Stick a Fork in the Nationals 2013 Season

My preseason World Series pick from the National League is done. Forget any magic number talk. Forget any ‘buyer’ move they make at the deadline because it won’t be good enough. Forget any hot, magical run they string together because no matter what they do from this night forward it will be too little, too late. This team is dead. For Davey Johnson, there will be no more pretty ladies and he sure as hell won’t be riding out on any white horses.

The Nationals lost 3-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight in 10 innings to fall a game under .500 on the season.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise. I’ve watched a lot of Washington this season in thinking that I could actually pinpoint a team that was similar to the 1986 Mets. They seemed on paper to have it all. What they have ‘all’ of is a shitload of problems.

You look up and July and over and Bryce Harper has all of 13 home runs and 29 RBI. He’s hitting clean-up for them. He’s hitting in the .260’s. To be honest, I was more impressed with Harper as a rookie than I have been during this 2013 season. He’s been underwhelming. He’s still playing left field like he’s a catcher, and it’s been all season long. He’s not getting behind fly balls and forgetting fundamentals of the game that every big league outfielder should have down by their third season at the position.

Stephen Strasburg isn’t an ace. He’s a soft kid with really good stuff that usually wilts in a tough position. He’s got a LONG ways to go to become a big game number-one type starter that will carry a team and end losing streaks.

The loss of Mike Morse has been very visually obvious. The Nationals could really use a middle of the order bat right now; Adam LaRoche has returned to being the same old shitty Adam LaRoche he’s always been. I guess the guy only hits in contract years.

There are a few things to like about this team – Jordan Zimmerman and Ian Desmond are stud players who could lead a championship caliber team – but there are just too many things working against the Nationals.

The Nationals are the biggest disappointment in all of baseball this season. It’s time to start thinking about RG3 and the Redskins in the Nations’ Capital.