Halfway Over Already???

Happy All-Star break, my friends!  As we look back on the first half of the 2014 baseball season, we Washington Nationals fans should be pretty pleased with our team.  Not only are the Nationals in first place in the NL East (percentage points above the Atlanta Braves); the Nats have won 10 of their last 14 games, their bats have come alive, and their pitching continues to be solid.  And I have to mention the Baltimore Orioles too - just because Chris Davis isn't hitting doesn't mean the team doesn't deserve to be in first place in the AL East - go Os!

While some ESPN critics claim that the Nationals have “under-performed” during the first half of the season, I have to say that these people are idiots and are only looking at statistics on paper.   The Nationals are tenth in the National League in batting with a team average of .246, and their best average is held by cutie Anthony Rendón, who is batting .287 (number 22 on the NL list).  But that doesn’t tell the whole story.  The Nationals lead the NL in pitching, with a 3.08 team ERA, starter Stephen Strasburg leads the league with 149 strikeouts, and closer Rafael Soriano has 22 saves with a 0.97 ERA.

And how about all those guys on the Disabled List?  Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, and Wilson Ramos all spent most of the first half of the season on the DL, and as far as pitchers, Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez also had short stints on the List.  So chill out, critics; the Nationals are right where they need to be at the halfway point of the season.

But what do the Nationals need to do to remain on top?  First, Bryce Harper needs to do some hitting.  Since his return from the DL, Harper has gone 6-40 with one home run.  Bryce is a talented kid – I know he can hit!  Hopefully he can analyze his swing during the break (isn't that what they all do - "review the tapes?"), take some pitches from his dad, and come back ready to do some damage.  Just think about your parents, Bryce; you're embarrassing them!

The Nationals also need to get rid of Danny Espinosa.  Don’t send him down to the Minors – trade him for some prospects or some cash or for a nice hand-made Amish quilt.  He calls himself a switch hitter but can’t hit from either side, and just being a good fielder is not enough if you can’t hit.  Danny has to go - he plain old sucks.

Finally, the Nationals HAVE to beat the Braves.  They have nine games left to play against the Braves this season, and they need to win at least 5 of them.  The Braves aren’t all that – their hitting has been up and down and their pitchers aren’t as dominant (except for that Craig Kimbrel guy with his weird pitching stance) – so there’s really no reason why the Nationals can’t win most of their remaining games against the Braves.  If anything, they need to win the games in Atlanta so I don’t have to hear that annoying “Tomahawk Chop” that their fans do when their team is winning. 

How about the rest of the teams in the Majors - any surprises during the first half?  Well I'm glad you asked!  I'm surprised to see the World Champion Red Sox on the bottom of the AL East; I'm a little surprised that the Oakland A's have the best record in baseball; and I'm saddened that the Cardinals' Yadier Molina is going to be out for a while with a torn thumb ligament.  Ouch!  I was even sad to see a Yankee go down (and that's rare for me!) when rookie pitcher Masahiro Tanaka suffered a partial tear of the ulnar ligament in his pitching arm.  He had my vote for Rookie of the Year, but now he has to undergo all sorts of aggressive rehab which will sideline him for a while.  Luckily, he may be able to avoid Tommy John surgery because he had platelet-rich plasma injected into his elbow, and that's supposed to make the tear heal itself.  Let's hope it works, but not if the Yankees make it to the post-season. :-)

So, my friends, the second half of the season should be a good one.  Enjoy tonight's Home Run Derby (I'm rooting for Giancarlo Stanton) and tomorrow's All-Star Game (National League fan, obviously!), and may the second half bring good health and many home runs to the Nationals and Orioles.  I, for one, would love to see a "Battle of the Beltways" World Series-style!

Halfway Done... :-(

Believe it or not, my friends, the Major League Baseball season is already halfway over.  The trade deadline is fast approaching, and before you know it, rosters will be expanded and the playoffs will soon follow.  But what marks the halfway point of the baseball season?  Well the All-Star Game and all its festivities, of course!
This year's "Midsummer Classic" was held in Kansas City.  Don't know why; other than the fact that it was an American League team's turn to host the game (and the fact that the Royals could use more fans in the stands).  Before the game was even played, there were a lot of exciting events going on - from the FanFest exhibits to the Home Run Derby (won by Prince Fielder) to the Legends and Celebrities Softball Game (Where else can you rub elbows with Rickey Henderson, Ozzie Smith, Rollie Fingers, and American Idol's David Cook?).  If the All-Star Game comes to DC in 2015 like the rumors are saying, I would definitely like to attend the softball game (especially if Iván Rodriguez is invited).  That just looks like a fun time.

So the game itself started after a 45-minute Fox-like pregame show, and no, I don't really like Fox Sports because I can't stand Joe Buck and his big forehead (which looks more like a five-head).  And poor Tim McCarver is getting way too old to be doing color commentary.  John Miller and Joe Morgan have always been my favorites - at least they have personalities and don't talk like they know everything (Joe Buck is second on my list of arrogant announcers I don't like - Bob Costas is number one).

So anyway, the pregame show included a nice segment about the Negro League, which was started in Kansas City back in the 1920s.  Greats like Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays started out playing in the Negro League before Major League Baseball was integrated, and it was a very informative little piece (I will definitely visit the Negro League Museum if I'm ever in Kansas City for some unknown reason).  Also during the pregame show, the National Anthem was sung by some Luke Bryan country singer guy, who stayed on pitch (a hard thing to do with that song) but he sang it WAY too slow.  I was like "Snap it up, dude; we want to watch the game!"  And today he admitted to having the lyrics written on his hand!  My husband suspected it, and I was like "Nah ah; who doesn't remember the words to the "Star-Spangled Banner?" forgetting about Cristina Aguilera in that one Super Bowl a couple of years ago!

After the player introductions (this year there were 26 first-time All-Stars), George Brett threw out the first pitch (Surprise!  Who didn't see that coming?) and the game finally began.  Poor Justin Verlander got roughed up right away, with the National League scoring 5 runs in the first inning.  The Washington Nationals were well represented in the bottom of the third, when Gio Gonzalez faced the minimum 3 batters (including the Yankees' Curtis Granderson, who whore high socks in honor of the Negro League).  Stephen Strasburg also had a scoreless inning, pitching in the bottom of the fifth. And of course there was the game's MVP, the Giants' Melky Cabrera (one of the 3 Cabreras for whom I voted) who went 2-3 with 2 RBIs.

If you went to bed after the fifth inning (like I did), you didn't miss a thing, because it was 8-0 at that point and that ended up being the final score.  I am sad that I missed Chipper Jones's base hit, since this is his last All-Star Game due to his pending retirement at the end of the season.  I have always liked Larry Wayne Jones, and it was nice seeing him giving the other NL guys a pep talk in the clubhouse before the game.

So what else was noteworthy about the game?  Oh, there was the Royals' Billy Butler, who got a huge standing ovation when he was introduced during the pregame show.  Royals' fans were upset that Butler was not included in the Home Run Derby the night before, so they showed their appreciation for Butler (who went 0-2 last night).
So that's my recap of the All-Star game - now there is no baseball until Friday.  I will actually have to find something else to watch on TV tonight (good luck with that one!) and hope that the second half of the season is as exciting and surprising as the first half (the Pirates in first place?  Who knew that was going to happen?).  So stay tuned; there are still two-and-a-half months of regular-season baseball to be played!