The inaugural draft lottery with Nats hopes the ball bounces their way!

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

 

MLB image

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) of 2022 changed so many aspects on the future of baseball, and it ended nearly six decades of having the team with the worst record from receiving a guarantee to pick first in the MLB draft. The old draft format began in 1965, and the Washington Senators chose third and picked pitcher Joe Coleman in that draft. Now it is a draft lottery system that will determine the first six spots in the future drafts, and tonight’s the night to find out where the Washington Nationals will pick at the top of the draft. Continue reading →

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The gut punch that many expected — happened and Rizzo/Martinez speak at the Winter Meetings, and tonight is the Draft Lottery!

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

PHILADELPHIA, PA — This will now be Trea Turner‘s home field for a long time (Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats)

SAN DIEGO — The big news yesterday happened. Free agency is the annual tango dance between players and teams. Philadelphia had Trea Turner on their dance card early, and they bagged him for a straightline cost of only $27.3 million a year which is a whole lot less than the $34.1 million a year deal that Francisco Lindor signed just two seasons ago. That was the big news yesterday besides Justin Verlander signing a monster deal at $43.3 million a year with the Mets.  Continue reading →

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The top priorities for the 2023 season revisited before the Winter Meetings!

Posted on December 3, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Screenshot modified from MLB Network

With MLB going into the Winter Meetings officially tomorrow afternoon in San Diego, California at the Grand Hyatt hotel, there should be a lot more to talk about in the baseball world. Unfortunately, the Washington Nationals are not one of the teams at the top of the Hot Stove list as they will be mostly window shopping.  Continue reading →

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Notes from the Umps Care virtual visit to the MLB Replay Center

Posted on December 1, 2022 by ArVaFan aka Laura Peebles

Public domain photo

 

This was the first time that MLB offered a virtual visit to the infamous New York umpire’s replay center. First impression — I haven’t seen this many video screens since I went to Best Buy.  There are screens in the umpires’ room (sort of a green room for them before they come on duty), screens in the umpire supervisor’s office, and banks and banks of screens in the actual replay room. Continue reading →

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Winter Meetings start this weekend and the current Nats situation!

Posted on December 1, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Winter Meetings are just three days away. There are certainly reasons for trepidation with the 2023 Washington Nationals team with regards to the ownership situation, spending levels, and the current roster. FanGraphs today has the Nats projected for a 69-93 record which is +14 wins from the 2022 season. Maybe a little too optimistic versus our 65-97 record that we have.

After this year’s team finished the 2022 season with an horrific 55-107 record, the worst in Nats’ history, some would say the only direction to go is up. You hope that is the case that 2023 cannot be as bad as the 2022 team. There’s nothing wrong with being hopeful, but wishing upon a shooting star does not always come true unless that star is a huge free agent superstar coming the Nats’ way — and the chances are very remote that happens. At this point, the Nats have signed a bounceback candidate, Jeimer Candelario, as their first free agent signing. Continue reading →

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Nationals Batters Swing and Miss Rates

Posted on November 30, 2022 by DonH

Most every batter wants to only swing at pitches he can hit. Clearly some are much, much, much better at it than others.

Thanks to a comment posted recently by WarningTrackPower I was able to add logic to determine if the pitch was in the strike zone. In prior years (pre 2018?) there was a field in the Game Day data call zone which could be used to determine if a pitch was in the zone according to the pitch track data. That field was removed and there was no documentation for how to use the other data fields to determine if the pitch was in the strike zone. Here is the video that finally unlocked the key (published in August of this year). Continue reading →

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Ted Leonsis just got a new billionaire partner, but what does that mean for the Nats?

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

November 28, 2022 WASHINGTON, DC — Jeff Skoll (not pictured) will join chairman Ted Leonsis and partner Mark Lerner in the Monumental Sports & Entertainment ownership group. Pictured next to Lerner at a Washington Wizards game is Zachary Leonsis who is Monumental’s President of Media & New Enterprises (Sol Tucker/TalkNats)

We have known for weeks that billionaire Jeff Skoll was joining Monumental Sports & Entertainment as the 20th partner with Ted Leonsis. What we did not know was that Leonsis would pick yesterday to send out the press release for Skoll joining the partnership, and the timing and release of details is quite interesting. At the same time, Washington Nationals principal owner as well as Monumental partner, Mark Lerner, was seen publicly for the first time this year at a Wizards game, something he rarely does courtside. After our article over the weekend caused waves it seems per a source, Leonsis and Lerner wanted to show some sort of solidarity the source told us. But Lerner was not seated next to the senior Leonis, rather his 33 year old son,  Zachary Leonsis, who is certainly a rising star in the industry. Continue reading →

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The Kids Do Love It – Donate Your Unused RCR Points

Posted on November 29, 2022 by DonH

Photo By WarningTrackPower

We are repeating the initiative we started last year, collecting items from the RCR program to donate to the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy that supports scholar athletes from under-served communities. This is a collaborative effort of TalkNats and two FaceBook groups: Nationals RCR Codes and DIEHARD NATIONALS FANS. Continue reading →

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The Nats 2023 roster revisited and projections from FanGraphs!

Posted on November 28, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

When we try to project a 2023 roster for the Washington Nationals, much of it will depend on the ownership and payroll budget for the team — and how they want general manager Mike Rizzo to approach free agency. If the team is eager to spend, you begin with the starting pitching.  Continue reading →

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Could a sale of the Nats be off the table?

Posted on November 26, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

WASHINGTON, DC – September 28, 2022: Washington Nationals owner Mark Lerner on the field; (Photo by Sol Tucker/TalkNats)

Sources have told us that the Lerner family and sports team investor, Ted Leonsis, were getting close to an agreement on the sale of the Washington Nationals earlier this month, but on Friday a source told us that they were still too far apart on being able to shake hands on a final price due to each sides’ valuation of the MASN situation.

That source told us that a sale of the team has not been called off, but he does not know if the two sides can meet in the middle on a final price, and that led our source to think that this sale might not happen at all this year or ever. Okay, ‘ever’ is a long time — but that was our sources wording.  Another source we reached out to, thought that a different structure of the deal was a possibility, to still bring Leonsis in, however, this source would not elaborate any further on that.  Continue reading →

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