by Andrew Lang
by Andrew Lang
When you didn’t think the Washington Nationals television deal with MASN could get worse, it did in a retroactive shocker. On Jan. 3rd, MLB announced that the annual fee payment from MASN to the Nats would be reduced from $72.8 million in 2023 to approximately $58.3 million annually for the 2024 season as well as the 2025 season. In total, that added up to a $14.5 million hit and $29 million in total.
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When George McFly knocked-out Biff Tannen outside in the parking lot at the ‘Enchantment Under the Sea’ dance, it was a victory for those who have felt marginalized by the bully. In fictional film, you can create anything. A win for the revenge of the nerds. The mega athlete with the testosterone flowing in his teenage body doesn’t realize when he picked on the frail kid that one day, as Bill Gates famously said, “Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.”
The Washington Nationals were one of the last organizations to fully embrace analytics. Billy Beane was a first round draft pick who embraced analytics before it was en vogue. Guys like Bill James was at the forefront of the analytics evolution back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, coining “sabermetrics” and challenging traditional baseball wisdom with objective statistical analysis through his Baseball Abstract series.
In Tampa, they excelled under Andrew Friedman, a former college baseball player at Tulane, who installed one of the most advanced analytics departments in baseball. Anirudh Kilambi was hired by the Rays as an intern in 2015 while he was a student at Cal Berkeley. Friedman had just left the Rays a year before Kilambi arrived. Coincidentally, manager Blake Butera was drafted that same summer by the Rays when Kilambi was there. The pair had previously met and had contact during their shared time with Tampa. Kilambi called Butera a “great communicator.”
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The Washington Nationals have hired their General Manager, and it is 31-year-old Anirudh Kilambi, who is coming from the rival Phillies. The news was broken by Jeff Passan of ESPN.
Kilambi had been an assistant GM with Philadelphia, and was overseeing its R&D department. President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, said he was authorized by the Lerner ownership group to hire a GM which did not happen right away, and in fact comes nearly three months after Toboni was hired.
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They say to never make a trade for the sake of making a trade. But they also say that trades are best judged in hindsight. As we began the 100-day countdown to Opening Day at Wrigley Field in Chicago, news broke of a trade. Last night, Paul Toboni traded with his former boss, Craig Breslow, in a 1-for-1 trade of promising minor league pitchers. The Washington Nationals acquired fireballer right-handed pitcher Luis Perales for left-handed pitcher Jake Bennett.
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"Opening Day should be a National holiday"
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