Going Deep with The Nats

While the Matt Adams signing is now official, it is that familiar situation of one-door opening and another one closing. It essentially closes the book on the popular Adam Lind.

When Adam Lind was signed as training camp opened on February 15th, he was coming off a poor year with the Mariners where he batted .239. Lind basically replaced the popular Clint Robinson in the role of the big lefty bench bat and 1st base insurance in case Ryan Zimmerman had an injury.

Little did the Nationals know that Adam Lind would probably be the best pinch-hitter in the Nationals history, and his star shined brightly right from Opening Day when he hit the game winning pinch-hit 2-run home run in the 7th inning to win the game for his new team. “Lindsanity” would become a thing when he would come up to bat. By the end of the season, Lind finished with a .356 pinch-hitting batting average and an out-of-this-world 1.040 OPS. Continue reading →

Was the Matt Adams deal the phone call Rizzo got on Saturday? Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

When Adam Lind headed to free agency, the Nationals were in need of a player just like him. The choices were a pick of two players: Adam Lind or Matt Adams According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Nationals have signed Matt Adams to a one-year contract worth $4 million guaranteed with an additional $500,000 in an incentives bonus. Also, keep in mind that Lind got a $500,000 buyout and Mike Rizzo said both sides turned down Lind’s option. If Adams gets his incentives bonus, the total for the Lind buyout and Adams deal will be exactly a $5 million expenditure. Continue reading →

Graph by Maury Brown of Biz of Baseball

For over a month, the news on whether or not the Nationals were going to exceed the Competitive Balance Tax threshold has been a bouncing ball. On November 13th, the USA Today came out with a 2017 recap of the teams who exceeded the tax threshold and the Nationals were at one point above the threshold then below it on a revision. According to a comment Mike Rizzo made at the “State of the Nats” forum, Rizzo confirmed the USA Today report which was welcomed news, but then ESPN yesterday came out with a report quoting the Associated Press that goes with another report that the Nationals were $7.25 million over the tax threshold. Continue reading →

For the first time, we are seeing the new “Luxury Tax” is keeping some teams from moving into a “gated community of Playoffville”. The “Luxury Tax” aka “The Competitive Balance Tax” has been the source of some new Boras-isms as super-agent Scott Boras tries to cajole teams into big spending and exceed the $197 million tax threshold which comes with stiff penalties.

“The team cutting payroll is treating their family where they’re staying in a neighborhood that has less protection,” Scott Boras said. “They’re not living in the gated community of Playoffville. And certainly they’re saving a de minimis property tax, but the reality of it is there is less firemen in the bullpen. There’s less financial analysts sitting in the press boxes. The rooms in their houses are less so obviously you’re going to have less franchise players when you move to that 12-room home in Playoffville.”

There have already been multiple repercussions of the Giancarlo Stanton trade to the New York Yankees as they have traded Starlin Castro in the Stanton trade and Chase Headley in a salary dump to the Padres to get below the $197 million limit. The Dodgers just made a blockbuster trade to rid themselves of Adrian Gonzalez, LHP Scott Kazmir, RHP Brandon McCarthy and infielder Charlie Culberson to the Braves in exchange for Matt Kemp. According to reports, this was all about the Dodgers dumping salary to get below the cap. Continue reading →

signatures, left to right: Anthony Rendon, Michael Taylor, Dave Martinez, Adam Eaton, Derek Lilliquist, Sean Doolittle

Winterfest Day 2, or what you can learn from watching Davey build a snowman.

By Laura H. Peebles (ArVAFan)

I’m starting with the last segment of the day, the Snowman Building Contest. The rules were that each player, working with an audience member, had 30 minutes to build and decorate a snowman using the materials provided. Materials were three Styrofoam globes, tinsel garland, LED light string, toothpicks, carrots, ribbon, dowels, glue and tape. There were also three additional items brought in during the session that had to be used: bright-colored plastic utensils, Froot Loops, and then one different item for each team. Continue reading →

State of the Nationals Session:

Mike Rizzo:

“Absolutely no truth” to the rumors about the Nats and J D Martinez.

“We like the team we have.” AllStars_S2 (Andrew L.) and I burst out laughing, turned to each other and said “trade on the way!” (and then Rizzo’s phone rang).

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Love to keep Harper. Continue reading →

“The Firm” by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

With the announcement that the Washington Nationals have re-signed Brandon Kintzler, “The Firm” will be back together for 2018. What had been a very quiet Winter Meetings for the Nationals is now a partial success with a team friendly deal bringing back Brandon Kintzler on a two-year deal plus a team option at $5 million a year plus some large incentives. Continue reading →