The signing of Cristhian Vaquero is official!

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo provided by the Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals had an unofficial agreement with Cristhian Vaquero in place for well over a year. And finally the waiting is over as the Nats made this signing official and added another top prospect to their farm system. Vaquero will start working out at the team’s Dominican Academy.

With the international signing period pushed back from July to January, Vaquero turned 17 already on September 13. According to Baseball America’s rankings of signing bonuses,  Vaquero will receive the largest signing bonus in this class.  Continue reading →

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What Are The Consequences Of The Ongoing Lockout?

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Andrew Lang

While it didn’t officially commence until midnight on December 1st 2021, we’ve known that Major League Baseball was going to move into lockout for quite some time now. What most folks had thought though, was talks would progress timeously and the 2022 season wouldn’t be significantly affected. However 6 weeks later — albeit punctuated by the holiday break – there’s been very little movement from either MLB or the MLBPA even after their meeting yesterday. Is it time to panic yet? No – but with Spring Training games scheduled to start in 6 weeks, it may be time to start thinking about potential repercussions if the current impasse persists. Continue reading →

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The Life of a Sport’s Fan

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Jacob Diament

Lately, I’ve given the subject a bit of thought on the life of a sport’s fan. What does it mean to be a fan? Why do we lose sleep over game results? Why do we care deeply about peripheral things like mock drafts, draft orders etc?  I haven’t really come up with anything profound, but I have clarified some concepts, and if you will, some truths which I feel are obvious — but not necessarily what most fans like to hear. Continue reading →

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Revisiting the 2022 priorities for the Washington Nationals

Posted on January 12, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Screenshot modified from MLB Network

With MLB baseball in a deep freeze like the winter weather, baseball fans have little current events until the lockout is lifted. We set a list of priorities for the Washington Nationals baseball team at the end of September for the offseason. Few have been accomplished, so far, as December was basically canceled in terms of baseball moves. Continue reading →

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Elian Soto celebrated his 16th birthday today with a commitment to the Nats!

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Luiggi Chavez for TalkNats

As Elian Soto celebrated his 16th birthday with family and friends today, Byron Kerr broke news that the younger brother of Juan Soto had agreed to sign with the Washington Nationals when he is eligible in the next international signing period. While that does not sound like a big deal, in the  last two weeks, the New York media was reporting that the younger Soto had committed to the Mets for $50,000. It seemed legitimate, especially considering that Soto put up a (now deleted) video of himself taking BP in a Mets uni on his Instagram.  Continue reading →

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Fangraphs projects the Nats currently as a 75-87 team this year!

Posted on January 5, 2022 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Projections are fun to analyze, and they rarely come close to reality in total. Given the state of the Washington Nationals at this point in time, the projections are actually bullish on the team at a 75-87 record for the upcoming 2022 season. Fangraphs has projected Juan Soto as the best player in baseball at a +7.2 WAR, and that certainly helps. That is 10% above where Soto finished in 2021 at a healthy +6.6 WAR that landed him in second place in the MVP voting.  Continue reading →

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The remaining free agent list is ranked!

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

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

At this point in time two years ago, the Washington Nationals were the reigning World Series champs. In a short time, this team has hit the skids. With a last place finish last year, this team is stuck in its place until they can show a future direction. Of course baseball is in a lock-out which will not allow for any moves on the MLB roster, and general manager Mike Rizzo did not show us enough to determine a direction in the near-term. Continue reading →

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A year in review: It all started and ended with the collapse of the starting pitchers!

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

It all begins with the starting pitchers on the Nationals’ roster. Pitching is the foundation of this team. If there is any major structural weakness in that foundation, you can expect the season to crumble with it. That in a nutshell describes the 2021 Nats’ season. We saw the worst bullpen in baseball history and when the house collapsed, the damage could be traced back to termite sized holes in the starting rotation that looked like Swiss cheese. Continue reading →

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The International Signings have the Nats in a great position to sign Cristian Vaquero. But what about Anthony Gutierrez?

Posted on December 28, 2021 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

(L-R, Juan Soto, Cristian Vaquero, Victor Robles, Armando Cruz); Photo from Cristian Vaquero to TalkNats

We are just about two weeks from the official start to the international signing period on January 15, 2022. According to Baseball America, Cristian Vaquero will receive the largest signing bonus in this class and head to the Washington Nationals. But what about the rumors of the Nats signing Anthony Gutierrez? According to Baseball America, Gutierrez is “expected to wait for the next signing period (2022-23) to sign.” Continue reading →

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What I learned watching LIDOM games

Posted on December 27, 2021 by ArVaFan aka Laura Peebles

Photo by Steve Mears for TalkNats

By ArVAFan55 aka Laura Peebles

For those who do not know what the acronym LIDOM stands for, it is short for the Liga de Béisbol Profesional de la República Dominicana which translates to The Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League. This league is essentially the Dominican winter league and composed of six teams across the Dominican Republic. It is the Dominican’s highest level of professional baseball played in their country. There is a great pride factor in LIDOM baseball among Dominicans. Also, you do not have to be Dominican to play in the league.

MLB is perfectly capable of making mistakes (“man on second in extras” comes to mind). Offering a livestream of the 2021-22 LIDOM games to the US subscribers of MLB.tv was not one of them. Perhaps they didn’t mean to, but they gave us a glimpse of the past and the future of major league baseball. The past? Think bunting and base-stealing. The future? Think DH and ads everywhere. I did hear the Dominican Republic broadcasters welcome their “worldwide audience through their partnership with MLB” a couple of times at the beginning of the broadcasts.

Continue reading →

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