The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Other than a Wild Card game, the minimal goal for the road team in the first two games of a postseason series is to win at least one game in a split. For the Nationals, they accomplished that minimal goal with a win in the first game of the 2019 NLCS against the Cardinals. Using manager Dave Martinez’s mantra of go 1-0 today, the Nationals of course won this game and headed back home with home field advantage at 2-0. To pitch your number four pitcher in the first game of the series with Anibal Sanchez and get a win set up the Nats to go with Max Scherzer on regular rest in this NLCS Game 2.  Continue reading →

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Join us tonight at 7 pm as we relive and re-love Game One of the NLCS. This was the first time the Washington Nationals progressed past the NLDS in the postseason, and we all remember how it all ended. Now you can watch again the journey through the NLCS. If you forgot, the Nationals shocked the Cardinals to take this first game of the NLCS behind a near-no-hitter from Anibal Sanchez that ended with two outs in the 8th inning. Sanchez cruised in this game, and made big pitches when he had to. Manager Dave Martinez pulled him after the hit was surrendered in that 8th inning at 103 pitches. In the entire game per Statcast, Sanchez only gave up one hard-hit ball which is measured at contact in play at over 95 mph. In his career, Sanchez has thrown a no-hitter before so he thought he might have had another when he got a clutch Web Gem from Ryan Zimmerman in that 8th inning on a diving catch that few first basemen could make. Being “close” still put Sanchie in the history books for the furthest any pitcher has gone in a postseason DS/LCS except for Roy Halladay who finished the only non-World Series no-no. Continue reading →

Soto freeze frame; Photo by Lynn G for TalNats

Have you ever made that annoying phone call to a company that has robotic phone attendants that keep you on-hold for seemingly ever? That is what this new isolation feels like. Our lives are stuck on-hold with no real time to get our call answered. Three months from today is America’s birthday which is when some are speculating we could see baseball again. Today was supposed to be “ring day” for the Washington Nationals, and that obviously has been cancelled due to COVID-19. Max Scherzer said he kind of saw the ring from Jostens when he spoke during his appearance on Intentional Talk this week. Continue reading →

Open Day graphic by Steve Mears

We were all supposed to be awake now and preparing all of our senses for the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and touches for Opening Day baseball in Washington, D.C. There is nothing like it as you approach the park in anticipation with all the pomp and circumstance for this special day as the smell of popcorn and half-smokes grilling waft through the air while fans are clamoring as they are lined up at the turnstiles to enter into our baseball paradise.  The weather report today is glorious for Nationals Park at 60°F and mostly sunny with a slight breeze and is the type of weather you hope for on an early Spring game.  This was the original Washington Nationals invitation to their fans for what was supposed to be a special Opening Day:

“Opening Day is Thursday, April 2! We will unveil our 2019 World Champions banner as part of the pregame ceremonies prior to our 1:05pm game against the New York Mets. Join us as we begin the quest to defend our title!”

Continue reading →

Mr. Walk-off has provided many game-enders in style!

The Washington Nationals closed up RFK Stadium with some hope. First year manager Manny Acta seemed to over-achieve with that 2007 team that lost 89 games, and that was considered progress as the team was looking to increase payroll going into the opening of the $600+ million Nationals Park for the 2008 season. The stadium opened a dozen years ago today to mixed reviews on the architecture and ambience. It was a design done by MLB and signed off by the DC government that was footing the bulk of the bill which meant it was going to be done with corners cut. The Lerner family purchased the team in 2006 from MLB on May 3rd of 2006, and the groundbreaking for Nationals Park was set for the next day. With the Lerner’s expertise in construction, they would have liked to have been more involved in the design, but as they say it was before their time. Over the years, Nats Park feels like home with the postseason banners, signage, and the Ring of Honor. The Navy Yard district is built up with restaurants, bars, and hotels and is now a destination spot anchored by the World Series champs! Continue reading →

Rahm Emanuel was famously quoted as saying:

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

The quote is all I’ll say on politics or politicians. Lets talk about what changes you would make in the MLB rules (and more, like the schedule) if you could. But first some background.

When Ghost started this site he enlisted a few folks (like me) to get involved. Given my background in technology and analytics I focused on those two areas. At the same time a colleague and I were considering writing a book on a particular feature of SAS Software (widely used for both data management and analytics). We needed data, and lots of it, to use as the sample data for the book. I convinced my co-author that the MLB Game Day data would be exactly what we needed. Not being a baseball fan, he was initially skeptical, but after I showed him how much data there was (and how complicated it was), he bought in. Continue reading →