Going Deep with The Nats

Open Day graphic by Steve Mears

We were all supposed to be awake now and preparing all of our senses for the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and touches for Opening Day baseball in Washington, D.C. There is nothing like it as you approach the park in anticipation with all the pomp and circumstance for this special day as the smell of popcorn and half-smokes grilling waft through the air while fans are clamoring as they are lined up at the turnstiles to enter into our baseball paradise.  The weather report today is glorious for Nationals Park at 60°F and mostly sunny with a slight breeze and is the type of weather you hope for on an early Spring game.  This was the original Washington Nationals invitation to their fans for what was supposed to be a special Opening Day:

“Opening Day is Thursday, April 2! We will unveil our 2019 World Champions banner as part of the pregame ceremonies prior to our 1:05pm game against the New York Mets. Join us as we begin the quest to defend our title!”

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Mr. Walk-off has provided many game-enders in style!

The Washington Nationals closed up RFK Stadium with some hope. First year manager Manny Acta seemed to over-achieve with that 2007 team that lost 89 games, and that was considered progress as the team was looking to increase payroll going into the opening of the $600+ million Nationals Park for the 2008 season. The stadium opened a dozen years ago today to mixed reviews on the architecture and ambience. It was a design done by MLB and signed off by the DC government that was footing the bulk of the bill which meant it was going to be done with corners cut. The Lerner family purchased the team in 2006 from MLB on May 3rd of 2006, and the groundbreaking for Nationals Park was set for the next day. With the Lerner’s expertise in construction, they would have liked to have been more involved in the design, but as they say it was before their time. Over the years, Nats Park feels like home with the postseason banners, signage, and the Ring of Honor. The Navy Yard district is built up with restaurants, bars, and hotels and is now a destination spot anchored by the World Series champs! Continue reading →

Rahm Emanuel was famously quoted as saying:

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

The quote is all I’ll say on politics or politicians. Lets talk about what changes you would make in the MLB rules (and more, like the schedule) if you could. But first some background.

When Ghost started this site he enlisted a few folks (like me) to get involved. Given my background in technology and analytics I focused on those two areas. At the same time a colleague and I were considering writing a book on a particular feature of SAS Software (widely used for both data management and analytics). We needed data, and lots of it, to use as the sample data for the book. I convinced my co-author that the MLB Game Day data would be exactly what we needed. Not being a baseball fan, he was initially skeptical, but after I showed him how much data there was (and how complicated it was), he bought in. Continue reading →

While Steve Mears’ advanced copy was read pool side, Erika C. provides the review!

In case you haven’t heard, the Washington Nationals won the 2019 World Series, and they managed to do so against almost every odds in the books. After an abysmal start, the ball club was staring at a 19-31 record on May 23, with just a 1.5% chance of winning the World Series, and there were calls for second year manager Dave Martinez to be fired — immediately! The team faced a choice — they could either fold and go home, or stay in the fight and chase a championship. Over the next four months, the team rallied together and found a way to defy the odds on their way to a World Series title. Continue reading →

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

Every 2018 and 2019 MLB game is now unlocked on the MLB.TV channel and their MLB app! Free to all for a limited time of course. You can watch all 105 wins from the Nats magical 2019 World Series run from Trea Turner‘s walk-off to Howie Kendrick‘s World Series clanker off of the Minute Maid Stadium foul pole. On YouTube, they have gone back a little further to 2014 through 2017 for some of the most memorable individual performances in Nats history including the three no-hitters and Max Scherzer‘s 20 K game. Interestingly, Wilson Ramos caught all four of those historic games.  Continue reading →

Different directions for these players; Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

One of life’s lessons is learning from your past. Baseball calls that the learning curve part of the process. Last year, were you paying attention on August 17th to what happened? You might be thinking of the Sean Doolittle blown save where he could not protect a 3-run lead and exited with a deficit of one run at 12-11 in an eventual extra innings loss against the Milwaukee Brewers. Juan Soto might have changed the divine line of destiny for his entire team, but if Anthony Rendon did not learn from a previous decision to chase high fastballs, Soto probably never gets his chance. Continue reading →