The Washington Nationals were in last night’s game until the top of the 9th inning. The 2-2 tie disappeared in one swing of the bat. This team got good pitching until Kyle Finnegan unraveled again. That is two losses in three games for Finnegan. Not only is that bad for the Nationals, it is bad for Finnegan’s trade value. On top of that, another O-fer for James Wood.
Did you know that the Nats are 25-14 when Wood has an RBI? The team is 13-44 with no RBI from Wood. In his last 9-games, Wood is batting .094 with a .404 OPS and a 45.9 percent K rate. Some think the HR Derby sims for Wood ruined his swing due to his timing being off. Obviously Ricky Gutierrez was throwing BP pitches at slower velos during their HR Derby practice.
In other news, the Nationals officially signed their No. 1 draft pick, Eli Willits, for $8.2 million. The underslot signing will add to the money the team will need to sign Landon Harmon ranked 48th, Ethan Petry 59th, 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. A source tells us that Harmon, James and Moore have all agreed to deals and these should be official on Monday.
“I’m excited, and ready to get to work, and being a National. … I set a goal to be in the big leagues by the time I’m 20.”
— Eli Willits said in his media
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 +3.1, and . Add those up, and you get a total of +9.9 WAR. The issue is the large gap between those players and the next tier. Brady House in his 23-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 newer Nats, Daylen Lile, is already at a -5.0 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. is at -6.0 — 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 64 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’re excited to bring Eli, the person and the player, into the organization.”
— interim-GM Mike DeBartolo said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.74 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 5.97 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):
- CJ Abrams SS LH
- James Wood LF LH
- Luis Garcia Jr. 2B LH
- Josh Bell DH SH
- Nathaniel Lowe 1B LH
- Brady House 3B RH
- Daylen Lile RF LH
- Drew Millas C SH
- Jacob Young CF RH
