There is one thing very important to understand about Tyler Clippard. He has not only been one of the Nationals best relievers, but one of the best relievers in the NL. His ERA this season is almost double that of his last season with a 2012 ERA of 3.59 compared to last season's ERA of 1.83 but his FIP is virtually the same at 3.21 in 2012 compared to 3.17 in 2011. The year before that in 2010 he had an ERA of 3.07 and FIP of 3.18. For three straight seasons Tyler Clippard has been the same pitcher, and a very good one at that.
His recent struggles shouldn't be used as proof of anything. There is no such thing as a closers mentality in baseball and the only thing that is different about the ninth inning is that when it ends the game is over. When Clippard blew the save last night there should have been a feeling of disappointment in the crowd, but not the level of vitriol and in some cases downright hatred that was spewed at Tyler Clippard.
The year 2012 has been pretty awesome for the Washington Nationals at the major league level, but there were quite a few disappointments amongst their good prospects. Due to the trading of four top-15 prospects in the Gio Gonzalez deal and having Bryce Harper, Steve Lombardozzi and Tyler Moore graduate to the big leagues, the Nats’ top prospect list looks much weaker than it did in December.
Some players who I expected to fall into the places left by Harper, AJ Cole,
Brad Peacock, etc. looked good this year; we’ll take a look at guys like
Brian Goodwin and
Alex Meyer in a few weeks. On the other hand, many other prospects that we’ll look at today underwhelmed in 2012 and will need to work hard this winter to bounce back in 2013. There are two categories that the disappointments fall into: injuries or poor performance. The prospects with the highest ceilings were generally the ones that had injury issues this year while the borderline guys fell into the wrong side of the border with poor performance.
Welcome to the Post Season Nats fans! Susan and Frank talk about What goes on in the Post Season, how it works this year, and how it may help and hurt the Nats. Plus, Frank rants about Umpires, "The Human Element" and the Dodgers.
Episode 15
Now that the Nats have clinched a berth into the playoffs there are a lot of debates that can be had about who should be on the playoff roster and how that roster should be used. One of the hotly debated topics is going to be the post-season closer. Tyler Clippard is a great reliever. In 2011 he was, along with Jonny Venters, one of the best set-up men in baseball. Moving into the closers role this season he hasn't been as good as he was in 2011, but he has still been good.
The thing with Tyler Clippard though is he is a finesse pitcher. That sounds like a weird way to describe a pitcher with one of the best fastballs in baseball, but that fastball only averages 92.7 MPH in 2012 compared to Drew Storen at 94.5. Clippard is not a fire balling pitcher and he strikes batters out using deception. Clippard alternates between his fastball up in the zone and his change-up down in the zone rarely mixing in a breaking ball. The real negative on Clippard is that when he gets ahead in the count he can become predictable and fall into a pattern of alternating between the fastball high and a change-up low.
On the heels of clinching a playoff berth the Citizens crew talks the week in Nats news, Stats, Mike Trout, the upcoming week in Nats baseball, the meaning of winning the division and MUCH more!
Much has been discussed about the 'premature' shutdown of Stephen Strasburg, as the Nationals head into the last month of the regular season with a commanding lead over the Atlanta Braves for the top spot in the NL East. I won't inundate you with links for the thoughts, and opinions of many who have weighed in on the matter; a bit of googling or 30 seconds of listening in to the sports talk radio show of your liking will give you all of the fodder you need to keep abreast of the situation. In the end, the decision to keep Strasburg at what many consider to be a pedestrian 160ish innings for the season, postseason be damned, rests with but a handful of people; those people will continue to toe the company line, and say that this decision was done with the best of intentions, not only for Strasburg, but for the collective futures of those affiliated with the Nationals.
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With his 19th homer on Saturday in Atlanta Bryce Harper passed Mel Ott for second on the list of most homers by a player in their age 19 season. Bryce Harper is also 3rd in SLG, OPS, and total bases for a player in their age 19 season. Harper has been nothing short of amazing and is having a historic season. If you look at the names alongside Harper in these categories there is Ott's age 19 season in 1928 and Tony Conigliaro in 1964. From this it can be concluded that what Harper is doing is a once in a generation event, but should it even be a factor in the NL rookie of the year voting.
Harper's season might be historic for a 19 year old but it can be argued that it is just a typical good rookie season. Mike Trout is having a historic season for a rookie in the AL while Harper's season is just about what should be expected from a rookie of the year candidate. As far as position players go Harper has a commanding lead in fWAR over Todd Fraizer with a 4.0 fWAR for Harper and a 2.8 fWAR for Fraizer. That is mostly due to Harper's elite fielding in centerfield compared to Fraizer's below average defense at a less premier position. When it comes to strictly offense Fraizer has an advantage with an .862 OPS compared to .793 for Harper.
