotation after two rehab starts in which the 31-year-old right-hander, who was placed on the DL on May 15th with right forearm tightness related to a flexor strain, gave up a total of two runs, one earned and nine hits in 9 ⅔ innings pitched in which he struck out 10 batters. Matt Williams said yesterday that Fister would return against Tampa Bay tomorrow night in the nation’s capital, barring any setbacks.
“We’re looking at Thursday, yeah,” he told reporters in Tropicana Field. “Barring some kind of issue between now and then, we’ll look to Thursday.”
Fister threw a total of 70 pitches in six scoreless innings for the Harrisburg Senators this past Friday night. Read full article here.
Michael A. Taylor striking out less, squaring up more
(Chelsea Janes, Washington Post)
Michael A. Taylor has power, speed, quick hands, good instincts and more, all of which add to great potential. To realize it, he and his coaches agreed, he must strike out less. Throughout his minor league career and early this season, Taylor tended to chase breaking balls better left alone, and he struck out often as a result. He is doing that less recently.
In May, Taylor struck out in 12 of 14 games in which he got more than one at-bat, and struck out 21 times in 54 at bats. So far in June, he has struck out 11 times in 43 at bats, four in his last 28.
First base coach Tony Tarasco, who worked closely with Taylor since his minor league days and gets an open view of every right-handed hitter’s swing from his place in the first base coach’s box, said he is seeing Taylor abandon perfection in favor of contact. Read full article here.