The Maturation of Michelle Wie

In the sagacious words of none other than long-time comic strip favorite Charlie Brown, "There is no heavier burden than great potential."

When you are a golfing prodigy anointed as "the next big thing" as a pre-teen, that can be a mighty lofty expectation to live up to.

And when your parents and handlers start turning this immense talent into a money machine before anything of significance has actually been accomplished, the red flags of disappointment start popping up all around.

Despite her extraordinary talent, Michelle Wie's bio is filled more with "firsts" and "youngest" rather than wins. Although she turned professional at the age of 15, in nearly a decade since she had mustered only three  LPGA tour wins and no major championships -- until this weekend.

At 24, Michelle Wie is now a LPGA Major Winner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wie may have been the youngest to qualify for the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship at age 10, and the youngest to make the cut at an LPGA tournament at age 13, and the youngest female to play a PGA tour event at age 14, shooting a 68, the lowest round ever for a female in a PGA event. But none of these "feel good moments" have anything to do with winning.

By turning Professional so young, she missed out on a big chunk of her amateur career, including the chance to play college golf.

In contrast, an even more hyped young golfer, one Tiger Woods, continued to play amateur events including two years of college golf at Stanford, before turning pro at 19. And during these extra amateur years, he clearly developed the skills and competitive fire which had him on track to becoming the greatest golfer of all time until personal issues and multiple injuries made his passing of Jack Nicklaus' Major Championship record of 18 victories less inevitable.    
    
So now at 24, with a Stanford degree to her credit, and a career-altering U.S. Open championship at the top of her resume, a more mature and more independent Wie may finally starting to conquer the burden of her great potential. 

Werth's Smart Feet

In yesterday's post, I lamented Ian Desmond's lack of discipline and situational awareness in a key at bat in what ended up as a 6-5 Nats win.

One night later, it was two extraordinarily-savvy base running maneuvers by Jason Werth that allowed the Nats to again beat the Astros by a score of 6-5.

In the third inning, Werth created a highlight-reel play. With Adam LaRoche striking out, and catcher Jason Castro's strong throw waiting for Werth to arrive at the bag on his attempted steal, it looked like a sure strike-him-out/throw-him-out double play. 

But instead of conceding failure, Werth quickly executed a perfect pop-up slide a few feet in front of second base, surprising Jose Altuve by narrowly avoiding his routine swipe tag. Then, after a quick two-step any tap-dancer would envy, Werth found the base with his right foot just before Altuve reversed the direction of his swipe in a second tag attempt. One batter later, Ian Desmond's clutch two-out single cashed in Werth's extraordinary effort.

While Werth's balletic steal received deserved love and attention as a SportsCenter Top Play, it was the crucial extra base he took in the seventh inning that really demonstrated his Mensa baseball IQ. 

On first with no outs after drawing a walk, Werth read LaRoche's bloop to short center perfectly. With Astros shortstop Jonathan  Villar, sprinting into the outfield with his back to home plate, Werth took a few shuffle steps toward second, and then took off in a full sprint well-before the ball hit the ground - even though Villar missed snagging the popup by no more than a few feet. 

Jason Werth's savvy sprint set up the tying score

Werth never hesitated rounding second, daring centerfielder Dexter Fowler to try to nab him at third. While a strong, accurate throw would have made for a very close tag-play, Fowler declined the challenge and simply lobbed the ball back to second base, ensuring that LaRoche, representing the go-ahead run,  didn't advance on the play.

From the read of the ball off of the bat, to daring  Fowler to make a heroic effort, Werth took full advantage of a situation where most runners would have been satisfied to just amble into second safely.

And when Werth scored the game tying run on Ryan Zimmerman's weak grounder to second, his smart gamble was rewarded as a key play in this come-from-behind Nats win.

         

When Five Tools Aren't Enough

It was only one at bat in a long season, but emblematic nonetheless of the gulf between a good Washington Nationals team, and their pursuit of championship-caliber baseball. The fact that it occurred in the first inning of what would become a 6-5 win over the lowly Astros doesn't matter. 

What does matter is that championship teams, recent World Series winners like the Red Sox and the Cardinals, just don't give away key at bats like this.

When Ian Desmond, an immensely talented five-tool shortstop approached the plate with one out and runners on second and third, the Nationals had already taken a 2-0 lead in the bottom half of the first against laboring Houston ace, Dallas Keuchel.  Desmond was anxious to deliver an early knockout blow. Perhaps too anxious.

Though Keuchel was clearly struggling with his command, having just served up a belt high fastball that Ryan Zimmerman had sent rocketing off the left-center field wall, Desmond just couldn't muster the batting eye or the discipline to wait for a hittable pitch.

The lack of plate discipline is trumping 
Ian Desmond's five-tool talent

His at bat started with two flailing swings at sliders in the dirt. Then, after working the count to 3 and 2, Desmond awkwardly lunged at another slider so low and inside that Houston catcher Jason Castro had to smother it before throwing down to first base to complete the strike out.

Yes, Desmond may be a five-tool player worthy of a 8-figure  contract in this era of inflated baseball salaries, but striking out in 6-pitch at bat without forcing the opposing hurler to throw even a single pitch in the strike zone, shows why the "sixth-tool" -- discipline --  can so often trump the other five. And this vital missing ingredient could easily prevent a very talented Nationals team from ever rising to championship-level.

Washington Nationals: Not Ready for Prime Time

   

If the Washington Nationals intend to be serious contenders for the National League pennant, they will first need to conquer their demons -- the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Its been a rough season so far against these top contenders, with the Nationals dropping 10 of the first 13 meetings (a .231 winning percentage) after suffering a three game sweep in St. Louis this weekend.

Adam LaRoche and the Nationals continue
to be frustrated by the Brave and Cardinals.

But this is just the continuation of a disturbing trend. Last year, the Nationals  barely won 30% of their games against playoff-bound teams, while taking care of their remaining weaker opponents at a better than .600 winning rate.

Though currently tied with Atlanta atop  the National League East, the Braves are actually one game under .500 when you omit their six games against the Nats. By contrast, the Nationals have 32 wins and only 23 losses when playing teams other than the  Braves and the Cardinals (a 58.3% winning percentage).

Unfortunately for the Nats, if they are able to make the playoffs in 2014, it won't be the Mets, Phillies, Marlins, or Rangers taking the field against them (against whom they have won 16 times in 23 starts through mid-June). It will likely be the Braves or the Cardinals in the opposing dugout. And the Nationals have yet prove they are capable of handling this higher-caliber of competition.  

The Nationals will get the another chance to overcome a nemesis next weekend, when the Braves come to town for a four game series.  It can't go much worse than their lost weekend in St. Louis.