I'm seriously baffled. There's truly not much to say that hasn't already been said or that hasn't already run through your mind. I don't think anybody can fully explain Matt Williams decision making process at this point, not even Matt Williams himself. I thought I was mad when I wrote the last post after the Mets series. Yes, the one where Williams neglected to use either of his best relievers in two close games while fighting the Mets for first place. Williams has actually found a way to infuriate me more though over the last three games.
On Monday night, Williams decided in a 5-0 game that it was finally time to bring in Drew Storen and Jonathan Papelbon. After he let them throw zero pitches in close games against the Mets, he decided that in a blowout they needed some work. Let me get this straight, in a tie game from the 8th inning on, you'd like to use Aaron Barrett and Felipe Rivero. However, trailing 5-0 in the 8th inning, you'd like to use your set up guy and closer. That's quite the philosophy. It's not going to win you many games, but it's definitely interesting! I was pretty confused at this point, but I wouldn't say I was mad though because bringing in Storen and Papelbon on Monday had no bearing on the outcome of that game. Williams wasn't done though, he had a plan for Wednesday night that was really going to put Nats fans over the edge.
Williams has essentially made it known without saying it that Gio Gonzalez is on an extremely short leash. His last start against the Mets, he went 4 2/3 innings giving up 1 run. Last night against the Diamondbacks, he went 5+ innings giving up 2 runs. Gio has historically been somewhat wild and known to walk a fair amount of batters. That's also what makes him so good though. It's an uncomfortable at bat for anybody up there against Gio. He struck out 7 last night and walked 1, he was pitching very well and worked out of numerous jams. Williams, of course, thought otherwise. Let's backtrack to the bottom of the 5th inning though. Gio was due up second in the inning and Matt Williams let him hit. Fast forward to the top of the 6th inning and Gio gives up a lead off single to Yasmany Tomas and then Williams pulls him. I just about lost it at this point. There is absolutely zero reason you would let Gio hit if you knew you were going to take him out the next inning if he let one batter reach. Seriously, no reason you would do that. Matt Williams punted an at bat in a close game for no reason.
To make matters worse, Williams showed he clearly has no clue what he's doing because he brought in Aaron Barrett. First of all, Aaron Barrett has a 4.60 ERA. He has no business being in a tie game or one run game. Here's the real kicker, Barrett has held opponents to a .196 batting average with nobody on base. If you want to use Barrett, let him start an inning fresh, that's when he's at his best. On the flip side, opponents are hitting .290 off Barrett with a runner (or multiple runners) on base. When Barrett came in, he was warming up next to Matt Thornton. Thornton holds opponents to a .196 batting average with runner(s) on base. The next issue is the Diamondbacks next batter after the Tomas single was Chris Owings. Chris Owings is a right handed batter, however, he hits .255 off of right handers and just .152 against lefties. So naturally, Matt Williams went with a right hander and Owings singled. He had Gio on the mound who is a lefty and Thornton, another lefty, warming up. It's honestly mind boggling. I don't know if he's decided not to look at those kind of stats, or if he just totally disregards them and goes with his gut. Whatever he's doing is clearly not working.
Once Barrett came in and blew the game open it didn't matter what Williams did. The only good managing decision he made last night was to not use Janssen, Storen, or Papelbon again in a blowout. There are two things that can save the Nationals season at this point. First, is getting Denard Span back. He's the table setter, the offense is so much better and much smoother with him at the top of the lineup (the Nats also need to resign him, but that's another story for another day). Second, they unfortunately have to fire Matt Williams. He has to go, there's no way around it. He has no feel for how to manage a bullpen in a close game. If you can't do that, your team is going to struggle to play .500 baseball. He doesn't even have reasons for why he's making certain moves. His post game interviews offer no reasoning behind his decisions. Not to mention, yesterday on The Junkies, Williams sounded completely defeated. I get it - answering the same question over and over is exhausting, managing a baseball team for 162+ games is exhausting, but that's the job. That's what you were hired for. You aren't doing your job right now, that's all there is to it. There needs to be a change. Absent a hot streak, the Nationals are in real danger of missing the playoffs during their "dream season" where they were supposed to breeze through the regular season. I'm not saying hit the panic button yet because this team has a ton of talent. If Rizzo would swallow his pride and admit he made a mistake in hiring Williams, then he could put Williams on a plane back to Arizona today with the Diamondbacks. That's not likely to happen though and ultimately on Sunday, October 4th, after the season finale against the Mets, Nats fans might be sitting on their couches stunned at the fact that the Mets are going to the playoffs and the Nationals are not.
Bud Black is waiting for a phone call and I'm waiting to see Bud Black in a Nationals uniform.
No comments:
Post a Comment