MASN HD Finally Here

It’s about time, the 40 Nats games in HD last season just weren’t enough. This year, there are more. A few months ago, I went over all the details of the Nats games in HD. The dedicated HD channel launches TOMORROW, April 1. In my neck of the woods, MASN HD will be channel 246, and Comcast subs will find it there or on 201. If you are cooler than me and have FiOS, you probably also have an iPhone and a Mac, you pretentious bastard. You’ll be watching on 577 or 578.

Apparently there are other ways to get TV as well. If you want to find the channel elsewhere, follow this link, and you’ll get to see the complete list.

And of course, if you want to see the broadcast schedule, here it is. Looks like you won’t get to see Jordan Zimmermann’s debut in HD (April 19th). Perhaps a trip out to the ballpark to see it in Real Definition is in order?

Time For Predictions

With less than a week to go before opening day, I guess I’d better make some unsolicited, unnecessary predictions that are sure to make me look bad in October.  I’m not doing hardcore analysis here, just what I think. So here’s what the  NL East will looks like at the end of the season:

1. Mets
2. Braves
3. Phillies
4. Nationals
5. Marlins

Notes From the Weekend

For those of you who can’t see June fast enough, here is some of the latest Stephen Strasburg news. Baseball America had a Strasburg heavy weekend, with an article about his mechanics, as well as an interview. Here is the link to the interview. You have to pay to read Jim Callis’ article about the mechanics, but here are the highlights:

• A blogger (those bastards) wrote that Strasburg’s arm action was bad and would lead to decreased velocity and injuries
• Callis questions the bloggers credentials, and notes that “Baseball America has yet to encounter a scout who was terribly worried about Strasburg’s mechanics”
• The only scout who had any questions saw him again and decided he was fine, saying he’d still pick him #1
• Good mechanics doesn’t necessarily keep pitchers from getting hurt
  
• Don’t believe everything you read from a blogger. I’d have to agree wholeheartedly with that

Sometimes I’m of the mindset to just wait for the actual draft (or right before it) to talk about Strasburg. But he’s getting high praise and continues to get coverage, so I guess he’s worth a mention.

Zimmermann’s the 5th Man

NL East Ratings, Part 2: The Pitching Staffs

Yesterday I went over the entire starting rosters of each NL East team, and after giving 5 points for having the best player and 1 point for having the worst, I came up with this score:

SCORE: Phillies (29), Mets (26), Nationals (26), Braves (20), Marlins (19)

It leads me to believe that the Nats lineup aint so bad. Let’s see what happens when we keep going. On to the pitching staffs!

In terms of what number a starter falls under,  obviously that is something that can be debated ad nauseum. It’s clear who the #1 is for NY and Philly, but the others are up in the air. Lannan is starting opening Day for the Nats, Nolasco was the most consistent last year, and Lowe is listed first on the depth chart. Blah blah blah. I’m going with what I think they would list as their depth chart for each team, aided by ESPN.com, MLB.com and cbs.sportline.com’s depth charts.

#1 STARTER

1. Mets – Johan Santana
2. Phillies – Cole Hamels
3. Braves – Derek Lowe
4. Marlins – Ricky Nolasco
5. Nationals – John Lannan

Rating the NL East, By Players

With all the WBC talk here, you’d think this wasn’t a Nats site. Well it is, you shouldn’t think such things. As I’ve mentioned before here, I owe alot of inspiration to Steven Goldman’s Pinstriped Bible. So once again, I will blatantly rip him off by previewing the teams in the NL East position by position. The point of this is to see who has the best pieces to make a team. It’s quite simple – there are 5 teams in the division, so if someone has the #1 player at a position, they get 5 points for it. If they have the worst, they get 1 point. Overly simplifying a complex sport? Of course! But it’s fun to look at, so let’s start with the position players:

CATCHER

1. Braves – Brian McCann
2. Nationals – Jesus Flores
3. Marlins – John Baker
4. Mets – Brian Schneider
5. Phillies – Carlos Ruiz

Martis May Have Earned His Spot

We’ve talked about this before, but with the greatness of Jordan Zimmermann this spring, and without any information being released from the Nats themselves, I’m assuming that Shairon Martis and Collin Balester are still auditioning for a starter role. Zimmermann has a job, the only question is whether the Nats want to send him to the minors to keep the arbitration clock from ticking on him. Balester’s spring has been as bad as Martis’ has been good. Both are young, and it wouldn’t be a disaster if either needed more time in the minors. But the way Martis has been throwing, he may be in.

Kasten Chat moved to 11 am

The Washington Post has moved the Stan Kasten chat for today (3/24)  from noon to 11 am. Here is the link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/03/19/DI2009031902803.html

WBC Finale Did Not Disappoint

If you didn’t watch the game last night, you really missed out. Even though team USA left one game early, this last game was well worth watching. Jung Keun Bong started for Korea, and Japan had to be at least a little concerned. He had faced them twice in this WBC, and allowed only 1 ER in 11 IP. He was pretty strong in this one as well, working his way into and out of trouble, but only for 4 innings, allowing 1 run. Korea, on the other hand, couldn’t muster so much as a hit against Japan’s starter Iwakuma in the first 3 2/3 innings.

Kasten Chat

The Washington Post is going to be having a chat with Stan Kasten tomorrow (3/24) at noon. Here is the link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/03/19/DI2009031902803.html

So go ahead and ask Mr Kasten anything. Ask him about possible trades, about the upcoming draft, about the starting rotation, or about the toxic debt in the banking system. I’ll be interested to see what he answers.

WBC Final Weekend

2 of the last 3 games in the World Baseball Classic have been played, and the finals are set for tonight. Korea trounced Cuba 10-2 on Saturday. Sunday night the US played Japan, and the game started out with a HR by Brian Roberts in the very first AB off of Dice-K. Japan was able to score in the bottom of the second, but a 3rd inning in which Dice-K threw more than 30 pitches and the US score a run to go up 2-1 looked like the beginning of the end for Japan. After a quick bottom of the 3rd by Oswalt, the US was right back out hitting and Matsusaka had to start pitching again with barely a break. But the US went down in order, and that may have been the spark for Japan.