The Naturals are again tied for first place in the North Division at 14-16 (not bad after starting 4-12). It's a little difficult to get really excited about a first place club, though that's still lost more games than they've won. That is certainly not the case lately, though. The Naturals have now won 10 of their last 14 games and are legitimately hot. They're winning with pitching, including the arms or Pimentel and Rosa. They're also winning with hitting, including the power of Richardson, Kaaihue, and McFall as well as the bats of Sanchez and Duarte.
Streak
The Naturals are on quite a streak and appear to have made themselves right at home at the 'Vest. Sunday was the 6th consecutive win at home for the Naturals and they've won 8 of their last 10 at home. They'll have to continue the streak, and the hot play in general in the absence of their most effective relief pitcher Devon Lowery.
Prospect Watch
Lowery was promoted to AAA Omaha last week. While with the Naturals Lowery struck out 17 while walking only 5 in 13 innings of work. Lowery also posted a team best 0.69 ERA. Given his success with the Naturals, it seems likely he'll survive the jump to AAA. While ERA is a poor indicator of future success (at least in my estimation), his K/BB ratio of 3.4 and the fact that he hadn't allowed a single home run indicate potential to continue dominating hitters.
Strategy Note
With two runs in and nobody out in the third inning on Saturday Juan Richardson attempted an enigmatic steal of third base. He was easily thrown out by the Tulsa catcher, and what could have been a huge inning was stopped dead in its tracks as the Naturals failed to score again.
There's an old baseball saying that you never make the first or third out at third base. This is definitely a case where one should adhere to that rule. The Nat's had an opportunity to blow the game open, but instead ran themselves out of the inning. It's hard to imagine what Poldberg or Richardson thought would be gained by the steal, but it was idiotic.
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About this Blog:
In this, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals' inaugural season, I thought it would be fun to create a blog to discuss the team, and to provide some additional, original content on Arkansas' newest professional sports franchise.
I will try to focus on three things:
1. Day to day results of the Naturals' games, including as many first-hand accounts as I can give you.
2. Rehab assignments and call-ups to and from the Royals.
3. Game strategy notes plucked from Naturals games. I'll discuss pitching changes and offensive strategies, evaluating each as we go. Afterall, it's not just the players, but also the the managers and coaches who are trying to make it to the show.
In this, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals' inaugural season, I thought it would be fun to create a blog to discuss the team, and to provide some additional, original content on Arkansas' newest professional sports franchise.
I will try to focus on three things:
1. Day to day results of the Naturals' games, including as many first-hand accounts as I can give you.
2. Rehab assignments and call-ups to and from the Royals.
3. Game strategy notes plucked from Naturals games. I'll discuss pitching changes and offensive strategies, evaluating each as we go. Afterall, it's not just the players, but also the the managers and coaches who are trying to make it to the show.
2 comments:
Yup, viewed as one individual play, a steal attempt like that is definitely idiotic.
However, I absolutely love Poldberg and the Nats' aggressive baserunning in general. It's provided a spark that our bats are missing. It also protects our hitters... they'll see more pitches if opposing teams learn to fear putting our guys on base, it keeps opposing pitchers distracted, often throwing from the stretch, minimizes hitting into double plays, etc.
Aggressive baserunning really adds up in a dozen subtle, often intangible ways and I think it has paid off. Perhaps the occasional silly-looking anti-textbook steal attempt is worth the occasional costly out to keep opposing managers and pitchers off-balance?
The proof is in the pudding - it's pretty hard to argue with the baserunning strategy of a team that's dead last in the league in team batting (by quite a lot) but still manages to lead their division. Quality pitching is critical, of course, but I think that baserunning and manufactured runs have quite important to our success.
It makes for entertaining baseball, too. I'd much rather watch a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt, double-steal, squeeze play or a guy stretching a hit into a double or triple than just a ball sailing over the outfield fence. I'm sure most baseball guys (like yourself) would agree. :)
Absolutely LOVE the blog, by the way... please keep it up!
Go Naturals!
Chris Koester
I totally agree that the aggressive baserunning has done things that the bats weren't doing. I also agree that the Nats should, and hope that they do, keep up the aggresive baserunning that has been their spark.
That said, there is a time and a place. I just felt like, given the offensive struggles there was no good reason to run in that particular situation. They were hitting the ball that inning, until this move knocked the wind out of their sails.
From my playing days I always remember it felt like I got punched in the gut when I was up and a runner in scoring position was eliminated. It's much easier to hit with a run out there.
Thanks for the compliment - the thing seems to be gaining some momentum.
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