The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

Rizzo should put a chess and checkers board in front of each candidate and see which candidates can play the game of chess which is all about thinking many moves ahead and is said to be one of the few games which has very little luck associated with it.

This is one of the greatest quotes I’ve ever heard in a comparison of managers, Riggleman who worked for years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization before he was hired also knew how you beat LaRussa in that your players must outplay his players aka EXECUTION:

Riggleman in 2010 as Nats manager said,  “Once the game starts, [LaRussa’s] a master. He’s just outstanding. I think in terms of preparation and all of that, he’s at the top of the list right now in baseball. He’s a great motivator and great strategist. [LaRussa’s] playing chess. I’m playing checkers. But he’s really good. He knows his talent. He knows your talent. He knows who he’s playing two days from now. He’s got it all in there. You’re not going to get anything by him. You just manage your team the best you can and hope your players outplay his players.”

Jim Riggleman was correct on LaRussa who retired as a World Series champ which was his 3rd of his career in the 6 times he got to the WS.  LaRussa won in both the AL and the NL.  It also exposed Riggleman who let us know he was just playing checkers.  Matt Williams was playing checkers in Game 2 in 2014 and many times in 2015.  Davey Johnson was a chess player many years ago, but his game wasn’t as sharp at 69 years old in 2012 or at 70 years old in 2013 .

Jeff Banister said after last night’s game that he isn’t looking for 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th guys, he’s looking for matchups. Again, that’s fine when Diekman and Dyson are on their game and even the best plans backfire. Banister sat his starter Gallardo after only 5 innings and brought in his 1st reliever (Kela) with a 4-2 lead who gave up a HR to the first batter he faced to make the score 4-3 and the 2nd batter missed a HR next to the leftfield foul pole by about 24 inches.  Luck or execution or both? Kela settled down and then the Texas bullpen did take over however the Blue Jays were playing without Bautista and Donaldson.

Think back to Game 2 of the playoffs in 2014. If Drew Storen came in with 2 outs and got Buster Posey out in the 9th inning, the story would be Matt Williams made a ‘brilliant move’ or they would say ‘the risky move paid off’. That’s how it works when a player executes; however, when that same decision doesn’t work it becomes a dumb move or was it?  Was it playing chess or checkers because the game was still 1-0 and Posey was on 1st and Panik was on 2nd with 2 outs and it became the next move which was the game changer as Pablo Sandoval stepped into the box with the game on the line batting lefthanded which was his much stronger side at the time by almost a 120 point margin.  What would LaRussa have done in that same situation? Would he have left JZim in to finish the 9th or pulled him for Storen?  Would LaRussa leave Storen in to face Sandoval?

Chess or checkers, and hope your players outplay his players.  Thanks for that Jim Riggleman.

Actually Mike Rizzo isn’t accepting résumés for the 2016 Manager job.  Our sources tell us that Rizzo has a list that he and his front office have compiled, and he has also received some calls from those who want to be considered.  Rizzo this time around is looking for a strategic manager who can communicate well as we have been told.  Must have experience. Newbies need not apply.

Names that we are being told that are on the list is Randy Knorr, Bud Black, Ron Gardenhire, Dusty Baker and Rick Renteria. Not sure what they end up doing with Randy Knorr in the organization. Bud Black is at the top of the list.

Other names that are being matched to the Nats are Ryne Sandberg, , Charlie Manuel, Cal Ripken, Ray Knight, Billy Gardner, Don Wakamatsu, Mike Redmond, Bo Porter, and  Jim Leyland.

Other suggestions are Ron Wotus who is a bench coach in San Francisco and Dave Martinez the bench coach with the Cubs.  In order to interview personnel currently employed by other teams, permission must be given, and we have been told the Nats will seek that permission on Wotus and have not asked about Martinez whose team is currently still alive in the post-season.

Long shots are Joe Girardi and Terry Francona as they are both currently employed which make both a long-shot.

Most amusing name I’ve seen is Buck Showalter.  He’s under contract next year, and Angelos won’t let him out of his contract.

Most creative suggestion was Jayson Werth as a player/manager like Frank Robinson once was.  That might be a long-long-shot.

Photo Credit ESPN

There could certainly be other names that make the list.  Rizzo will work this list harder than his previous lists, and there will certainly be some other names that make Rizzo’s list.

We gave you a list of 20 names.  Who else would you suggest?  Who is the frontrunner? Who do you predict will be the next Manager of the Washington Nationals?

Continue reading →

In After parting ways with Matt Williams, Nationals need to find a true leader, Tom Boswell made an interesting point about Rizzo’s choice of Matt Williams:

We now know that Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo blundered in hiring a manager with no experience to run a World Series-ready club. But there was another problem: Rizzo himself has had little experience in picking managers. His first big hire was a grab for a comfortable simplistic archetype that’s been around for a century. I’ve called the type The Peerless Leader — the nickname for handsome, tough Frank Chance, a successful Cubs manager a hundred years ago.

So that leads to an interesting question for us to debate: Who should Mike Rizzo involve in his process to hire a new manager? Continue reading →

Nats announce that Matt Williams will not return for 2016 and will be replaced. Yesterday’s final postgame presser was emotional for Matt and when the pre-season World Series favorite doesn’t even make the postseason, this seemed inevitable.

The last hope for Matt Williams to save his job was a vote of confidence from key players and only Bryce Harper would step up in support of Matt Williams. Then rumors circulated that Matt Williams had lost his clubhouse and the Svrluga articles had anonymous sources stating issues as well as Jayson Werth questioning communications from Manager to player.

The final straw as they say could have been the Papelbon dugout fight with Bryce Harper.

The 2015 teams ended with a 83-79 record and there was an excellent WaPo report of the 11 games that slipped away, but there was also the comeback of the decade on April 28 vs Atlanta and a 9-2 record in extra inning games and no-hitters and other positives.

It’s hard to criticize the reigning Manager Of The Year for every time a move didn’t work out as player execution was poor at times, but a manager is expected to put his players in the best situation to succeed. It’s not to say MW didn’t have his reasons but it didn’t stop the onslaught of national media criticizing him for bullpen management and strategic management. In the Mets series the stakes were high and MW was under the microscope. Did he leave Scherzer in too long on Labor Day, did he over think the bullpen in th September 8 game, should he not have bunted Rendon in a 3-1 count in the 9th against Familia?

Was MW sometimes taking the blame on himself meaning was the bunt play still on in the 3-1 count or did the player bunt on his own, miss a sign or did a coach miss a sign? In the end, MW said he kept the bunt on and he was lambasted for it.

While some don’t want to give this team any excuses and Rizzo isn’t looking for it, there still were personnel depth issues. Ryan Zimmerman once again wasn’t healthy for much of the season neither was Werth and Span. Over 200 games were missed and it should have been more as the Nats seemed to force players back before they were 100%. The bullpen was a shambles and the outfield was Bryce Harper + others.

Defense got worse again in both the Defensive Efficiency stat and the BABIP stat.

Starters struggled for consistency all year and while we saw sheer brilliance from Scherzer, we also saw a pitcher who looked lost at times.

All the starters finished well once the pressure was off and the same for the relievers which leads you to believe that some players once again folded under the weight of the August and early September playoff push. Drew Storen’s reputation took another hit both figuratively and literally as he broke his hand after an 8th inning blown save against the Mets. Talk about insult to injury.

Where does this team go from here and who do they replace Matt Williams with? There lies the Million Dollar question.

We have reached out to both Matt Williams and his agent Joe Longo for comments and are awaiting a response. We realize this is not a pleasant time for Matt Williams, his coaching staff and some of his players and most likely Matt will look back years from now and realize that things happen for a reason. Right now though it hurts.

This was a season that looked bright back in Spring Training with hope and a bright future and how quickly the mighty fall as the DL was loaded at points in the season. The dreams of the January 14th roster was only temporarily fielded for 2 games in August when Denard Span returned and then he returned to the DL and another surgery.

Like a surgeon’s knife it cut deep as Nats fans were crushed by agonizing losses.

We move forward as that’s what you do in sports and Rizzo and his operations staff will find a managerial replacement and the speculation will begin and with that will be second guessing and criticism as that’s what fans do.