Nationals Baseball
STILL A NO CABBAGE ZONE THOUGH
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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...
Monday Quickie - Under the radar time
Sometimes a team just needs to be left to do what they are doing with no scrutiny. There isn't a real tell if the Nats are that type of team but it is clear they have been working out of the spot light for longer they might have in a typical sports year. However this year we had a NY title in basketball with all those stars out, we had a crazy start to the Stanley Cup, and now we have the World Cup going on. In baseball the best teams are the Braves, Dodgers and Yankees...
Are playoffs a possibility?
I don't see the Nats as a .500 team on talent. BUT here they are. Which begs the question for me - maybe this is a season where this level of talent gets you to .500. And there are seasons where .500 ish can get you to the playoffs. Does this seem like a good fit for 2026? Currently the Nats are a game out of the Wild Card, behind two teams and slightly ahead of... well most of the NL. What do the adjusted standings (trying to take luck out of what happened so far) tell us? Y...
What about the pitching?
The pitching - well it's not very good but we can't just go ahead and make assumptions that it'll stay that way. Maybe it will get better! (or worse!) About a month ago I looked at the starters and tried to figure out who was "real" there. I said Irvin could be a poor innings eater and Litell really was bad. Well May has not been kind to Irvin. He might have broke. On the other hand Litell looked much better. I said I didn't know about Miles and I still don't. Mikolas h...
Can the rest of the team keep hitting?
We took at look at James and CJ but there are seven other guys who make up the line-up. While stars can do a lot, they can't carry a dead two innings at the plate. So the question is can these guys keep doing what they are doing? We'll start with two easy ones - Can Luis Garcia hit about average? Sure! Since 2022 that's what he's done so no reason to think the 26 year old is going to be any different now. Can Nasim Nunez still stink? Sure! There's a reason the sli...
Can Wood and Abrams fight for an MVP?
Yesterday I said the team was doing as well as it was because they had two MVP candidates in the lineup and everything else followed. Let's see where they stand today Wood : .276 / .413 / .551 14 2B, 15 homers, 9 SB (1CS), 46 BBs, 77Ks Abrams : .289 / .381 / .542, 11 2B, 2 3B, 12 HR, 7 SB (4CS), 25BBs, 47Ks Let's start with Wood because he's pretty easy. In 2024 when Wood broke onto the scene with an impressive half season debut, he was close to perfec...
Tuesday Quickie : Ok we're here
It's Memorial Day weekend and we're going to be looking at guys with the idea that what we're seeing could be real. Which means, by proxy, we're going to be looking at the Nats with the idea what we're seeing could be real and that means .500 could be real. To be fair this all basically hinges on two players. CJ Abrams and James Wood have been two of the Top 10 offensive players in baseball this year. If the Nats have two MVP candidates in their lineup then .500 is possible because...
Crews up House down and other things
While the Nats have been pretty relatively successful this season so far at the plate , they are not sitting on their laurels. Yesterday they officially sent Brady House down and optioned Joey Weimer to make room for Dylan Crews and Andres Chaparro to come up. Why? Well sort of because Jacob Young got hit by a pitch. On Monday Jacob Young took a pitch to the ribs. It was apparently pretty bad and he's nursing some bruised ribs. Jacob defensively is the glue that holds the OF ...
Friday Quickie : Before you get ahead of yourself
The Nats have been mediocre or worse since COVID (unrelated... OR IS IT) and this year feels different. The young bats are improving to the point you think the line-up can keep the Nats competitive for the season and with some pitching luck... Look we're not talking playoffs here but .500? Or at least best record since 2019? But before you take a close to .500 record as a sign of things being different let's remember 2025 : June 6th the Nats were 30-33. 2024 : June 23rd the Nats we...
Is the Nats lineup good?
The Nats have scored 5.4 runs per game in the first quarter of the season. That just isn't good - it's second best in baseball good. But to Nats fans this feels very weird. Sure they could be better than average if the pieces came through but second best in baseball? If you told me that last year I would have had at least some Dylan Crews fighting for ROY expectations. What do the stats say? BASE Average - .244 t10th OBP - .325 t9th SLG - ....
How real are the starters?
The Nats have had a mixed bag from their starters in 2026 which honestly is a good thing considering "big bag of just crap" was a reasonably good expectation. Foster Griffin is pitching to much better results than anyone could have hoped for. Irvin and Cavalli are hitting about where you think they would. Mikolas and Littell are struggling even with PJ Poulin doing some "Relief starting" in their place. But it;s still early and a game or two in one direction or the other can really effect how ...
Honestly - what to do about catcher?
The Nats at catcher are currently the worst in baseball. In the previous two seasons they were 24th and 24th in wins above position, which tracks with what we all know. They are bad. They haven't been the worst , thanks mainly to catcher being such a hard position that other teams were complete failures, but now they are the complete failure. Their issues at catcher might be the worst at any position in baseball* Their main catcher Keibert Ruiz is hitting .182 / .203 / .303. Tradit...
Monday Quickie - wait I thought the offense was good?
Sorry it wasn't. Moose outside shoulda told ya. This is what the offense looks like when Wood and Abrams aren't hot. Pretty terrible, right? Let's hope neither gets injured. The Nats have a record that looks pretty typical of a blah team. They get beat, but now blown away, by good teams and hold their own against everyone else. But it's still early enough I wouldn't read into that. I mean, they play the Cubs now instead of the first three games when things a...
The James Wood timeline
James Wood is 23 years old and after a disappointing finish to last season where he hit .223 with 7 homers after the break while striking out 105 times in 269 PAs, he's back to meeting high expectations. The early season is always full of wild variation (Currently a Nats team with Alex Call, Dom Smith, and Ildermo Vargas would be DESTROYING opposing pitching staffs) but Wood is the seventh best hitter in MLB by OPS+ and the 5th youngest in the Top 50*. He's a guy you build an offen...
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