2012 Memories: Rick Ankiel's Throw

Rick Ankiel: The Throw

Rick Ankeil's best play as a Washingon National may have been a play where the team didn't even record an out.  In the April 16th game against the Houston Astros, Ankiel showed off his former-pitcher cannon arm on a play to prevent a runner from tagging up at third base and scoring.

Ankiel made the routine catch and then fired a perfect strike to the catcher.  Do not bounce once.  Do not get cutoff.  Do not collect $200.

While the Astros didn't seem like they were going to test Ankiel's arm anyway, the throw by Ankiel reinforced the decision for all teams to not underestimate his arm.

The throw was beautiful.  It ended up turning into national news and found it's way to the PTI program where Tony Kornheiser described the throw as "The Bomb".

Mets @ Nationals: Game Preview (7/19)

Mets vs Nationals

12:35 PM Nationals Park

MASN-1

Story Lines:

• The match up of the series, Gio vs Dickey.  If you have to, take off work to get to the park.
• The Nationals will try and complete the 3 game sweep, taking a bigger hold on 1st place.

Pitching Match Up:

• R.A. Dickey
• 12-1 with a 2.66 ERA.
• Is third in the NL with 127 strikeouts. (tied)
• Gave up 5 runs on 8 hits in 5 innings during his last start.

• Gio Gonzalez
• 12-4 with a 2.93 ERA.
• Is third in the NL with 127 strikeouts. (tied) 
• Gave up 2 runs on 5 hits in 6 innings during his last start.

Who to Watch:

•  Lucas Duda
• Batting .500 lifetime against Gio Gonzalez.
• Only has faced Gonzalez 3 times, reached base twice. (once on a walk)
• Went 1-4 last night with 2 strikeouts.

Keys to the Game:

1. Get to Dickey Early.  He has been hittable his last few starters...don't let him get back into his groove.
2. Complete Game.  Okay, so Gio doesn't have to pitch all nine, but having the game out of reach before the pen relieves him will help a tired looking relief core.
3. Cut Back LOB.  Nats stranded 10 last game.  With Dickey, that won't cut it.

Ankiel's Throw Makes PTI

This was on the What's The Word segment of Pardon The Interruption on Tuesday (Listen to the podcast here).

Rick Ankiel's throw last night was __________.

Tony:  NUCLEAR-DETERRENT

Wilbon:  JUNIORIFIC

Tony called Ankiel's throw "the bomb" and said that is why he started as a pitcher.  I dunno about TK sometimes.

Wilbon went straight to name dropping with Ken Griffey Junior and didn't talk about Ankiel much. He mentioned Willie Mays & Clemente.

Tony admits he was wrong when he said Ankiel couldn't be an everyday player years ago.

See what the PTI guys had to say about the Caps fans taunting Tim Thomas at Caps Basketball

Roster Updates

Storen

Tyler Clippard is pretty reliable as the 8th inning guy but I'm not sure what to think when it comes to the closer slot.  With the news that Drew Storen will be out for a long long time we are going to have to live with the unpredictability of Brad Lidge and Henry Rodriguez.

Lidge's first save came on opening day and he would have blown it if not for the insane wind keeping a Cubs drive to right field in the ballpark.  In his next save attempt on home opening day he blew the save.

I'm not sure either guy will emerge as the #1 closer and we may have half a season of closer by committee.

Morse

The news on Mikey Morse is that he won't be back for over a month, maybe 2.  That is not good news because the Nationals haven't exactly been driving in runs.  The Nats have lucked out with Adam LaRoche who seems to be back to his old form and along with Ian Desmond the two have been carrying the Nats.  The Nats need that 30 HR potential in the lineup.

Ankiel

Rick Ankiel will be returning to start in center field tomorrow.  Ankiel played in 7 rehab games in A and AA and he hit 3 homers.  Hopefully he can step right in and beef up the centerfield position in the lineup.  He is a little upgrade on Bernadina who has only 3 hits in 24 at bats (.175) this season.  

It would appear that Brett Carroll will be sent down because Davy hasn't used him much at all (1 AB).  He was pinch running, but I think Lombardozzi who has been used as a pinch hitter/late inning utility fielder may be more valuable right now.

Harper

The Chosen One is only batting .222 up in Syracuse and he has yet to hit a home run in 27 at bats. I'm not sure they move him up to the big team right on the day that they are allowed to, they may want him to get some more AAA at bats.

Season Preview: Nationals Batting Order

The Nationals are starting the season two starters short.  Most of the Nats have batted all over the lineup and if they haven't they probably will this season.  This is really hard to predict, and Davy Johnson is sure to do a lot of tweaking:

1.  Ian Desmond:  The Nationals have never really had a leadoff hitter.  They think that Desmond can be the man although last season he batted 2nd a lot as well as at the bottom of the lineup.  He did lead the team with 25 steals, only 26th best in the majors.

2.  Danny Espinosa:  Espy had a surprising rookie year with 21 home runs.  Like Desmond he has moved all over the lineup, often batting in the 6th spot due to his power potential.  This year they are gonna start him in the 2nd slot, but we could see Werth there as well.

3.  Ryan Zimmerman:  This guy is the 3 man.  He is a Nationals staple.  Despite Morse leading the team in almost every batting stat including average, the Nats like Zimmerman in this spot due to his consistency.

4.  Michael Morse/Adam LaRoche:  LaRoche had a terrible offensive year last season before he was injured.  He played 42 games and hit .172.  That is worse than terrible.  With Morse returning to the lineup soon LaRoche will probably move down to 6th to make room for Matt.

5.  Jayson Werth:  While Werth followed up one of his best seasons with an egg for the Nationals he still ended up with 20 home runs.  His numbers were down just about across the board, but if he can at least get a little bit closer to his 2010 form, he will have a good rebound year.  If.

6:  Adam LaRoche/Mark DeRosa:  As discussed already LaRoche may find himself down in the lineup.  DeRosa is just a fill in the blank guy.  He will fill in on different guys off days and probably move all over the lineup.

7:  Rick Ankiel/Roger Bernadina:  Ankiel has lost quite a bit of his power over the last few years and will probably be towards the end of the lineup.  Bernadina is just filling in and he can lead off or bat just about anywhere in the lineup as well.

8:  Wilson Ramos:  WilRam showed a little bit of power in his "rookie" year.  He hit 15 home runs. He found himself up in the lineup at times last season but Davy Johnson pretty much liked him hitting back here.

9:  Pitcher Spot:  Hopefully Gio can figure out how to survive an at bat...

Bryce Harper:  We are going to wait a month to find out where the Nats are at when Bryce comes up.  It's too early right now.