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.
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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.
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 →
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 →
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.
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.
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 →
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.