Bold Predictions, Bold Wishes, Bold Dreams for the #Nats

Time to have some fun with bold predictions, bold wishes, bold dreams – along with your rationale for why they might be a good idea for moves for the Washington Nationals.  And predictions like signing Justin Turner or Marcell Ozuna do not qualify unless they are really off-the-wall. The Nationals only have two spots remaining on their 40-man roster so we are doing two bold ideas. But remember, general manager Mike Rizzo could make more than two moves and DFA or trade someone off of the 40-man roster to free up space.

Steve, Sao, Andrew and I will all make a couple of bold predictions. And we ask the TalkNats folks to add their own in the comments section. And we have created a poll for whether you like the ones we have included here.  Continue reading

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Jon Lester is officially on the Washington Nationals roster!

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The Hot Stove boiled over yesterday!

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Within hours, several free agents were reportedly signed yesterday including Cesar Hernandez, Tommy La Stella, Marcus Semien, Andrelton Simmons, Freddie Galvis, Wilson Ramos, and J.T. Realmuto. The available infielders and catchers inventory shifted dramatically in the wake of those signings. Almost every name on that list, sans Galvis and Simmons, had been discussed here in detail as well as on the rumor mill. In fact yesterday on TalkNats, lineups were formulated if general manager signed Hernandez, La Stella or Semien. Back to the drawing board. Of course the Washington Nationals have enough players on their roster to fill what many people consider the weak links on the team which notably are third base, backup catcher, and fifth outfielder.  Continue reading

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#Nats LineUp Options

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

Now that Ryan Zimmerman is on board with the Washington Nationals, we can expect he will get a number of the starts at 1B when the opposing starter is a left-hander. It is time to evaluate alternative lineups.

Steve: Sound good. Let’s do a lefty platoon/matchup lineup and a righty one using 171 PAs in games started by left handed pitchers and 513 in games started by right handed pitchers. I’ve sent you 3 sets of lineups:

  • One using just the players on the roster as of now.
  • One assuming Cesar Hernandez (I think he is undervalued).
  • And since we are welcoming Sao to this Point-CounterPoint, one with Marcus Semien included.

Continue reading

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Developing: Nats reportedly get the bird in the Hand!

Photo courtesy of One Pursuit Takes for TalkNats

The best reliever in the free agent mix was Brad Hand who never appeared to be on the Washington Nationals radar until this weekend. A few minutes ago, Jon Heyman of the MLB Network, broke the news that the Nats were closing in on Hand, and shortly afterwards Jeff Passan of ESPN confirmed that the Nats in fact signed Hand to a one-year deal for $10.5 million. That salary for the closer will blow the Nats past the $190 million mark in payroll to $194 million.
Continue reading

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How does Davey Martinez change his career slow-start record?

Davey Martinez in the middle of it; Photo by Craig Nedrow for TalkNats

In Dave Martinez‘s first season managing the Washington Nationals, he inherited an under-achieving 2017 team. His 2018 debut squad got off to a slow start with an 11-16 record which put the Nats quickly in a hole and 4th place in the NL East at the start to May of 2018. The Nats tried to dig out of that hole and with a 4-2 record to finish that season they finished at 82-80 and second place in the NL East. In 2019, we all know the infamous 19-31 start to that season that finished in a World Series win. Last year, the Nats were even worse with a 19-32 start to that season and with the truncated 60-game season it was over quickly with a 26-34 losing record and tied for last place in the NL East. Continue reading

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MASN’s history with the Nats has been arduous, but it just sunk to a new low!

Photo by Andrew Lang

Back on July 16, 2020, the Nationals in-house video group produced an intra-squad broadcast game of the Washington Nationals that was streamed on Nationals.com and the Nats official Twitter which you can watch here. The game’s play-by-play and analysis was done by Charlie Slowes, and he did it solo. What it showed was that the Nats can produce high quality ‘live’ game video as we saw in that broadcast. We also saw the fine work they did on the documentary Improbable as well as other productions they have created in the past. The reason this is being brought up is that MASN dropped a bombshell that was made public yesterday regarding pregame and postgame shows. Continue reading

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Ryan Zimmerman is back for 2021 in a different role!

The dream continues for Ryan Zimmerman; Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

As the first pick in Washington Nationals history in 2005, Ryan Zimmerman has been a fixture in the Nationals lineup since his September debut in that ’05 season. In 2020, it was supposed to have marked Zim’s fifteenth pro season, but due to COVID concerns he opted out of his contract. Zim was clear that he did not want his career to end that way and now he will get another chance to finish his career with the only team he has ever known and in a city where the fans love him. Affectionately known as “Mr. Walkoff” due to his eleven career walk-off home runs from Father’s Day in RFK Stadium in 2006 to his third career dagger into the Phillies with his last walk-off home run in 2018.  Continue reading

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Are Platoon Splits Almost a Certainty for the #Nats – 2 of 2

Yan Gomes has got this. (Photo by Tom Cicotello for TalkNats)

Time for Part 2 of what we started to discuss in Are Platoon Splits Almost a Certainty for the #Nats – 1 of 2. So lets look at 2B (Starlin Castro and Luis Garcia), Catcher (Jason Castro and Yan Gomes) and CF (Victor Robles and Andrew Stevenson).

Don: Just like our previous discussion, let’s start by looking at their splits against lefty vs. right handed pitchers. Continue reading

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MLB News: Nationals Need Strasburg Healthy in ‘21

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