A First Reading of the Motion Filed by MASN

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Power Boater

Late on Friday, May 6th, MASN filed 48 documents with the New York State Court, this was the deadline set by Judge Marks for them to file a motion to stay the Nats request to force them to return to the MLB arbitration panel as mandated in the original contract between MLB and the Orioles that defined the terms of Angelos’ ownership of the Nats TV rights dating back to 2005 which was before the Lerner’s purchased the Nationals in 2006.

This filing marks the end of any chance for a deal between Angelos and Lerner via mediation (which was so obviously a lost cause it is hard to understand why it was even attempted) and sets up the next round of arbitration, with the question being whether the dispute returns to the MLB panel or a neutral arbitrator. The Nats now have until May 27th to reply to this motion; and subsequently MASN will have until June 17th to respond. (I’m not a lawyer so please excuse any misuse of legal terms.)

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UPDATED: Nats lose another lead in Chicago and get swept: Postgame

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats again today squandered a late game 2-run lead while not adding on runs late in the game to lose another game with questionable execution, and for the first time this year, the Nationals are not in 1st place atop the NL East.

Bryce Harper was walked 6 times today and HBP once to set a record of 7 times on-base with no official at-bats.

Dusty Baker‘s response to all the Harper walks,  “You know until we start swinging the bat [behind him] that will be the norm”.

In the old days you had to earn your spots in the lineup, and the only ones earning coveted spots is Bryce Harper, Daniel Murphy, and Wilson Ramos. Ben Revere is quickly earning his spot and showing why Mike Rizzo traded for him as he got on base 3 times today, and made a tremendous running catch in CF.

boxscore 5 8 16

 
UPDATED: Pedro Gomez of ESPN reports:

“After Bryce Harper was walked 13 times and the @nationals were swept in four games by the @cubs, it looks like Washington will change its lineup on Monday night and have Daniel Murphy bat cleanup behind Harper. It means 3-4-5 will be Harper (lefty), Murphy (lefty) and Zimmerman (righty) instead of the L-R-L the Nationals have been using.”

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Game #31 for Mother’s Day. 4 game finale in Chicago: Game Thread

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats finish up this 10 game road trip in a 3 game slide on this Mother’s Day 2:20pm game. Today the Nats face the uphill climb of going up against the reigning Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta who already owns a no-hitter this year and has a 6-0 record and an 0.84 ERA.

The way to beat Arrieta is to match him 0 for 0 and get Arrieta out of the game early. Tanner Roark has that task today for the Nationals to throw a shutout. One team will win this game, why not the Nationals?

Roark is a local Illinois product and will have to pitch better than he did his first time in Wrigley Field in front of his family and friends.

Here are the Nats stats against Jake Arrieta:

Here are Tanner Roark’s stats against the Cubs:

Line-up (subject to change without notice):

  1. Ben Revere CF
  2. Anthony Rendon 3B
  3. Bryce Harper LF
  4. Ryan Zimmerman 1B
  5. Daniel Murphy 2B
  6. Jayson Werth LF
  7. Wilson Ramos C
  8. Danny Espinosa SS
  9. Tanner Roark RHP

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms on TalkNats and to everyone’s mother. Share some great stories if you have them!

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Mother’s Day is on Sunday and Chandler Bats and MLB uniform makers are pink all over!

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Andrew Lang

Mother’s Day has become one of the biggest events on the baseball calendar. There is a large charitable component in Major League Baseball’s support of Breast Cancer research and the other objective is to bring awareness. We all know the symbolism of the pink wristbands and the pink ribbons on the jerseys that players used to wear when MLB first began to recognize Mother’s Day as an event day. The big change came when MLB approved the use of pink bats for Mother’s Day only, and then we started to see pink cleats and batting gloves used by players. This year for the first time we will see pink trimmed jerseys and caps. Most of the pink items used in the game are auctioned for charity or sold at the stadiums and they will include bases, baseballs, bats, cleats, gloves, jerseys, caps, and line-up cards. Continue reading →

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Not a must win game but it was a should win game: Postgame

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Perhaps the biggest positive takeaway today was that the Nats lead-off man Ben Revere scored 2 runs today in Game #30, and that was never accomplished by Michael Taylor who was the primary lead-off man filling in for Revere as Taylor never scored more than 1 run in a game all season.

This was a tough loss where Gio Gonzalez could not be the stopper as he had multiple leads and could not hold them as the Nats fall into a 3 game losing skid. Gio had a 2 run lead in the 6th inning and was pulled to watch 3 runs score and the Nats fell behind 5-4 in the bottom of the 6th.

The Nats then tied the game at 5-5 in the top of the 7th inning but could not hold that the game in the bullpen.

Every key decision that Joe Maddon made seemed to work and the key decisions Dusty Baker made seemed not to. Perhaps the biggest decision was leaving Gio in to hit for himself in the top of the 6th inning with Stephen Drew on 3rd base and 1 out. Gio bunted and ran into a doubleplay to end the inning. At that moment Gio was at 89 pitches. Continue reading →

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Game #30 and Gio G. needs to be the stopper!: Game Thread

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Daniel “Hits” Murphy gets the day off, and Anthony Rendon drops in the lineup to the 6th spot  vs Jason Hammel. Gio Gonzalez must play the role of Ace stopper today in this game.
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New MASN Filing Exposes The Profits Retained by the Orioles!

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

This morning Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Journal was putting out new information on the MASN dispute. Continue reading →

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Have to like the comeback attempt with a 6 run deficit: Postgame

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Tomorrow’s another game, and while you cannot like the starting pitching performance of Max Scherzer, the Nats bats were good at times today as the Nats scored a total of 6 runs and ate into a 6 run deficit in the 8th inning by scoring 4 runs, and unfortunately ending up on the wrong side of an 8-6 final score in Chicago. Continue reading →

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Game #29 Max Scherzer vs. John Lackey in a Matinee: Game Thread

Posted on May 6, 2016 by DonH

For the first time since Opening Day, the Nationals have all their starters back on the field, including Max Scherzer as the SP. Ben Revere is back and is batting lead-off. This looks like the Opening Day line-up. In all fairness, Ben Revere might need some time to adjust to look like the player that Mike Rizzo traded for.

As most expected, it was Matt den Dekker optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse to make room on the active roster for Ben Revere. There could be several reasons that it was den Dekker chosen over Michael Taylor for the demotion.

The Cubs have John Lackey on the mound today for this game with the 2:20 start time.
Continue reading →

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The Cubs take Game 1 as the Nats defensive miscues are costly: Postgame

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

In a game where the Nats lost 5-2 and all the runs in the game were earned runs. You would be surprised that the Nats pitching was very good and all the runs scored off of misplayed balls.

The biggest defensive miscue was early in the game when Michael Taylor couldn’t catch a Kris Bryant flyball near the ivy which led to 2 runs. In the 8th inning, Ryan Zimmerman on a pick-off had a rundown situation and airmailed the throw which was not ruled an error and would have been the 3rd out, and Zobrist a couple of pitches later hit a 2 run HR. After a HBP and a flyball to Werth, he misplayed a flyball by the ivy scoring the 5th run for the Cubs.

Jayson Werth hit a 2-run HR in the 9th to break up the shutout. That was the offensive highlight for the Washington Nationals.

Joe Ross really pitched well notching 9 strikeouts and the best contact all night was Bryant’s ball to dead centerfield that should have been caught by Taylor, and that’s how it goes some nights.

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