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| Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER |
Jordan kind of burst on the scene out of nowhere. He wasn't in big-league camp this spring. He opened the season at Class A Potomac, got bumped up to Class AA Harrisburg and dominated (7-0, 0.83 ERA). The 24-year-old actually grew up near Viera, Fla., pitching at Brevard Community College before the Nats made him their 9th-round pick in the 2009 draft. He had Tommy John surgery in 2011 but has fully recovered. And now he's in the Big Apple, making his major-league debut for a team trying to claw its way back into a pennant race.
Given the situation, Davey Johnson is trying to take as much pressure off Jordan as he can. Kurt Suzuki is starting a day game after a night game, providing veteran influence behind the plate. Johnson didn't say much to the right-hander when they met this morning; he just wants the kid to go out there and pitch, not thinking too much about who he's facing.
It's always fun watching somebody make their debut, and today should be no different. So check back here for updates along the way. And if you missed the news earlier about Ross Detwiler's stiff back, here's the full story about the left-hander...
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK METS
Where: Citi Field
Gametime: 1:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB Network (outside D.C. market), MLB.tv
Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500), XM 89
Weather: Partly cloudy, 81 degrees, Wind 11 mph out to RF
NATIONALS (40-39)
CF Denard Span
2B Anthony Rendon
3B Ryan Zimmerman
1B Adam LaRoche
RF Jayson Werth
SS Ian Desmond
LF Roger Bernadina
C Kurt Suzuki
RHP Taylor Jordan
METS (32-44)
LF Eric Young Jr.
2B Daniel Murphy
3B David Wright
RF Marlon Byrd
1B Josh Satin
CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis
C John Buck
SS Omar Quintanilla
RHP Dillon Gee
UMPIRES
HP Dana DeMuth (cc)
1B Angel Hernandez
2B Paul Nauert
3B Doug Eddings
1:11 p.m. — We are underway with a strike from Dillon Gee to Denard Span.
1:20 p.m. — Tough break for the Nats in the top of the first. After Ryan Zimmerman drew a two-out walk, Adam LaRoche crushed a double to the gap in right-center. Zimmerman would have scored easily, but the ball skipped just over the fence for a ground-rule double, so Zim was required to hold up at third base. Which proved costly moments later when Jayson Werth struck out to end the inning and strand two men in scoring position. So Taylor Jordan takes the mound for his debut.
1:34 p.m. — It was a bit of a battle, but Jordan is through his first big-league inning without surrendering a run. He fell behind the first four batters he faced, walking David Wright and then plunking Marlon Byrd. The entire Nats infield gathered at the mound to calm the right-hander down after that, and he responded by getting Josh Satin to tap a grounder to third to end the inning. Only 11-of-22 pitches for strikes, with a fastball that registered between 91-94 mph. Scoreless after one.
1:48 p.m. — Much better stuff from Jordan in the second inning. He retired the side on 11 pitches (7 strikes) and used his offspeed stuff (slider, changeup) more than he did in the first. He really throws across his body, with some unusual arm action. Basically, he tries to hide the ball behind his head. His coaches at Harrisburg compared the delivery to Jared Weaver, and now that I'm seeing it firsthand, that's not a bad comp. Still scoreless through two.
2:03 p.m. — Three scoreless innings in the books for Jordan, who looks more and more comfortable with each passing frame. David Wright did record the first hit of the day off him, but otherwise the kid has been sharp. He's at 44 pitches (24 strikes) through three. The Nats, meanwhile, have two hits and two walks off Gee, but have yet to score themselves. So it's still 0-0 heading to the fourth.
2:14 p.m. — And the Nats take a 1-0 lead. Roger Bernadina smoked a two-out double off the top of the right-field wall, close enough that it appeared live to perhaps be a home run. Replays, though, clearly showed the ball striking the orange line, keeping it in play. So it was the right call by Angel Hernandez, though Davey Johnson still was peeved that the crew wouldn't at least take a look at the replay. No worries, because Kurt Suzuki followed with an RBI single to left. So it's 1-0 Nats as Jordan takes the mound for the bottom of the fourth.
2:34 p.m. — Some sloppy defense cost Jordan and the Nats in the bottom of the fourth, and led to the Mets' first run of the game. Zimmerman booted a hard grounder hit right at him to get things started, and later Desmond and Bernadina let a pop-up fall between them in shallow left. That set the stage for John Buck's RBI single, tying this game 1-1. But props to Jordan for battling through it and escaping without allowing anything more. He's at 67 pitches (45 strikes) through four innings. It's now 1-1 heading to the fifth.
2:40 p.m. — Now Jordan records his first career hit, a solid single to center. He's going to have at least four milestone baseballs waiting for him at his locker after this game.
2:58 p.m. — Well, that didn't go well. The Mets scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth, thanks in large part to a disaster of a play in which both Zimmerman and Desmond were charged with errors. Zimmerman booted another hard grounder, then Desmond made a bad decision to try for a spectacular throw behind the runner and wound up throwing it away and letting the guy score. Jordan was pulled with only one out, an unfortunate early hook for the kid, but one that was probably necessary. Craig Stammen entered and gave up a sac fly, then got out of the inning on a nice play by Rendon. So Jordan's final debut line is: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP, 84 pitches, 48 strikes. Obviously he wasn't helped by his defense, but he also has some room for improvement. He really didn't miss many bats, and that in turn put pressure on the defense to make every play. Nats now trail 3-1 after five.
3:08 p.m. — Still nothing going on for the Nats at the plate against Gee. Suzuki's RBI double in the fourth is it. Still 3-1 as we go to the bottom of the sixth.
3:29 p.m. — This has not been a banner day for the Nationals defense. Or offense. (Their special teams play, however, has been outstanding.) The Mets scored two more runs off Stammen in the sixth, though the inning included a poor throw from Span to the plate and a couple of balls that split the gap between Span and Werth in right-center. On the bright side, Zimmerman did make one of the best plays you'll ever see from a third baseman, diving way to his right to snag Satin's smash and then firing a strike to first base for the out. But it's too little, too late at this point. The Nats trail 5-1 moving to the seventh.
3:45 p.m. — The good news: The Nats have put a man on base in each of the seven innings they've played so far today. The bad news: They've only scored one run off Dillon Gee and Carlos Torres. Still 5-1 at the stretch.
3:55 p.m. — Torres strikes out the side in the eighth. Werth now has six strikeouts in his last eight at-bats. Still 5-1.
4:07 p.m. — We go to the ninth. It'll be LaTroy Hawkins vs. Desmond, Bernadina and Suzuki. Nats trail by four.
4:16 p.m. — That's it. Nats lose 5-1. They've once again failed to capitalize on any positive momentum. Back to the .500 mark at 40-40, with the first half of the season coming to a close tomorrow.
308 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 308 of 308 Newer› Newest»Joe Seamhead,
I love RZim too, but when you look at the #'s and what he is doing fielding wise you have to go Uh Oh. Shoulder injuries are a "b*tch. You have gotten to see it the last two nights and most of this year. He has become a poor fielding singles/doubles hitting 3B.
For several years he was all we had and his home in the Fathers Day game against the Yankees was one of my all time baseball highlights. But the numbers aren't lying. Something is wrong.
Hernandez is now isolating zim and talking about how you have to start with your glove practically on the ground when you play in. Says its just a matter of fundamentals.
Now the defense picks up.... after Davy has already given the kid the hook. Hope he gets another start.
The one's basically responsible for win last night are the same ones responsible for this deficir.
Of course Jordan needs to learn to work around the errors.
Well, Zim has done a lot for the franchise, but I mentioned in here a while ago that it looked like we were entering the "past a diving Zimmerman" era, which observation was not a universally welcomed.
Terrible errors to make. Bottom line is ( minus last nights ) is that this team can't hit. Period. 3 runs is nothing. But when you can't score every run the other team score is multiplied by 10.
ok, zimm, make up for it in youor next abs
Maybe we're seeing why Rizzo was reluctant to move Rendon to 2b.
And now we are to the dreaded 200+ posts segment of this game. It is hard to believe that blog technology has improved so little over the years so that this blog cannot properly refresh after posts but instead insists on pushing us back to page one.
Zimmerman needs to score 3 times, not get on base 3 times to make up for his pathetic performance in the field today, and last night as well, but I will give him credit for redeeming himself for his poor fielding in that game.
Agreed WODL, it's extremely annoying.
Final line 3 runs and 1 earned with a bunch of doink hits which tells you weak contact caused by deception. Very nice job.
WODL, the workaround is to open another tab to the first page, post from there, and refresh the current page.
Hey, we are lucky when he dives. At least it looks like he is trying. Mostly now he just watches them go by or bounce off his chest like Superman.
I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I wouldn't call that a particularly good outing by Jordan. He absolutely should get a pass given its his first start ever, but he was pretty wild (threw more balls than strikes) and couldn't strike anyone out (only K was the opposing pitcher). That's not a good formula for success. The defense was poor behind him, but that's going to happen from time to time when you let the other team put the ball in play almost every at bat. He got some good luck early in the game on some pretty well hit balls right at Bernadina and Werth so its not like all his luck was bad. If he wasn't a rookie, and the Nats were bringing up a veteran for a spot start like that, I think the gushing in the booth wouldn't have been there and we all would have thought it was okay at best.
Wright wasn't close to the bag when he caught the ball.
Can we get to the Mets bullpen already?
Laroche with the killer double play. This team is just lifeless.
not with these DPs, DP
It wasn't a FANTASTIC start, but I thought it was good enough. The defense still let him down.
OK. Thanks Sofa. If this works, I will sit on you sometime.
What is with the double plays?
Mark writes Obviously he wasn't helped by his defense, but he also has some room for improvement. He really didn't miss many bats, and that in turn put pressure on the defense to make every play.
I don't understand this. If his pitching coach says "strikeouts are BS" and there weren't a lot of web-gem level plays required behind him, where's the problem? It's boring if you don't get to catch anything.
I find it funny that people are saying the team is lifeless the day after a big come from behind win. This team has come from behind to win 8 times this month. They're not lifeless. It's just been a bad, sloppy game so far, but those happen.
OK. Thanks Sofa. If this works, I will sit on you sometime.
I BEG YOUR PARDON??
Point taken Amir and well reasoned, usually.
But the bar here is pretty low. Anyone who can give up fewer than 4.5 runs in 5 innings or fewer than 2 homers per start is an upgrade over Mr. Haren, who btw, doesn't like the DL because he doesn't feel like one of the guys....
Amr:
You make some fair points. Jordan got behind too many hitters, which elevated his pitch count.
He needs to spot his fastball, but if we factor in the nerves and faulty defense, I think it's a creditable debut that merits more outings.
Wow they're taking out Dillon Gee. The Mets might be the most poorly managed team we've seen this year.
To follow up on my last comment, pitching to contact isn't what's putting pressure on the defense. Scoring one run all day is what does that.
Just because his pitching coach says "strikeouts are BS" doesn't make it true. I'd argue that strikeouts are pretty important as there's very little chance to get unlucky with a bloop hit or error behind you when you strike someone out.
Strike outs are key. Very, very few guys in the Hall who couldn't get K's when they needed them. When a guy is on third with 1 out, that is the difference between a Jordan Zimmerman and a Ross Detwiler....
I don't think Ks are BS, but Jordan's boss does, and he answers to him, was my point.
I think someone who leads the world all-time in strikeouts, for instance, should be a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.
I figured we would only win 1 out of 3 of this series anyway, so today could be cream. That is why it is silly to a certain extent when all these people post that we play the Mets and that should be good for 3 wins. It all has to do with match-ups and some guys like Gee match up better with certain teams.
Unless he walks just as many as he strikes out. Of course, that would be pathetic and show a real lack of ethic and professionalism.
I'm not a huge fan of mcatty's pitch to contact mantra. Nor of Johnson/eckstein's constant refrain of being aggressive at the plate considering this is already a free swinging team. Given that there will be a new manager next year regardless, it might be worth considering cleaning house now.
Agreed, WODL; there's a reason they play the games (besides selling tickets). I don't get the point in looking at the schedule and pronouncing in advance which games they "should" win.
OK, there's your 4-1. They're right where we want them.
Lousy throw.
I think the Mets struggled with the decison to re-sign Wright the same way that we did with Zimmerman. Both have been disappointing in my mind but Wright has been better over all. Disappointing with respect to expectations and contract level, btw, not saying they aren't 2 of the better third basemen in the bigs. Manny Machado is far better than either.
Stammen makes a poor compliment to Jordan because the mets were already keyed in on the sinking action.
What is wrong with the defense?
Stop freebasing!
No worry's we'll win tomorrow and maybe today.
The mets still don't have Mariano Rivera in the ballpen.
Craig Stammen has not been as good as usual lately.
Well, Manny Machado is 20 years old. They were both better when they were 20, too.
"TexNat said...
Stammen makes a poor compliment to Jordan because the mets were already keyed in on the sinking action."
Interesting point, TexNat.
This is a bit off topic, but I have to point something out. A good example of the Nats hitting coaching being utterly inadequate (Eck but anybody else too). Denard Span is not where he needs to be OBP wise and is 50 points below his career averages...why? ...he hits more ground balls to the right side of the infield than anybody I have ever watched play baseball. Why nobody plays a shift on him is beyond me. He stands too close to the place, and his hips fly open to "turn on" pitches on the outer half, and rolls over 75% of his at bats. This is something that can be fixed. Move up in the box. Work in staying closed. Spend BP doing nothing but drive the ball over the short stops head. He should never hit a fastball to the right of 2nd base with his ability to stay short and make contact. Has anybody brought it up? I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is no.
Does anyone freebase anymore? Don't they remember the public service ads done by Richard Pryor?
Really Craig
So what is Stammen doing wrong that Jordan Taylor couldn't keep doing?
There was no good reason to take out Jordan. And now the game is about out of reach.
That's it FP....spot on.
We have not been able to build on a big win yet.
Freebase!! Wow, does that take me back.
Davey u idiot!! Why would I take out Taylor? Not one solid hit he gave up. U Davey supporters...ugh --
Just a pun, WODL.
It happens, but you are not leading the division, you can't afford it.
Seems like the defense has played even worse than offense today.
Manny is light years above where they were at 20, or at least Zimmerman. I didn't watch Wright enough but I think Wright's stats are substantially better than Ryan's, and I will go check.
thanks for nothing, Ryan
Well, he sure looked washed up on that play, eh?
Great play by Zim.
Is there any doubt why this is a .500 team? STAMMen left in too long. 3 errors, a hits batsmen, bad throw from center, WERTh on one leg. Boy they really stink on ice today.
Davey u idiot!! Why would I take out Taylor? Not one solid hit he gave up. U Davey supporters...ugh --
SURE, blame US.
I'm not normally one to question their ganas, but they do look flat, and that's bad.
In nj, Mets crew calling Jordan out for not sliding
David Wright's stats are substantially better than Ryan Zimmerman's.
That was not real was it? Web gem beyond belief
David Wright is a future Hall of Famer. Ryan Zimmerman is not. Zim is still a great player though.
Making a web gem when the team is down by 4 in the 7th is sort of like ......
Who cares. Catch the ball when it matters.
Ryan is also 2nd on the team in RBI's, and 2nd or 3rd in several other categories. There's no defending his play today.He's had an awful day.His first couple of month's errors were almost all surgery-recovery related.Is he washed up? I seriously doubt it. We'll see. It's a long season.
Stamman based on game track pitching far inferior to Jordan.For those watching, is that what it look like?
Zim is pretty good. Not great. Baseball is all about consistency. He has none
Stammen was probably worse than Jordan, but I understand Davey taking Jordan out. A rookie on the mound, 2 men on, game at risk of getting out of hand. You go to the guy who has been great all year in those situations. This time it didn't work out, but it made complete sense.
That would be in line with Wright winning ROY over Zimmerman. I don't get your point on Machado, though--that the Nats should have drafted him instead of Harper?
Nothing against WODL, but I hardly ever hear him say something good about our players. He incessantly harps on how other players are better. I don't really get it, but to each their own.
Wright's career OPS+=132 and trending sharply up
Zimmerman's career OPS+=121 and trending slightly up
Wright = 2 gold gloves
Zimmerman = 1 gold glove
Machado = 123 OPS+ this year and trending up.
will win gold glove this year.
I'm sure I'm overanalyzing things but when I hear "pitch to contact" I think (hope) its McCatty saying "throw strikes, don't nibble, I'd rather they hit the ball than take walks". The hope is that a few less strikeouts (on batters chasing) will be more than made up by less walks. But as a pitcher, if you had the choice between a batter making contact or striking out, you will take the strikeout every time as its pretty much a guaranteed out while a ball put in play is going to fall for a hit 30% of the time. While its great if you can stay in the game longer, that's secondary to getting batters out.
BxJaycobb,
Good points regarding Eckstein and Span would be a great example of where good coaching is needed. Sorry to rain on some people's parade, including DJ's, but I just think Eckstein is a poor hitting coach. I haven't any idea who will manage the Nats next season but I'd like to see both Eck and Trent Jewett in another uniform.
DP, I'm coming to terms with the reality that DC fans aren't going to be the way I'd wish, as a culture; they're a lot more like Phillies or Mets fans than Cardinals fans. That's just how it is.
The Nats have only 5 exceptional players as far as I can see. One just came up and is playing second. One is on the DL, and 3 are pitchers. Ian and Soriano and Werth and Laroche are all above average. Zimmerman is above average as a hitter. and used to be an excellent fielder. Span is a very good fielder and also a very good fielder fielder.
I am not here to blow sunshine up anyone's skirt. If you want to hear someone say how great the Nats guys are just tell your self out loud how great they are, over and over.
Rendon is in a bit of a slump now. Granted, he was never going to continue hitting at the pace he was before, but 0-13 isn't great.
In his defense though, he's been absolutely robbed several times so I shouldn't complain.
Fair enough. Still not sure why you brought up Machado, though.
Sofa, I'm glad that a lot of them don't sit in my section.
Rendon is 0- for a whole bunch in a row.
Rendon was due for a big 0-fer, once the video got around. Frank Robinson had something like 0-22 after his first game. I'm not worried.
David i was wondering since I have not seen a game is Rendon's hit still hard.
MNF, he's been squaring balls up that get caught. He could have had maybe five hits during this stretch with even decent luck.
Rendon lined out once today I think, but nothing especially hard. Yesterday he was robbed on a diving catch though.
Harper versus Machado is a close call using advanced stats, if you believe in fielding metrics. Both Harper and Machado's fielding importance seems overrated to me, as is Span's. Using defensive war, Span was among the top ten players overall in the AL last year, not just defensively, but overall. If someone wants to believe that then, okay. I think there are probably 60 field players in the AL who were better than Span.
According to defensive WAR metrics, Machado might be the most valuable player in the AL. Do I believe that? No, but plenty of people do.
I would keep Harper, but this last injury makes me nervous. Manny seems very smooth and heady and unlikely to get hurt too often. Harper suddenly reminds me of the great Freddie Lynn who kept getting hurt.
Interesting stats, WODL, but you answered a different question.
Sure, David Wright is a future Hall of Famer.
I thought Ryan Zimmerman had that possibility at one time as well. So, I guess I am guilty of overestimating Zimmerman's talent level. That seems to mean that I have a higher opinion of Ryan than I should. His offensive production has been very good in the past and it is still pretty good. 3 years ago people still thought he might be as good or better than Wright.
I hope he can achieve that still, but I also think he has been less than forthcoming about his injury and I see no way that hiding how hurt he was/is helps the Nats.
You see more bleached blondes at a Cardinals game in Busch Stadium than ....
I'm not quite sure how Ryan has been less than forthcoming about his injury (this year). He's said all along that it's a work in progress and he'd be rehabbing it the entire year. We've seen noticeable progress in his throws. Still not great, but improved. He's been the first to say he's not where he wants to be, but he's also been putting in a ton of work to fix it.
WODL said: "I think there are probably 60 field players in the AL who were better than Span."
If you were trying to say that there are 60 better fielders than Span in the AL, you have lost a lot of credibility with me.
This is looking pretty much like a game that we just have to write off. Win tomorrow, take the series. Keep winning at least 2 out of 3 and we'll be fine.
Danger Boy was really a Hall of Famer at non sequitur answers to straight questions. He could pull out the darned stuff sometimes. I came to appreciate it as a talent, after a while.
I heard Zimmerman on the radio and I am pretty sure that he said he wasn't hurt anymore, but every time he makes an error, everyone says, it is not his fault. He is hurt.. We could have let LaRoche go and moved him to first and avoided all of this, but as far as I see, no one in the Nats front office had any inkling that his defense would suffer like this, not to mention his power, as he will have to up things a bit to even get to 20 homers, which is not all that much to expect from a 3rd bagger.
60 non-pitchers. That is what a field player is.
Duh!
*darndest
(sorry, worstester-ever inside joke there)
I'd be surprised if Zim doesn't hit 20 homers. He started out with no power but has shown considerably more lately. Here's the source for Zimmerman saying he's still rehabbing. :
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130605&content_id=49718832¬ebook_id=49726348&vkey=notebook_was&c_id=was
Span is listed as the 9th highest WAR in the AL in 2012.
He has never made an All Star game. His OPS+ last year was 104. So he must have basically saved just an amazing number of runs for Minnesota in the field. I don't watch Minnesota much and maybe he was Tris Speaker and Wilie Mays all rolled up into one out there, but I don't believe it. Obviously, Rizzo did and many on here do, and yet our run differential is putrid this year compared to last year so he isn't saving enough.
OK, four to tie, five to lead. Let's go get 'em.
We all know that the Lerner Family manages their money in a very conservative manner. I often wonder how they feel about GM Rizzo flushing $226 million of their hard earned money with the signing Werth and RZ to eye watering contracts that they will never earn. We are stuck with Werth for another 4.5 season but Zimmerman belongs in the AL as a DH and his no trade clause doesn't kick in until next season. No wonder the Lerners refused to extend Rizzo's contract beyond the option year. He has cost them a lot of money and I am not even counting the millions he blew on Jason Marquis and Dan Haren.
OK, former Cub here. Now we've got them where we want them!
I think the Werth contract was about making a statement after Teixeira refused to even consider us and he was from near here. I thought that both the Zimmerman and Laroche re-signings were good decisions at the time so it is hard to criticize Rizzo for those.
On the other hand, it does not seem that Zimmerman signed for below market money to stay in DC, as have some other athletes at times around sports and baseball. I don't think that either the Nats or the Nats' fans owe Zimmerman anything or that he has done us any favors. His play will have to stand on its own.
Am I wrong for thinking of this?
Go get 'em tomorrow.
The general rule of thumb is that 1WAR is worth $5 million. Zimmerman is worth 2.0WAR so far this season, according to B-R. So he's on pace for 4.0 WAR, which is 20 mil. He's making 14 mil this year so he's actually a bargain this year. Assuming he continues to play on a 4.0 WAR pace when his contract escalates to around 20 mil, he would be exactly market value. Given that Ryan has multiple seasons of 4WAR and 5 WAR, it's reasonable to expect that he will earn his contract.
You can't help it if you mind revolves thinking about phallic symbols. Just go with it. It is nothing to be ashamed of.
Well, so much for yesterday's "season changing" victory. Nats are right back where they were on May 3rd...at .500 and going nowhere fast. Incredible that tomorrow's game will decide whether they finish the first half of the season above or below the break even point. "WS or Bust" indeed.
Who's ashamed?
Karlkolchak. Amen brother. You nailed it. A gutless, awful performance. Certainly they can't sustain anything. Not even against bad teams.
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