Baseball thread No. 7: Somebody slip the pinstripers a Mickey

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Zimmerman, Dunn, Willingham all hot. Guzman, too. Willingham has been borderline incredible for 6-8 weeks now. Morgan has been an impressive addition on both sides. Hitting about .380 as a Nat and running down everything. They have about 10 more SBs in the month he's been with them than they did in three months prior.

Relief pitching blowups have become an exception, not rule. Starting pitching is not as good as it was earlier but the rest of the stuff doesn't stink nearly as badly as it did earlier. Lannan has developed nicely. After him these days? I hope those hitters stay hot. Olsen pitched well after coming off DL and then got hurt again. Lord knows what is going on with J.Zim (see below). Garrett Mock, J.D. Martin and Collin Balester are a nice AAA rotation - but they're somehow winning with them.

Nats are 12-6 in the past 18. Riggleman has shown a little more fire than Acta. Anderson Hernandez threw his glove after being pulled in a double switch. Two days later, he was back with the Mets. Hell, that's worse than being farmed out. First time Riggleman came out to challenge an up, the place went apeshit.

I really felt going in this was a .500-capable team. Never thought it was a playoff contender but didn't think it would suck. I look at who they had in the bullpen to start and shake my head. Only guy left is Saul Rivera and he spent three months in the minors.
MacDougal may be a mirage but he's pitching very well.
Sean Burnett has been very good. Gave up a home run to his first batter and then nothing for a month.
Clippard is pitching well as a reliever.
Logan Kensing is still there but you can't have everything.

Of course, even when it is good it is never good. Jordan Zimmermann, who has a chance to be extremely good, had a "setback" in his recovery from a "minor" elbow problem. Very uneasy about that. That shit is never good.

 

Let me add this (you've unleashed a monster here, Mr. Gee):

I admit I'm tunnel visioned and my range of baseball knowledge doesn't extend much beyond the Nats. I have no idea what was up with Adam Dunn anywhere else except he hit a lot of home runs.

Well, I freaking love the sumbitch, defensive adventures and all. First, he's the one guy who slides you to the edge of your seat when he comes up. Mammoth HRs are fun. I've seen him hit at least three shake-your-head blasts live.
The main thing is this: Zimmerman has already tied his career high in HR with 50 games to play. He's seeing better pitches. Willingham is benefitting, too. D-backs walked Dunn to get to Willingham last night and he promptly knocked in two. He hit slams in back-to-back at bats recently and I'm pretty sure Dunn was walked (not intentionally but not accidentally) to get to him.
He gives the Nats a feared hitter and it helps others. Yeah, he strikes out a lot. I'll take his current .280 and another 40-HR season.

I would take a power core (or corps?) of Zimmerman-Dunn-Willingham for a long time. Put Morgan-Guzman in front of them and Dukes-Flores behind them and you have a lineup that does not suck.

Good lord, please sign Strasburg. Please.

 

Printing those photos without attempting to reach Hamilton is disgusting.