Tonight's Lineups

Lastings Mendoza hitting .143 against lefthanders (why, BTW?) and 20 points above his weight overall. No BB last 8-10 games or so, no HRs.

I was hoping he would hit and we could unload him (white Sox, DBacks, others), but obviously noone wants him. Send him to Harrisburg?

Hey, cool. Lineups while I'm still awake!

Great lineup.

I'm glad that Willingham is starting to hit more consistently after a slow start, but I like seeing Kearns in the 6-hole.

Why is Flores catching Martis? Nieves caught him last time and he pitched a full game? Why mess with something that seems to work? Anecdotally, it seems that Flores moves the target around behind the plate or at least doesn't present a steady one. Any chance that might have something to do with why the pitchers aren't hitting their mark?

Thanks, barrhouse. I have been wondering when somebody would ask whether Flores might have something, anything to do with the lousy performance of the pitching staff. I'm not saying I believe he necessarily does, but it's a good question.

Oh, please -- Flores is messing up the pitchers?? What are you guys drinking??That is totally lame anbd absurd. As far as Nieves, he has done nothing at the plate and threw away the last game he started. Let's get real.

@SackMan

Flores is calling the games and asks for what pitch for the batter. Unless the pitching staff is shaking him off, then essentially Flores is determining what pitch and where. Now most the time there is a "plan" that the catcher and pitcher (and pitching coach) enter the game with, but Flores is and can be a big part about making decisions on the fly. Of course, he's not responsible when this guys miss their spots, leave something up in the zone, but the catcher does have an influence and is why most teams view the position very defensively and are willing to have someone that struggles at the plate (to an extent).

All of that being said, if Martis goes out tonight and doesn't look to good, I don't think that would fall to Flores. Plus the Nationals have bought into Flores because he can hit (Mr. Clutch, no?) and this is expected to have more playing time.

When will Dukes take control in center field ? Why is it so hard for the Nats to get a quality CF when Bowden was all about the 5 tool outfielder ?

We have plenty of hitters. Scored what 10 runs last night to beat the Dodgers? Needed them all too cause our pitchers couldn't get it done. If Flores isn't a common denominator (and he probably isn't)than what is? St Clair? Or, is the pitching staff simply not winning caliber (a front ofice problem)?

STRASBURG ALERT:
If you want to watch Steven Strasburg pitch tonight (the game started at 9:00 D.C. time), go to goaztecs.com and you'll find the baseball link for the video feed.

Top Mets prospects, Nov 2005
1. Lastings Milledge, of
2. Yusmeiro Petit, rhp
8. Anderson Hernandez, ss/2b

Petit looks kinda fat, hittable, and not a MLB rotation starting pitcher? He's good for 3-5 innings, then tires, but gives up few BB and should be a bridge or closer?

I bet the horrible defense is more a common, contributing factor to the pitching problems than either Flores or St Clair. This is not a great staff, by any means, but when the defense botches routine plays, it has to get in the pitchers' minds, especially when they do not have overpowering stuff, making them leery to challenge the hitters until they fall behind and have to come in with meat. Playing quality defense (whioh they ought to be able to do based on reputations) is their best chance at winning more games in 2009.

Yeah, having a better defense behind you would be nice, but hard to expect much to change this year. Maybe when Dukes gets shifted to RF and Maxwell shows up in CF, guys won't be staring at each other as the ball drops between them.

26 for Zimmerman! And I'm kind of disappointed that Rob Dibble is off tonight. Bob and Ray are going to get real old real fast.

I love that he's getting them out of the way early...

Zimm's only 30 games behind the Yankee Clipper. I'm glad that record has withstood the Attack of the Roids. Should last a long, long time.

Good job, Martis. Was Cabera watching?

GUZ!

Man, oh, man. Great to see this guy doing things like this after those early years.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned that 75% of the Dbacks infield tonight is former Nats property. Most disappointing is that the Nats allowed all 3 to leave without compensation. Our farm system is not strong enough, as all of you know, to support this.

Martis walks a .191 hitter on 4 pitches. Dadgum you Flores -- get the ball over!!

I am surprised that no one has mentioned that 75% of the Dbacks infield tonight is former Nats property. Most disappointing is that the Nats allowed all 3 to leave without compensation. Our farm system is not strong enough, as all of you know, to support this

Surely you are not counting F. Lopez as one that got away?

strasburg update/new post

janus4444

I don't know, it seems like this team is playing below their defensive abilities, at least based on their reputations coming into the season. Dukes, I agree, is learning on the fly so there will be some adventures. But Dunn should be the only below average fielder, with the rest at least average, and Zim and Hernandez above average. I just don't know why they are fielding so poorly.

I wasn't rue-ing that these guys got away... Only that we had 3 guys, all deemed major leaguers by another team, that we gave away without even a hint of a Class A pitcher. I am most certainly with you on FLop, butit would have been nice to get an arm for him.

Plus it's just unusual in the way that it is odd when we played the Metd and the had Ryan, Endy, and Malon Anderson starting in the OF and Brian behind the plate.