Nationals Baseball
STILL A NO CABBAGE ZONE THOUGH
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Nats in the playoffs! Well former Nats at least...
Potential Nats related rooting interests in the opening round... Philadelphia vs Atlanta Ok so not a real "Nats friendly" series here to start with given it's two NL East rivals. The Phillies have Bryce who did nothing wrong but fans still dislike for being a bit weird and going to a rival. They also have Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner and former Nats prospect Jesus Luzardo AND Derek Hill who played 13 games for the Nats in 2023. It's Nats-tastic! The Braves have...
Season Over - A success but with caveats
The Nationals 2026 season is over and finishing at 77-85 with their best record since 2019 is a pretty obvious sign that this was a successful season. More than that, spending a good chunk of the season flirting with relevance and watching the new regime shore up the minors without doing much tearing down of the majors helps give the fanbase some hope that good times are coming sooner rather than later. As we look back in retrospect, the season leaves us with good vibes, though ones slightly d...
Wrapping up the season a little Early
Connelly Early goes tomorrow. The return in the Curtis Mead trade he's been hurt most of the time since then with elbow stuff. It may seem weird to let him start when they just shut down Cavalli to avoid a strange last second injury but Early is still stretching out post injury and was likely to make one more AAA start so why not give him something in the majors? He's already pitched 90 innings this season so it's not like this matters. It's a deal neither team won this year, and t...
Cavalli sits - anything to worry about?
Cade Cavalli just signed a 4 year "extension". I used those quotations because it was really a one-year extension, buying out the first year of Cade's potential free agency. With his performance it's hard to think of a situation where they wouldn't keep him on the roster the next three seasons to finish out their control, even through injury. Assuming he can make it through 2027 without major incident this contract is a bargain for the Nats. Cade of course takes it because it...
Monday Quickie - Better than a lot of previous years!
Over the weekend the Nats secured wins number 72 and 73. Win 72 ensured their best record since the magic year of 2019. Win 73 keeps them from losing 90 games, a nice symbolic line to cross. There's no doubt this Nats team is the best Nats team of the past few seasons, probably the best since 2021. That team ended up with a worse record but was on track for mid 70s in wins before dealing all their good players but Soto at the trade deadline. This team isn't quite a "nor...
Answers and Questions
We're getting to the end of the season. What has been answered (I think). Catcher - After a mid-season Keibert Ruiz slump Ruiz has hit again and no one has pressed him at all. So he'll be the starter next year while they cycle through some of the same guys and some new ones as a back-up/future catchers. RF - James Wood - duh ??? - Daylen Lile and Andres Chaparro. They've hit and they're cheap. I imagine at least one if not both will be starting next year but with ...
RECORD SETTERS LAST PLACE
What a goddman joke end of the season. Shut up and enjoy your rebuild fans! Buy your season tickets for next year because we swear we will try then!
How low can they go?
When the Nats traded a handful of good players* it was thought that it would hurt but the Nats weren't going for anything anyway. Get some more ABs and IP for some kids and get ready for 2027. But the Nats just haven't been bad, they've been one of the worst teams in baseball - and for a while now thanks to the loss of James Wood to injury. An 8-20 worst since July 28th. A 24-38 third-worst since June 16th. Are you not entertained? No you are not. What...
Monday Quickie - Where are we with Keibert?
One of the great questions for the Nats going into the season was "what the hell are they going to do at catcher?" Keibert Ruiz had been terrible for several years and the pipeline for catcher was as weak as any position for the Nats, with newly acquired Harry Ford being the next hope that was unlikely to pay off. But something funny happened this year. Keibert got good (well at the plate) and the pipeline started filling up. On Keibert, arguably this version looks a LOT like what ...
Monday Quickie - Dead Cat bounce is done
The Nats are done for the season. In reality they were done for the season at the start of the season and the way the ownership approached the building of the team should have made that clear. But as we didn't expect anything from the season we didn't know they were committed to NOT trying until that actually became an issue. The Nats right now are were the management expected them to be. A team stripped of the usable veteran parts they picked up with one "star" bat in ...
Foster Griffin - we barely knew ya
The Nats only make one more deal but as expected it's for Foster Griffin. To Cleveland for four guys pitchers Will Dion, Kendeglys Virguez, and Josh Hartle, and outfielder Nick Mitchell If you thought the Garcia haul was about quantity this one REALLY is about quantity. But to be fair that is what Griffin should bring back - next to nothing. He's been good but his ERA is under what the fancy stats say it should be. He's a back end starter for 2 ...
Garcia traded for quantity
The Nats get Yovanny Cruz , Jake Bird , Ben Grable and Jack Cebert. Cebert is the one the Nats are probably most hopeful for - a starter that probably ends the season Top 10 in the Yankees prospect lists. One of their college arms that they turn into decent prospects. He ruled High A then struggled in AA but might be turning that around too. The main issue with Cebert is that he turns 25 next year so when a true stud should be rounding into major leagu...
Who's here and who's not - Make your guesses
I'll go with NEARLY everyone gone. Garcia and Griffin sure. I'll say Williams for scraps. And hell Chaparro and Crews for some random arms because they need random arms and not random bats. I'll say though when the smoke clears Abrams is still here. I think they are looking to get blown away for CJ. They won't be because the market doesn't look at an out of position guy having possibly a career year the same way they look at a Sot. Not that THAT'S the benchmark for the de...
Bring Back Max?
The Nats need pitching help. The Jays might be doing some minor selling in the hopes of resetting for 2027. Max Scherzer is a Jay and won't cost much given his recent injuries and performance issues. So... bring back Max? Ehhhhh Scherzer blossomed into an ace in 2012 with the Tigers and the Nats managed to snatch him up in free agency getting his best years with arguably the second best FA contract of all time (I still say Randy Johnson's 4 Cy Young in 4 years beats it, sorry*) He ...
Monday Quickie - Still Here
One thing you have to realize about the Nats is they HAVEN'T made a big push to remain in the Wild Card hunt. 6-4 in last 10. 8-7 in last 15. In mid June they reached 39-35 and they've gone 15-17 since and they've gone from in the WC and up a game to one game out of the Wild Card. The middle of the NL is extremely soft. There are no very good teams beyond possibly the Phillies (and I'm not 100% sold on them). There are six basically equal teams looking to ge...
Bought and Sold
Like we said - why not both. Bats for arms. Mead for Early In losing Mead they lose a power bat whose prospect history suggests could keep this up. The major league results are spottier but he’s young enough you can see a team still buying into scouting In gaining Early the get a rotation worthy arm who’s probably more a 3/4 but a 3/4 with lots of control left. A spot that doesn’t have to be filled with cash or FA gambles. That is if he can stay healthy. He ...
Buy, Sell? Why not both?
That's the implication of what we've heard from Toboni recently . This makes sense. The organization likely came into the year thinking SELL SELL SELL but given the team has shown themselves to have a playoff caliber offense they would be shooting a gift horse in the mouth to do that. You want a great offense. You have it. You want great pitching. EH. So the goal should be to get good pitching. Simple? Well it would be if you had a ton of money f...
What do you want out of the second half of the year?
Assuming the planned Nats trajectory is "do nothing, see you in 2027" do you want a mini-run after the break to get your hopes up? I say sure. Better baseball is better baseball even in the pursuit of nothing. Do you have a goal win total for the end of the year .500 or bust! Do you want to see these guys traded or re-signed (let's assume reasonable market contract - which means decently big but not crazy Miles Mikolas or Zack Littell? Take the bag of balls. Foster Grif...
ASB P2 - Again we argue the future
What almost every ownership group wants is obvious. They want to be the Tampa Bay Rays or possibly the Cleveland Indians. They want to be a team that wins constantly with a low payroll. That's the goal. What's more important out of the two? Sadly the low payroll, so if they don't win that's not the worst thing that can happen. This differs from what the fans want which is simply to win. They want to see playoffs and championships. If the team doesn't win that IS the worst thin...
ASB P1 - Are the Nationals for real and can they make a run for the playoffs?
We have rounded the crest of the season are are heading into the dog days where seasons for all but the worst teams are won or lost. The Nationals have shown themselves clearly not to be one of the worst teams so what does the next month have in store for them? Well it boils down to the two answers above. Are the Nationals for real? Yes. They have finally been caught for the most R/G in baseball (by the Pirates! Someone go back so I can make that bet) but they hav...
Monday Quickie - back from vacation
The Nats are where they have been now for a while which is fun and good because where they are is "about .500 and in the playoff discussion". About a month ago we talked about the playoffs and while we'll go over that deeper in a week during the ASB I want to look at my assumptions about the other teams to see how they held up. If so, it's likely worth checking them out again the same way at that time. Gap would grow between the Nats and Braves/Dodgers/Brewers Wa...
Ok that was all bad
The question now is - do they do something about it? The Nats pen has been known to be bad. They currently have the second worst ERA in the majors at 5.05 and yes it was a little better before this series but it was still well ensconced in the bottom group of teams, ahead of the Twins. They've giving up the third most walks (172) and by FAR the most home runs (61). To be fair they've been asked to pitch way more than any other team. Their 392 innings is 10% more than the 3rd ...
OK that was bad
Baseball, huh? The crazy part wasn't the loss. A two out single and homer meant the game was tied and going into extras it's basically anyone's game. No the crazy part was with two outs the Phillies went : Single - Homer - Single - Single - Homer - Walk - Single - Double - Walk - Single They didn't just bat around - after two outs they batted around and no one got out. Forget the runs, I just want to know the last time 10 straight men made it on base safely in a game. It also...
Monday Quickie - is this worrying?
On May 22nd the Nats were 25-27 and looking like they were going to stay in that area - flirting with .500, maybe going a game or two over but likely dropping back under - for the rest of the year. That had been the story of the season after the 3-1 start, and fit with the pre-season expectations mixed with what we were seeing on the field. But since then they've gone 15-8 and have put themselves squarely in the "huh, we need to check in on these guys before the All-Star Break and see ho...
Foster Griffin - the actual find?
There was an article somewhere recently about the turn around for Littell and Mikolas. I kind of dismiss that because major league pitchers aren't going to go out there and throw like trash for 30 games. There are ups and downs and adjustments and injuries and chances are if you started slow you'll look better. I don't pretend those guys aren't what they are. But Foster Griffin was a pull from overseas. A former 1st rounder that couldn't control anything that now is mixing like 8 d...
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