Nationals Lose The Series in Pittsburgh, Michael A Taylor Is Heating Up, And Has Ian Desmond Finally Turned The Corner?
It was a rough weekend for the Nats, after going into Pittsburgh and losing 3 out of 4. In the series against the Bucs, the first two games were characterized by poor pitching from Fister (who should lose his spot in the rotation once Strasburg is back) and Scherzer (who uncharacteristically allowed 3 homers in just 5 innings of work). On Saturday, Gio Gonzalez lowered his ERA to 3.83 while the Nats offense erupted for 14 hits and their only win of the series. Yesterday, Joe Ross churned out yet another QS but got spanked with the 3-1 loss because the batters refused to score for him.
The Nationals are just 5-6 since the break and our boy Bryce seems to have transferred some of his offensive skill to the guy that stands right next to him in the outfield. Michael Taylor has been absolutely filthy the past few days, collecting 5 hits and 2 homers in the final two games against Pittsburgh after being the #1 star in the rubber game of the Mets‘ series. Taylor’s hit .333 with 2 homers, 7 rbi, and 3 steals in the past 5 games. The one problem is, well, he hit worse than Steven Hauschka trying to make a tackle prior to this 5 game stretch. In fact, Taylor had been hittin just .164/.192/.218 in his 15 July games before his recent hot streak (and was just 1 for 19 in his first 5 second half games). We aren’t asking Taylor to perform like he has in the past 5 games, nor are we asking him to perform like he did in the minor leagues (.304/.390/.526 with 23 bombs and 37 stolen bags), all we are asking for is that he get on base more than 28% of the time. If Taylor can boost the OBP from .283 up to, say, .310 then we have an extremely valuable player on our hands. A 15-20 homer, 20-25 steal youngster with great D at a premium position who won’t hurt you with his poor on base percentage. I certainly trust Michael Taylor to be that player in the 2nd half.
Ian Desmond. Desi is a guy that I have bashed at every chance I could take and, while a lot of that remains true, he has also been a very productive player throughout his career. What if he has turned the corner? What if that first half was just a nightmare and he’ll be back to 2012-2014 Desmond here in the 2nd? I’ll be upfront about Desmond. Some of what we have seen so far is just a mirage but a lot actually isn’t. His batting average on balls in play is .389, if we bring that down to the .321 career mark for the shortstop, his 2nd half average is .265, very much in line with his career average of .264. Furthermore, Desmond in the 2nd half has gone oppo 44% of the time, in the first half it was just 28%. In terms of pitches, he’s been much maligned for his inability to put bat on ball and, unfortunately, that high k rate seems to be here to stay but… his walks are up and it doesn’t seem to just be luck. In the first half of the season, he saw 1235 pitches and worked only 394 balls (31.9% of pitches he saw were balls). Since the all star break, he has seen 147 pitches and 59 of those were balls (40.1%) – his walk rate (10.5) is also more than double his first hal rate (4.9). In the early parts of the 2nd half, there certainly is reason to believe in Desmond though his previously explored problems still remain and it must be stressed that all of these statistics are from a very very short sample size and I’d love to see some additional production from him before we declare that he Jesus-ed himself from the dead.
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Yunel Escobar looks like he avoided a serious injury and is now 3 for 8 in the two games since his return. Speaking of injuries, Anthony Rendon is back! Rendon was 0-4 with 3 ks in his first start but looked a lot better yesterday when he lined a ball to center for his first hit of the month. As long as Rendon is healthy, he’ll produce but I really don’t like the idea of continuing to stick him at 2nd base – I’d much prefer permanently relocating him to 3rd.
Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman are each progressing nicely and should return to Washington in the very near future while Strasburg is throwing off the mound and looks as though he will make a rehab start on Wednesday.
In other news, the Nats stand 2 games up on the Mets and though the Mets acquired Kelly Johnson and murderer Juan Uribe over the weekend, they still have a pretty bad offense. The Padres reportedly asked for Trea Turner in return for Craig Kimbrel and Rizzo apparently (and thankfully) balked at that, relievers like Jonathan Papelbon or Koji Uehara could be had for cheap(ish) but I still wouldn’t be surprised if Chapman ends up coming to DC or if Padres GM AJ Preller lowers his asking price on Kimbrel.
Was not a great weekend for the Nats, but with Rendon back and Strasburg, Werth, and Zim getting healthy, things should be just fine in DC.
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