The Nationals rule! Look for Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper in the all-star game Tuesday! (Prediction: Nats vs. Yankees in World Series)
>>>>>And of course the Phillies. I feel badly for Tamar, although the Phillies are not a team I cheer for for any other reason. It's not a surprise that they are in decline this year (after several sensational seasons in a row) but I doubt many people thought it would be this fast. Of course, the starting pitchers have been a factor. Oswalt left, Halladay has been on the DL, and Cliff Lee hasn't done a thing. You don't just shrug that off.
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>>>>Actually, Lee has mostly pitched well (plus spent some time on the DL). He was awful in June, but other than that, there were a bunch of games where he pitched well and they didn't score for him. The most notable was the 10 innings he pitched in San Francisco--9 scoreless, gave up 1 in the 10th to lose.
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>>>>Note that after his June 5th start, his ERA was 2.92; the no wins was just a weird fluke.
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>>>>Of course, last June, he was 5-0 with an ERA under 1.
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>>>I bow deeply in tribute to his one victory in the first 87 games ;-) What you say is correct but you can't dance around the bottom line.
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>>Which is why I think ERA or WHIP is a much better measure of what a pitcher has done than W-L record.
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>Probably true, but try bringing that up in contract negotiations.
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>Now here is one of my harebrained ideas. If you ever get tired of FoxPro you would be a demon of a player agent. Those owners and GMs wouldn't know what hit them.