Game #24 The new-look Padres face the new-look Nationals

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Carter Kieboom; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Baseball fans have a reason to watch the San Diego Padres again. They signed Manny Machado in the off-season for $300 million after signing Eric Hosmer in the prior year. This season the Padres promoted top prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. to create a new-look team. The Nationals will be new-look also today as they call-up their top prospect Carter Kieboom. We should know the near-term plans for the youngest of the Kieboom boys when the lineups are loaded, and manager Dave Martinez meets with the media.  Continue reading →

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Location, location, location. Nationals players have turned to Jordan Stuart for real estate!

Posted on April 25, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Jordan Stuart with Kyle Barraclough

If you ever wondered how athletes find their housing, they generally turn to a real estate expert who specializes in the needs of athletes, but keep in mind — it is not a one size fits all type of deal. Not everyone is Max Scherzer who bought a mansion overlooking the Potomac River on a tony street, and most players are just looking for simple furnished apartments in Arlington and the Navy Yard neighborhoods. For the past few years, several of the Washington Nationals‘ players have turned to Jordan Stuart of Keller Williams Real Estate and the national Next Move Network which Stuart serves as the CEO and brainchild of solving the athlete conundrum. Baseball players moreso than other sports have the most demanding needs for a real estate expert like Stuart. Continue reading →

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Confirmed: Carter Kieboom to the Nats and Jake Noll back to Triple-A

Posted on April 25, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Carter Kieboom; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Maybe Mike Rizzo has grown tired of the mistakes made at shortstop or there is something else in play here because the Nationals top-prospect, Carter Kieboom, is being called-up for Friday’s game. The corresponding move is Jake Noll back to Triple-A, but there are plenty of other question marks with player’s health so stay tuned on that. It was a week ago from Friday when Anthony Rendon exited that game with an elbow contusion, and Ryan Zimmerman hurt his heal on Wednesday, and then there is Howie Kendrick and Juan Soto who also have painful contusions. Continue reading →

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The Trevor Rosenthal predicament; Can a negative become a positive for the Washington Nationals?

Posted on April 25, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Trevor Rosenthal watches and waits from the bullpen. (Photo for TalkNats by Lynn G)

When free agency opened after the 2018 World Series, general manager Mike Rizzo wasted no time signing Trevor Rosenthal as the first free agent signing of the off-season on October 31st aka Halloween. With a signing comes the expectations that the team did their due diligence especially when you could be committing $15 million to a player coming off of a Tommy John surgery. In hindsight, that due diligence was provided from Jay Robertson who was the only Nationals scout attending a showcase where Rosenthal threw in front of 40 men armed with radar guns in one hand and charts in the other.  Continue reading →

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Game #23 Nats wrap-up their series in Denver

Posted on April 24, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats

After last night’s game, the Nationals are part of the walking wounded, and we will have to see how these players wake-up and feel today. Howie Kendrick got hit squarely on his left triceps, Juan Soto fouled a ball off of his ankle, Victor Robles did a straight-leg slide into third base and jammed his leg, and Ryan Zimmerman made a tag at first base and seemed to tweak something as he was running gingerly. The Nationals have not played Anthony Rendon for over 3 games as he is nursing a contusion on his elbow, and Trea Turner remains on the 10-day IL with a broken right index finger. Who is in and who is out will remain the question for today going into this final game in Denver this season. This is the rubber game of this series as each team has won a game in this three-game series.  Continue reading →

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Nats win behind Corbin’s start and a bullpen shutout; The Flying V with the big hit!

Posted on April 23, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

The Nationals proved tonight that a lead is safe in Coors Field. With a 4-2 score in favor of the Nats, they held that lead the rest of the game even though there were some tense moments like an inning ending groundball that turned into a costly Wilmer Difo error to push the score to 4-3 and then the Nationals bullpen came in and threw 3.0 innings of shutout baseball leading to a 6-3 Nationals win to even this series with the rubber game tomorrow afternoon. Continue reading →

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Game #22 Patrick Corbin wants to continue his success!

Posted on April 23, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Navy Yard Nats for TalkNats

In his last start, Patrick Corbin pitched a gem for the Washington Nationals and earned his first win as a Nats player. Tonight in Colorado, the lefty wants to continue building upon his success. With Corbin coming from the Arizona Diamondbacks, he has a long history against the Colorado Rockies as he faced them a few times each year as an intra-divisional team.  The Rockies are calling up the right-handed Jeff Hoffman to spot start in place of the injured Kyle Freeland who was placed on the 10-day IL yesterday. It was rumored that Chad Bettis would have to start, but he was used yesterday to relieve the struggling Tyler Anderson who gave up five runs in 3.0 innings of work, and Bettis also threw 3.0 innings. The Rockies bullpen got quite the work-out as they threw a combined 81 pitches of shutout baseball which the Nationals could not match in only 3 innings of required work. Continue reading →

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The Little Things add up in this one…

Posted on April 22, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

The Nats lost this game by two runs, but rewind to the 5th inning when the Nationals were ahead 5-2 and Juan Soto could not catch a low liner. The inning spiraled out of control, but who didn’t see that starter Jeremy Hellickson had hit the wall and ex-Nats slugger Mark Reynolds tied up the game with a smash over the centerfield wall. In the 5-5 game, the Nationals were shutout the rest of the way leading to a 7-5 loss and adding to the team woes in first games of series at 1 win against 7 losses. Continue reading →

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Game #21 Nationals have 3 games in Colorado

Posted on April 22, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Ian Desmond hugs it out with the Nats; Photo by Conatsguy

The weather is going to be rough for the start of this series with an expected first pitch temperature in the low 40°’s, and the Nationals are arriving just as the Colorado offense seems to be waking up from their hibernation. Lead-off man Charlie Blackmon found his bat over the weekend as he hit his first home run of the season in a dramatic walk-off of the Phillies. It will take Jeremy Hellickson who is pitching tonight for the Nationals to lure the Rockies offense back to sleep. Continue reading →

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Stephen Strasburg pitches the best game for the Nats in 2019; Zim/Dozier provide the offense!

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats

The Nationals needed a salvage win today to avoid being swept and that would take a dominant pitching performance from Stephen Strasburg. Both were accomplished and Strasburg did not have a good pitching performance — he had a great pitching performance. He threw an 8 inning shutout while receiving 5 runs in support with two home runs from Ryan Zimmerman and one by Brian Dozier. The ninth inning got a little stressful with 2 outs but that is the Nats we have come to know. The game was closed out by Kyle Barraclough and one out from Sean Doolittle in this 5-0 win.  The Nats are back to .500 and now fly to Colorado for a 3 game series. Continue reading →

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