BREAK UP THE F-ING NATIONALS

[hutch]

Fire the manager?

I was thinking a few hours ago that when I posted that maybe he'd lost the team that was a sign that he needed to go but that I was having trouble facing it....

the other half of me thinks he just doesn't have the players...

I'm not sure which is right!

[stevewizzle]

Fire the manager?

maybe a week or two off from having a serious discussion about this. the team is lost for sure, and barring an unbelievable august run, stick a fork in these guys.

but they point all their eggs in the davey johnson/rafael soriano bucket this year. and i don't know if running a manager out of town in his last year in the bigs is good business.

[HoyaSaxa03]

i've given up on this season, anything from here on out is now in "pleasant surprise" territory for me.

i'll still watch every game though, I like bitter/angry/resigned-to-failure fanhood just as much as supporting a winning team.

[hutch]

the team is in a freefall.... i wonder what they're going to do....

[hutch]

you know things are going well when the manager is asked "has this club hit rock bottom??"

[hutch]

press conference only got uglier... with him being asked some weird question about when steinbrenner wanted to fire billy martin.... davey responded "I don't want to go there" , shook his head and bolted


personally i wouldn't fire davey... i'd get him better players... .but obviously the pressure is mounting

[DeathFromAbove1979]

Maybe this whole hitting coach thing will spark something... They showed some life late in the game yesterday. Something we haven't really seen much of once they get down a few runs. Just frustrating to see all the wasted potential.

I was there on Saturday for the extra innings game, was a shame to see people leaving at 11 [late, I know] but there were clear "Let's Go Dodgers" chants that were not being drowned out by the remaining Nats fans. Bandwagon is being emptied quick!

[hutch]

Maybe this whole hitting coach thing will spark something... They showed some life late in the game yesterday. Something we haven't really seen much of once they get down a few runs. Just frustrating to see all the wasted potential.

I was there on Saturday for the extra innings game, was a shame to see people leaving at 11 [late, I know] but there were clear "Let's Go Dodgers" chants that were not being drowned out by the remaining Nats fans. Bandwagon is being emptied quick!

well that is DC for you... fair weather fans ....

[DeathFromAbove1979]

It's just such a shame. DC really is just a football town. It took years of mediocrity to get there to be empty seats in Fedex. But a few wins and a ROY and the place is the hottest ticket in town. I really wish DC was just as passionate about all the other sports teams.

[Bombay Chutney]

I was there on Saturday for the extra innings game, was a shame to see people leaving at 11 [late, I know] but there were clear "Let's Go Dodgers" chants that were not being drowned out by the remaining Nats fans. Bandwagon is being emptied quick!

It was a long day for a lot of people.  TONS of people showed up by around 4:30 to make sure they got their Davey bobbleheads.   That's over 6 hours on a 90+ degree evening watching an incredibly frustrating, slow moving game.    The standard 9-innings took over 3.5 hours.  The prospect of sticking around for extra innings after 11pm after watching them blow multiple scoring chances 2 nights in a row wasn't terribly appealing to a lot of people.   If they want people to stick around, they need to stop leaving bases loaded with 0/1 outs and walking away empty-handed.   

[DeathFromAbove1979]

Yep, I got there at 5ish, got my bobblehead, AND caught a shirt in the t shirt toss and was still pissed at the end of the game. I believe they loaded the bases twice in that game, once with 1 out.

I sat there the whole damn time.

[James Ford]

Fire the manager?

Or just give up on the season in hopes of not offending old people?

[DeathFromAbove1979]

Give them steroids. It's crazy to me how close they come to hitting taters and come up about a foot short. It's their park! They have batting practice in there every day!

[hutch]

Fire the manager?

Or just give up on the season in hopes of not offending old people?

oh I don't think its about that...to fire the manager first you have to make a case that he's not doing a good job or even better, that there is somebody else out there available who could do a better job..davey johnson has a long track record of being a vvery good manager...

no doubt the clock is ticking and if the nats don't get some wins i think davey will be gone soon... but again, I'm not sure I'd blame him for what has happened... they are i believe next to last in terms of runs scored in the major leagues...


as i said many times.. they need a big bat or two in the lineup.... whenever i've raised this issue i'm told "who would you take out?"... .as if the hitters who are next to last in the league in hitting are so great or something

the nats had a lucky break last year.. everything went their way with laroche and morse having out of the norm seasons.... you take those morse out and have the new laroche in there and it makes a big difference.... they're a very light hitting team.. i just checked and the guy leading the team in batting is hitting 275!

the one thing i guess one could pin on the manager - other than the harper fiasco- is probably the team's makeup doesnt seem very good...

and the season i think , barring some miracle like they go out and get some major bats (which i dont' think are available), is lost.. firing the manager ain't going to change that...

[hutch]

Davey does look spent though.. no energy..

This is definitely his last season.. I think he's a good baseball mind and if I was the Nats I'd keep him til the end of the season and then move him to the front office where he was before and use him as an extra set of eyes etc... .... unless the Lerners are planning on some big spending like yesterday this season is lost anyways... they don't have the bats.. Rizzo blew it IMHO, during the offseason, by not realizing they needed more bats