112 Comments
User's avatar
Beached56's avatar

It would be nice to know when Herz is expected back. July? I read Andrew Chafin is available again.

BassMan's avatar

He will be on a strict pitch limit I'm sure. But we certainly need the help. He showed some promise in 2024.

gonatsgo1's avatar

Sitting House again. Don't get it.

NME's avatar

Its his splits. He currently isn't hitting well against RHP breaking balls. I am sure he gets in the game if the Twins put in a LHP reliever in a crucial spot.

Beached56's avatar

I believe it was Nietzsche who said that any team that has to regularly platoon 1b, 3b, and catcher, needs better players. I dunno, one of those German philosophers.

mongo's avatar

Actually it was the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard in his seminal work “Fear and Trembling: Moving Beyond Platooning.”

nebco66's avatar

Exactly! It's an existential matter. Good one on your part.

cipherlockinexile's avatar

All I know is Schopenhauer was not a fan of analytics.

nebco66's avatar

Dare I say he didn' t have--wait for it--faith in it.

GLH aka NatsFan4Ever's avatar

Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) was a central figure of the Enlightenment. His influential work in ethics, epistemology, platooning, and aesthetics greatly impacted the development of philosophical thought and baseball.

Beached56's avatar

All I know is that if a nats hitter strikes out with a guy on second and you’ve already turned off the game, it didn’t happen

Fredo Rizzo's avatar

There are no better alternatives to House right now. He won't get better sitting on the bench watching inferior prospects play and the team can't afford him to become an Andrew Vaughn. He should be playing every day.

gonatsgo1's avatar

Appreciate the thought, but no sale for me. Damn the splits, please.

House must play every day (barring rest days now and then).

This is the 3rd baseman you want to pencil in every day.

Sink or swim.

Fredo Rizzo's avatar

I know, I know, let’s give Chappz another go at 3B. No? How about we dig out our Chad Tracy jersey from the pile?

Fredo Rizzo's avatar

He's just been awful vs RHP this season, perhaps, even worse than Nunez which is hard to believe. Still, his prospect status should mean he plays almost every day. Taj is one of the better RHP starters in the AL right now so sitting him tonight might make sense but it is hard to see why he shouldn't be playing over everyone else. You can't really send him down unless you promote YoMo or ABiO. How about they move him back to SS and shift CJ to 2B ;)

nebco66's avatar

I was thinking about Morales earlier. I wonder if the Nats are waiting until June to bring him up (i.e., service time considerations). He is certainly killing it at Rochester.

Fredo Rizzo's avatar

He is well past the roughly two week mark that differentiates getting the full year or not. He’s not on any top 100 lists so he can’t get it via the PPI. There is no service time issue that should be influencing their decision.

nebco66's avatar

Good to know. Wasn't up to speed on that.

NME's avatar

They aren't going to send him down because he is killing lefties. He just needs to spend batting practice with the Trajekt simulating some of the better RHPs in the MLB.

Fredo Rizzo's avatar

No, they're not going to send him down because he's far and away the best hope of finding some value at the position right now. Players at his age, at his talent level, are sent down all the time without regard to any splits. Finding a position player who can hit LHP isn't that hard and certainly costs a fraction of what a full-time player does and House's career will be defined by how he hits RHP. Hopefully, it'll be for the Nats as a full-time IF.

MacMom54's avatar

If Garcia goes on the IL, will we see yo-yo?? I hear he’s raking at Rochester.

Fredo Rizzo's avatar

Yo-yo Ma with YoYo Mo’s walk up. Play it loud!

John walker's avatar

I agree with the sentiment but whod’a thunk the sentence would ever appear in print “the Nationals look to produce at the plate despite the absence of Luis Garcia, Jr.”?

Geordie Keitt's avatar

Many years ago Mark asked for support from Nats fans to send him to Spring Training! A bunch of us chipped in and in return got to give Mark a question for any player. He published the questions and answers which was really awesome. I remember someone asked Ryan Zimmerman why he didn’t play shortstop since he was obviously better than whoever was there at the time, and his response was that his hitting would suffer if he was made to move off third. He’d have to lose weight, alter his workouts, alter his approach, it would change his game completely. I assume that’s what we’re looking at here with Brady House - he’s primed his body for third base, and shifting him to shortstop would be a whole thing.

Jim Mulligan's avatar

Really great observation. Thank you.

Mark Zuckerman's avatar

The Nats and Twins are underway on an 82-degree Tuesday evening in D.C. It is, shall we say, a sparse gathering at Nationals Park.

MacMom54's avatar

Was that SEVEN pitches????

Dave Nemec's avatar

A 7-pitch first? Heck yeah!

Skum8247's avatar

No stranding allowed here

GLH aka NatsFan4Ever's avatar

I'd like to have seen more than one run, but I'll take it. GO NATS!!!

Mark Zuckerman's avatar

A bullet off the left field wall by Mead, then a great jump off third by Lile to allow him to score in front of the tag. Nats up 1-0, though they missed an opportunity for a big inning there. If nothing else, they made Bradley throw 27 pitches.

CBinDC's avatar

Here we go again 2 outs and THEN WHEELS COME OFF they really hate us and this city

GLH aka NatsFan4Ever's avatar

Not a shut down inning after two quick outs. Hope Cavalli can settle in from here on out into the 6th or 7th inning.