Now remember the story, we're newly weds hitching a ride to Earth Capital...
Let's hope we have better luck than Kang and Kodos. Matchups!
Tuesday Game One (1:05 ET) -- R.A. Dickey (2-5, 5.77) versus Jordan Zimmermann (4-2, 3.26)
Tuesday Game Two (7:05 ET) -- Marco Estrada (1-3, 3.89) versus Max Scherzer (6-3, 1.51)
Wednesday (7:05 ET) -- Mark Buehrle (4-2, 4.97) versus To Be Determined Man
Player to Watch
Bryce Harper is really good, folks. I wrote briefly about him in my NL East Preview:
Everyone has been saying that this is the year Bryce is gonna break out. Here are my problems with this: first, the guy is only 22. Checking his Baseball Reference Similarity Scores for that age (because that's the most work I'm willing to put into this), you get a top six of Justin Upton, Ruben Sierra, Andruw Jones, Tony Conigliaro, Mickey Mantle and Miguel Cabrera. Upton didn't really explode until his age 23 season, which is still his best four years later. Sierra also took a jump at age 23, thanks to an improved batting average, while Andruw was already the hitter he was forever going to be at 22. Conigliaro's age 22 season was tragically his last as a star, so lets hope Harper avoids that fate. Mantle was great from the moment he stepped on a diamond but his leap was also at 23, while Miguel Cabrera took a slight step forward at 22 but his real leap into Frank Robinson territory was at age 27. This brings me to my second point: like all of those guys, Harper is already pretty good. In 1300 big league at-bats he's established himself as a well above average hitter. It will be interesting to see if his career takes a direction like Jones (where this is what you get) or like Mantle's where he's just picking at the surface of his talents. But my third point is health: Bryce has a Brett Lawrie thing going on where he keeps missing chunks of seasons because he gets hurt playing the game so damned hard. If that's going to continue, we might never see that full potential realized.
Well folks, Bam Bam Bryce has finally arrived. He's been healthy for most of the season, and as a result he leads the National League in almost everything (runs, home runs, walks, OBP, SLG, OPS and OPS+). The big improvement (aside from the ridiculous SLG% of .724) has been a newfound ability to draw walks. He's already drawn more than all of last season in just over half the plate appearances, and whether this is a genuine effort by Harper to be more selective or NL pitchers are just terrified to throw him a strike, this is a major reason why Harper is the best player in baseball right now.
Assorted Nonsense
Since starting 7-13, the Nationals have gone on a nice little 21-9 run, putting them half a game ahead of the Mets atop the NL East. Despite having Babe Ruth the Second in their lineup, the 2015 Nationals are a pretty average offensive team overall. Their starting pitching is their calling card, and the Bluebirds get to face their two best in Zimmermann and Scherzer. Injuries have given Washington some trouble, though. Starters Doug Fister and Stephen Strasburg are both out, as are outfielders Jayson Werth, Nate McLouth, Reed Johnson (how cool would it have been to see him again?) and reliever Craig Stammen. Promising young third baseman Anthony Rendon is also a no go with a knee problem and has yet to play this season. Former Blue Jay Casey Janssen is back however, so we might see him at some point this series.
As we're heading into a National League park for the first time this year, I should mention one of my favourite things in all of baseball is watching pitchers hit, especially AL pitchers (when they're not hurting themselves of course). It just amuses me. Last year Jays pitchers went 2-25, which sounds about right. Both of those hits however belonged to Drew Hutchison, meaning that non-Hutchison pitchers went 0-21. Again, sounds about right. As far as this pitchers in this series go, R.A. Dickey has a very respectable career batting line of .178/.198/.193, with only 35 strikeouts in 233 career plate appearances. Marco Estrada likewise isn't bad with the bat (as far as pitchers go) with a lifetime .143/.190/.176 line. Mark Buehrle, the obelisk of consistency that he is, has been consistently dreadful with a bat in his hands going 8-118 in his big league career, which is dreadful even by these hilariously low standards. Yet Buehrle can claim one thing both R.A. Dickey and Marco Estrada cannot: a big league home run! Yes, that's right. Mark Buehrle has gone yard in the majors. Somebody find video of this. Please, do it now.
You can check out a preview of this series from the other side here: http://districtondeck.com/2015/06/01/washington-nationals-series-preview-nats-vs-blue-jays-61-63/2/
Get er done, boys!
Let's hope we have better luck than Kang and Kodos. Matchups!
Tuesday Game One (1:05 ET) -- R.A. Dickey (2-5, 5.77) versus Jordan Zimmermann (4-2, 3.26)
Tuesday Game Two (7:05 ET) -- Marco Estrada (1-3, 3.89) versus Max Scherzer (6-3, 1.51)
Wednesday (7:05 ET) -- Mark Buehrle (4-2, 4.97) versus To Be Determined Man
Player to Watch
Bryce Harper is really good, folks. I wrote briefly about him in my NL East Preview:
Everyone has been saying that this is the year Bryce is gonna break out. Here are my problems with this: first, the guy is only 22. Checking his Baseball Reference Similarity Scores for that age (because that's the most work I'm willing to put into this), you get a top six of Justin Upton, Ruben Sierra, Andruw Jones, Tony Conigliaro, Mickey Mantle and Miguel Cabrera. Upton didn't really explode until his age 23 season, which is still his best four years later. Sierra also took a jump at age 23, thanks to an improved batting average, while Andruw was already the hitter he was forever going to be at 22. Conigliaro's age 22 season was tragically his last as a star, so lets hope Harper avoids that fate. Mantle was great from the moment he stepped on a diamond but his leap was also at 23, while Miguel Cabrera took a slight step forward at 22 but his real leap into Frank Robinson territory was at age 27. This brings me to my second point: like all of those guys, Harper is already pretty good. In 1300 big league at-bats he's established himself as a well above average hitter. It will be interesting to see if his career takes a direction like Jones (where this is what you get) or like Mantle's where he's just picking at the surface of his talents. But my third point is health: Bryce has a Brett Lawrie thing going on where he keeps missing chunks of seasons because he gets hurt playing the game so damned hard. If that's going to continue, we might never see that full potential realized.
Well folks, Bam Bam Bryce has finally arrived. He's been healthy for most of the season, and as a result he leads the National League in almost everything (runs, home runs, walks, OBP, SLG, OPS and OPS+). The big improvement (aside from the ridiculous SLG% of .724) has been a newfound ability to draw walks. He's already drawn more than all of last season in just over half the plate appearances, and whether this is a genuine effort by Harper to be more selective or NL pitchers are just terrified to throw him a strike, this is a major reason why Harper is the best player in baseball right now.
Assorted Nonsense
Since starting 7-13, the Nationals have gone on a nice little 21-9 run, putting them half a game ahead of the Mets atop the NL East. Despite having Babe Ruth the Second in their lineup, the 2015 Nationals are a pretty average offensive team overall. Their starting pitching is their calling card, and the Bluebirds get to face their two best in Zimmermann and Scherzer. Injuries have given Washington some trouble, though. Starters Doug Fister and Stephen Strasburg are both out, as are outfielders Jayson Werth, Nate McLouth, Reed Johnson (how cool would it have been to see him again?) and reliever Craig Stammen. Promising young third baseman Anthony Rendon is also a no go with a knee problem and has yet to play this season. Former Blue Jay Casey Janssen is back however, so we might see him at some point this series.
As we're heading into a National League park for the first time this year, I should mention one of my favourite things in all of baseball is watching pitchers hit, especially AL pitchers (when they're not hurting themselves of course). It just amuses me. Last year Jays pitchers went 2-25, which sounds about right. Both of those hits however belonged to Drew Hutchison, meaning that non-Hutchison pitchers went 0-21. Again, sounds about right. As far as this pitchers in this series go, R.A. Dickey has a very respectable career batting line of .178/.198/.193, with only 35 strikeouts in 233 career plate appearances. Marco Estrada likewise isn't bad with the bat (as far as pitchers go) with a lifetime .143/.190/.176 line. Mark Buehrle, the obelisk of consistency that he is, has been consistently dreadful with a bat in his hands going 8-118 in his big league career, which is dreadful even by these hilariously low standards. Yet Buehrle can claim one thing both R.A. Dickey and Marco Estrada cannot: a big league home run! Yes, that's right. Mark Buehrle has gone yard in the majors. Somebody find video of this. Please, do it now.
You can check out a preview of this series from the other side here: http://districtondeck.com/2015/06/01/washington-nationals-series-preview-nats-vs-blue-jays-61-63/2/
Get er done, boys!
