The Nationals bullpen is a tire fire. Theyre about to add another tire. Per Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports, Washington is about to sign free agent reliever Francisco Rodriguez.

K-Rod was released by the Tigers last week after posting an ERA of 7.82 over 28 appearances this season. He has a 1.658 WHIP, is allowing 11.9 hits per nine innings and is posting his highest walk rate in five years. Also worth noting: the Detroit Friggin Tigers decided that he was not good enough to be in their bullpen.

So, yeah, good luck with that Washington.

Ive spent years arguing with people about team chemistry. You know the battle lines on all of that now: people who talk a lot about team chemistry tend to attribute winning or losing to good or bad chemistry, respectively. I tend to think that characterizing chemistry is a retroactive exercise in which teams that win are happy and then cite their happiness as the reason and vice versa. Jim Leyland agrees with me, for what its worth, so Im pretty happy with my take.

Not that Ill claim a monopoly on wisdom here. Ive never played on a professional baseball team. I dont know what its like to try to prepare to play baseball while surrounded by jackwagons who dont get along with anyone. I cant imagine that makes life easier. Indeed, based on the testimony of players I have spoken to, I will grant thatthere is at least some intangible yet real benefitif everyone is happy an gelling. I dismiss team chemistry arguments for the most part, but if I ran a team Id at least try to get rid of bad seeds if their bad seeding was not outweighed by seriously outstanding on-the-field play. You want your workers happy, folks.

All of which makes me wonder what the heck to do about this passage from Ken Rosenthals latest column. Its about the reeling San Francisco Giants. They have all kinds of issues their offense is putrid, their pitching isnt much better and theyve been without their ace most of the year but today Rosenthal looks at their team chemistry. Its a quiet and subdued clubhouse, he notes, and it has a lot of people wondering if something is wrong there. What could it be?

Sandoval, who was an often noisy and boisterous presence during his time with the club, departed as a free agent after that season. Pence has suffered a number of injuries in recent years and declined offensively, making it difficult for him to be as vocal as he was in the past. Some with the Giants muse that the team even misses Angel Pagan, who created an odd sort of unity because most of the players disliked him.

Read that last sentence again. And then go on with your talk about how team chemistry is a legitimate explanatory concept regarding what makes teams win or lose as opposed to a post-hoc rationalization of it.

Not that its not a good article overall. Theres some interesting stuff about the Giants bullpen culture. And, of course, we now know why no one signed Pagan last winter.

Giants ace Madison Bumgarner tossed three no-hit innings yesterday in his first minor league rehab start with the Giants Arizona Rookie League team. He struck out two and walked a guy, while sitting in the 88-91 m.p.h. range on his fastball.

Bumgarner, who is coming back from a sprained left AC joint in his shoulder suffered in a dirt bike accident in April, will return to San Francisco to throw a bullpen session and then go back on the road for more rehab games. Thats a lot of traveling, but the Giants obviously want to monitor his progress. At the moment hes expected to build up his strength for the next several weeks and, hopefully, return to the Giants rotation some time after the All-Star break.

Of course, there shouldnt be too much of a rush. The Giants have lost five in a row and 12 of 13 and currently sit in last place, 24.5 games behind the Dodgers. At this point Bumgarner rushing to rejoin the Giants is like an Australian soldier getting a wound dressed to hurry back to the Gallipoli Campaign.

Originally posted here:
The Nats are going to sign Francisco Rodriguez for some reason - HardballTalk (blog)