Photo by Sol tucker for TalkNats
Today’s game at Nationals Park was supposed to feature the Brewers young ace RHP Jacob Misiorowski — but that won’t happen. He was just placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left tibia contusion. The Washington Nationals will send arguably their best pitcher on the mound today in Brad Lord. This is a salvage game for the Nationals in this 3-game weekend series.
Last month, Misiorowski became the center of controversy when he was named an All-Star this year despite having just five appearances in the majors.
Speaking of controversy, the Nats braintrust will have tough decisions to make as to how they will find playing time for all of the players in their now crowded outfield — even after trading Alex Call to the Dodgers a few days ago. Maybe you carry five outfielders — maybe you don’t.
But it could also be six outfielders if you give a chance to outfielder Nick Schnell who is having the best year of any minor leaguer after he was promoted to Triple-A .302 batting average and .993 OPS in 52 games. Schnell has that 1st round pedigree from 2018 by Tampa out of high school and is only 25 years old. The Nats picked him up as a freebie via minor league free agency. Is it real or is it Memorex?
This week, Dylan Crews will return at some point, plus you have James Wood, Jacob Young, Robert Hassell III, and Daylen Lile. The Nats should put Josh Bell at first base and rotate one of these outfielders through the DH spot.
Other roster additions should be seeing what you have with first baseman Yohandy Morales who could be a key piece for next season. Now 6’1″ Schnell also has previous time at first base in his minor league career totaling 36 games last year.
Do you wait for September callups or make moves now as Bell, Paul DeJong, and Nathaniel Lowe are just taking up roster space, and do not have guaranteed contracts for next year.
A sidenote is that Miguel Cairo was ejected from Saturday’s game for sticking up for Wood. This is Cairo’s second ejection in less than a month as the team’s interim-manager, and a welcomed sign that he is not asleep in the dugout.
“Nothing is going to be given to anyone. So like I said before, you got to come to work. You gotta make sure you do the thing the right way and get good at-bats. Do the little things that make you a good player and a winning player. That’s the culture that I’m going to make. You got to play to win. You got to expect to come to the ballpark and win a game.”
— Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with CJ Abrams at +3.1, James Wood at +3.0, MacKenzie Gore at +2.6. Add those up, and you get a total of +8.7 WAR. The issue is the large gap between those players and the next tier.
On defense, the OAA stats give you a good picture of the team’s overall defense which is the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good news is that besides Nathaniel Lowe, the defense under interim-manager Miguel Cairo has drastically improved. All of a sudden, Luis Garcia Jr. looked Gold Glove in the month of July.
These are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good. The issue is the consistency on this team.
“[Shinnosuke Ogasawara] was unbelievable. He pitched his butt off today, and that’s what we’re looking for, guys that know how to pitch. Pitchers that want to compete. He competed today. He kept us in the game. And it was amazing. He was awesome.”
— Cairo said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.92 and that places the starters at 3rd from last in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 5.72 and now the worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: TBD
No. 4 Starter: Mitchell Parker 5.35
No. 3 Starter: Brad Lord 3.27 (starting/relieving)
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.89
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.80
Milwaukee Brewers vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app; In Spanish on DC 87.7 FM and La Pantera 100.7 FM/1220 AM. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 178 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
