TalkNats’ newest writer

Hi, everyone.

I’m Quinn Riley, and I’m excited to join TalkNats and bring coverage of the Nationals and the farm to TN.

Having a background with Boston sports, I covered the five major Boston teams for 17 months before moving on to RedSoxDigest.com in July of 2022. My most recent gig was to focus solely on the Red Sox. Covering five teams at once with limited help is often very taxing, so focusing on one team is a major plus.

I had been at RSD for the past nine months and have brought daily Red Sox coverage to the site. However, covering the Red Sox might be one of the more challenging things — there are roughly two dozen sites covering the team and a whole array of Sox podcasts as well, which make it one of the most saturated media environments.

So, with how competitive it is, it’s not exactly always the easiest to grow. When we had sort of begun to hit a wall in terms of growth, I began to search for different opportunities.

When I learned I could join TalkNats, it was sort of a no-brainer. Washington isn’t exactly the greatest team currently, but with a good young core, great prospects, and a site that has a phenomenal community and following, it was all that I needed for me to join the site.

And that leads us to where we are now.

I look to bring game recaps and both major and minor league coverage to TalkNats. In fact, we’ve even created a prospects-based account, @ProspectsTN, so you should go give that a follow. Geographically, I am located between Harrisburg, PA the home of the Nats Double-A affiliate and Wilmington, Delaware, the Nats High-A affiliate, and plan on attending games in person there and catching some Nats’ Triple-A and Class-A on the road at games near me. With that, I will concentrating on the affiliates and the Top Prospects as well as developing Nats’ stories.

And that’s that, as I’m eager to begin the next part of my writing career. Shoot me a follow @QuinnRileyTN on Twitter if you will, and let’s have some fun. Look forward to interacting with all of you Nats fans.

Cheers.

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How Sabermetrics Changed the MLB Fan Experience

Sabermetrics started off way back in the 1970s. At the time, it was the ultimate hobby for baseball fans who adored a hard look at numbers. Specifically, it let them see the game through a totally new lens: data. Through tallying baseball statistics alone, fans like Bill Jams helped redefine the game.

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Game #7 Nats are on their first road trip!

This game begins the Washington Nationals’ first road trip of the season. With four games in Colorado that begins this afternoon, it is not exactly a fair test for the Nats’ pitchers based on the “thin air” factor in Coors Field. But the Nats have to compete and both teams have to pitch in the same conditions.

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Series preview: Nationals vs. Rockies

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Umps Care Q&A

 

Umpires signed 2019 World Series baseball (Photo by Laura Peebles for TalkNats)

 

2023 baseball

The Q & A are from my notes, so they should be considered paraphrased, not exact (other than the Mike Trout quote). If there’s no initials, then it’s a summary of both of their comments.

Q & A: Umps Care call today for monthly donors with Jim Reynolds and Fieldin Culbreth, both recently retired major league umpires. They have both been serving as umpire supervisors. JR has been in AZ supervising the AAA umpires—10 have been added this year, so he evaluated them for possible call-ups to the majors as fill-ins for vacation or emergencies. Continue reading

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Game #6 Patrick Corbin with his second start!

We have been through one full turn of the Washington Nationals’ starting rotation, and based on first impressions — it is as bad as last year — and possibly even worse with the exception of MacKenzie Gore.

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Game #5 Nats go with Kuhl and hope for a win!

We are a long way from Spring Training and the transition from the injured Cade Cavalli to naming Chad Kuhl as the fifth starter in the Washington Nationals rotation. This is an incredible opportunity for Kuhl who signed a free agent non-guaranteed minor league deal with the Nats, and he emerged as the sixth starter looking for a chance. Unfortunately, Kuhl’s opportunity only came this early because of Cavalli’s injury.

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2023 Fearless Predictions

Note: Opening day was almost a week ago but due to some technical difficulties the prediction post is a little late this year.

Will the Nats win the World Series in 4 or 5 games?

Nats prediction threads this year are sure to be a source of negative vibes. But we are all Nats fans here so let’s try to mix in some positives with the negative. That being said, don’t hold back.

Only a fool fights in a burning house
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Game #4 Trevor Williams first start and he gets the Rays!

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Some were calling MacKenzie Gore‘s win “crucial” as an early season test for this Washington Nationals’ team. Maybe not all salvage wins are created equal to others. After two consecutive poor starts by Patrick Corbin and Josiah Gray to begin this 2023 season, yesterday’s win calmed fans down. We all knew this team was not going to be great, but why panic when you knew going into the season that the Braves had the upper hand pitching Max Fried and Spencer Strider in those first two games to start the season.

Now we are up to the fourth game of the season, and we will get to see the Nats’ debut of Trevor Williams, who was perhaps the team’s biggest free agent acquisition on a two-year deal. Of interest to some, Chad Kuhl is listed as tomorrow’s starter which means that Corbin will start Thursday’s getaway game with an extra day’s rest. Manager Dave Martinez could have pitched Corbin on regular rest and skipped Kuhl’s start.

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Game #3 MacKenzie Gore’s first start that counts for the Nats!

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

After watching MacKenzie Gore set down the New York Yankees over his final two starts of Spring Training, the Washington Nationals’ fans have to be cautiously optimistic about their trade for him in 2022. The lefty was a top prospect who was drafted in the first round by the Padres. In his time with San Diego, he already has a few gems on his MLB record. We have seen what this southpaw can do when his 4-seam fastball is working because his two breaking pitches and changeup will just keep batters guessing.

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