Daniel Murphy's Ass Is Doing Better And He Should Be In The Lineup Tomorrow

Federal Baseball - By the time he takes the field for Game 1 of the NLDS, assuming he’s healthy and able to return, Daniel Murphy will have been out of action for twenty days, aside from three pinch hit appearances. The left buttock strain which limited Murphy down the stretch still has not completely healed, apparently, but both General Manager Mike Rizzo and Nationals’ skipper Dusty Baker said yesterday they think the 31-year-old infielder will be ready for the division series.

“I think he’s going to be ready for Game 1,” Rizzo said, as quoted by Washington Times’ writer Todd Dybas. “I feel confident about that.”

“I know he’s working hard towards it,” Baker said, when he met with reporters after the Nationals’ first workout of the week on Tuesday.

“I was late here because I was watching him run, which is probably the biggest obstacle that we’re trying to overcome. But he looked pretty good at second base. We didn’t have him range very far right or left, and then I saw him running with Harvey, one of our trainers, so, he looked pretty good. He’s come a long ways from where he was.”

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Besides Stephen Strasburg’s arm, Daniel Murphy’s ass has been the biggest pain for the Nats this season. Having both Stras and Murph on the sidelines down the stretch was ok because the Nats opened a big enough lead in the division, but not having them for the playoff run was going to be rather problematic. Today we get the good news that Murph’s ass is feeling better. While he’s not 100% healthy, even an 80% Murphy is better than no Murphy at all. Guys who hit .347 with 25 bombs and over 100 RBI don’t exactly grow on trees. The Nats only chance of advancing will be with a somewhat healthy Murphy continuing his postseason dominance from last season and this year’s regular season supremacy.

Without Strasburg, the Nats are much weaker in post season ball. While Scherzer is obviously an ace, and Roark was outstanding this year, Gio was bad at best. Having 2 good pitchers is wonderful, but having 3, including Stras who had Cy Young type shit this year, would be miles better. So to the playoffs we go, with high but realistic hopes.