Game #62 Nationals face a different Giants team with Strasburg pitching on his Anniversary

Photo by LEGNats for TalkNats

It was 8-years ago today that Stephen Strasburg electrified the baseball world with an incredible debut at Nationals Park. Stras struck out 14 batters in one for the ages. Tonight he takes the mound in hopes of bettering what he produced on that night.

The Giants are the team the Nationals face tonight in Nationals Park. They have Madison Bumgarner back from the DL, but they lost their best offensive weapon, Brandon Belt, to the DL due to an appendectomy. They only have 3 regulars on the DL which include Cueto and Samadrdzija. Lucky for the Giants that Brandon Crawford is the hottest hitter in baseball, he is batting .434 for the last month.

Rookie Andrew Suarez pitches tonight for the Giants, and if his name sounds familiar, it should be since the Washington Nationals drafted him in the 2nd round of the 2014 Draft from the University of Miami. Suarez did not sign with the Nats reportedly because he wanted above slot money and did not sign. Funny as it worked out he did not move up in the 2015 Draft to the 1st round and had to settle for full-slot money with the Giant at $1,010,100 per this tweet from MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo. Suarez went from the 57th overall pick in 2014 by the Nationals to the 61st pick overall in 2015 with the Giants. Continue reading

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Seth Romero makes his 2018 debut in the Minor Leagues

Catcher Alejandro Flores chats with Seth Romero (left) before his first Hagerstown Suns appearance. (TalkNats photo)

The collegiate and Spring Training indiscretions by Seth Romero have been discussed before to overkill, and those issues have overshadowed his pitching prowess that he put on display last night in Hagerstown, Maryland’s Municipal Stadium in front of 1,736 fans which was attended by several scouts and a group of Nationals front office personnel including Nationals V.P. Bob Boone and the well-traveled Washington Nationals Director of Player Development Mark Scialabba. Lets suffice it to say, Seth Romero’s 2018 debut was electric. He smashed through the Phillies Low-A affiliate Lakewood Blueclaws like a 6’3″ 240 big man with an over-sized crab mallet. He had a preset pitch count of 60 pitches so his evening was short but full of strikeouts. Of the 8-batters that Romero recorded for outs — 6 were via strikeouts. That’s a 20.30 K/9 rate! Continue reading

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The 2018 #Nats MLB draft is in the books; TalkNats covers Seth Romero’s first Suns start!

The Washington Nationals followed a pitching-heavy draft last year by once again drafting mostly pitchers in the 2018 Major League Baseball draft this week.

The group of 23 pitchers drafted by the Nats is headlined by right-hander Mason Denaburg (first-round pick, #27 overall selection) and left-hander Tim Cate (second-round pick, #65 overall selection). Denaburg is a prep pitcher who turned heads as a starter for Merritt Island High School in Florida, the alma mater of former Nats pitcher Taylor Jordan, while Cate comes from a less traditional region for top-flight baseball talent as the ace of the University of Connecticut Huskies.

Here’s a pick-by-pick analysis of the first 10 rounds of the Nats’ draft class, plus a few assorted notes. Continue reading

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NL East has changed shape; Nats statistically in 1st Place

The NL East has really changed in appearance since Friday the 13th of April when the New York Mets were 11-and-1 and in first place by 3½ games. Their fans were discussing shock and awe and printing 2018 NLDS tickets back then. It’s the reason we play the games. Since then the Braves and Phillies have both shown that they are legitimate contenders and expect both of those teams to make some trade(s) to bolster some of their weaknesses. The Washington Nationals are in 1st Place technically by a .002 winning percentage because the Braves have completed two additional games. Continue reading

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A Leader is…

Hitting 3rd Base in stride

One of the staples of Supervisory Training is an exercise where the room is broken into small groups which are tasked to independently finish the sentence, “A Leader is…”  It’s such stock-in-trade that some of us have suffered through it on multiple occasions during various seminars.  The small teams are supposed to go through all manner of brainstorming maneuvers to arrive at some new insight into the dimensions of leadership.  What usually happens is that one or two people diligently work on it while the senior people in the team check their e-mail.  If you ever find yourself stuck in this dreary dance you can cut right to the chase.

Joel Barker, the Futurist nailed it: “A Leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.”

The Washington Nationals have such a person.  His name is Max Scherzer. Continue reading

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Nats sweep this series and are back Friday for a weekend series!

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Happy birthday to Anthony Rendon who went 4-for-5 in support of Tanner Roark who had an easy game in an 11-to-2 Washington Nationals win and sweep of this two-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays. Continue reading

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Game #61 Tanner Roark vs Tampa’s bullpen

The top of the order needs to get the offense going!

With the Tampa Bay Rays dealing with injuries to two of their starters (Archer and Banda), they appear to have named lefty Jonny Venters their starter — but this will be more of a pieced together bullpen start. He has never started a game before and is a 3-time Tommy John survivor with a total of four ulnar-collateral-ligament injuries to what he self-describes as 3 1/2 TJ surgeries. How long Venters stays in this game is a guess that even Tampa’s manager Kevin Cash might not even know. The furthest Venters has gone in a game is 1 2/3 innings back on May 18th. He last pitched 1/3 of an inning in a 3-pitch LOOGY appearance 3-days ago.  Continue reading

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Max Scherzer improves to 10-1 with bottom of the order offense!

Juan Soto photo by LegNats for TalkNats

The Nationals almost had a 4-to-0 shutout which was spoiled by two weak hits and a line drive, and most importantly the Nationals won the game behind a strong 8 inning performance by Max Scherzer and a Matt Adams home run, 2 runs scored by rookie Juan Soto and Wilmer Difo‘s triple. The Nationals only managed 4-hits in this game while the top of the order were a combined 0-fer, and all of the offense came from the bottom of the Nats order just like the Nationals last win on Saturday. Continue reading

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Game #60 It’s Max Scherzer day at Nationals Park

When Max Scherzer pitches in Nationals Park this season, he has a 1.77 ERA and a WHIP of 0.673 with a 14.4 K/9 rate.  Scherzer hopes to continue that dominance and today must face the catcher who was his battery-mate for his 2 no-hitters and his historic 20-strikeout game. Yes, Wilson Ramos is back as a visiting player, and yes, he is holding a press conference shortly for the D.C. media  You can bet the Nationals crowd will be fired up to see one of their all-time favorites — but once the game starts, he’s just an opponent.  Continue reading

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#Nats 2018 Draft Central: 1st round pick Mason Denaburg & Tim Cate in the 2nd round

The Washington Nationals selected Merritt Island high-schooler right-handed pitcher Mason Denaburg in the 1st round with pick № 27 in the 2018 amateur Draft. Continue reading

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