Nationals Preview

Motivation in generaly has never been my strong suit. The only reason I'm not the fattest person in the world is because I'm often too lazy to get off the couch to eat. I'm barely motivated enough to go to the bank to deposit my paycheck. And the only reason I need to go to the bank to deposit my paycheck is because I still have not motivated myself enough to get direct deposit.

So when the Phillies have a series against the Nationals, it is tough to find true motivation to go very in-depth or get very creative with a preview. There are still a lot of topics that I want to cover and ideas that I have for this blog, but a Nationals preview with 2 hours before game time does not feel like the time nor the place for something extravagant. There is one thing, though, that seems to be a hot topic right now that I want to at least briefly address before breaking down the upcoming series: protecting catchers.

If you haven't heard or seen, Buster Posey is now out for the season after a collision at home plate that left him with a fractured leg. There has been a disgusting amount of discussion about this topic throughout baseball, including an entire inning Saturday night during which they only showed the pitches being thrown to Phillies batters and in between had to continuously show us Joe Buck and Tim McCarver talking to each other about catchers. Honestly, who cares? It sucks that a guy broke his leg and all, but this can't seriously be the most interesting thing to talk about in sports right now. Are we seriously talking about changing the rules of baseball because one great young player will miss the 2011 season? This must be a joke. It's clearly something that's only being talked about to have something to talk about, and for that I am so angry at myself for addressing it. Jayson Stark, normally my hero, wrote an article about this issue. Why is he wasting his glorious baseball knowledge to write about something so pointless? The good news is, he actually shows in the article how stupid it all is. He talks to former catchers, and they seem to think people are as stupid as I do. "When you put on the shin guards and chest protector, you know that if there's a play at the plate and you're blocking the plate, you could take a hit at any moment." "See, everyone thinks you can control all these variables. But you can't."

So why is this a real discussion? Because an awesome 24-year-old rolled the wrong way after getting nailed at the plate? Can we please just get over this?

Game 1: Roy Halladay (6-3, 2.35 ERA) vs. Livan Hernandez (3-6, 3.71 ERA)
Halladay is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA against the Nats this year, including 1 complete game and 19 strikeouts in 16 innings. Hernandez is the only pitcher to beat the Phillies this season, but that was without Baseball. He has a .375 career batting average against Hernandez. Chase also has a .300 average against the Nationals over the course of his 111 games against them. Expect a dominant Halladay and a scared-as-crap Nationals team with Chase Utley back in the lineup.
Prediction: Phillies 4 Nationals 0
Keep an eye out for: double digit strikeouts from Halladay in another complete game

Game 2: Cliff Lee (4-4, 3.50 ERA) vs. Jason Marquis (5-2, 4.26 ERA)
Cliff is 3-0 with a 1.44 ERA in his career against the Nationals, which includes a complete game, 3-hit, 12-strikeout shutout earlier this season. So we shouldn't need to worry about our pitching. Marquis, much like many Nationals pitchers, has struggled against the Phils and, more specifically, Chase Utley. The Phils have a .311 batting average against him, and Chase is batting .464 against him with 7 RBI in 28 at-bats.
Prediction: Phillies 9 Nationals 2
Keep an eye out for: Utley being a triple away from the cycle in this game

Game 3: Roy Oswalt (3-2, 2.60 ERA) vs. John Lannan (2-5, 4.40 ERA)
Oswalt is the only starter to not yet face the Nationals this season. But our starters have done extremely well against them as a whole. As a matter of fact, our bullpen totally sucks against the Nationals, compiling a 7.71 ERA in 6 games. The good news about that, though, is that they have done so in only 7 innings. Seven innings from our bullpen in 6 games. Three complete games (including one shutout) will do that. Let's hope that Oswalt can follow the lead of the other starters, especially against John Lannan. Lannan continues to set records against the Phillies, but not the kind that he wants to. He's now 0-10 against us in his career with a 6.44 ERA. Our hitters have a combined .327 batting average against him with 8 home runs and 28 RBI in just 168 at-bats. That means we drive in a run every 5-6 at-bats against him. And, you guessed it, Chase Utley is nasty against this guy. He's a .440 hitter with 2 home runs and 6 RBI in 25 at-bats. Is this series even fair?
Prediction: Phillies 8 Nationals 3
Keep an eye out for: a multi-home run game from Utley