The Nationals Are Out Of In-House Bullpen Fixes

Plus hope for Andrew McCutchen and progress for Byron Buxton. [View this email in your browser]( A Bullpen In Crisis The Nationals are one of the best teams in baseball, and they have one of the worst bullpens. That this is true isn't particularly surprising; after Washington let [Mark Melancon]( walk and missed out on other big-name closers in free agency last winter, it was very apparent that relief pitching would be their weak spot. There's no number that can make their situation look appealing here—they're one of four teams with a negative bullpen WAR, giving up more home runs and inducing more ground balls than almost any other club—and their relief pitching in yesterday's doubleheader demonstrated some of their issues rather perfectly. Five runs allowed in the eighth and ninth innings across the two games meant two blown saves, only one of which could be salvaged by late heroics at the plate. About six weeks ago, Jeff Sullivan wrote an article titled ["Blake Treinen Is Going To Close."]( That title was, of course, true at the time—but it only remained so for a little less than three weeks, as Dusty Baker then removed a struggling Treinen from the ninth inning and opted for a closer-by-committee approach instead. This has meant splitting time between [Shawn Kelley]( who originally seemed like the team's single choice for closer before they announced their hesitation about his Tommy John surgeries, and [Koda Glover]( who also at one point looked like the closer pick before the 24-year-old was dubbed too green to start the season with the job. It's also meant a lot more visibility for two guys who have been much better than projected, but still not enough to salvage the situation—[Matt Albers]( enough for him to finally break his near-record streak of ending games with recording a save, and [Jacob Turner]( who's already pitched nearly as many major-league innings as he did in all of last year. That mix hasn't been working, and it represents just about every option available to the Nationals right now—and as Dave Cameron writes today, that means that their best hope now is to start[looking for outside help]( [FanGraphs produces over 400 articles each month, in addition to our ever-growing database of stats and graphs. Support our efforts today!]( Today on FanGraphs: [A Case for Optimism Regarding Andrew McCutchen]( This month's writer-in-residence, Alex Stumpf, makes the case today for reason to be hopeful about [Andrew McCutchen's]( slow start to the season—looking at some evidence that points to his struggles being due in part to simple bad luck that should fade with time. [Subscribe to our Podcasts!]( Catch up on past newsletters or pass along to a friend [here](. Data Visualization of the Day: [Byron Buxton Is Slowing Down In The Good Way]( After a tough first month of the season,[Byron Buxton]( has started to see things click. Travis Sawchik chats with the former top prospect today about the changes he's made and the progress that's resulted. Excerpt: ["2017 Home-to-First Times"]( by Jeff Zimmerman "Fantasy owners may believe speed is mainly used to determine stolen base threats. It’s more than that. It’s an input to many other fantasy related factors which can help explain a player’s age-related decline. Faster players will beat out a few extra ground balls for hits thereby raising their batting average and on-base percentage. Speed allows a player to score more once on base. It can add to a [hitter’s power profile]( [FORWARD]( [SUBSCRIBE]( Copyright © 2017 FanGraphs Inc, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the FanGraphs Newsletter. Our mailing address is: FanGraphs Inc 1200 N Hartford St. Apt 312Arlington, Va 22201 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](