Matt Williams Made Another Absolutely Baffling/Idiotic Decision Last Night As The Nats Got Destroyed By The DBacks
That was a decision made by a major league manager who is so way, way in over his head. It’s hard to believe that here in year 2 of being a major league manager he still butchers and botches pretty basic decisions on a night to night basis. I mean forget all the decisions from last year and in the playoffs, go to the Mets game from Friday where he fucking intentionally walked Cespedes to bring up Duda instead of just going to a lefty from the pen (from @NatsBarstool blog about how bad Matt Williams is):
Williams’ ineptitude was on full display during Saturday’s game against the Mets when, in the 8th inning with the score tied at 2, 1 out, and Curtis Granderson on 2nd base, Matt Williams told Thornton to intentionally walk Yoenis Cespedes. That’s right, the same Cespedes who is hitting .181 against lefties this season (for reference, Dan Uggla is hitting .194 all season). Who was the batter that Williams was getting to? Was it some soft-hitting shortstop? Nope, it was red hot Lucas Duda who had already homered twice in the game. Duda hit a double and ultimately drove in what would be the Mets’ winning run. I really can’t believe I think that this could be even possible— but is Williams dumb enough to think that Duda was ‘due’ for an out since he had already homered twice? How does he not know Cespedes can’t hit lefties? How does he walk him to bring up the hottest hitter on the Mets? It’s insanity.
The decision last night to let Gio hit then yank him after one batter was so mindnumbingly idiotic I can’t think about anything else. Well I guess I also can’t get over how he keeps trotting fucking Aaron Barrett out there every fucking game despite that guy not having a clue about how to pitch. It seems Bad News Barrett has appearances in 100 games this year. Matt Williams loves him, the rest of us can’t figure out why.
What else sucked from last night? At one point the DBacks had 11 hits to the Nats 3. Why? Because only 3 guys in the lineup hit over .250. Escobar, Rendon, and Harper. And who had those 3 hits but the only 3 people on the Nats who hit for any sort of average. Nobody else can get on base. Nobody does anything. At least Ian Desmond was on the bench so Espinosa could go 0/4 instead. Werth is hitting .200, Zimm .210, and Tyler Moore pitched for the first time in high school and looked like the best pitcher of the night. I mean this team is a fucking mess.
The good news is there’s still a lot of baseball to be played, 56 games to be exact. A ton can happen between now and then. For one, the bats can obviously heat up. Zimm and Werth missed so much time, they can get into a groove and get back to where they should be. Rendon can find his power. Span will return from the DL and bring his .300+ average, speed, and gold glove defense with him. Strasburg will return and hopefully return to the form he had in the few starts before he got hurt. And Trea Turner can be called up from AAA and provide that spark the team needs.
PS: The other good news is I got one of those Jayson Werth chia pets that I’ll be watering every day. If that doesn’t turn him around/get him not to be lazy in the outfield, I don’t know what will.