Monday, March 14, 2011

Nats vs. Tigers - 3/14/11

File photo by Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER
The Tigers visit Space Coast Stadium this afternoon.
Jason Marquis has been nothing short of fantastic this spring, tossing seven scoreless innings having allowed only three hits and a walk while striking out four. It creates an interesting dilemma for the Nationals. If Marquis keeps this up, there could be growing interest from other clubs in search of pitching. Would they trade the veteran now or hope he can continue pitching well into the season and perhaps get more for him during the summer?

First things first, Marquis needs to continue his hot streak today against a Tigers lineup that includes Magglio Ordonez and Victor Martinez. Can he keep his sinker down in the zone and induce as many groundball outs as he has so far this spring?

Pretty good test for the Nationals' lineup today, with hard-throwing right-hander Rick Porcello on the mound for Detroit. Lots of regulars playing today, including the 1-through-5 of Morgan, Desmond, Werth, Zimmerman and Morse...

TIGERS at NATIONALS
Where: Space Coast Stadium, Viera
Gametime: 1:05 p.m.
TV/Radio: None
Weather: Partly cloudy, 73 degrees, Wind 9 mph in from LF
STARTING LINEUPS
NATIONALS
CF Nyjer Morgan
SS Ian Desmond
RF Jayson Werth
3B Ryan Zimmerman
LF Michael Morse
DH Wilson Ramos
2B Jerry Hairston
C Ivan Rodriguez
1B Chris Marrero
(P Jason Marquis)

TIGERS
2B Will Rhymes
CF Andy Dirks
RF Magglio Ordonez
LF Brennan Boesch
C Victor Martinez
DH Jhonny Peralta
3B Don Kelly
1B Ryan Strieby
SS Cale Iorg
(P Rick Porcello)

18 comments:

Diz said...

Nice little article about Harper today.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110313&content_id=16932636&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Tim said...

Mark...

Aren't we giving up on the season already if we talk of trading Marquis? I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I can see trying to make room for Det and Maya, but I'm not sure either are fully ready. Are you?

Anonymous said...

Don't think we're "throwing in the towel" just yet. It's very normal for a team with a veteran in the last year of his contract to be traded before/at the trading deadline for two or three propsects.

The Nats traded Livan to Arizona in the last year of his contract in 2006 for Matt Chico & Garrett Mock (I still think Chico will become Lannan-esque in a major league rotation if ever given another chance).

When you (likely) have Ross Detwiler & Yunesky Maya waiting in Syracuse, Marquis becomes far more valuable as a piece to trade.

Farid

The Joker said...

Keep Marquis. But perhaps Werth might want to get his stroke down at Syracuse to open the season.

Anonymous said...

Jayson Werth is starting to resemble Albert Haynesworth. :-(

Well, not really but he was really bad at the plate today. A player of his alleged stature shouldn't go 0-4 against spring training pitching.

Anonymous said...

That's absurd...He's going to have planty of 0 for 4 days spring training, regular season and post season. Ted Williams did as well.

Anonymous said...

>>>He's going to have planty of 0 for 4 days spring training...<<<

He's certainly had his share of 0-fer days this spring, that's true.

The one-pitch out with runners on first and third, was a nice added touch today, though.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully he starts strong or all the Philty fans will start running their mouths.

Anonymous said...

MARK Z., PLEASE COME HOME.

BOO HISS, I HATE C.S.N.

Anonymous said...

Mark, I believe you were not in Florida last weekend but I have a question about the 9th inning Harper sequence versus Yankees...Hypothesis: man on 2nd, one out, Harper looks STUPID on two curveball swings...he says something or responds to the catcher talking some smack...he says something like...hey bring that uncle charlie one more time...pitcher ticked off at the punk kid yippin' and ignores (what should have been another curveball call for an easy K) and plunks Harper....after all, that puts him on 1st setting up a DP or at least a force...then the roof caves in and NATIONALS WIN...Riggleman sees it and decides this is the opportune time to say "good camp...but you see what just happenend...Hagerstown here you come..." the dynamics when he was hit looked a bit weird and the timing of the send down seemed odd. Comment?

Mark Zuckerman said...

I think you read WAY too much into that at-bat and the ensuing demotion. The Nats didn't just decide after the game to send Harper down. It was their plan all along. And it's not like he was the only one cut after Saturday's game. They had planned to trim the roster by several players.

Personally, I think the Nats wanted to let Harper face his beloved Yankees one more time before making the move. I really don't believe there was much more to the timing of the decision than that.

DL in VA said...

He (Harper) needs to stop thinking of them as his beloved Yankees.

Rabbit said...

I went to CSN to click on Mark Z's name and his name wasn't there. It is like he doesn't exist anymore. We used to get updates often. No they are few and far between. Where are you Mark???

Anonymous said...

Got my partial season tickets yesterday and can't wait for the season to start. By the way, outside of a big picture of Werth on the opening day ticket, there are only four different Nats pictured on tickets this year: Zimmerman, Desmond, Storen, and Clippard. Either somebody got lazy, or got the word that everyone else might be cut or traded. :)

Feel Wood said...

Went down to the ballpark yesterday afternoon to pick up my season tickets, and while I was there I popped into the team store. Looks like they're fully stocked up now for the new season. Lots of individual player jerseys and T-shirts on display. Zimmerman. Werth. Strasburg. Harper. Hernandez. Desmond. Clippard. Ramos. Espinosa. Bernadina. A couple of names that were on prominent display this time last year were conspicuously missing, though. Wang, but we all know why that is. Once bitten, twice shy. The other one? Nyjer Morgan. Nowhere to be seen. Are the team store folks perhaps ahead of the curve here?

Mark Zuckerman said...

Rabbit said...
I went to CSN to click on Mark Z's name and his name wasn't there. It is like he doesn't exist anymore. We used to get updates often. No they are few and far between. Where are you Mark???


http://www.csnwashington.com/pages/zuckerman

Not sure where on the CSN site you're looking, but my homepage is still there and I've got several articles up from the last week.

I do, however, return to Florida Sunday night and will be down there through the rest of camp. So the frequency of articles on both CSN and here will pick up considerably.

Mark'd said...

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/New-culture-Washington-Nationals-should-be-much-improved-031110

Good Rosenthal article all about the NEW Nats. When Rizzo talks about the culture change I just don't see Nyjer fitting in to the future in DC.

When you read the scout comments on CF, you get a sense they are strictly talking ability and you would think scouts are unbiased.

Theophilus said...

The most remarkable thing about Marquis this Spring is his low pitch count -- had to do 20 in the bullpen after being removed to "stretch out." During his comeback last year he reached 100 by the fifth inning. Command is everything.

However, this is not his history (career 3.7 BB/9 innings). Has there been any talk about anything he is doing differently to make us think this is a "new" Marquis? Or is it "just Spring Training?"

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