Monday, May 6, 2013

LaRoche finally getting on track

USA Today Sports Images
Adam LaRoche is 5-for-10 with six walks over his last four games.
The overall numbers still don't look good: a .168 batting average, .273 on-base percentage and .567 OPS that ranks 166th out of 177 qualifying big-league hitters.

Make no mistake, though: Adam LaRoche has broken out of his season-opening slump.

He did so over the course of the last week, beginning with his one-on-one session with old pal Chipper Jones in Atlanta and culminating with a strong weekend at the plate in Pittsburgh.

But wait, you say, LaRoche only went 2-for-14 in that series against the Braves. That's hardly evidence of a breakthrough. Ah, but pay no attention to the numbers and instead look at the individual at-bats he put together during those four days. They included three hard-hit flyouts to the warning track, all of them hit into a stiff, northeasterly wind that was present throughout the series at Turner Field.

"I felt great in Atlanta," he said. "Not a ton of hits there, but I squared the ball up good."

LaRoche continued to square the ball up once the Nationals arrived in Pittsburgh over the weekend. And this time, those balls started to fall in for hits. He reached base in nine of 13 plate appearances against the Pirates, with four hits (including a double), five walks and a key sacrifice fly. He struck out only once.

Here's the best evidence of all that LaRoche has got his swing back: The Pirates intentionally walked him in the eighth inning of what was then a 3-2 game on Sunday, electing instead to pitch to the struggling Tyler Moore (who, of course, wound up clobbering a three-run homer off reliever Bryan Morris).

"When a guy's feeling good at the plate, you notice it," LaRoche said. "I think that's part of it. A week ago, they don't think twice. I'm getting pitched to."

LaRoche still has a long way to go to get numbers back up to his career standards, the numbers the Nationals counted on him producing when they re-signed him over the winter to a two-year, $24 million contract.

But after a long and painful April that left some wondering whether he'd ever get it together, LaRoche appears to have put those concerns to rest. He's producing at the plate once again, adding another potent bat to a Nationals lineup that sorely needs his contribution.

"For some reason, I feel like when I get going, we start scoring some runs," he said. "When I get going, the guys are hitting and pushing more runs across."

89 comments:

Jon said...

I like his quote about when he gets going, the Nats score runs. I have to razz him about this though because he bats cleanup. Of course that's what happens!

Rabbit34 said...

I hope LaRoche is on track again.....as long as that train doesn't run over his toes....again. Maybe if we put LaRoche at second and Espinosa at first, they will see things a lot different and really get hot!

Ghost Of Steve M. said...

Hard to believe for a crazy stat that the Nats team ERA is at 3.53 while the runs scored so far this year is 3.53 per game.

That is hard to do especially when you consider all the unearned runs caused by errors so no wonder why the Nats pythagorean is 15-17 vs their real W/L of 17-15.

Ghost Of Steve M. said...

The Nats offense has a long way to go to get to the 4.70 runs scored per game they were at last year so they really need LaRoche to step it up.

By the way, last years team ERA was 3.33

Nats 128 said...

"@Laddie Blah Blah said...

"It takes years and years to get good enough at picking up pitches to hit at the major league level ."

It has taken Espinosa years and years experience to hit below the Mendoza Line, and way below the Mendoza Line from the left side, this year. He is actually hitting worse, this year, than in any of his previous years. That's a fact. Maybe he should not have practiced as a switch hitter all these years. Seems to have been a total waste of time.

He hasn't learned to hit from the left side, despite "years and years" trying "to get good enough at picking up pitches at a major league level," as it is.

I think it was 1957 when I was watching a Yankee game when Mantle came to bat, right-handed, against a RH pitcher. It sounded like Mel Allen was going to have a stroke. Mantle went 2 for 4 (2 singles) and the NY dailies were full of speculation about Mantle going RH'ed, full time, the next day, especially since the experiment seemed to work. And all without "years and years" of working at it.

There was a lot of chatter about it then because Mantle, like Espinosa is now, was much better from the right side than from the left.

Mantle went back to switch hitting the next day. Probably had made a bet with one of his drinking buddies the night before. Casey was as surprised as anybody when he hit RH against a righty.

He is not going to last in the ML hitting the way he is now. If he can't do any better, they need to platoon him to eliminate his LH bat from the lineup. Freddie does it in Atlanta, and Clint does it in Pittsburgh, and they are doing OK, last time I checked. I mean, really, what's the BFD?

"The big adjustment would be the breaking balls. That's the problem going back to only hitting one way on your natural side is that you've never tested it out."

They are getting the LH Danny out with breaking balls off the outside of the plate, 4-seamers, probably, or whatever pitch they have in their repertoire that will do that. Danny's HR yesterday was hit on a breaking ball, and, I believe, so was his sac fly to deep center. He hits breaking balls much better from the right side than from the left, probably because he is more selective from the right side. That HR was a breaker right over the heart of the plate."



Laddie ole boy, you make too much sense with all that talking about Mantle and Espinosa.

Ole Bowdenballs is going to get its panties in a bunch so you better hush up child!

Nats 128 said...

We should applaud Laddie for that excellent analysis and Ghost for the 3.53 trivia. Fascinating@!

#Positivity

Whack-a-Mule said...

Mule, being stubborn, worships pitching and defense; the latter being where LaRoche is a god.

(Mule, being stubborn, also hates the wave. Sorry, Bryce :-)

While pitching and defense win championships, pitching usually improves with tension reduction.
What better way to reduce tension on Stras+Gio+J-Zim+Haren+Det than with a crooked-number lead?
So offense does have its uses.
Welcome back, Adam!


The Real Feel Wood. Accept no substitutes. said...

"Harpo said...

We should applaud Laddie for that excellent analysis and Ghost for the 3.53 trivia. Fascinating@!"

But remember, Rule #3 still applies.

Eric said...

Wow. Our host flies in the face of some of the regulars with this one.

Get some nurses on stand by, stat, in case there are any signs of apoplexy! ;)

Anonymous said...

Harpo said...

"@Laddie Blah Blah said...

(irrelevant anecdotes and terrible analysis)

Ole Bowdenballs is going to get its panties in a bunch so you better hush up child!"

As a general rule I don't get my panties in a bunch over internet posts from people who think that things like "Bowdenballs" and "panties in a bunch" are clever.


Danny career OPS from the left > Harper career OPS vs. lefties. If you want to platoon one, you should want to platoon the other.

Unknown said...

I remember when Nook Logan decided he was going to stop switch-hitting. Didn't help him too much as I recall.

Holden Baroque said...

I remember when Don Kessinger starteed switch-hitting, they said he'd hit .300: .150 left-handed and .150 right-handed.

Danny is neither Mantle nor Kessinger at the plate. Maybe it's not hitting LH that's his problem, maybe it's RH pitchers.

Naah.

What it is, is, hitting left-handed means relying more on his right eye, which in turn disproportionately activates his left brain, and that's why he's thinking too much.

Holden Baroque said...

*started.
Not sure where the stray E came from. Must have bought a vowel.

"Bartender, was I in here last night, and did I spend a $50 bill?"

"Yes sir."

"Oh, what load that is off my mind! I thought I'd lost it!"

baseballswami said...

Things that cause me to scratch my head-- Hudson is player of the week with two wins. 2,5 era.. Uh--- Jordan was better? Also lots of attention to guy with a six game hitting streak- I believe Desi is like 11 out of twelve. No respect. Are we back to underdog status now?

Eric said...

"Are we back to underdog status now?"

Hopefully.

Holden Baroque said...

Hudson didn't win all 200 games in the last week, but it's a milestone. Go figure.

Eric said...

Storen on bullpen usage.

He sounds upbeat...good to read...especially since he seems to be settling into the season now.

Nats 128 said...

Bowdenballs, do you know what weighted average means and it's impact. Clearly you don't because you would then understand that you are comparing impacts of vastly different proportion.

Harper is going to face a lefty pitcher for 30.5% of his ABs on average with his .531 OPS

Danny is going to face a righty pitcher for 78.8% of his ABs on average with his .547 OPS

Danny's OPS has a weighting of 2.58 to Harper's in that scenario. Using NatJack's 5 year old terminology that both their OPS's stink, the simple answer is if they both play 7 days a week Danny's negative impact is over 2.5 times greater.

That is like having 2 1/2 Espinosas batting LH to 1 Harper batting against a LH pitcher in the lineup.

The only good news as I see it is Harper will be facing a RH pitcher on the same day Espinosa is batting LH. Harper's OPS on those days are 1.240!

baseballswami said...

I hate off days. There is less stress but a lot more math.

NCNatsie said...

Nats Lady, I just saw your post on the previous thread asking about the status of the video of “Let’s All Cheer for the Washington Nats.”

Unfortunately it’s not up yet. Bad timing on my part. A professional editor I work with promised to edit it for me, but at just the wrong time his boss quit and his work schedule went crazy, including being out of town most of the time. He told me Friday it was starting to settle down and he hoped he could get to work on the song, which is, as you well know an all-volunteer job.

Anyway, I’m hoping it will be done and out in the Natosphere soon. And when it is, I can assure you, viewers will be absolutely wowed with your spectacular solo!

BTW, for the rest of you, this is a much better song than any of the others you may have heard – especially thanks to the fantastic talent of the Nats Insider Singers.

EmDash said...

Atlanta-Cincinnati tonight, at Cincinnati - figures to be a home run derby, I'd bet. (Which probably means I'm wrong and it'll be a tight pitcher's duel.) It's on ESPN tonight so it'll be interesting to watch since the Nats have the day off. Starters are Maholm and Arroyo.

Around the web, there are a fair number of articles about how the umpire yesterday clearly did more to antagonize Harper than vice versa, which is nice to see. The comments Hirschbeck made about Harper "showing (him) up" where pretty telling.

baseballswami said...

You mean the umpire with a small ...............?

Holden Baroque said...

For your pre-Tiger reading pleasure

Al Kaline on Bryce Harper (hint: he likes him.)

Anonymous said...

I understand that concept just fine, Harpo. I also understand that it's completely irrelevant to the question of platooning. I didn't say that Espi was a better hitter than Harper. I said that if you want to platoon one, then you also should want to platoon the other. Maybe you don't understand the concept of platooning? The platooning would happen exactly as often as dictated by the frequency of the matchups.

And just to be clear, I don't think either guy should be platooned. I'm just tired of people who don't understand things like position scarcity and the fact that almost all players have unbalanced splits blaming Espinosa for everything that goes wrong with this team, so I thought I'd make a surprising comparison to an obvious talent and fan favorite whose spot in the lineup every day should never be questioned.

SonnyG10 said...

NCNatsie, really looking forward to seeing the video.

Eric said...

"I hate off days. There is less stress but a lot more math."

Ha!

Hirshbeck was absurd. He looks like a fool who forgets what a video camera is. To say Harper "slammed" anything on the ground is blatantly inaccurate. I'm *sure* the league will agree in their review ;).

SonnyG10 said...

EmDash said...

Around the web, there are a fair number of articles about how the umpire yesterday clearly did more to antagonize Harper than vice versa, which is nice to see. The comments Hirschbeck made about Harper "showing (him) up" where pretty telling.
May 06, 2013 3:39 PM


That's nice to hear. Hirschebeck was out of control and just too short-fused.

Theophilus T. S. said...

I suppose it has been said that Hirschbeck goaded Alomar into spitting at him, too. In ways that in this day and age would have gotten him strung up on the screen behind home plate. As I recall there were rumors that Hirschbeck had been "disciplined" for his role in the conversation but nothing specific. Supposedly Hirschbeck and Alomar made peace. Johnson called him a "good umpire." How sweet of him.

Tcostant said...

What Alomar did was deplorable. Conparing the two is just shameful.

SonnyG10 said...

Hirschebeck said he was being nice to Harper for not throwing him out of the game when he first raised his hands. I think this is a lie. I think he regretted not tossing him right away and started looking for a reason to do it.

Section 222 said...

I think you nailed it at 4:08 Sonny. Exactly right.

The sad thing is that the Harp did go on the check swing. He's so strong and fast pulling it back it doesn't seem like it, but if you compare that check swing to the others early in the at bat there's a big difference.

Nats 128 said...

Bowdenballs, what you are suggesting will never be done by Davey Johnson because he isn't a proponent of platooning because Danny Espinosa would only play 2 random days a week making him stale on the bench. The way to handle Bryce Harper is choosing some days off to coincide with the lefties that own him.

EmDash said...

White Sox pitcher management is old school. They sent Chris Sale out for the 8th inning in a game they're losing 1-0 after he'd already thrown *114* pitches through 7. Let him go 119 total. And Sale was a guy identified as a major injury risk before the season because of his huge jump in innings pitches between '11 and '12.

Steady Eddie said...

222 -- The other aspect of the whole issue is that the final pitch to Harper was actually, clearly a strike in Pitch F/X. (As a couple of other folks have pointed out here yesterday.)

So if Balkin' Bob had done his job, there wouldn't have been anything to appeal to Hirshbeck. Double blue fail.

Nats 128 said...

I had the pleasure of reading JD trying to reason with Peric on the subjects of comparing Kobernus to Span and Rosenbaum to Lannan.

Trying to reason with Peric is like trying to reason with a 2 year old in a temper tantrum after you have told the child NO several times.

Knoxville Nat said...

"I think it was 1957 when I was watching a Yankee game when Mantle came to bat, right-handed, against a RH pitcher. It sounded like Mel Allen was going to have a stroke. Mantle went 2 for 4 (2 singles) and the NY dailies were full of speculation about Mantle going RH'ed, full time, the next day, especially since the experiment seemed to work. And all without "years and years" of working at it.

There was a lot of chatter about it then because Mantle, like Espinosa is now, was much better from the right side than from the left.

Mantle went back to switch hitting the next day. Probably had made a bet with one of his drinking buddies the night before. Casey was as surprised as anybody when he hit RH against a righty."

Pretty hard to believe that in 1957 Mantle would consider batting RH only or that the media would speculate on just such a possibility. I mean in 1956 Mantle did win the American League MVP award and also the triple crown.

Anonymous said...

Harpo said...

"Bowdenballs, what you are suggesting will never be done ..."

Once again: I wasn't suggesting anything. I would never platoon either player. That was the whole idea.

I'm not sure why you keep getting confused about this, but you apparently think "Bowdenballs" is funny enough to warrant repeated uses I guess your confusion isn't all that surprising.

Marty said...

@Emdash - It may have been "old school" in this case, but it is pretty tough to argue with them as an organization: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/10-year-disabled-list-trends/

EmDash said...

White Sox offense sounds worse than ours - load up the bases with no outs in the ninth, player grounds into double play, Royals intentionally walk someone to *re*load the bases (?!), someone scores on an infield grounder error, aaand a White Sox player is caught in a run down off of third base for the third out. Amazing. That's the kind of thing that makes you tear your hair out as a fan.

SonnyG10 said...

EmDash, do you recall when the Reds-Braves game starts tonight?

Section 222 said...

Good point Steady. Just a totally unnecessary and unfortunate event all around. I'm just glad the Nats stepped up and won the game.

An off day seems a good time to pass on another tidbit from PNC Park (and no, Feel/Harpo, it has nothing to do with beer.) The ribbon scoreboards there show information on each pitch -- not just velocity but horizontal and vertical breaks. Its only on for an instant, but it's pretty cool to see right after the pitch. I assume that info is available online after, or maybe during, the game, but I don't know if other ballparks show it. Yet another thing that Nats Park could learn from our friends on Pittsburgh. (The brisket and smoked gouda sandwich would be another one.)

So I took down some of Stras's numbers. --

Pitch 1 (presumably a 4 seamer) Velocity 96, Horiz Break 4, Vertical Break 0.

Pitch 2 (a changeup?) V 89, H 11, V 4.

Pitch 3 (curve) V 79, H 8, V 15!!

I didn't write down the numbers, but I'm pretty sure Clipp's changeup, which we all know is pretty darn good, didn't have nearly the movement of Stras's.

EmDash said...

Sonny, the schedule I saw said 7 PM.

SonnyG10 said...

222, that is pretty cool. I wonder how they measure it.

Section 222 said...

Davey doesn't believe in platoons? Has he said that? I thought he learned at the knee of Earl Weaver. Didn't Earl use platoons quite a bit during the O's glory years?

SonnyG10 said...

EmDash said...
Sonny, the schedule I saw said 7 PM.
May 06, 2013 5:03 PM


Thanks, EmDash. I think I'll try to watch that game.

NatsLady said...

There is an article on MLB.com that questions why Harper was ejected and Fielder wasn't. Fielder argued at length (twice) about strike calls.

SonnyG10 said...

NatsLady said...
There is an article on MLB.com that questions why Harper was ejected and Fielder wasn't. Fielder argued at length (twice) about strike calls.
May 06, 2013 5:08 PM


Thanks for the tip NatsLady. I just read the article and it gets me angry all over again. They say Harper slams his bat down and slams his helmut down. Slam is an overstatement. He dropped his helmut a little heavily, but I wouldn't call that a slam. And I think that's BS about Hirschebeck giving three warnings.

Steady Eddie said...

And the Royals go in order in the 11th.

Funny game, baseball.

NatsLady said...

Joey Cora makes his @MLBNetwork debut on #MLBTonight, LIVE 6pE, and takes a look a Ryan Zimmerman’s throwing errors in a #DiamondDemo

Section 222 said...

Thanks for the headsup NL. Just set my DVR.

Section 222 said...

Ouch, MLB Tonight is a 7 hour show. Good thing I just got the Genie from DirecTV.

TheManBearPig said...

Danny Espinosa's career line is 236/.310/.408. But he's only played two full seasons in the majors and for the last half-season sample (2nd half of 2012) his line was:.264/.321/.432 with 11HR. He had a bad April with what might be a silver lining - cutting his K rate from about 29% in 2012 (that rate didn't change much even when he was hitting well) to about 21% in April. I'm guessing that he's more likely to be a .270/.330/.440 hitter with 20/20 HR/SB ability than what his career numbers would say. A platoon would keep him on the bench more than half of the time and would probably hurt his development. Play him almost every day, but it probably makes sense to give him a day off now and then (he played in 160 games in 2012).

MicheleS said...

Looks like Ankiel got DFA'd

Nats 128 said...

"MicheleS said...

Looks like Ankiel got DFA'd"

If that is true, the only step down from there is Single-A ball since Houston is the Minor League equivalient of a Double-A team.

Still hard to believe the length of tenure he had with Rizzo on the Nats roster.

Holden Baroque said...

Ankiel, Martinez designated for assignment

MicheleS said...

I love Adam, I doubted him, shouldn't have, he is coming around to his norms. Love the guy, love his glove, and Ryan better buy his dinner every night. And the only time you will see me type this.. THANKS CHIPPER!

baseballswami said...

Kind of sad for Rick. The Astros are a AAA team, I thought Bo would keep him around as a mentor. End of the line?

Theophilus T. S. said...

Tcosant --

I'm not defending Alomar, except that (A) according to Alomar, Hirschbeck escalated the debate by using a racial epithet; (B) according to observers, Hirshbeck followed with the "fa___t word. That makes him a helluva nice fellow, which is why I think Johnson saying he's a "good umpire" is about all he could say.

MicheleS said...

Finally!!!

Jordan Gets some Love

baseballswami said...

Read it! Awesome.

Joe Seamhead said...

I had a other obligations today, but I'd to qualify something that was attributed to me by saying I never suggested that Espinona should start batting only from the right, I don't understand hoe what I said was construed as me saying that he should only hit righthanded. This was my post;

Joe Seamhead said...
I have always found Danny's splits interesting, but he has always insisted that he's a LH hitter first i.e. he gets better swings, more power, etc, yet the numbers have always said otherwise, though he gets much fewer RH at bats.Would the splits even out, or overall performance improve if he went all RH? The limited success he had against Dickey's knuckle ball by going opposite was interesting.
May 06, 2013 8:54 AM
______________________________________________________________
My point was mainly a question. PLease don't twist my words.

MicheleS said...

Swami.. i think you are on the tweeter.. If so, some Nats fans did some excellent meme/photoshops of the umpire with a small ...............?

baseballswami said...

No one around here would ever, ever do that, Joe :)

Section 222 said...

Nice to see Znn get some recognition, but this sentence just isn't right: "'His stuff is so much better than Strasburg's,' the scout said."

Stras's stuff is still nastier. His change and curveball are better than Znn's by quite a distance. He's not locating his fastball right now, but that's not what I think of when I think of "stuff." Znn is definitely a better pitcher right now, but it's not because of "stuff," it's because of command, pace, and aggressiveness.

And boy am I glad we have them both on our team.

Joe Seamhead said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Joe Seamhead said...

MicheleS said...
Swami.. i think you are on the tweeter.. If so, some Nats fans did some excellent meme/photoshops of the umpire with a small ...............?
May 06, 2013 6:54 PM
_________________________________________
In fairness to the man in question, [who I personally think does have a "complex"], Hirshbeck did go through testicular cancer surgery and treatment. Maybe the references could be construed as being out of bounds.

EmDash said...

Reds getting off to a rough-ish start. But watching Gattis play the outfield should be interesting...

Candide said...

But just what, exactly, is Hirschbeck's beef with Harper? I mean, I get it that he might not have liked Harper's raising-the-arm and-bat gesture, but it's not the worst thing I've ever seen, by a long shot (I'm looking at you, Votto). Everyone seems to be saying - and from watching the video, I can't disagree - it looks like Hirschbeck was looking for an excuse to run Harper. Why? Did Harper pee in his Wheaties or something?

sjm308 said...

Seamhead, Just wanted you to know I appreciated your personal post & reinforced my decision to skip his posts. This place is getting harder and harder to appreciate.

Go Nats!

Joe Seamhead said...

Coach, @7:33, I agree, but I really enjoy Mark's posts and the core group here. I'm staying, and will sometimes post in even the game threads if there's any signs of intelligent life in there. All of the folks that I've met at the stadium have been delightful. Odd about the ones that never show up.
BTW, I miss Sunshine Bobby Carpenter. Anybody heard from him, or has he given up on us?

Holden Baroque said...

I took the liberty of collapsing the NIDO/who's going? columns for games that have already been played, through yesterday, just so I wouldn't have to scroll horizontally as well as vertically--I get tired of scrolling eventually.

Joe Seamhead said...

In other baseball happenings, Atlanta is beating the Reds 4-2 in the 6th. The Braves moved BJ Upton to leadoff. Results so far, not so good: 0-3, 3K's.

Eric said...

Great, in-depth article about Zinn from the Nat's mlb site.

Eric said...

Let's peep that in Oakland's colors, shall we?

peric said...

We shall see what we shall see.

peric said...

And keep in mind Danny haters he is by far the superior defensive player to Harper AND with a better arm.

peric said...
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peric said...
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peric said...
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peric said...
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Eric said...

Another good one about Zimmermann

SonnyG10 said...

That was a good article, Eric.

On another note, the Reds let us down tonight as they lost to the Barves 7-4. :(

Holden Baroque said...

OK, I'm going to laugh at Pirate fans all year for this. Who lets this happen??
Moore's HR drills Pittsburgh fan in the back while everyone else gets the heck out of the way

Holden Baroque said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
EmDash said...

Suppose it's not a surprise the Reds lost - Maholm has just been a better pitcher than Arroyo this season, aside from the one real blow-up. Although that Reds reliever played a pretty big role, too.

Hope the Nats will even be able to play the next few days, as rainy as it's supposed to be. That's the tricky thing with scheduling these interleague series, they're so difficult to make up later if you need to.

Holden Baroque said...

I meant to say, that's from Nats Enquirer.

Holden Baroque said...

They both have Thursday off, and the Tigers only have to go to Cleveland next, short trip, so they have a day to work with, FWIW.

Eric said...

Saw that about the Braves... C'est la baseball!

baseballswami said...

Ugh. This weather does not look promising. Especially with all of the shaky hamstrings lately. Hope all the guys are well rested, though.

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