The Washington Nationals get started in their first game after the All-Star break and get to look at Dylan Cease, the Padres’ ace. Cease will be a free agent after the season. The Nats are in need of more top-end pitching. A kid can dream, right?
The Nationals re-seeded their rotation, and have Michael Soroka on the mound. For all intents and purposes, he is auditioning for about a dozen teams with aspirations of making the postseason. What Soroka’s strengths could be to an acquiring team is how they want to use him. Certainly not a long-starter, but he is effective in first innings through his third inning of work. Give him a good defense, and he might look even better.
Of course tonight’s weather forecast looks very iffy. This could make it all very interesting as to if they get the game in.
One story to watch is minor leaguers on the move and draft signings. The Nationals have key players to officially get signed as they simultaneously are fielding calls for trade scenarios leading up to the trade deadline that is now less than two weeks away. The front office is very busy.
Based on MLB Pipeline’s final draft rankings, the Nationals got five Top-100 draft picks. Eli Willits was the 5th highest ranked draft prospect, Landon Harmon ranked 48th, Ethan Petry 59th, Miguel Sime Jr. 86th, and Coy James 94th. Then you have Mason Pike (19th round) who was just outside the Top-100 at 135th, and local Frederick, Maryland product, Ben Moore at 237th, and you feel that if these seven young men are signed, that the draft group made their new boss, interim-GM, Mike DeBartolo, look really good at his job.
“I think kind of view it as, you get what you pay for [in the draft]. They’re very talented, all of them. Talented more than where they were selected. It’s just fortunate the opportunity arose where we could acquire them where we did.”
— VP of Amateur Scouting Danny Haas said
“I don’t think we would’ve expected Miguel or Coy to be available where they landed for us.”
“They’re such talented guys. Big arms. Big power. Athletes. Just the value of where you get them with every round, we were very excited about that.”
The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +3.7, MacKenzie Gore at +3.1 CJ Abrams at +3.0, and . Add those up, and you get a total of +9.8 WAR. The issue is the large gap between those players and the next tier. Brady House in his 22-games jumps to a +0.3, and that extrapolates to +2.8 for a full season.
On defense, the stats are clear as to what his defense is all about. Jacob Young is the team’s OAA leader at +7.0 and Brady House is on the list at +1.0. James Wood is at +0.0 on his OAA, and that is a good sign from where he had been early in the season.
One of the newest Nats, Daylen Lile, is already at a -4.0 OAA and that is unsustainable as that is one of the worst marks in baseball if you extrapolated it for a full-season. Luis Garcia Jr. has slumped this season defensively to a -6.0 already — and with CJ Abrams, they combine for -12.0 OAA. That is the worst middle infield in baseball and entirely unacceptable.
Another defensive issue that we have discussed is the positioning of Nathaniel Lowe at first base as he is too often out of position to make a play — and OAA has his chance at success at only 65 percent which must improve. His OAA is at -0.4 now, and that just makes the situation even worse. With as little as Amed Rosario has played on defense, he is at -8.0 OAA this season and the worst on the team. Per Statcast, his defense has cost the Nationals 5-runs. Is his offense good enough to make up that deficit if he plays the field or should he only DH and PH? Keibert Ruiz, per Statcast, has a -8.0 OAA also. The Nationals were supposed to be better on defense. That clearly isn’t the case.
These are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the draft.”
— interim-GM Mike DeBartolo said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.77 and 26th best in MLB. You might be surprised at the team just ahead of the Nationals in the rankings. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 5.88 and now the worst in baseball in ERA. The bullpen keeps teetering so close once again to the 6.00 ERA mark that seems impossible at this part of the season.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 6.21
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 5.35
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 5.12
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.58
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.02
San Diego Padres vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app; In Spanish on DC 87.7 FM and La Pantera 100.7 FM/1220 AM. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 178 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
