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US Presswire photo Roger Dean Stadium, spring training home of the newly renamed Miami Marlins. |
Tonight, Strasburg returns to the mound, looking to build off that first start against an opponent he better get used to seeing a lot: the newly renamed Miami Marlins. New manager Ozzie Guillen is throwing most of his "A" lineup out there tonight, including the talented-but-moody Jose Reyes-Hanley Ramirez tandem for the first time.
Davey Johnson, on the other hand, isn't sending very many regulars on the trip down to Jupiter. Ian Desmond is at shortstop. Rick Ankiel is DH'ing. Otherwise, it's backups and prospects (including Anthony Rendon). Tom Gorzelanny, who was tagged for seven runs in one inning last time out, is scheduled to replace Strasburg on the mound in the fourth or fifth inning.
Enjoy the game and the conversation...
WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. MIAMI MARLINS
Where: Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter
Gametime: 7:05 p.m.
TV: None
Radio: Marlins radio via MLB Gameday Audio
Weather: Partly cloudy, 73 degrees, Wind 7 out to LF
STARTING LINEUPS
NATIONALS
SS Ian Desmond
2B Steve Lombardozzi
LF Jason Michaels
1B Tyler Moore
3B Anthony Rendon
C Jesus Flores
DH Rick Ankiel
RF Brett Carroll
CF Roger Bernadina
(P Stephen Strasburg)
MARLINS
SS Jose Reyes
CF Emilio Bonifacio
3B Hanley Ramirez
RF Giancarlo Stanton
1B Gaby Sanchez
2B Omar Infante
C John Buck
LF Bryan Petersen
DH Kyle Skipworth
(P Wade LeBlanc)
88 comments:
TO our Nats Fans from up North. Not sure if you saw this, but Jonah Keri is writing a book on the Expos.
jonahkeri@jonahkeri
At Giants minor league camp waiting to talk to Felipe Alou for #ExposBook. Rare case of #BaseballReverence
Amanda has a progress report on Marrero
The fish can win all the ST games they want. I just want the regular season and playoff series. However, if we beat their A team with our B team, I'll take that too. It's never too early to see Ozzie sweat.
Nice to see Dunn crack one for the ChiSox yesterday. Must have been a management issue. ;-)
TO our Nats Fans from up North. Not sure if you saw this, but Jonah Keri is writing a book on the Expos.
Being that the Expos are a dead team, is he writing it in Latin?
Is it raining in jupiter ? How can I find out if the game is on?
I understand that its early but I would think Gorzolany is under just a little more pressure than others in this game.
I wish him well only because the more pitching we have, the better it will be. I still remember how Storen struggled most of the spring but Riggs stayed with him. Same with Burnett during the first part of the regular season and look how well he bounced back.
Go Nats!!
by the way, concerning the Fish, I saw where Mr. Combustible from the Cubs managed just 4 outs in his first start of the year. I would love to be in the clubhouse when Ozzie has had his fill and rips him. Wishing only bad stuff for Miami as we start our run to the playoffs.
No Charlie and Dave? I'm actually driving back to DC tonight and was really looking forward to catching the game in the car. Boo.
"Mr. Combustible" sounds like the name of a just-barely-avoiding-TM-infringement superhero concept ripoff.
Who would win if the Human Torch fought the Human Rain Delay?
Anon at 4:10, you are a repulsive creep.
sjm308 said...
"I understand that its early"
Exactly
jeeves said...
"Anon at 4:10, you are a repulsive creep."
A bit of an overreaction. I thought it was meh.
Wow, replusive creep? - pretty harsh stuff. All the guy did was make a joke about the Expos being very old news.
Ehay:
However, if we beat their A team with our B team, I'll take that too.
My thoughts exactly. Hope SS shuts em out
Fry the fish for friday!
Yeah, I thought the repulsive creep comment was a bit over the top.
Keep it congenial jeeves.
As a follow up to the discussion about Chad Dukes (*spit*) in the other thread, I conversationally note that you can provide the station with feedback here. I wrote them the following comment:
106.7 is the Flagship Station for the Washington Nationals. You should be turning yourself into the home of baseball and Washington Nationals fans in the DC area. Not only is the market there (WTEM certainly isn't covering it), but the team is a large part of your programming for six months! One would think that bringing Nationals and baseball fans to your station is in your economic best interests. And yet that's apparently not the case. And its your employees that make that clear every day.
It's long been obvious that the vast majority of your on-air staff cares very little about baseball and knows even less. And now Chad Dukes goes to Philly and not only takes a shot at Bryce Harper (I vehemently disagree with his opinion there), but at DC BASEBALL FANS while he's at it? Really? I know I shouldn't be surprised given the contempt for the sport routinely shown by the station (and Dukes calling anyone a douchebag is in the pot/kettle school of unintentional hilarity). But I was surprised.
If you want to know why your call lines light up when you talk about the Redskins and don't when you talk about the Nationals, it's because baseball fans have given up on your station. They have gone to the MLB network, to XM satellite radio and yes even occasionally to WTEM, where Loverro at least cares about the sport even if he hates the Nationals. When the extent of your Nationals coverage is "Bryce Harper is a douche, and Nats fans suck" it's hard to blame the fans for abandoning you. DC does have baseball fans; the Nationals draw 24,000+ fans a game to 81 games, and despite having to watch terrible baseball for five years keep the Nationals in the middle third of the league in attendance. They just don't listen to your station. I'm a Redskins' season ticket holder, so I had more reason to stay than most. No longer. I'll listen to Charlie & Dave because they are better than you deserve. Other than that, Dukes is the last straw.
Sincerely,
John C.
What you need to do is get MLB At-Bat on your smart phone (or tablet) and plug it into the car speakers. Most cars nowadays have an "AUX" plug for inserting a connection. Then you can get the audio of any game on MLB that is carred. So for tonight's game you will get the Miami Marlin's feed.
If you have MLB.tv then MLB At-Bat is free, you just login with your MLB id and you are set.
No need to diss my hometown and team - especially given that the Nats had "died" too (see Senators, Washington)
carred - carried.
Go you prospects and backups, go!
And rain delay trumps torch (phhhhhhhhhhhht).
Regarding the article updating chris m, my God has journalism been decimated. Do papers still employ editors? Word grammar at least?!?
Thanks to MicheleS,
I for one appreciate your efforts on behalf of those that have lost a team.
Every time I'm at Nats Park I see fans in Expos gear. Y'all are us.
More on the Expos book.
The same site has a lovely (imho) piece on Gary Carter and fandom.
To John C,
Touche. Double touche. Nicely articulated. I have never listened to 106.7's Nats commentary, and now I won't. I've always gotten excellent radio reception in the fall and winter during Redskins games, but last week, when I tuned in for the Nats, I got a weak signal and static, in North Bethesda. I now think that must have been an omen!
Anonymous @4:41 said
"Wow, replusive creep? - pretty harsh stuff. All the guy did was make a joke about the Expos being very old news."
You should have used copy and paste to at least have gotten the quote spelled correctly. By very old news, do you mean just like the Sens are? At least with the team they had in Montreal, there was never a poem mocking the team written about them.
If you love the game, respect its history.
Anon @ 5:20 --
Yes, newspapers have largely dispensed w/ copy editors. Journalists, who presumptively all have degrees from Northwestern, are largely on their own.
Two errors in Amanda's 1st graph I think could be charitably categorized as typos.
There's a sentence ended w/ a preposition in the 4th graph, and in the sixth graph she uses the indicative "was" instead of the subjunctive "were." Possibly she was just channeling Marrero, commits the same error in the quoted language in the last graph. (Dumb jock, how's he supposed to know?) Assuming she quoted accurately, however, that's not her fault.
Other than that, I appreciate her efforts.
"Marrero, who commits the same error." That was a typo.
I apologize if this has already been covered in another post, but does anyone know why the Nats scheduled the July 4 game against the Giants for 11:05 a.m. I don't remember ever seeing an East Coast MLB game starting that early before.
101...103........................77
They're right... Not fair. HA!!
Thanks natsfan1a for the link.
A pleasure to realize there are people that get it.
Always a fan. Regardless of geography.
I don't remember ever seeing an East Coast MLB game starting that early before.
The Red Sox game on Patriots Day (same day as the Boston Marathon) always starts that early. As for the Nats game, perhaps there are other Fourth of July events happening later in the day and they don't want to overly tax the fragile Metro system.
Unkyd - are those pitch speeds?????????????
Marlins announcers seem pretty knowledgable about the Nats. They note that we had the lowest OBP in the No. 1 and the No. 2 spot in the lineup last year. And then they twist the knife: "You think they'd take a .360 OBP in that spot? That's what Bonifacio had last year." Ouch.
Bottom 2nd, that's hat the Fish announcer said the scoreboard sain Stras did, on three pitches to Stanton. They said they thought the gun might be a little fast..... After Stanton watched the curve for strike thre, they remarked that it wasn't fair. Have to agree....hehe
Way to go John C.!
Marlins 2-0...Thanks Rick Ankiel for dropping the ball in Center Feld
Feel Wood - Thanks, I didn't know about the Patriot's Day game (I admit the AL only slightly penetrates my consciousness).
That makes sense about the Metro too. It is an unusual start time.
Strasburgh Having a rough 3rd Inning
Sounds like Strasburg set 'em up w/ the first two pitches and Livo put 'em away w/ the third.
Stras settled down and limited the damage. Now we could use a hit or two.
I don't want to lose a game to the Marlins. EVER. Get with it, guys!
Well Gorzelanny will make sure we lose that's for sure. He needs to go!
Oh, I forgot. It's Gorzy. All right. One spring training game.
They really are knowlegable, the Marlins announcers. And they admire Rizzo and the team.
LOL--they can't tell if Gorzy pitched a slow fastball (85MPH) or a change that didn't move.
Love this. Cannot have said it better... I just wanna copy and paste it to an email to them...but don't worry I won't ... I'm just lazy.
Strasburg final line: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER (2 unearned), 1 BB, 2 So. And a hit batter.
Another solid outing.
Gorzelanny really needs to pitch well to redeem himself.
Gorzelanny brought his ERA down to 31.50! :-)
Surprised he only went 1 inning though.
The Nationals need to get their bats going.
Where have we heard this before?
Marlins 2 Nats 0 middle 6th
Thanks to Rick Ankiel for saving a run and keeping it close. Nice...
Natsfan05
Gorzelanny brought his ERA down to 31.50! :-)
Surprised he only went 1 inning though.
It's called not pushing your luck.
Roger threw out Infante at home. He has such good skills, you wonder why he can't show them off with more consistency.
Top 8th Marlins 2 Nationals 0
Strasburgh looking at loss #2 I think we should consider trading before his stock falls.
Error on Ankiel was changed to a hit so both Runs are now charged to Strasburgh
They took away Ankiel's error, so Stras' ERA just shot through the roof. What a bum!
Is LoMo off Twitter? Haven't "seen" him in a few days.
Fast game - I guess that's how it rolls when no one gets on base.... good thing it wasn't our A team.
It's funny how a long winter and the optimism of spring training can make you forget what it's like to watch the Nats come to the plate. It's all coming back now. Is there some sabremetric measurement of how many times a team can leave a good pitcher with a loss for lack of competent offense?
You'd think that Washington fans could understand how the Expos' fans would miss their team. I'm glad they are getting a book about them. And I'm glad John C. wrote the letter to the radio station. I wrote last year and never heard a thing back, maybe if more of us write...?
Just turned on the game on MLB network, where the Red Sox trail the Pirates 7 to 3. Lefty pitcher for the Pirates looks familiar - OMG, it's Doug Slaten. As soon as I recognize him, he gives up a homer out of the ballpark.
Gotta love tradition!
Davey needs to devote special time this year to expiate the Florida/now Miami hex on the Nats. ST, regular season, the Nats' bats turn to blubber. I can't believe the Marlins having the Nats' old pitching coach (still, I assume, Randy St. Clair) could expose the batters' weaknesses so consistently. It's got to be mental and must be overcome. It's beyond annoying....
Anon. 9:32--
I don't know about sabremetrics, but I would guess a good pitcher with an incompetent offense would be about 10-15 with a 3.60 ERA. We could have several starters with those stats this year. Lots of 2-1 nail-biters, with our bullpen saving us, but no better than .500.
Fast Eddie
I really get the feeling that Ozzie and Davey are going to be engaging in head games this whole season. Neither one of them can keep his mouth shut and they both have huge egos. Ozzie already started with his needling about Reyes besting Strassie. Davey has been spouting off about our pitchers and the Phils pitchers. Who needs Lomo and Harpers tweets or the Hanley/Reyes deal when you have the old masters going at it? Should be interesting...
Freakin Marlins. Bain of our existence.
It's funny how a long winter and the optimism of spring training can make you forget what it's like to watch the Nats come to the plate. It's all coming back now. Is there some sabremetric measurement of how many times a team can leave a good pitcher with a loss for lack of competent offense?
This would be a pretty good snarky comment if (1) it wasn't the 7th game of spring training and (2) the Nats had played Espi, Zim, Morse, and Ramos. It kind of wasn't a fair fight tonight.
And a pane in the neck, too.
hehe.....
And I'm so sad today's game wasn't raned out.
" He struck out Giancarlo Stanton on three pitches – a fastball swinging, a fastball looking and curveball admiring."
Sweet.
John C.
I could not agree with you more on the WJFK letter. The Junkies are as much to blame also. Now Mark does a great job on WTEM and at least they try to show some interest in some day parts. But now with this RG3 you will not hear a thing about the Nats on WJFK This is what appeared on twitter mins after the RG3 was announced
Grant Paulsen will be signing on live & taking your phone calls at 11:15 on the trade on 106.7 The Fan & http://www.1067thefandc.com #RG3 #Redskins
I also say that they ask for phone calls and when no one calls in they say there told you so. But Nats fans have jobs and are to smart to prattle on without context. And the few that try are dismissed so why put up with this. The Nats have a still AAA media package where both outlets treat them as uninvited guests, instead as valuable assets .
Bryce Harper will become a Redskins fan after the Texan RG3 signs in Washington. They will star in Verizon commercials together and GEICO and Hadeed Carpet ads.
I can see it now! All smiles and piles of Benjamins!
Bring on ESPN-DC
Or Nats fans are too smart to call in to a sports talk radio show. :-)
"They will star in Verizon commercials together and GEICO and Hadeed Carpet ads." Gonat, that was really good.
Swami - Props and agreement on the Ozzie and Davey commentary.
For critics of Amanda Comak's grammar, Kilgore's piece on Michael Morse uses "may" where he should have used "might." Didn't scrub it for editorial mistakes but he's right up there with her.
Then there's Boswell. He makes numerous typos in his chats and his spelling isn't the best. Flat out typos and misspellings may cause a glitch in the flow of my reading, but I'm not as inclined to nit-pick grammatical or syntactic flaws (unless I'm being paid to do so). Sloppy (or nonexistent) research and factual errors in news stories are a bigger concern for me, truth be told.
On topic, I gather that the Nats lost. :-)
Of course, sloppy writing (whether on a blog or in a newspaper) could lead readers to wonder whether that person's reporting and research are performed with a similar lack of attention to detail and form, so there's that.
In other news, great day for a ballgame. Maybe they should play two. :-)
Heading over to watch Chien Ming Wang's first live action today.
Steve M....I inadvertently left out Jason Michaels in my quick observations the other day. It will be between him and Brett Carroll for the RH bench bat and I agree that his bat seems stronger but Carroll has it all over him defensively. It will ne interesting that last week when teams start clearing rosters.
Re: the grammar. I'm no real fan of Boz, but I'll give all the reporters a break on that. There is such a rush to get content out fast on the Internet these days that there is very little time for thorough editing. I've noticed that in lots of places, not just the Post.
Can the Nats prosper with both Desmond and Espinoza in the lineup? If they had a "good" lead-off hitter (say OBP of .380 or higher?), then they could play either Desmond or Espinoza while they develop. But how can they score consistently with both of them in the line-up? The Nats' lead-off position OBP was dead last in 2011 and it's basically the same this year. Then there's Lombardozzi who needs playing time. I'd like to see the switch-hitting Lombardozzi at 2B and Espi and SS, with Desmond as a utility guy; but I can make a case for Desmond as a number 7 or 8 hole hitter this year, to see if he can improve on his 2011 BA of .262 and his OBP, but then I need somebody leading off who can get on base. And I believe last year the story was that Desmond gets miffed if he's batting 7th or 8th. He likes leading off ... Somethin' gotta give or it's gonna be another tooth-puller in 2012. I don't want to see Werth moved around the batting order looking for offense; he needs to be in the 5 hole very day, IMO. Tough choice for the Nats.
Off topic, I cringe when I read Kilgore's posts. He has the only computer without a spell checker. Unlike Mark Z, he won't go back and correct any errors. To me, that means he doesn't care enough to take the time, so I won't care enough to take the time to go over and read his posts unless the left banner on Nats Insider shows an interesting topic on Nats Journal. That is rare.
Richard:
Re: a lead-off hitter, we don't have one. Desi will be given 60-90 days to see if he comes around, then Ankiel/Bernandina and maybe Espi will get shots. Lombo needs to be an every-day player at Syracuse or Harrisburg.
Bottom line, Rizzo will try to sneak into the playoffs on our pitching and bullpen, then sign a CF/lead-off guy in the off-season.
Fast Eddie
Like Baseball Swami said, Ozzie and Davey will be a real chess match this year and it's already begun--Sort of like Fischer & Spassky in funny pants. And Davey really won that first exhibition match, IMO, by starting second tier players for the most part. So Davey can continue to jaw in the opposite direction about the Phillies, while Ozzie tries to make hay directly re: Reyes v. Stras to a man who does not appear to be listening b/c his more important interests lay elsewhere. He's laying the trap the best way he knows for the games that matter. But it's not just a strategy re: Ozzie either. It's a good overall strategy. Keep your eye on the prize and don't get sidetracked on the Marlins. Just pay attention to them when you're facing them.
Re: Lannan: Do not move him unless who you get is a real lead off guy you know will get on, or that CF (read Upton) you plan on going with for the next 4 years. Otherwise keep him for September. So many ways pitchers can go wrong, why give up on a solid talent with a left hand.
No game today. Postponed? They are making this up in ST? Wow!
Re: Lannan: Do not move him unless who you get is a real lead off guy you know will get on,
Detwiler is strongly making his case. Over both Wang and Lannan. If Lannan accepts a demotion to AAA as veteran depth? Sure. But my money is on Lannan asking for a trade, and perhaps that has already happened.
Fortunately, there's Danny Rosenbaum as backup left-handed starter.
Off topic, I cringe when I read Kilgore's posts. He has the only computer without a spell checker.
I like Kilgore. He keeps tweeting updates almost continuously. And now, so does Amanda Comack. Perhaps the new "Kid" at MASN will as well ...
Bleacher Review  St. Louis Cardinals ace Bob Contractor interacting with throat stiffnessThe Cardinals right-hander is not sure if he will place Exclusive, his next planned part procedure. Contractor was predicted to make his first springtime start Wednesday in one of the Cardinals' divided team game titles against either Atl or California.
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Mlb Exhibition Miami Marlins Tickets
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