by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
First off, the MLB Draft is just over 2-days away, and that is taking center stage as the Washington Nationals enter the All-Star break. That is the main focus for general manager Mike Rizzo and his front office. But for trade news, there is some: Sources tell us that the Nats will listen on any and all offers. It doesn’t mean there will be a huge sell-off — but they will listen on any players with less than 2-years of team control.
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Sometimes events line up not unlike soldiers for morning Colors. On Monday, July 1 the Nats’ faithful were treated to the inauguration of the James Wood era. Two weeks distant would be the annual MLB Draft. By then the top prospects in the game would have played their exhibition “Futures Game.” Against this backdrop it was utterly irresistible to accept freebie tickets to a “High A” Minor League (MiLB) game. The contest featured Winston-Salem’s “Dash” (CWS) versus the Hickory “Crawdads” (TEX). It turned out to be a wonderful, albeit a very warm evening. But, for every element within plain sight were several others lingering not far behind the beautiful twilight.
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The Washington Nationals had a 2-1 lead into the sixth inning with a fully rested back of the bullpen — but allowed starter Patrick Corbin to meltdown on the mound with Derek Law as the bullpen arm to replace Corbin. We all know Law’s record as the anti-fireman who has allowed at least one inherited runner to score in 82.4 percent of those appearances — and that is a lot of scorched earth. He did not disappoint last night as Corbin’s two inherited runners quickly scored. The Nats lost 6-2. The Nats have now sunk to a season’s worst 9-games under .500, and now are on a 73 win pace.
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The Washington Nationals schedule is tough playing in the NL East. They have a difficult road ahead of them after the All-Star break that begins a week from Friday with upcoming home games against teams like the Yankees, Brewers, and Phillies, among others.
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A few years ago one of the talking heads predicted that Jackson Rutledge’s future was likely as a closer and not a starter. So let’s look into the data for his 2024 season in Rochester to see if it supports such a supposition. The above chart is the data for his 2024 season – the splits by inning. It excludes his one 8th inning relief appearance for the Nats. All the games are his starts in Rochester.
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The Washington Nationals made a late surge last night but it was too little too late and they lost 7-5. Some bad umping, bad defense, some bad pitching, and some bad luck seems to be the formula for most Nats losses — but this one did not have the bad baserunning. Well, you have to get on-base to have bad baserunning….. While Jake Irvin didn’t pitch great, he pitched better than the box score shows.
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What has happened to CJ Abrams’ defense? Yes, he is an All-Star based on what he has done with the bat, not his defense. He is one of the best offensive shortstops in baseball. But he ranks last for all shortstops this season in defense before the All-Star break. His first-step decisions and being up on his toes ready just is not what he is doing this season. Abrams has become a defensive liability. Last night, he missed two balls in a good shortstop’s range. The day before that he had two fielding errors that turned into two unearned runs.
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The Washington Nationals have this year’s All-Star snub, Jake Irvin, on the mound for another audition for the Commissioner’s Office and fans of baseball. How do you keep a Top-5 starter (ERA) off of the All-Star team. That’s easy because it just happened to Irvin.
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Do you think the Washington Nationals have a miraculous run in them? The team has gone 4-10 since that point in San Diego, and if they could go on a winning streak this week, as unlikely as it is, the Nats might stave up any talk of being sellers at the trade deadline.
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The Washington Nationals have very little margin for error, and that does not mean defensive errors as determined by the official scorer, rather just making mistakes. James Wood had less than a week’s time in the Majors yesterday so some of this he should get a pass for when he makes a mistake. Each game, each play, is a learning experience. Wood doesn’t have a lot of experience in left field.
In the second inning yesterday, Wood allowed a flyball to drop in front of him — and it was clearly his ball. Wood was criticized on-air by MASN’s color analyst, Kevin Frandsen, on two occasions yesterday that also included a baserunning mistake that veterans have made too when Wood was doubled off of first base on a line drive that was caught by a middle infielder. Frandsen was right in both cases, and so was manager Dave Martinez who spoke about the fly ball that led to two runs scoring. That non-play resulted in extra laborious pitches that took a 19-pitch inning to a 29-pitch inning and redlined the young starter, DJ Herz. The situation snowballed as each extra pitch eventually pushed Herz into a career-high 102 pitches in the game. But you could easily try to hit rewind and see that maybe Herz throws 5.0 scoreless if he didn’t have to redline in that second inning.
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"Opening Day should be a National holiday"
