But who cares what the Nationals think about themselves? Everyone loves what they see in the mirror. However, what the Phils think about the Nats might actually matter.
In particular, Manager Charlie Manuel’s opinion counts. If you ever read a statement from Manuel that is grammatically perfect, then he has been grievously misquoted. But his “baseball opinion” is one of the game’s most respected. And he’s that rare, old-school skipper who’ll sit in the dugout for an hour analyzing every player on both teams.
The Nats think they are close to being pretty good. And they sell that theory. Manuel doesn’t buy it. He knows that for every Jimmy Rollins who’s a star at 22, there are two Chase Utleys or Ryan Howards who don’t break out big until 26. But he still likes what he sees.
“The Nationals are a couple, three years away,” Manuel said before the Phillies won Thursday’s series finale, 4-0. “But they are determined to get it right. They have a plan now. They have definitely improved already. They’ve always played us a lot of close games until the late innings. But then their defense, and [mental] mistakes, they’d just absolutely give us . . . [pause] . . . Let’s say if you stayed with ’em, they’d usually beat themselves. But that’s changing.
“They’ve played every team in the division already. They play the Braves better now; the Mets and Marlins, too. And it looks like they play us better.”
The manager’s central insight, however, is that the Nats used to have few players with any chance of ever being standouts. Now, as he evaluates Jordan Zimmermann, Danny Espinosa, Ian Desmond, Drew Storen and Wilson Ramos, Manuel repeats: “He has a chance to be real good. . . . The Nationals don’t know yet which of them will work out. But that’s what you want when you are building a team: players everywhere who have a chance to become something special. And some of ’em will be, too.
“When [Stephen] Strasburg gets back — and almost all of those Tommy John [surgery] guys do come back — he’s going to be a big star. By his last game last year against us, he’d already picked up another pitch: a cutter at 92. So he’s a fast learner.”
This week, two-time Cy Young winner Halladay told Manuel that the game had changed in recent years. A big fastball, even 95-plus mph, wasn’t enough any more, not without command.
“Doc said, ‘They make me pay in the middle of the plate,’ ” Manuel said. “Today’s hitters will barrel up that 96, even if they are a little late on it, and hit it over the opposite-field fence, especially in our yard. Watch Werth, Howard and Ryan Zimmerman do it.”
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