Manuel Transmissions: Oscar Edition

Just in time for the Oscars, episode three of the 'Manuel Transmissions' podcast is on YouTube.  In addition to sharing our Oscar picks we discuss the new pace of play rules for Major League Baseball with John, Alex, Ariadne, Evan, Cleo, Michael, Anna, Paul and our newest cast member Kate, with a guest appearance by Sophia! You can also find it here: http://youtu.be/42H3Qx0tZnA

The Nats are killing me

As some of you may have noticed via social media, I've been a bit cranky when it comes to our hometown Washington Nationals.  Most of that crankiness was initially aimed at often ridiculous (the violence that pops up all to often during the Presidents race) and sometimes important (the stale and cheap patriotism of a standing ovation to honor convalescing veterans, an ovation that seems to absolve fans of actually helping veterans or thinking about our 13-year odyssey in Afghanistan*) topics.

But my crankiness is now metastasizing into full-on, Carolina losing to Dook after Zeller tipped in one of THEIR shots, depression.

The Nats are killing me.  

Two Sundays ago, Evan and I watched Washington complete a four game sweep of the Padres by scoring 13 runs.  THIRTEEN!  We had won 7 of 10 games, and were only 4 games back of the Braves.  Natitude was back!

But since then we've played our worst baseball of the year.  After this weekend's sweep to the Dodgers the Nats are now 2 and 8 in our last 10 games. Whatever good mojo the Nationals had has been eviscerated.  The Nats are now in 3rd place, half a game behind the Phillies for second in the East, and seven games behind the Braves AND the second wild-card spot.

It's hard to understand how a team that has Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, Ian Desmond, and Ryan Zimmerman can be this mediocre, and unable to build up ANY momentum over the course of 100 games.

Injuries is part of the story, especially for the lack of momentum that has kept this squad from ripping off a few 5 or 6-game win streaks.  Two weeks ago the 7 out 10 streak coincided with Harper then Wilson Ramos coming off the disabled list. 

But what gives now?  The big 3 pitchers have been great (despite today's stinker from ZNN), and even Dan Haren (on the hill tomorrow looking to end a 3-game losing streak!) has pitched better since coming off the DL.

It's not news that the offense has been horrible, frustrating, depressing, you name it. Saturday night's game was indicative of one of the biggest issues: driving in runs. The Nats had 12 hits but only scored one run, driven in by pinch hitter Roger Bernadina.  Against the Dodgers the Nats batted .077 with runners in scoring position.  

When a team with so many good players underachieves, who is to blame?  Is it Davey Johnson, his line ups, the way he uses the bull pen?  Is it hitting coach Rick Eckstein?  The Nats rank near to bottom of almost every offensive category.

Is it underachievers like Denard Span or Jayson Werth, who had a great second half last year but is currently making almost $500,000 per RBI this season and is hitting less than .200 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs?

I'll offer two things that could help a now healthy squad play better, maybe catch the Braves, and/or secure one of the two wild card spots.  I'm not going to touch the pitching, which outside of 2 or 3 bad outings from Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano has been generally great.

One is a simple line up change.  I'd go back to the future, and move Werth and Harper back to the top of the order, Zimmerman, then my big move of Desmond at clean up, followed by LaRoche, Rendon, Ramos, and Span (who has played great defense but is simply not getting on base enough).

Werth seems to stink everywhere else, and excelled at lead off last year. The second slot is the new third; you want to put you best hitter there since that spot gets about 15-20 more plate appearances than the 3 hole does a year.

Desmond often rises to the occasion with runners on base, and moving him up two places gets him a few more - important - at bats.  He's a free swinger but drives in runs.  

Two, fire Rick Eckstein for a number of reasons. One is admittedly cosmetic. Do something to get the team's attention/make them feel guilty/light a fire/insert sports cliche here. 

But others are valid.  The team is not hitting, and more importantly their approach to pitchers seems odd and confusing.  

Hitters guess and look for one pitch when they should be aggressive, take pitches when they should be expanding the zone looking for a pitch to drive.  

Or they frequently expand the zone at the wrong times, swinging at first pitches when it's actually time to work the count.  At bats look discombobulated; case in point was Harper Saturday night. He struck out LOOKING, taking all three strikes, when the situation called for looking for a pitch to drive no matter where it was (like Joe DiMaggio** or Tony Gwynn).  As much as I pick on Werth - ask Evan - we can not ignore that Harper has been swinging at too many bad pitches and taking too many 2-strike ones since he came off the DL; his pitch recognition - or approach - needs some improvement.

You can't fire the players so sadly have to fire the hitting coach. Bring in Frank Robinson, or Mrs. Robinson (the nation(als) turn their lonely eyes to you**) but do something.

These changes would work, or are at least worth trying, and I hope the Nats do something soon. It's past time to get hot. Going to last year's line up with Desmond at clean up and Eckstein at home could very well work.

GO NATS!

* One other thing I've been cranky about has been the generally lousy music the Nats play but that has gotten a little better. Positive developments include LaRoche using Steve Earle's 'Copperhead Road' as his walk up song; LCD Soundsystem's 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' and Stevie Wonder's 'You Haven't Done Nothing' making appearances lately, and Chuck Brown's 'Bustin' Loose' is heard after most homers (but there is still too much modern shlock country, too much AC/DC).
* One ray of hope. Line up change or no line up change, Harper is capable of getting red hot and carrying a team as he did in May and September last season. The big 3 should continue to be awesome. And we play the Braves head to head alot; if we sweep those games we're in!

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day Weekend!

A good weekend of baseball is pending if the games of the last 4 days are any indication of things to come.

I didn't enjoy watching the Yankees win tonight, but that was a fun and frustrating game to watch. The Twins had multiple chances - 17 left on base including the bases loaded in the 11th - plus Joe Nathan pitching with a two-run lead. That game was theirs to win and they blew it.

Not sure what was worse, watching A-Rod get the big hit or watching the umpire miss Mauer's double in the 11th, a play that was right in front of the guys face. How do you a blow a call like that? Not only did the ball clearly land in fair territory, he had to see it nick Cabrera's glove, too. The umpire blew that call TWICE!

The Yankees comeback mimicked the Dodgers' win from the night before. I've never liked Matt Holiday, and conversely I've always loved me some Ronnie Belliard. It was good to see an ex-Nat excel, and I am firmly on the Dodgers Bandwagon.

As exciting as this round of baseball has been I still have misgivings about the wild card and the extra round of playoffs, something Boswell covered in his column today. I'd still vote to get rid of the wild card and go back to two divisions, east and west, and only have 4 teams make the playoffs.

FOOTBALL UPDATE

Greece tries to salvage their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign when they host the 'Fighting Baltics' from Latvia tomorrow. Ellas needs to win its last two games and hope that Switzerland stumbles against Israel and/or Luxembourg to win their group and qualify. But it looks more likely that Greece will have to win a playoff among other European teams that finish second in their group.

However, they have to finish second. If Greece loses tomorrow at home versus Latvia finishing second is impossible.

Carolina plays another Division I-AA squad tomorrow in Chapel Hill when they host Georgia Southern. It's an important chance for the offense and especially the offensive line to get their act together and salvage the season. After GS, the Tar Heels play back-to-back Thursday night games, at home versus FSU and at Virginia Tech. Winning those two games - a split is more likely - would definitely turn things around and erase the memory of the horrible loss to Virginia last Saturday.

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS

Greece elected another Papandreou last weekend when the socialist PASOK party swept election there. I like the new PM, who like me was born in the United States and speaks Greek with an American accent.

And I now consider myself a candidate for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, since both Barack Obama and I have solved the same number of international crises. But I'm happy for Obama, who I assume won due to multiple reasons: fixing America's international image, NOT being George Bush, reenergizing the world's most important democracy and attracting new voters, announcing his intention to close Guantanemo and getting us out of Iraq (and ignoring the ratcheting up in Afghanistan). I also wonder if the Nobel Committee wanted to stick their finger in the eye of the International Olympic Committee.

It's also funny to see the Rs go nuts complaining. As Bill Maher said on tonight's show, giving Obama the peace prize is the trifecta for the right wing since they hate black people, foreigners, and peace.

Great start to the postseason

What a great game today/tonight between the Twins and the Tigers. That game had everything - big hits, great catches, plays at the plate, bone headed plays, and extra innings.

Let's hope the Twins' roll continues tomorrow against the Yankees. That kind of momentum can take a team a long way. The Rockies rode a great September, and a one-game playoff win, all the way to the 2007 World Series.

The 2009 playoffs look wide open. The Dodgers will likely dispatch the Cardinals, but the Phillies could either win it all or lose to the once-again hot Rockies. I see both the Dodgers and Phils advancing, with the Phillies repeating as NL champs.

In the AL, I'll stick with the Twins to upset the Yankees and the Angels to top the Sox, with the Angels stopping the Twins' run.

If that happens baseball will have something it has rarely had since the demise of the recent Yankees Jeter-Torre-Williams-Posada-Rivera-Petitite dynasty - a repeat champion. If the Phillies or Angels go to the Series one team will join the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox as the only squad with more than one championship since 2001.

In that regard baseball has had much more parity than the other major sports; seven different teams have won the last eight World Series.

Compare that to the NBA, where six teams (Lakers, Spurs, Celtics, Bulls, Pistons, Rockets) have won 24 of the last 25 championships. That league is an oligarchy.

The NFL is like the NBA, with two teams (Pats and Steelers) winning five of the last eight Super Bowls. However, to the Super Bowl's credit some odd teams such as the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks have played for a championship recently,

From First to Worst

But enough about championship teams, let's revisit our hometown Nats. The Nationals finished the 2009 season as the only team to start the season with a seven-losing streak and end it with a seven-game winning streak. They also had an eight-game win streak in there too.

In fact, if you look at the standings at the end of that eight-game streak the Nats were in last place with a 40-72 record. The other last place teams were: Pittsburgh (45-66); San Diego (47-66); Baltimore (46-66); Kansas City (43-68) and Oakland (50-62). A few things worth noting:

• At that point the Nats were only 3 games back of the Royals and 5 of the Pirates, and for a while Evan and I hoped we would catch one of those teams and not finish with the worst record in the majors. That did hot happen;
• It didn't happen because the Nats finished the season by going 19-31;
• However, if you add the eight-game winning streak it's an almost respectable 27-31 record;
• The only teams to win fewer games than the Nats after August 11th were the Orioles with 17 and the PIrates with 17;
• Of the six teams in last place on August 11th, five finished in last place. The only team to move up in the standings were the Padres, who went 27-20 after August 2nd to pass the Diamondbacks (18-30 after the 2nd).

For the record, here are the standings for the last place teams AFTER August 11th:

San Diego 27-20

Oakland 25-24

Kansas City 22-28

Washington 19-31

Arizona 18-31

Pittsburgh 17-32

Baltimore 17-32

So compared to our last place colleagues, the Nats didn't do so bad (except compared to those show offs in California).

Finally, it will be interesting to see what the Nats' front office does in the off season. In today's Post GM Mike Rizzo stated 'we are not going to bring back the same team that won only 58 games.' It seems safe to assume that the core of good (ZImmerman, Dunn, Lannan), hurt and/or promising (Morgan, Flores, Dukes, Detwiler, Mock, Staman, Desmond) and decent (MacDougal, Martin) players will return but after than who knows?

Carolina Football

I still cannot believe how badly Carolina played - in Chapel Hill! - in their loss to previously winless Virginia. The young offensive line has been exposed, and as a result the 2009 football season is practically over for the Heels.

SCOTUS

from the Boston Globe--Why Sonia Sotomayor is my choice for the Supreme Court: She issued the preliminary injunction against Major League Baseball on March 30, 1995, preventing the owners from unilaterally implementing a new collective bargaining agreement and using replacement players. It effectively ended the 1994 baseball strike.