Matt Williams fired by Nationals

[Hire Sather]

Saw they were looking at Cal Ripken.

Don't understand why they wouldn't get someone who has Manager experience.

 

[hockeykicker]

Saw they were looking at Cal Ripken.

Don't understand why they wouldn't get someone who has Manager experience.

there looking at everyone right now. names such as bud black and ron gardenhire have also been linked.

but sounds like rizzo wants an experienced guy

 

[PanthersPens62]

This is a guy who has no clue how to manage. Shame, because he seems like a good baseball guy.

This. Good riddance.

Of course with my luck, my man Loria will hire him to manage the Marlins!

 

[Silentjury]

Anyone think he'll get another MLB managing job?

 

[hockeykicker]

Anyone think he'll get another MLB managing job?

as someone who watched him every day, simply put no. not soon. great guy and great baseball guy, just couldnt run the nationals

 

[SniperHF]

Anyone think he'll get another MLB managing job?

I never bought the Nationals hype train this season so I have a hard time giving him a ton of blame for the W/L record.

By most accounts during his time here, he was a pretty good 3B / instructional IF defense coach. I don't think he's particularly suited to being a manger but I'm sure he'll get another crack at it.

If he doesn't I'd love to have him back here in his previous role, but I suspect he'd step away from the game for awhile first.

 

[Vamos Rafa]

I've always wondered if Marc the Habs fan still has love for the former Expos franchise?

 

[Terry Yake]

bud black would be a great hire for the nats

seeing what he did with those terrible padres teams, he could actually be just what the nats need

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Nats were harder hit than all those teams.

I can't tell if this belief is due to Nats fans' consistent whining about injuries or from ESPN or something else. But it's definitely not true.

 

[darko]

I can't tell if this belief is due to Nats fans' consistent whining about injuries or from ESPN or something else. But it's definitely not true.

Zimmerman - 95 (GP)
Werth - 88
Rendon - 80
Span - 61

That's their lead off hitter and 3 out of their 4 best hitters. Strasburg missed about dozen starts but their pitching was mostly in tact. There's no doubt their pitching somewhat regressed (looking at you Fister, also Clippard trade) but they still had 7th best ERA in all of baseball. If you don't think they missed those 4 I don't know what to tell you.

Which team was hit harder?

 

[robert terwilliger]

the cardinals? they lost wainwright in april, adams in may, holliday played less than half of the year and molina was hurt down the stretch. they still won 100 games.

there are always going to be injuries and there are two ways to react. bring up the farm and move on with it or let it define your season.

granted the first option requires a team to be well-run, but i think the nationals had the excuse in from day 1. span and rendon were hurt so that meant that somehow the games didn't count.

that's on the manager. for all intents and purposes, the manager's job is to basically make lineup changes, remove pitchers, put on the stupid bunt, and keep the boat afloat. williams was unable to do this, an expensive but still good team crumbled because of him and his ****** leadership. mike matheny is routinely trashed by people around baseball for many reasons but he still managed to right the ship even when three of the best players on their team, including one of the best pitchers in baseball, went down with injury.

the cardinals regrouped and succeeded despite their injuries. the nationals crumbled at the slightest hardship and made excuses.

 

[Pwnasaurus]

Zimmerman - 95 (GP)
Werth - 88
Rendon - 80
Span - 61

That's their lead off hitter and 3 out of their 4 best hitters. Strasburg missed about dozen starts but their pitching was mostly in tact.

Which team was hit harder?

I'm pretty sure the Cards in terms of WAR still were.

 

[darko]

I'm pretty sure the Cards in terms of WAR still were.

They are.

Majority of teams would fold when decimated by injuries. Cards are an exception. Combination of injuries to key players and having Matt Williams is the reason they are golfing right now. Depending on who they hire I expect them to climb right back up.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Zimmerman - 95 (GP)
Werth - 88
Rendon - 80
Span - 61

That's their lead off hitter and 3 out of their 4 best hitters. Strasburg missed about dozen starts but their pitching was mostly in tact. There's no doubt their pitching somewhat regressed (looking at you Fister, also Clippard trade) but they still had 7th best ERA in all of baseball. If you don't think they missed those 4 I don't know what to tell you.

Which team was hit harder?

Look at the teams around them. The Mets were hurt by injuries to valuable players as well. David Wright only played 38 games. D'Arnoud only 67. Matz missed time after he came up. Wheeler missed the entire season. Mejia was a mix of hurt and suspended (he'd of been the perfect 8th inning guy). Lagares, while not missing much time, played hurt the entire season and may very well need TJ. Yet the Mets overcame all of that and made the playoffs.

Even with all of that, the Mets beat the piss out of the Nats and got themselves into the playoffs. The Nats have no excuses. Saying the Nats were some decimated team or something is just a bunch of crap.

Maybe if their manager didn't do dumb **** like have Rendon bunt they may have done better.

 

[darko]

Rendon is miles ahead of all those guys you mentioned. He had MVP type season last year.

There's no defending the bunt lol. I don't think Yost would do that.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Yeah but it's not just Rendon's absence that mattered. It's that he was significantly worse than last year when he did play. He did play half a season basically and went from All-Star level production to basically replacement level production. Ian Desmond also dipped significantly though from lesser heights. Ryan Zimmerman underperformed.

On the pitching end, Fister had a huge dip and went from basically ace level production to being a tolerable back of the rotation guy. Jordan Zimmermann also had a drop in production if not quite as dramatic. That basically neutralized any positive impact from the Scherzer acquisition (whose production was also uneven enough to hurt the team because his *bad* outings typically led to a loss).

All in all, Nats management has to figure with those guys if 2015 represented a trend or a blip.

 

[Hire Sather]

Remember when Williams bunted with Rendon on a 3-1 count in the bottom of the 9th vs Mets?

Lol.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Rendon is miles ahead of all those guys you mentioned. He had MVP type season last year.

There's no defending the bunt lol. I don't think Yost would do that.

While Rendon is the better player, Wright probably means more to his team (due to his play and his intangibles) than any individual player between either team's injured. And, again, he didn't even play 40 games. Missed far more games than Rendon.

The fact of the matter is that the Mets were hit just as hard yet still made the playoffs and beat the tar out of the Nats when it mattered. All of the excuses coming from Washington are pretty hilarious.

I still LOL @ that bunt every time I think of the Nats.

 

[Swervin81]

3-1 count with a good hitter up, and a runner on and nobody out with the best hitter in the world on deck?

Screams bunt to me