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 Jordan Zimmermann’s last home start of his career in Washington, DC. Jordan Zimmermann takes the mound on Jordan Zimmermann bobblehead day.
Could this also be the day that the line-up has Trea Turner starting and that it remains that way for the rest of the season? Nats fans seem to want a glimpse of the future now.
The Phillies will pitch another rookie with Jerad Eickhoff who came over from Texas in the Cole Hamels trade and Eickhoff had a great debut. This will be his 7th start and he brings in a 3.16 ERA and some impressive stats.
Everyone likes Tanner Roark. He is the guy you cheer for as the underdog. Roark was one of the players along with Ryan Tatusko going to the Nats at the trade deadline in 2010 for Cristian Guzman who was traded to the Rangers. Roark was a 25th round pick of the Rangers out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Fighting Illini. Before long, Roark was in independent ball back in Illinois playing in the Frontier League. Roark went back to the Rangers A-ball in 2009 and had some success; however, he struggled in AA-Frisco in his first year there, and the following year was traded to the Nats.
The Nats placed Roark in AA-Harrisburg and he finished the season with a few starts and in his first full year in Harrisburg in 2011, Roark struggled with a 4.69 ERA which was his highest in all of his stops in the Minors. Roark had a good Spring Training on the Minor League side in Viera in 2012 which earned him a promotion to AAA-Syracuse where Roark showed some improvement. Roark went to winter ball in Venezuela after the 2012 season and had some success and had another good Spring Training on the Minor League side in Viera, and in 2013 went into Syracuse as one of the best starters and got a callup from the Nats and debuted on August 7, 2013.
Roark showed star quality with poise and ability to adapt to any situation they put him in as a reliever and a starter. Roark finished the 2013 season with the Nats sporting a 1.51 ERA and earned a spot in the vaunted 2014 starting rotation alongside Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez. Roark, who seemingly came out of nowhere, was beating teams with great pitch location, movement, and keeping batters off-balance. Roark won an incredible 15 games sporting a stealth 2.85 ERA and a modesty to go with his great smile. Roark was a fan favorite.
The Nats are now in salvage mode in hopes to even the season series 3-3 with the Orioles. The Nats had a golden opportunity to pick up 2 games on the Mets as they are faltering in a big way, and the Nats just are not taking advantage of the situation.
Max Scherzer struggled in the 1st inning but had a chance to finish with 7.0 innings complete and only giving up those 2 runs in the 1st inning. As the season has gone, luck has not shined in the Nats direction. Bad luck BABIP bit the Nats early and often again yesterday as Werth was at-bat with Escobar at 2nd and Harper at 1st and Werth smoked a liner up the middle that Hardy caught and threw behind Escobar for a doubleplay. When things are going well that’s a hard single up the middle and Escobar scores and Bryce is standing at 3rd base.
Bryce Harper knows baseball—and baseball bats— along with everything else from his arm sleeve to his eye black, he has to look good to feel good and he has to feel good about his lumber that he swings which is why you would see Bryce change bats within the game many times in June and July when he didn’t have his favorite Chandler bats and had to rely on other manufacturers.
On May 6th, 2015, Bryce hit 3 HRs in 1 game vs. Tom Koehler all with the same Chandler CU27 bat that he would tally up a total of 7 HRs on that same bat in a short span before he cracked it. That power surge was part of an amazing run for Bryce Harper when he got on a Ruthian HR pace. You have to wonder if 60 HRs was possible with the way Bryce was swinging the bat in May leading up to that spinal shot by Tony Cingrani in Cincinnati on May 29th that changed Bryce’s swing. When Cingrani drilled Bryce right on the spinal cord that had an effect to numb him like an epidural in the spine. Bryce was already up to 18 HRs leading into that game which wasn’t even 2 full months into the season. That game seemed to slow Bryce down as did the HBP to his knee that came later.
With Bryce, almost anything is possible as we’ve seen, and in May he hadn’t even taken advantage of the hot weather where the ball flies in Washington, DC as it was seasonally cool in April and May in DC.
In that May 6th Marlins game, Bryce was swinging a Chandler CU27 bat which is a special model bat hybrid named for Chase Utley. This past week he has been swinging a CC13 which is the Carlos Correia model that Chandler remade for Bryce. Remember that Stars & Stripes bat that Bryce hit on July 4th, yes it was a custom painted Chandler Bat they made for him last year for that Asian baseball exhibition that never happened.
The regular season is almost over but there is still work to be done. Max Scherzer pitch for the Nats tonight. Scherzer comes off of a shutout performance where he gave us a “soundbite” that will be one of the memorable moments of the 2015 season along with his no-hitter which was a near perfect game, and of course his 1-hit gem.
The Nats PR and graphics people continue to Tweet out some great Bryce Harper MVP campaign pieces:
Mother Nature rained on Washington DC and caused the rainout on Monday and that game technically is being played on Thursday. Including tonight’s game, there is only 13 scheduled games for the rest of the regular season. The Nats need to just keep winning if for nothing else then self-respect. There are several players competing for personal goals. Bryce Harper is going for baseball records that could put him in a league of his own. He is being mentioned with some of the greatest of the game like Ruth, Ted Williams and Barry Bonds. Yunel Escobar is near the tops of NL batting average. Michael Taylor, Joe Ross, and Clint Robinson all are trying to open eyes and gets some Rookie of the Year votes. So are you can see, there is something to play for and the fans want to see that!
Another stat brought to our attention by an email from Rocky5 is that the Nats are 11th in attendance in the MLB and actually ahead of the Mets.
That tidbit about the Mets seems to have gone un-noticed by many and I thank Rocky5 for bringing that up. Also, you will notice the Nats once again will far exceed the Baltimore attendance as they rank #19 in average game attendance while their stadium capacity is almost 12% larger.
Perhaps the Nats did just that this past off-season and have paid the price.
The Baseball gods hate arrogant and cocky and those who disrespect the game – both players and fans. And they are vindictive.
Have the Mets and their fans redirected the anger away from the Nationals with their assumption of the post-season? They pull Harvey after 5 with a one run lead – in order to save innings. And then the Yankees immediately score 5 and eventually win 11-2.
So let us not do anything to cause the Baseball gods to redirect their wrath back onto our Nationals!
In a comment yesterday, senators69 provided a link to a fascinating compilation of the top 10 players each year measured by bWAR, and noted the comparison between current stars Mike Trout and Bryce Harper and the biggest stars from the 50s and 60s, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.
It’s a great comparison to think about, particularly because it leads you to look back at Mays and Mantle and appreciate how phenomenal they were. We loved those two, and many other stars from the 50s, 60s, and 70s without the benefit of the stats that we often refer to now. Looking back at them through the prism of modern analytics in a way lets you discover their greatness all over again.
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I first thought about comparing those two great stars from my childhood and the current young phenoms because of this article from June 2012. I even saved the link on my phone, though I will confess I had not looked at it in awhile:
When the article was written, Harper had just come up to the big leagues at age 19 and was playing great, en route to being named Rookie of the Year in the NL. And Trout was taking the baseball world by storm in his astonishing rookie season at age 20. He won the RoY in the AL and finished second in the MVP balloting. The stage was set for a titanic year after year struggle for who would be the best player in baseball. And then in 2013 and 2014, Harper came back to earth a bit, while Trout continued to excel, again finishing 2nd in the MVP race at age 21, and winning it last year at age 22. It seemed like comparisons to Mays and Mantle might be overblown.
Less than 1/10 of the season is remaining, and the Nats are riding a 3 game winning streak into Game 1 of 3 against their regional rival from just up I-295 that connects Baltimore to Washington, DC.
Besides the close geographical proximity to each other, the common bond between the 2 rivals is in the entangled regional broadcasting company which both teams have a large financial interest in with Baltimore’s owner retaining the overwhelming majority ownership. The regional TV network that broadcasts both teams’ games is where the strain is as there is the ongoing tenuous legal situation. MASN put out this nice tweet on the co-NL Players of the Week winners with a picture that evokes the thought of “What are they looking at?” and couldn’t you find a better dual photo?
RETWEET to congratulate Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg on being named co-NL Players of the Week! pic.twitter.com/6EzHKY6eSp
There are thousands of fans who follow and like both the Nationals and the Orioles, and love their dual allegiance for these Battle of the Beltway series. The Nats will host a 3 game series and this one probably won’t have the same urgency as years past due to the playoff possibilities for both teams although the Orioles come into DC with a losing record at a disappointing 73-76 record.
The majority of fans in the Baltimore/Washington region only have allegiance to 1 team. The geographic lines of demarcation are evident no matter what that 2014 MASN campaign said when they proclaimed Washington, DC as a “This is Birdland” area. MASN proclaims THIS IS BIRDLAND in their geography
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.