The #Nats 4th Starter Options

Posted on January 18, 2021 by DonH

Getty Images photo

It is pretty clear that the Nationals need a fourth starter. The issue is who! Trevor Bauer isn’t getting signed by general manager Mike Rizzo. And none of the rest are obvious choices. The priorities posted yesterday clearly shows the need for a 4th starter upgrade.

Don: When the Yankees signed Corey Kluber and the speculation started that they may not want to bring back Masahiro Tanaka who is a free agent. It is looking likely that Tanaka will not be going back to the Yankees I looked at his stats on Baseball Reference it looked like he was an innings eater. That got me to thinking that maybe getting a guy who goes deep into games would be a good idea.

I can query the 2018-2020 data and filtered the pitcher data to include only those that were in the list of MLBTR’s 2020-2021 Free Agent Tracker and that also had at least one game where they went thru the inning twice and look at the midpoint of how far into games they went. For example, if a pitcher started 50 games and I ordered them based on how deep they went, where does the 25th game fall (e.g., 5.2 innings).

Steve: Good idea. I’d think Rizzo wants a guy who can actually make it thru the 6th inning and probably will look to someone who Jim Hickey is comfortable with. There are quite a few of those on the free agent market like Chris Archer, Jake Odorizzi, Jose Quintana, and Jon Lester. Of course of those 4 names, only Lester would qualify as an innings-eater.  Continue reading →

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Priorities change. The #Nats 2021 update!

Posted on January 16, 2021 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Washington Nationals have clear priorities for this 2021 season. But the Nats won’t sniff the postseason if the starting rotation repeats their failures of 2020 when they had a Nationals’ franchise worst 5.38 ERA from a starting rotation that cost over $100 million in total for 2020. This year, FanGraphs is projecting a rather mundane 4.39 ERA for the starting staff. Sorry, that will not cut it. You might as well fold the tent if the Nats cannot pitch better than the ERAs in that graphic (above).

Let’s be clear, the Nationals are not paying Stephen Strasburg a salary of $35 million to pitch to a 4.08 ERA. The same could be said for Max Scherzer who will earn $30 million this year, and Patrick Corbin will collect $24.4 million. New pitching coach, Jim Hickey, will have his work cut out for him. You can do the math with Joe Ross‘ $1.5 million contract for 2021, the Nats already have $90.9 million invested in those four pitchers with one spot open in the rotation.

Continue reading →

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A big #Nats day for international signings, arbitration players, and the 30-day countdown to Spring Training!

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Posted in Analysis, Feature, MikeRizzo, Prospects, Roster | Leave a comment

Cade Cavalli brings us up-to-date on how he is doing heading into Spring Training!

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Down on the Farm; Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

The Josh Bell acquisition cost the Washington Nationals their seventh rated prospect when Eddy Yean went to the Pirates as the centerpiece of that trade. Subsequently, there have been rumors swirling about other potential trades involving Kris Bryant and Eugenio Suarez.

Wisely, as Jon Heyman pointed out on December 18, the Nats do not want to deal their top prospects in Jackson Rutledge and Cade Cavalli as well as 20-year-old Luis Garcia who technically exceeded his rookie status and can no longer rate as a prospect. Heyman basically tweeted the same again yesterday about Eugenio Suarez, Rutledge and Cavalli sans Garcia. Currently, Rutledge and Cavalli hold the top-two spots in both Baseball America rankings as well as MLB Pipeline.  Continue reading →

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Where do the #Nats go from here?

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

With Josh Bell, Kyle Schwarber, and Josh Harrison all signed, what moves will Washington Nationals’ general manager Mike Rizzo have up his winter sleeves? With a 40-man roster showing five vacancies, we can expect at least five moves and most likely more moves on the minor league side after the international signings become official on Friday and Riz adds more non-roster invitees to his spring training roster. The issue at-hand, if Fangraphs is your guide, is that they are projecting the Nats for only 84 wins today, and if there are only two Wild Card spots, the Nats would not make the postseason.  Continue reading →

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Are Platoon Splits Almost a Certainty for the #Nats – 1 of 2?

Posted on January 10, 2021 by DonH

Ryan Zimmerman in 2020; Photo by Katie Moran for TalkNats

Don: So that is the question of the day. Given the budget, who the available FAs are; and lack of tradeable assets, platoons seem like the best/only option for the Nats. TalkNats commenter DChamps asked us to do:

Here is what I would like to see if you can do it is take 2019/2020 combined and do a platoon split to see what a Brantley [Substitute Schwarber] platoon would look like with Pillar or Duvall. Do the same for Bell and Zim and Luis Garcia and Harrison and at catcher Gomes for 100 games and Jason Castro for 62 games and in CF Robles for 110 games and Stevo for 52 games.

Steve: Wow, I would love to see platoon splits or what Rizzo likes to call matchups for 2 players at the same position. Riz has never liked the pure lefty/righty thing. I think we have to determine how many at-bats those players would get because Duval and Pillar would play more than the 30 starts a year against lefties. This is also much different to look at since Josh Bell is decent from both sides of the plate as a switch-hitter.

Andrew: I think that is smart. This could be the Nats reality. My fear is that if they go with Brantley Schwarber that they play him too much.

BREAKING: Deferred by a day because the Nats have signed Kyle Schwarber. So we will replace Brantley with Schwarber in DChamps list.

Continue reading →

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Official: Nats sign Kyle Schwarber as a free agent! Time to pencil in a new lineup!

Posted on January 9, 2021 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Wrigley Field, Photo by NavyYardNats for TalkNats

We had several scenarios for a Kyle Schwarber signing with the hopes he could play first base for the Washington Nationals. After the Josh Bell signing, the thoughts of adding Schwarber faded until rumors had surfaced from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal that the Nats were considering Schwarber in leftfield.

Today, that move came into focus as general manager Mike Rizzo has signed Schwarber to a one-year deal with a mutual option. He was recently non-tendered by the Cubs to become a free agent. A source told us that Nationals’ manager Dave Martinez was instrumental in his desire to add Schwarber to his lineup, and there was mutual interest for Schwarber to reunite with the Nats’ manager. Prior to 2018, Martinez was the bench coach for the Cubs and knew Schwarber well and was a key in converting him from a catcher to an outfielder. He also knows that Schwarber was defensively challenged in the outfield, but the need for big offense is greater. The Nats take a risk as Schwarber slumped with the bat in 2020 with regards to his .188 batting average — but he did manage a .308 OBP and a .701 OPS with his immense power. Continue reading →

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The entire landscape of the NL East, NL, and MLB changed today with the Lindor trade!

Posted on January 7, 2021 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Mets and Indians pulled off a blockbuster trade today that brought the team in Queens some royalty in the form of Francisco Lindor and his +5.6 WAR. If that was not enough, they also got starting pitching help in that same trade package as Carlos Carrasco joins a very good Mets rotation.

The rest of the NL East are looking up at the Mets now. In fact, FanGraphs ranks the best teams in all of Major League baseball with the Dodgers, Padres and Mets as one, two, and three respectively. Keep in mind that the Mets probably could make one more splash in an outfield acquisition and could improve even more. George Springer is a +3.8 WAR player and a free agent signing like that would make the Mets the tops in the NL. Continue reading →

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Fact or Fiction: The Nats And Developing Pitchers

Posted on January 7, 2021 by DonH

Photo by Craig Nedrow for TalkNats

Don: Joseph Goebbels is quoted for saying

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

And there are claims made and repeated often enough that they come to be accepted as the truth regardless of whether they have ever been fact checked. So this exchange between you two (Steve and Andrew)

Ghost of Steve M.
One thing in common, no pitching stars turned yet.
Allstars_S2
That is a Nats system development issue.

in The international signings period begins in a dozen days! #Nats could add some key prospects to the farm like Armando Cruz! caught my eye.  Continue reading →

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Rating the top sports video games!

Posted on January 6, 2021 by L.A. Rice

As an average college student in America, there are a few common things that we all look forward to when we go back to our hometown for winter break. Sleep, hang out with friends (and over the past year that has become pretty iffy), and play video games.

According to the 2019 Evolution Entertainment Study, 73% of Americans aged 2 and older play video games, up 6% from 2018, and according to a poll conducted by Pew Research Center in 2003, 70% of college students play video games, with 65% of college students saying they are occasional or regular video game players. This shows how remarkable the video game industry truly is. Personally, I am in the minority among most of my friends, as I leave my gaming console at my house during the school year. Half of the reason I do this is to focus on my schoolwork, my podcast, and fish tanks- yes my fish tanks- and the other half is that I have such little confidence in my technical ability that I am afraid if I unplug my Xbox and re-hook it up somewhere else, I will find some way to mess it up.

Most of the Major Leaguers play video games, and as TalkNats showed in photos throughout the summer, players would leave the stadium clutching there Gaems cases to play video games on the bus and plane rides. While many of them play Fortnite, they are also playing some of the games that we will show you below. MLB The Show had a tournament in March 2020 and Amir Garrett defeated Blake Snell and then in a May 2020 tournament it was Snell who beat Lucas Giolito to take the title. As Nats fans know, Giolito’s dad, Rick, works in gaming development. MLB even has their own gaming Twitter. It is big time.

Continue reading →

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