Going Deep with The Nats

Curt Blefary 1965 AL Rookie of the Year

Baseball is a sport of youth.  Few things epitomize that more than the “Rookie of the Year.”  Begun in 1947 on a national basis the award draws attention to the next-greatest-thing in the sport.  Some of the winners, like this year’s phenom Ronald Acuna Jr. and Bryce Harper in 2012 were heralded long before arriving on the big stage.  They were picked by pundits and analysts to make a splash and did not disappoint.  Others emerged from seemingly nowhere to take the honor.  Most who have won the award have gone on to have fine careers.  Some 16 of the 110 retired award winners have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.   Subtracting the 10 retired players in the 5-year HOF waiting period yields a rate of 1 inductee out of every 6 ROY award winners.   On the other hand some honorees go on to relatively short and nondescript careers. Continue reading →

The biggest Washington Nationals news on Tuesday was the acquisition of Brittany Ghiroli as a Nats beat writer for The Athletic. Some would say “finally” they hired someone at The Athletic whose main purpose is to cover the Nats and give some fresh perspective to a team that has few regulars on the beat. Many baseball fans know Britt Ghiroli from the Orioles beat and from her appearances on MLB Network. As a former collegiate swimmer at Michigan State, Ghiroli fits right in with athletes — even athletes who compete on grass and dirt. She does not know any of the current Nats players, but knows manager Dave Martinez who she covered with the Tampa Bay Rays back in 2008.  Continue reading →

New this year to our Nationals’ gift guide is a subscription to SportsCrate.com starting at just $29.99 and click here as we do a reveal of our subscription with a box break. Use TALKNATS30 for a 30% discount until the end of the year.

Next up and not available for a week is the new Washington Nationals spring training cap which features the capitol dome and a block print “W”. They will go on sale initially at Winterfest on December 1st.

Many people thought the new Nats cap logo looked familar, and the good people at @sportslogosnet figured out why the Nats new cap logo looked familiar. It is the basic Senators logo used on some 1950's Topps baseball cards! pic.twitter.com/2HAw4NdrAt

— Talk Nats ⚾ (@TalkNats2) November 17, 2018

If you want something a little more affordable for a baseball experience, Andrew Ross aka Draz will once again be coordinating at least one TalkNats/HSI road trip through TravelNats. Last year’s trip to Philadelphia was very affordable for the game ticket and premium charter bus transportation for less than $99!

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Photo by Laura Peebles for TalkNats

For most baseball executives, the day after Thanksgiving has little “Black Friday” shopping. The bargains are out there for most teams as we saw last year. There will be the Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Patrick Corbin deals that are like the Louis Vuitton boutique that never has a sale. Other players will be bargaining in the wheeler dealer negotiations.  For Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, he has signed three players under the radar already in the Kyle Barraclough trade, and the free agent signings of Trevor Rosenthal and Kurt Suzuki. The early bird gets the worm as they say. Continue reading →

What they each should be thankful for:

Nationals fans are thankful that Steve keeps this blog going . . . all year round (speaking of round, a round of applause for Steve, please!)

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