Click to Read an Important Member Update Regarding Our Comment System
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.
Built by Nationals Fans. Powered by the Conversation.
Baseball equipment has become flashier over the years in the designs of colorful cleats and painted bats, and whimsical patterns on gloves and catcher’s chest protectors, but technology in baseball equipment gets lost in it all. Baseball bats that are machine lathed to exact specs to get it to .001 of an inch in detail by a Locatelli seems like cheating the art form of craftsmen hand lathing them like the old days, but the need for precision is best served by robotic blades guided by lasers and computers. Rawlings started supplying gloves to Major Leaguers back in 1906 and have patents to back up their glove technology that continues to innovations we see evolving 115 years later. Continue reading →
We are just a dozen days away from the start to the international signing period that opens on January 15, and the Nats are supposed to make a big splash by signing shortstop Armando Cruz who is currently ranked № 2 in the projected amount paid in a signing bonus among all of the international free agents according to Baseball America. He could also be tied for first depending on the amount paid to the 22-year-old Cuban, Pedro Leon. On MLB Pipeline’s list, Cruz ranks 4th overallamong all of the prospects. The teenage Dominican turns 17 in a few weeks, and he will cost the Washington Nationals about $4 million to sign. He immediately will be a Top-10 prospect in the Nats system once the prospects are re-rated. Continue reading →
Trea Turner getting pointers from hitting coach Kevin Long (Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats)
Don: This tweet got me thinking about looking at how batters perform as they face a pitcher multiple times in the same game, specifically if their results at the plate are better as the game goes on. Baseball Reference has splits for first, second, third, etc. PA/AB, but not by pitcher. Their split for Times Facing Opponent in Game is similar, but it includes all the PAs even if the batter only faced the pitcher once. So I decided to look at that myself.
Juan Soto LOVES Seeing the Same Pitcher A Second Time
Steve: I saw Jomboy’s tweet on Juan Soto as he saw a pitcher for a second time. Mid-game adjustments are so critical but it is also why some teams are pulling pitchers before a batter faces them for a 3rd time.
Ryan Zimmerman: Not do anything to damage “Mr. National’s” reputation.
Starlin Castro: Most baseball players’ careers peak around age 30. Let’s just say 2020 didn’t count (for a whole lot of reasons) and make this your peak year.
Fredericksburg Summer Camp photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
The year of 2020 has been abnormal in almost every way. The MLB Draft during this year was a 5-round truncated version of its former self. With the 22nd pick in the first round of the 2020 draft the Washington Nationals picked an Oklahoma Sooners’ starter, Cade Cavalli, and signed him for for $3.027 million. The 21-year-old right-hander is now the Baseball America № 1 prospect in the Nats’ system. The alternate training camp in Fredericksburg was run by Randy Knorr, Tommy Shields and Jeff Garber with other coaches and development personnel in attendance, and having all of the coaches with this level of experience with daily eyes on Cavalli helped with his development. Continue reading →
As we discuss top prospects, there is something good brewing over in College Park, Maryland other than the java at Vigilante Coffee and the suds at the iconic watering hole at RJ Bentley’s. The Terps baseball team over at the University of Maryland is now ranked as one of the best in the nation, and we saw that on the big stage in the World Series this year when Terp’s alums Brandon Lowe and Adam Kolarek were key players for the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers respectively in the Fall Classic. Continue reading →
Hocus pocus, things are coming into focus. Acquiring Josh Bell via the Christmas Eve 2020 trade with the Pirates was a much needed first step for a team that had the best record in the NL East for the previous 10 years. Yes, tell those Braves fans who are deniers of the facts that they are exhibiting willful ignorance if they try to cherry-pick the results. The Nats are 836-681 in the last ten years while the Braves were only at 787-730. Recall that the Braves had some dreadful losing seasons from 2014-2017. The news was even worse for the Mets and Phillies as their teams had losing records in that time span at 740-778 and 718-800, respectively. Again, these are facts. Continue reading →
This was an annual column written by Laura so I am filling some big stockings here. There is so much unknown with the world today that the baseball world was almost frozen in time until Mike Rizzo got Josh Bell in a trade on Christmas Eve. Last year there was Cole in the Yankees stocking in the form of Gerrit Cole and as Steve wrote yesterday the Nats got Clay in their stockings (Sam Clay), but now they have a Bell ringing some Christmas tunes. Continue reading →
Soto pitching BP in Spring Training; Photo by Craig Nedrow for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals have clear priorities for next year, and we took a deep dive into a Top-10 at the end of September. Sure, things changed quickly when manager Dave Martinez opted to make changes on his coaching staff. If we re-did the original list we would have more names to add and different priorities today as things changed, but the original list has been close to Rizzo’s blueprint. Sure, we didn’t have Sam Clay as an acquisition target for a lefty in the bullpen, but the early moves match up well to what we saw as priorities.
Today as you know, the Nationals traded Will Crowe and one of their top pitching prospects, Eddie Yean, for Josh Bell who we have had as a top priority from the start.
Not originally a Top-10 priority, but it is up there on the list, the Nats must add a new hitting coach to replace Kevin Long unless the team comes to terms with KLong which seems like a long-shot at this point. ✓
Don: So lets talk about who the backup first baseman should be. I think we both agree that someone new needs to brought in to take the bulk of the At Bats. But who should the back-up be.
Steve: Sounds like a topic the TalkNats folks will like to discuss. I’m expecting it will be Ryan Zimmerman over Howie Kendrick and Asdrubal Cabrera (UPDATED – Howie Kendrick retired, yes, we started writing this over a week ago). But it wouldn’t shock me to go Droobs over Zim due to “positional flexibility” that Rizzo has always coveted in bench players. Actually, this will be the offseason that almost nothing will surprise me. Continue reading →
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.