NL East Standings Sans Nats

The Nats 5-22 record against NL East got me curious of what the NL East standings would look like if you excluded the games those teams played against the Nats:

Total v WSH sans WSH

W L GB W L W L GB

NYM 27 21 - 5 1 22 20 -

PHI 26 20 - 8 2 18 18 1

ATL 24 24 3 4 2 20 22 2

FLA 22 27 5 6 0 16 27 6.5

As you might expect, since the Nats are the punching bag of every team in the division, excluding the Nats doesn't have a dramatic effect, with the primary difference being due to the disproportionate number of times each team has gotten to play the Nats (the Mets 1 game lead over the Phillies in the sans Nats standings is due to having played the Nats 4 more times than the Mets). The most interesting team is Florida; other than beating up on the Nats, they are clearly a pretty bad team themselves.

Has Manny Given Up?

I've been with the "Fire Manny" crowd for quite a while. However, after reading Chris Needham's take that there is a Dead Manny Walking in Natstown, my bloodlust has turned to sadness.

Look Out Allen Trammell and Art Fletcher, Manny Is Gaining On You

After the latest debacle (a 7-4 loss to the Mets' JV squad), if (when?) the Nationals lose 10 more games in a row, Manny Acta will pass Allen Trammell for the 9th worst winning percentage for a manager in the 100+ year history of major league baseball. Manny's 145-224 record equates to a .394 winning percentage, which currently ranks 281 out of 290 managers who have managed 320 or more games. Once he "passes" Trammell, Manny will only need to lose 2 more in a row to pass the inimitable Art Fletcher, who sported a 237-383 record between 1923 and 1929. If he could convince some crazy GM to hire him, Trammell could come out of retirement to protect his place in history. That is not an option for Art Fletcher, who died in 1950.

No manager in the bottom 50 winning percentages ever won a pennant. In case you're wondering, if the Nats can start a 35 game winning streak on Friday in Philadelphia, Manny will climb out of the bottom 50.

Congratulations, Chris Marrero

Potomac Nationals first baseman Chris Marrero was named Carolina League Player of the Week for the week of May 18-24. He hit .429 in those seven games with two home runs, 11 RBI and notched 4 multi-hit games.

I took this picture of Chris batting against the Lynchburg Hillcats on May 24. The P-Nats won 4-1. On that day, Chris went 2 for 4 with 2 rbi.