Click to Read an Important Member Update Regarding Our Comment System
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.
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This could be the subject that 3 weeks ago when camp started, we hoped we didn’t have to talk about, and here we are less than 30 days before Opening Day and the Ryan Zimmerman health issue is once again front and center. There is no need for panic or sounding the alarms as Ryan Zimmerman could be fine.
On March 2nd, Bill Ladson had this report on Ryan Zimmerman:
“Baker has treated Zimmerman gently this spring. Zimmerman is still dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. There isn’t any rush to get Zimmerman to full speed, however. Baker said he simply wants to make sure Zimmerman is ready by Opening Day.”
“It’s a cautious approach, knowing I don’t need that many at-bats down here to get ready,” Zimmerman said. “I would be more worried if I haven’t been able to do everything else. I have participated in everything but the running, which I did for the first time [Tuesday], and I feel good today.”
Before we discuss the similarities of Giolito and Gio, let’s start by discussing the prospects which starts with Giolito and Turner. The young stars have usually received the bulk of the buzz for years in Nats camp from Strasburg to Harper to Rendon to this year’s duo of Trea Turner and Lucas Giolito.
Giolito and Trea Turner are both Top 10 prospects in all of baseball on the Baseball America list. Both top prospects have come into camp, and have the national media talking about what impact these players could have on the 2016 Nats.
The Nationals had a surprise waiting for them today as Joe “Willie” Namath, aka “Broadway Joe” greeted Dusty Baker and Nats players today. Unfortunately it meant little to Michael Taylor as he had no idea who this football legend is. In related QB news, Peyton Manning is set to retire, and that will give him time to visit some more baseball games.
The Nats-Cardinals game today is broadcast by the Cardinals TV announcers, and the game will be shown on the MLB Network as well as on Cardinals radio. Continue reading →
We have written many articles about the baseball lumber that Bryce Harper chooses to swing, and Spring Training brings out the salesmen and reps from the different equipment manufacturers. One day it might be EvoShield for protective gear, another day Kaenon for sunglasses (look whose picture is on their website), another for MimzBandz wristbands, Under Armour for cleats and batting gloves, and today it was one the many bat companies descending on Viera. Below (pictured) is the Rawlings Bat rep pulling bats out of his van for Bryce to see, touch, and swing.
It took 3 minutes into the Detroit Radio broadcast for their radio guy to call JZim by the wrong name as they called him Ryan Zimmerman. Whoops, and that is his hometown guys.
We have been waiting for this matchup for a while!
The name is Pond, Simon Pond. There once was a big fish in a small pond, and his name is Simon Pond. He was a teenage baseball star in his Canadian region and was drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1994. After 10 years of persevering in the Minors, Pond got an invite to the Toronto Blue Jays big league camp in 2004 as a non-roster invitee, and after a very good Spring Training where Pond batted .338 with 4 HRs and a team best 23 hits, he was the talk of camp. As Spring Training finished, Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi traded a promising youngster named Jayson Werth to the Dodgers for Jason Frasor on March 29, 2004 to make room for Pond on the Blue Jays Opening Day roster. All congratulations to Pond for doing what he needed to do to make the roster. He worked hard when many players would have quit years earlier. For Jayson Werth, it was a painful reminder of going from top-prospect to a player who was nearing a crossroads in his career.
“I knew something was happening,” said Jayson Werth about the trade. “There were some trade rumors and people would call from home and say they read stuff on the internet.”
Making the Opening Day roster, Pond was cautiously optimistic with his words back in 2004 as he said, “I’m real happy about it, but I still have a lot to do. I don’t know how to say it properly. It’s a rung on the ladder, a step along the way.”
Unfortunately for Pond, his Major League career would span only 16 games in just that 2004 season. Pond floundered in his brief time in the Majors as he batted .163. Pond’s one big highlight was his only career HR which came off of a Boston Red Sox pitcher named Bronson Arroyo. That is coincidental as we fast forward twelve years later, and that is the same Bronson Arroyo in Nationals’ camp here in Viera, Florida as he is trying to secure a roster spot for Opening Day 2016.
The cautionary tale is that relying on Spring Training stats for players is a “slippery slope” for talent evaluators and fans, and it works both ways for great stats and poor stats. Pond had a very good Spring Training in 2004, and Werth had a poor Spring Training in 2004. Werth went on to have a very good 2004 Major League season with the Dodgers tallying a .825 OPS, and Pond ended up with a .515 OPS.
“Offensive consistency was the big difference between Pond and Werth,” said Toronto manager Carlos Tosca after the trade in 2004.
They say hindsight is 20/20. Did we mention Jayson Werth had two 20/20 seasons in his career, and Pond didn’t even reach 20 games played in his entire MLB career. What if? This is not a knock on Pond as he persevered and legitimately made it to the Major Leagues, but Werth went on to being a star player.
Gio Gonzalez gets the start today and will then hand the ball to Bronson Arroyo and Lucas Giolito. This gives us the opportunity to see the new mechanics of Gio and then to see what Arroyo has going on in his first real action returning from Tommy John. Lucas Giolito will get to face mostly non-starters by the time he takes the ball in the 5th inning.
The Nats travel roster has:
Brendan Ryan SS
Trea Turner 2B
Loan Logan Schafer CF
Clint Robinson RF
Michael A. Taylor LF
Tyler Moore 1B
Stephen Drew 3B
Jose Lobaton C
Brian Goodwin DH
There’s Gio and Gio Grande behind him with the bat and looking like that other #44 Adam Dunn! Gio and Giolito are both scheduled to pitch today. Yes, that is Papelbon in the golf cart playing “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. Papelbon needs to get some music from his doppelganger and fellow Mississippi native Trent Harmon who is a finalist on the final season of American Idol.
There is that saying ‘One and Done’ as it pertains to college athletes and also for athletes approaching retirement, and it’s no secret that Dusty Baker is signed for 2 years and could be thinking short-term ‘Two and Done’.
Bob Nightengale of the USA Today wrote, “[Dusty] signed a two-year, $4 million contract with the Nationals, and doesn’t know if he’ll want another…All he knows is that after being out of baseball the last two years, this is perfect, the opportunity of a lifetime. He knows he can win big in Washington. He can become the first manager to win a World Series in Washington, D.C., since 1924. He can become the first African-American manager ever inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame. “I don’t know how I would have felt if I had never gotten this chance,’’ Baker tells USA TODAY Sports.” Continue reading →
The long awaited 1st home game in Spring Training for the Nats in Viera at Spacecoast Stadium!
1. CF Ben Revere
2. 2B Daniel Murphy
3. RF Bryce Harper
4. 3B Anthony Rendon
5. 1B Clint Robinson
6. SS Danny Espinosa
7. LF Reed Johnson
8. C Jhonatan Solano
9. DH Jason Martinson
RHP Max Scherzer
Photos for TalkNats by Luis Albisu
The game began with a standing ovation for Dusty Baker. Here is the 1st pitch of the game by Max Scherzer which was a strike!
A zen-like silence came across the Nats clubhouse as there were only 2 players left. Gio Gonzalez and Jonathan Papelbon have lockers next to each other in the Space Coast Stadium clubhouse, and while they were teammates for 2 months last year, they never really got to know each other. That all changed this year from the 1st day of Spring Training, the pair struck up a bond, that Gio is happy to talk about and really wants people to know about the much misunderstood Jonathan Papelbon. It certainly sounds like a ‘bromance’ as Gio talks about Pap. They are often seen together and hanging out these days, and while some might think they are an ‘odd couple’ it’s the yin to the yang. Continue reading →
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.