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Photo by Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER Dan Haren was a bit too amped up while facing live hitters yesterday. |
Before we get to that, though, one more item from yesterday's workout...
The most notable live BP session involved Dan Haren, who upon taking the mound for the first time with his new club in that setting was perhaps a bit too amped up. The veteran right-hander was a bit off early on, needed to work a bit more to get on the same page with catcher Wilson Ramos and afterward had a long conversation with Johnson.
The manager's message: "I told him, 'Take it easy. You don't have to impress anyone.'"
Haren's response: "Easier said than done when you're watching and the owner's watching and the GM's watching."
You'd think a 32-year-old former All-Star who has pitched on several contenders wouldn't get nervous pitching in front of team executives, but perhaps that underscores just how much Haren wants to be a major contributor to the Nationals after signing a $13 million contract in December.
More than anything, Haren believes he'll start to feel more comfortable once he gets to spend more time with his catchers and coaches discussing his approach to pitching. He began that process yesterday with both Ramos and Johnson.
"I was just telling him about the certain things I wanted to get accomplished in spring, work on different sides of the plate that I wanted to do," the right-hander said. "A lot of it is talking with Wilson and Kurt [Suzuki], just game-planning and stuff. I did that a little bit today in the gym. A lot of it is just sitting down and talking, too. Even with [pitching coach Steve] McCatty, getting in there with the catchers and going over my game plan, how I pitch."
Haren specifically this spring wants to work on using both sides of the plate with more regularity. He's focused more on the left side in recent years but was happy with the results he got last September when targeting the right side with more frequency.
"It's still a work in progress," he said. "I was talking to [Chad] Tracy today about what he was seeing when I was out there, and a lot of it is where I need to start a certain pitch on the plate. Command is my game. I'm not gonna give away too many free passes. I'm very aggressive. So a lot of it is where I'm going to start pitches, and attacking that side of the plate a little more just to keep people honest."
Haren is scheduled to make his Grapefruit League debut Wednesday against the Marlins.
72 comments:
Ghost/Jack.. I think you will like this... Notice the picture of JZ and Haren.
Spring Training Photos from WaPo
Thanks for the link, Michele. Good collection of pictures.
The manager's message: "I told him, 'Take it easy. You don't have to impress anyone.'"
Haren's response: "Easier said than done when you're watching and the owner's watching and the GM's watching."
Haren's wrong. It's very easy to not impress anyone. Non-roster invitees do it all the time. I bet even I could do it.
Thanks for sharing, Michele. I liked pic #17, with the KFOF (Kid Face of the Franchise) front and center. :-)
Put up a new post, a primer on prospects. Would appreciate any comments, questions or stuff I left out. It's intended for "bandwagon" Nats fans--not intended to replace the website Nationals Prospects where they do a great job. Also to answer basic questions about how prospects are rated and ranks, with lots of links.
http://ladyandthenats.blogspot.com/
Oh, and the Tigers vs. Atlanta will be on MLB Network at 1:05. First chance to look at NL East rivals and a potential post-season opponent (we hope!). Also my first chance to test if the new MLB.tv app is working....
Michele, nice link and photos!
I also had a head scratcher moment on Mark's and other comments on Twitter yesterday on Haren.
@ZuckermanCSN: Long conversation between Davey and Haren following live BP session. Didn't seem as sharp as some other guys yesterday.
Was Haren sharp or was it that he was amp'd up and was Davey's long conversation just to calm him down?
Everything I have read after the BP session was that he was sharp and if anything was just over-throwing instead of under-throwing.
I was happy to get NatsJack's opinion. All sounds good with Haren!
Sect222, I saw you are still posting on Mark Lerner self-promoting the season tickets.
You do know that the Lerners first taste of ownership was as an initial owner of the Capitals in the Leonsis group.
Much of the Lerners training as owners was observing Leonsis. There is no owner in all of sports that does more self-promoting than Leonsis. Teddy exceeds Mark Cuban and Jerry Jones in face time now that he has his floor seats for the Wizards.
I like my owners rarely seen and only heard when they are hoisting up a Championship trophy.
Nobody replaced StanK who was the team Prez and an owner and served as the team's mouthpiece and self-promoter. Feffer just doesn't get out there with the media like StanK did which is why I think Mark Lerner has in a small way taken over that role.
By the way, the sales ploy in Sales101 is called creating urgency through scarcity, and yes, the Capitals did it and then added standing room assigned spots like #'d parking spaces to further maximize profits.
Strange, my last post disappeared.
Anyway, thanks Michele for the photo link!
@ZuckermanCSN: Chris Young is here today getting physical, will throw bullpen. Rizzo said he has an out clause if doesn't make team
Right now, the only way Chris Young makes this team is if there is an injury.
I do think that Young could be the 6th starter now on the depth chart in front of some of the other AAAA guys the team signed.
From Mark's latest tweet:
Chris Young is here today getting physical, will throw bullpen. Rizzo said he has an out clause if doesn't make team.
I did find it kind of surprising that Young would accept pitching at AAA Syracuse when he could probably compete for and make another MLB team's rotation. Guess he figures that it's worth the very small possibility of an unexpected need in the Nats' rotation, and showcasing himself to other teams, than being at ST with a team on which he has a chance to compete himself onto the 25-man, which he doesn't with the Nats.
Also an interesting reflection that with ST being an active trading season with unexpected needs popping up and everyone actively scouting everyone else. that he can showcase himself more widely -- and be of wider interest to multiple teams -- being on a ST roster of a team that he doesn't have a chance to get on by competition than on one where he does. On the latter, other potentially interested teams would think, "why bother, if he's any good they'll just keep him."
If Mark Lerner is "self promoting" by mentioning the season ticket sales, price increase, etc, then he needs to ramp it up a notch or two. Let's see, it was mentioned last September in an email and then again yesterday while Lerner was sitting on a golf cart with Rizzo. Ghost of Steve M. does more self-promoting than that in just one sentence!
Steady, with Young's out-clause its the best of all worlds for him. He now has a team and can audition on the Nats dime and will opt-out if he thinks he has a better deal.
So Haren has $13 million in his pocket and a guaranteed spot in the best rotation in baseball, yet he's still nervous? I love this guy!
sm13, good point. It's more than the money for him. He said earlier that he sees himself as a pitcher who can start for at least 5 more years.
His best quote was when it was mentioned to him about the rumors of Lohse signing with the Nats that if I can paraphrase "I don't want to move to the bullpen to make room for Lohse".
horsey said...
Ghost of Steve M. does more self-promoting than that in just one sentence!
February 22, 2013 10:50 AM
I don't have a Blog, a column, a website, a product, or anything to sell.
I am a Washington DC sports fan first and foremost.
You've made it abundantly clear in your numerous posts that you don't like me and the feeling is mutual as you are a rude person. You never post anything of substance, you only come on here to blast me.
Others have suggested that you just read past my posts but you won't do that. I don't know what to tell you except to email Mark at his link above and complain to him.
I see from Twitter Mark Lerner is shagging flies in full Nats uniform. This makes me smile...
Mark Lerner back to shagging BP and Ryan Zimmerman smacking the ball in BP!
Steve M. -- agree with your 10:53. Young gets to show himself to any potentially interested team because no one expects he will end up on the Nats 25-man unless there's an unexpected rotation problem in ST. Young's being with us in ST is thus mostly insurance for the Nats, which is the low-cost, no-risk value we get in exchange for him "auditioning on the Nats' dime," as you put it.
Works pretty well for both sides.
I don't really think of the Lerners as self promoters. Remember, Mark is the guy who got conked on the noggin while shagging flies with the team. He is never going to be "cool" like Mark Cuban or even Leonsis, and he knows it. But who needs to be cool when you're a billionaire and own a World Series favorite baseball team?
I do think that his email last year and this latest "get your season tickets now" plug were dumb and embarrassing. Not to mention misleading, unless they are truly going to stop selling STs when they get to 20K and announce that to the world when they've done it instead of just beforehand as part of a pitch to get people to buy.
But I've gone on way too long about that. Steady, good point about Young. And who knows, maybe in the end he'll accept an assignment to Syracuse to be the designated John Lannan this year. He seems much more likely to do that than Javier Vazquez is. I like the guy. There's something kind of cool about a 6'10" finesse pitcher.
Finally, on Haren, I'm just tickled that he's on our team. How great to have a No. 4 or 5 starter who everyone on the staff looks up to. I liked E-Jax too, but he doesn't have the same street-cred that Haren does.
Ghost, don't complain about Horsey, just ignore him. That's what most of us are doing. And by the way, I'd bet anything that Horsey is the alter ego of someone else who posts here regularly but don't have the guts to criticize you under his normal commenting name. For shame.
Ghost: you don't need my help with anything but let Horsey dislike you, just don't respond in kind. You actually stay above the fray by enjoying the fact that someone actually reads pretty much everything you write and then responds. Instead of disliking him, enjoy him.If you think about it, it is actually funny that one adult would spend that much time and energy criticising another. Just my thoughts.
Sect222, I don't think Mark Lerner can ever live down the ball to the face. Maybe he's wearing the Rip Hamilton/Kobe style plastic face for protection.
I'm hoping someone has some photos!
GoSM, ignore feature would have been nice for some of us here but like sjm308, you have another fan in a certain way.
sjm308 said...
Ghost: you don't need my help with anything but let Horsey dislike you, just don't respond in kind. You actually stay above the fray by enjoying the fact that someone actually reads pretty much everything you write and then responds. Instead of disliking him, enjoy him.If you think about it, it is actually funny that one adult would spend that much time and energy criticising another. Just my thoughts.
February 22, 2013 11:32 AM
You're absolutely right. I'm also fairly certain that Horsey also posts here under another name.
Love the reports for Ryan smoking the ball... (stay healthy please!!!!)
NatsNut.. that Desi Stache is hilarious.
Hey, could someone remind me which ST games MASN is airing? Thanks!!
MicheleS, this could be a MVP season for RZim with that "stay healthy please"
DRW..
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/schedule/broadcast/index.jsp?c_id=was
SteveM, that's great as Faraz says that you have a Fans. I think it is a compliment to you.
Maybe Mark Zuckerman can trade you to Amanda Comak as she needs commentors. It's shocking how her site gets no action given how good she is.
I believe that Cuban and Leonsis are also billionaires, but I don't hold it against any of them. ;-)
Section 222 said...
I don't really think of the Lerners as self promoters. Remember, Mark is the guy who got conked on the noggin while shagging flies with the team. He is never going to be "cool" like Mark Cuban or even Leonsis, and he knows it. But who needs to be cool when you're a billionaire and own a World Series favorite baseball team?
Thanks for the link MicheleS!
Why do they need to announce that they have reached their 20,000 limit? They could just quit advertising season tickets. It's kind of like they already have. Lerner's offhand comment to reporters yesterday was the first word I've heard about season tickets since the end of Game 5. Literally.
Gonat said...
SteveM, that's great as Faraz says that you have a Fans. I think it is a compliment to you.
Maybe Mark Zuckerman can trade you to Amanda Comak as she needs commentors. It's shocking how her site gets no action given how good she is. February 22, 2013 11:59 AM
That's funny. Amanda does a great job but I don't know what to tell her on getting more traffic on her site.
Mark posted up the starting lineup for tomorrow's game and it will be most exciting for me to see Deuce in Centerfield!
Ghost/Gonat. A Lot of people don't want to comment on either the Times or the WaPo sight. If i remember correctly, you have to give email address to get signed up. Who wants more email?
Natslady, the links on your blog were useful to me. Is there a way to "follow" your blog?
In particular, who wants to give their email to that right wing Moonie paper, where they'll still have it even after they lay off their sports dept again?
Anna, I don't know how you read it, but I tell you what I do. If you go to the top of this site there is a link to "dashboard." On dashboard you can subscribe to a "reading list" of any blog you want (including mine). When I have time, I just check my reading list and have at it. Just put the URLs into the list where it says "ADD."
Hope this helps.
Also, I'm hoping when Mark gets time he'll put my blog on the list to the left and then I won't have to do so much self-promoting. :) I don't have any adverts or anything to make money, but it tickles me no end to see readers and especially comments or questions.
Offhand comment? Yeah right. He turned a question about ticket sales into a pitch for season tickets complete with the "act now or you'll be out of luck" stuff. But you're right, they don't need to announce it. We'll just check the website after March 31, and see what they say about STs. Right now it says (as did Lerner) that the prices will go up on April 1. If they're still available at new prices, we'll know that they either haven't made it to 20,000 or the limit was baloney. And one of our intrepid beat reporters can find out which. I just seriously doubt the website will ever say, "Sorry, we reached our limit of STs, so you have to buy single game tix."
Michele, I guess I still belong to WaPo but I don't post there because it doesn't seem right to post the same thing on other sites.
Same reason I don't post on Twitter as I would say the same as I would do here.
Kilgore has actually stepped up his game as I have read most of his posts as well as James Wagner and I read Amanda's posts and she has been consistently good in a short-time here.
If I were them, I would take a different angle to stay different as most of the "beats" are writing similar posts. Take an angle where you are covering the team through eyes of others by getting comments from the opposition.
With the media credentials, any of the beat reporters can sit in on the other manager's press conferences and get the other players comments.
I would rather read what Freddi has to say about the Nats written by Amanda instead of written by Dave O'Brien.
Some of the best quotes I get on the Nats come from the other Manager and other players. We may not always like it (Cardinals Game 5) but it gives you some good insight sometimes how the other team saw it.
I did sign up just to comment on Amanda's stories, and now I get email from Rand Paul and others of his ilk. Just saying.
I know the *real* reason Chris Young signed here: so he can show his jersey to his grandkids someday. "You played for the 2013 Nats?!!! Cool!"
Ghost, agree. That's why I have a lot of non-Nats blogs in my "reading list."
However, I do cross-post. The community on WaPo has gotten a lot better recently, and it's (mostly) different people than here--often with good insight, such as the comment I picked up about "Gladiator" and the possibility that's a nickname for Gio's father (Max) rather than Gio.
I've posted occasionally on Amanda's site. I get hundreds of junk mail posts every day in my "spam" box--what's a few more?
NatsLady, have you emailed Mark to add you to his BlogRoll?
Sec. 3, My Sofa said...
I know the *real* reason Chris Young signed here: so he can show his jersey to his grandkids someday. "You played for the 2013 Nats?!!! Cool!"
February 22, 2013 12:39 PM
That is a great line!
Ghost.....i am not Horsey. I find your comments to be very knowledgable......just sayin.
"If they're still available at new prices, we'll know that they either haven't made it to 20,000 or the limit was baloney."
I'm unclear as to why this even matters. Are they not supposed to market season tickets?
ooops, correction, the Atlanta-Detroit game will be on audio and GameDay only. I don't know why I thought there would be video. Oh, well.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mediacenter/index.jsp?c_id=mlb#date=2/22/2013
MLB media
The first televised game will be us against the Mets, tomorrow.
Here is a really funny tweet about the Mets.
Andy Martino @MartinoNYDN
You can watch this intrasquad game for six bucks. That's a bargain; it's usually much more expensive to watch the Mets beat themselves.
Big Cat, thanks and I didn't think it was you even though you have an animal type name also.
Had you tried emailing Mark directly? I would think that would be more efficient than posting a request in a comment here.
NatsLady said...
Also, I'm hoping when Mark gets time he'll put my blog on the list to the left and then I won't have to do so much self-promoting. :) I don't have any adverts or anything to make money, but it tickles me no end to see readers and especially comments or questions.
February 22, 2013 12:27 PM
NL -- if that tweet was from today, he got that line most directly from MLB.TV last night, where they said the exact same thing (minus the ticket price angle) about an Astros intrasquad game yesterday.
Of course, whoever the MLB.TV announcer was, I'm sure he got it from a long line of ST cliches.
Oh, dear. Now I owe Ghost a drink as well. :-)
Ghost Of Steve M. said...
NatsLady, have you emailed Mark to add you to his BlogRoll?
February 22, 2013 12:41 PM
1a, I tweeted Mark when I first started up the blog. I was kinda thinking he was busy w/ spring training and didn't want to be a pest. An email is a good idea, thanks.
You're welcome, NL, although Ghost beat me to it.
Per Mark's tweets Gio's test from 2 days after the story broke were clean (in case you are reading the twitter feed)
Michele, good confirm! Wooohooo
Ghost: I'm right there with those who encourage you to ignore the horsey. I think he has mistaken you for someone who cheated him at marbles, in the forth grade. Your friends here don't pay any attention to him, and neither should you.
Niiice.
(btw, that was for the Gio news. I was slow on the input because my cat wanted sit on the keyboard.)
For those mentioning Spam when signing up for sites, I hadn't thought of that as I usually have tech savvy friends sign me up as I can never seem to do it correctly.
Now I feel bad as they are probably getting Spammed.
Unky D from upper Potomac River, thank you my friend.
fwiw, some use separate email addies for e-commerce, sign-ins, and so forth in order to help sort out spam. I tend to post here only but it's because I find other interfaces cumbersome rather than because of spam. Heck, professional organizations and lists to which I belong are responsible for a fair amount of the spam I get.
1a, mine too. And be careful if you contribute to a charity or a political campaign. They sell their lists and they NEVER stop no matter how long ago or how tiny was the contribution.
Both Atlanta and Detroit have a lot of regulars in the line-up. More than Davey plans for our first game.
NL, true that, although we do vet charities before donating to them. Professional organizations sell mailing lists, too, though I've found that it's possible to opt out.
Back on topic, we get Nats baseball on tv tomorrow. Yay!
Oh, and since Haren is working out the Kinks, here's some workout music.
I didn't post a link when I read this the other day, but somebody might want to apologize the next time he sees Gio. Maybe a few somebodies.
Fine, I'll tell him I'm sorry.
Sheesh, Ma.
Thank you, Scooter. I'll get the cookies and milk ready now.
Yippee!
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