Washington Nationals: Our staff’s midseason review
By Brian Foley
The biggest culprit for the Nationals’ struggles thus far?
Picks: Injuries (3 votes), Davey Martinez (1.5 votes), Starting Rotation (1.5 votes), Offense (1 vote), Bryce Harper (1 vote), NL East improvement (1 vote)
Injuries barely take the cake here, though there is certainly enough blame to go around. Let’s start with the wounded, as the Washington Nationals lead the National League in games missed.
Daniel Murphy, Stephen Strasburg, Sean Doolittle, Matt Wieters, Matt Grace, Brandon Kintzler, Ryan Madson, Rendon, Eaton, Zimmerman, Adams, Kendrick, and Goodwin have all spent time on the disabled list. Site Expert, Blake Finney, summed it up best:
https://twitter.com/FinneyBlake/status/1019313285039120385
The Nationals worked around serious injuries last season, but each season is different, as is each injury. While Eaton returned to the team with a vengeance this summer, Murphy has struggled to find his legs at less than 100 percent. While incredibly frustrating, no one is really at fault for those issues.
The rotation does deserve some of the blame though. Scherzer has been dominant all season, and Strasburg was likely an All-Star before succumbing to a shoulder injury in early June. Gio Gonzalez got off to another strong start as well.
But over the last month, everything has gone to hell. Gonzalez has a 7.12 ERA in his last seven starts, which looks positively peachy next to Tanner Roark’s 8.31 mark in his past six outings.
Jefry Rodriguez and the since-DL’ed Erick Fedde have done nothing to help the cause, and even the mighty Scherzer appears more mortal with a 4.50 ERA in three July starts.
The offense has worked in fits all year long, and the bullpen – while better – still inspires little confidence. The rotation needs to be great for the Nats to go on a run.
Another sticking point, as Shinberg pointed out, is that the Nationals were rather laissez-faire towards the rest of the NL East this season. While it once looked like a weak division, Philadelphia and Atlanta have both cracked their contending windows open a year earlier than expected.
The Nats continue to pound the Marlins (6-1 record), but they are just 12-18 against the rest of the division. Now that the Nationals have seen what the rest of the NL East can do, we’ll see if they can kick it up a notch in the remaining intra-divisional contests.
Martinez has also been a popular scapegoat in his first managerial season, and the complaints are understandable. Dusty Baker was a well-liked manager who led the team to consecutive NL East titles. Expectations were high for Martinez right away, and he hasn’t always made the correct on-field decisions.
Still, the players seem to enjoy being around him, especially Harper, who gave rave reviews for Martinez on Monday while dedicating a baseball field in Northern Virginia. “He is one of the best managers I’ve ever played for,” Harper said. “I look forward to hopefully playing with him for the next 10, 12 years.”
Martinez shouldn’t get a free pass for some of his on-field moves, but much of a manager’s job occurs inside the clubhouse; he seems to earn sparkling grades there. I mean, c’mon, how can you not like playing for this guy?