Going Deep with The Nats

Part of a 30-part series highlighting each team’s 2017 journey featuring a few of my favorite team attributes.

Another NLDS loss for the Washington Nationals. It has to feel like fait accompli to Nats fans each year as the team enters the postseason, and faith has to be waning this franchise will ever bring them the glory they desire.

Since 2012, only one team (Dodgers) has more wins than Washington’s 555 by just 4 wins; I guess the empathetic response here for Nats fans is the Dodgers have little to show for it either, albeit LA has at least advanced past the first round.

In the last six seasons it has been three different managers taking this Nats team to the playoffs, with none of them able to get past this invisible barrier that is the division series.

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Tax law changes? What does that have to do with sports? While you were sleeping, you might not have realized that American politicians were making tax law changes which will affect many lives including the world of sports and stadium building.

Tucked away on Page 54 of the H.R. bill section 304 is “No tax exempt bonds for professional stadiums” which would strip away that tax free federal tax status from those professional teams trying to build stadiums with any taxpayer money in most cases. Continue reading →

Stanton and Ohtani are part of the five biggest stories this off-season

There is no question that baseball’s biggest stories will come from the international market and the trade market this off-season. No matter how much J.D. Martinez is hyped as a $210 million player — all eyes are on Shohei Ohtani from Japan, and Giancarlo Stanton from the 818 area code .

Ohtani and Stanton dominate the five biggest stories in the off-season. The managerial changes were a big story. Atlanta’s penalty for cheating the international signings and John Coppolella’s banishment from baseball for life with Kevin Maitan declared a free agent was another headline story. The pitch clock could round it out as the fifth most intriguing story of this off-season. Continue reading →

The pre-prep is being done. We are less than 2 weeks away from the start of the Winter Meetings. Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez have a plan while knowing that we live in a reality of an ever-changing environment. They won’t tell us the plan. But they have a plan that they will start from and work forward. This year is very different from past years as the needs are fewer. Last year, Mike Rizzo was without a starting catcher and really was looking for a starting centerfielder upgrade as well as bullpen depth and a big lefty bat off of the bench.

A week after Thanksgiving last year, Rizzo traded to get Derek Norris as his starting catcher. That deal never felt like the right fit as it was a major step backwards from the production Wilson Ramos gave the Nationals. As it would turn out, Norris would be released during Spring Training costing the Nationals nearly $700,000 as a parting gift. It had to be the strangest off-season for Mike Rizzo as almost every move seemed out of character. He created “addition by subtraction” by trading away Danny Espinosa which seemed wise — and long overdue. Then the Nats made a blockbuster deal for Adam Eaton trading away almost all of their future starting pitching depth with the exception of Erick Fedde. That was how they left the Winter Meetings. Continue reading →