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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Another Soto home run; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
2020 BBWAA AWARDS FINALISTS REVEALED
Winners Will Be Announced November 9 – 12 Exclusively on MLB Network
When the major award categories were revealed, it was not a shock that Juan Soto was not in the Top-3 of candidates for the NL MVP Award. This kid had been snubbed for the All-Star game and other awards before. Why would we expect that to change? Hours before Opening Day, Juan Soto was place on the IL for what was later described by Soto as a “Fake Positive” COVID test. It was suspect, and it really threw off the entire balance of the Washington Nationals beginnings to their start of the 2020 season.Continue reading →
It feels like a high stakes game of musical chairs when it comes to — should you take a chair deal when the phone rings with an offer or keep circling around and hope the phone rings again and again with a better offer. Sure, there are plenty of spots for the top of the free agent market with Trevor Bauer, J.T. Realmuto, George Springer, and Marcell Ozuna. But what about the rest of the nearly 200 free agents who are now on the clock? Add to that the surprises as teams have tagged some of their top pending free agents with Qualifying Offers. Players like Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman are two players who could take a guaranteed $18.9 million deal based on the rules of the Q.O. Continue reading →
Rutledge was the Nationals’ top draft pick in June 2019. (MLB)
Two more Nats prospects graduated to rookie status in 2020 when they passed over the 130 at-bat threshold that defined their career in terms of officially categorizing them as rookies. Both Carter Kieboom and Luis Garcia are off the 2021 Washington Nationals prospects list as they will matriculate to the next levels in their pro careers. The new prospect list is led by Jackson Rutledge in a Top-10 that features all pitchers in MLB Pipeline’s rankings. Over at Baseball America, they have not published their 2021 list, but here is their mid-season report which still listed Kieboom and Garcia on top of the list and Drew Mendoza ranked 8th. Continue reading →
Max Scherzer warms in the bullpen as the World Series flag blows in the wind; Photo by Steve Mears for TalkNats
Can you believe it has been exactly one year since the Nationals won the World Series! Savor it, enjoy it. They do not happen often — even when you spend so much money that you blow through the CBT cap to win. It took a good team with incredible chemistry and veteran leadership along with some youthful exuberance and some divine intervention from the baseball gods. The “CLANG” heard ’round the world courtesy of Howie Kendrick put the final clang exclamation mark on it.
Remember those days when the Nats spent to win it all with what they thought was their best team assembled in 2016? It did not happen. They tried again in 2017 and busted through the cap and in 2018 they were over cap even after they traded off veteran players. The 2019 roster had no Daniel Murphy, Gio Gonzalez, or Bryce Harper. Two-thirds of the trio of bullpen arms they dubbed, “The Law Firm” were gone. The 2019 team added Patrick Corbin as their most substantial acquisitions and a bunch of fill-ins as the team absolutely was committed to staying under the CBT cap.
That is the thing about baseball — you just never know. After the disappointment of the 2018 season, the jury was still out on Nationals manager Dave Martinez. Some gave him a “rookie” pass for an 82-80 season and stunts like bringing camels to Spring Training camp to signify the Nats needed to get over the proverbial hump. Continue reading →
With the 40-man roster sitting at 29 current players, Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo can now embark on his off-season journey of building a better mousetrap. Putting together talent is subjective based on the eye of a scout who excels at piecing intricate puzzles together. You cannot force the wrong piece in place or the puzzle does not work. Rizzo has learned through excruciating trial and error that players with immense upside like Elijah Dukes or even Jonathan Papelbon can not seamlessly fit into his clubhouse as that chemistry must work. Sometimes it is the intangibles of a bench player like Gerardo Parra who becomes the x-factor needed to get you to the promised land. Continue reading →
Mike Rzzo and Davey Martinez have a lot of work ahead of them: Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
“Next year STARTS NOW” was how the tweet read from the Washington Nationals official Twitter feed moments after the last out was recorded in the World Series last night which advanced the clock officially to the off-season. The free agency clock has started and teams now have an exclusive 5-day window to negotiate with their own free agents. There might not be one of them that the Nats are interested in keeping unless some very deep discounts are available. Continue reading →
Few people gave the Tampa Bay Rays a chance in this 2020 World Series against the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers. It was billed as a David versus Goliath, and if nothing else, Tampa has put up a good fight to get the series to a 2-to-2 tie. But the Dodgers pulled away in Game 5 with a win to make tonight’s game an elimination game. Continue reading →
Last year, free agency went better than projected for several players like Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, and Anthony Rendon who all cashed in on their Powerballs and each pocketed well over $200 million. COVID-19 threw a wrench into the cog that spins the wheels of business in the middle of Spring Training 2020. The season was disrupted, and most teams never allowed fans in the stands. Continue reading →
MLB has been building up Mookie Betts as the hero, but he went 0-5; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
The stage was set for Randy Arozarena to walk-off on Goliath, but they walked him to pitch to Brett Phillips who had not notched a hit in a month. Who? Brett Phillips. Best known for his Arnold Horshacklaugh than his plays on the field. Known for being the other player in the Josh Hader trade. Known for his whiteboard signs in the ALCS when he was not on the Tampa Bay Rays roster. Known for a dance-off on a day-off with his teammates after the Rays beat the Yankees to advance to the World Series. Now known as the only non-Dodgers player to ever hit a walk-off winner with 2 outs in the 9th inning while trailing in a World Series game. Phillips now joins Kirk Gibson and Cookie Lavagetto as the only players to ever accomplish that feat. Continue reading →
Juan Soto bear hugs his hitting coach after the final game of the season; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
When you are the youngest National League player to ever win a batting crown, you must thank your hitting coach. That is exactly what Juan Soto did with a bear hug that lifted hitting coach Kevin Long off the ground after the final game of the 2020 season as the 21 year old batted an impressive .351 with an MLB leading 1.185 OPS.
As the offseason started quickly for a Washington Nationals team that missed the playoffs, news broke that the team was going to have a coaching staff shakeup. There were headlines from other media that Kevin Long would not be returning. Our sources told us that was not necessarily the case. KLong, like all the coaches, are Nationals employees through October 31. Often, coaches are given permission to look around to seek other opportunities, and we were told that is what Long did. 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.