The Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act was enacted in 1975 to give consumers additional rights against warranty claims. Decades later, consumers were enacting their rights in states with strict “Lemon laws” to return defective vehicles that could not be repaired. We just wrote about Quality is Job 1 in a story about limiting mistakes and errors at Ford Motor Company — and how that related to baseball. The Washington Nationals, as we wrote, are not good enough to overcome most gaffes. They win when they don’t make mistakes.
The Nationals were a pitch away from a win with two outs in the ninth inning on Saturday, and yesterday, maybe a foul ball catch away from winning the series against the Phillies over the weekend. Instead, the Nats were swept in Philadelphia. The Nats were actually winning yesterday in the 5th inning by a score of 3-2. They lost 11-5. The lead was lost after two consecutive walks were issued then a single, and with two outs, Kody Clemens, hit a foul ball that could not be caught by Jesse Winker and the floodgates opened.
That Clemens kid, Roger’s son, was a thorn in the Nats’ side on Saturday and Sunday. Certainly if he flies out in the 9th inning on Saturday against closer Kyle Finnegan, the Nats win. If he fouls out to Winker in that 5th inning on Sunday, maybe the Nats win that game. The blunders were walking two consecutive batters. Some thought the foul ball should have been caught. This team wins when they don’t make any critical mistakes. A pick-off of Nick Senzel in the 2nd inning on Sunday was a carbon copy of the previous Sunday when he did the same thing. You aren’t stealing second base, so why are you taking a 14-foot lead?
Building the ultimate Washington Nationals fantasy roster is an exciting and strategic endeavor for any fantasy baseball enthusiast. While many have built their 2024 rosters already, you can always try to start a roster midseason. It involves a deep understanding of draft strategy and meticulous player selection, both of which are crucial for creating a competitive team.
The draft strategy encompasses the overall plan and approach used during the draft to maximize value and minimize risk. It involves prioritizing elite players early, targeting high-upside prospects in the mid-rounds, and securing versatile players late in the draft to provide depth and flexibility.
The Washington Nationals are mired in a four-game losing skid after a soul-crushing blown save that happened last night. With two-outs in the 9th inning, closer Kyle Finnegan was facing Kody Clemens who is a 28 year old with only 278 MLB at-bats before he faced Finnegan. He took a middle of the zone fastball on the outer third and smashed it over the center field wall, and snatched a 3-2 victory away from this Nats team. Washington has now lost 7-of-11 one-run games this season. The value of one run has become a real issue, and the focus normally goes to pitching like Finnegan’s BS last night — but Finn had been pitching great and not the overall problem here. It is offense, defense, and coaching in this case.
The Washington Nationals are mired in a three-game losing skid, and MacKenzie Gore is tasked with being the stopper. The will be facing a lefty on the Phillies side giving manager Dave Martinez the opportunity to change his lineup to add a few more right-handed batters.
The Washington Nationals are in an offensive funk, and have dropped five of their last six games going from one-game above .500 to three below. In eight of the team’s last 14 games, they have scored just two-runs or less. All teams have 13 position players on their roster, and the best teams have more than one All-Star in their lineup.
Your average corner restaurant might have a bunch of middling cooks in their kitchen, and the way to take that next step is quality over quantity. Many have a desire for that Michelin star chef. The ones that want to be great strive for it. Finding an Alain Ducasse is like finding a Juan Soto. They are few and far between. Before Ducasse was recognized with Michelin acclaim, he started as an apprentice at the age of 16 at Pavillon Landais, and worked his way up from there much like Soto did in the Dominican Summer League.
Greatness is all part of a process. James Wood was playing rec ball in Olney, Maryland at six years old then made the travel team with the Olney Pirates, long before he played for the St. Johns Cadets in high school in Washington, D.C. at 16 years old, before transferring to the prestigious IMG Academy in Florida. Today, he is the №5 prospect in all of baseball per MLB Pipeline’s new rankings published this week.
Wood, 21, is ready for his MLB debut according to former Nats’ GM, Jim Bowden, “There is no legitimate baseball reason NOT to promote him.” Welllll, the reason is the kitchen is full, Jim. Who leaves to make room for Wood, and who loses playing time? Plus, Lane Thomas should be back from the 10-day IL in about two weeks. Yes, Eddie Rosario in LF, Jacob Young in CF, and Wood in RF makes a lot of sense for Monday against the Twins with Jesse Winker shifting to the DH. But tell us this, if Lane Thomas is ready to return on Friday, May 31, for the series against Cleveland, who leaves then?
Today you have Rosales, Young, Victor Robles, and Winker as your four outfielders. You could add Wood, and maybe it is time to part ways with Robles to make room. But what happens when Thomas is ready to return? That is where the soup gets a little murky to pair with that perfect soufflé. Yes, you need those steam molecules to rise to the top in that soufflé. The process is important to always allow the natural separation to take place. While this isn’t survival of the fittest, it is time for the tough decisions.
None of these near-term decisions are even considering Dylan Crews who is seven months older than Wood. It has not even been a year of pro ball for Crews who was first position player drafted last year at №2 to the Washington Nationals. MLB Pipeline has Crews ranked just two spots after Wood in all of baseball. Yes, Crews plays the outfield also. Too much talent should never be a problem — or if you consider it a problem, it’s a good problem to have. We all have seen the projections of the Nats’ outfield of 2026 with Wood, Crews, and Robert Hassell III. Don’t sell Young short.
“We’re not going to block [top prospects], but if we’re fortunate enough that we have this influx of guys knocking on the big league door, then that’ll be a good day for us here.”
“[Top prospects] tell me when they’re ready by their play on the field. We’ve never had a problem with moving players quickly to the big leagues if they can perform up there — and we’ll have no qualms about putting them there now.”
— general manager Mike Rizzo said just over five months ago at the Winter Meetings
Okay Riz, Wood is knocking on that maple door. The sound of leather getting knocked by maple wood in this case is loud and can be heard audibly with no need for technology to raise the volume. You know it when you hear it.
This Triple-A season for Wood so far has him hitting .346 with a .1042 OPS. In Spring Training, Wood led all of baseball. The only thing Wood has remaining to prove is hitting MLB pitchers consistently.
“We do have some [top prospects] that are coming that I think will supply some power as well. …We’re in a tough situation because we want to get our young guys up here, and we don’t want to take too many spots away from those guys when they’re ready — but yet we got to compete at the big league level.”
Those quotes from Rizzo and Martinez were before Wood dominated in Spring Training yet Rizzo still signed Rosario to a $2 million deal plus a bonus package, in mid-March, to the surprise of many. There were plenty more quotes while Wood was raking in Spring Training to justify sending him down, and maybe Rizzo was erring on the side of caution. But he put too many cooks in the kitchen. And besides one hot week from Rosario, who is batting .179 with a .616 OPS, and two hot weeks from Winker before his back started barking, the power production has been awful by the entire team with a .348 slugging percentage which ranks the team as the third worst in baseball and only 14 points from last. The batting is fourth worst in baseball at .223 and that translates well to why the Nationals are fourth worst in runs scored. Take out the offensive explosion in Miami, and the Nats are dead last in the NL.
So let’s transition to what is working. The only reason the Nats are close to .500 is because of the pitching that has the team in the top-half of baseball. But even last night, defense was a problem. Jake Irvin did not have his best stuff, but he pitched like a bulldog. He pitched well enough to win if his defense was excellent, and his teammates scored him a bunch of runs.
Two plays stick out on defense. In the first inning with two outs, Rosario playing in right field did not get to a ball quick enough in the corner or have a good enough arm to keep the runner at first base from scoring. In the second inning, you once again had the poor defense of Keibert Ruiz on a key play. A wild pitch would lead to two runs scoring.
In the photo on the left, what is going through Ruiz’s mind? There is no physical reaction as he should have been moving his body into a more athletic position. He called for a curveball to be thrown. He knew what was coming and the movement on that pitch. The ball had a velo of only 82.6 mph. Yet he didn’t react until it was too late. That ball was going left-to-right in Ruiz’s perspective, and yet he had not moved as the ball was clearly moving towards his right knee. He lunged at the last split-second and leaned to his right as he tried to forehand the ball with his mitt — obviously awful form — when at the very least, it was a backhand play — and he would have had a chance. IT WAS A CURVEBALL from a right-hander not from a lefty. What was going through Ruiz’s mind? That led to two runs scoring.
In two paragraphs, we showed you two plays that led to three runs in a 4-2 loss. You could say the same about the Phillies’ defense that led to two runs scoring for the Nats. Both Nats’ runs scored on doubles that were within inches of being caught in the outfield. That is baseball. The fact is that the pitcher has eight defenders who must also play on offense. It is this constant chess game of the right moves by the manager and using analytics to create your best configurations.
The defensive metrics have shown for years that the Nationals have the worst defensive catchers. From the mistakes of Luis Garcia Jr. playing shortstop in 2022 to a much improved defense in 2023 — this 2024 team has not improved enough and has given up too many runs (DRS) from poor defense which actually says the Nats’ pitching would probably be even better if they had better defense. Only San Diego is worse than Washington by catcher’s runs lost, but if the Nats believe that Drew Millas is a superior defensive catcher, maybe it is time for some change.
Other teams that Rosario played for knew that he was a good left fielder who should not be playing in right field and certainly not in center field. There are enough analytics that tell you Rosario should be in left field where he is league average, and by the way, he is a -2.0 runs lost in center field. Robles is actually +2.0 in right field and -1.0 run in center field. That is actually a promising statistic on his right field statistics. Young is +4.0 DRS in center field. Why is there any question on positioning in the outfield?
Anyway, the key is always the right balance. By doing that, you give your team the best chance to win.
The Washington Nationals are in an 18-inning scoreless drought as MASN play-by-play voice, Bob Carpenter, was announcing every scoreless inning like it was breaking news. At one time, he said it was 21-innings and corrected himself. It’s bad, but we were talking about the bad offense in a series of three articles that started in April.
Of course sometimes you try to get greedy with a lineup to push more offense — and the defense suffers. This defensive alignment goes against all analytics. You could have achieved the same lineup with better results by putting Jesse Winker at DH and Eddie Rosario in LF for starters. Yes, Joey Gallo in RF, and Joey Meneses at 1B. Yes, it’s not perfect — but the Nats best fielder is Jacob Young and he is on the bench while Victor Robles and his -1.0 OAA mans the vast CF in Philadelphia. Please make sense of this for me?!?
Steve: Where did the Nats offense go? Two consecutive shutouts at the hands of the Chicago White Sox. I expect Joey Gallo to be called up for the Phillies series this weekend. But a lot more is needed IMHO just to put a charge into a team that went flat in Boston and Chicago with the offense. Before you say anything, I’m not expecting much from Gallo, and manager Dave Martinez was non-committal in his postgame about Gallo returning on Friday.
Don: No argument from me on that point. And unless Gallo magically turns things around, adding Gallo fixes nothing. As the title says, wholesale changes are needed.
On the assumption that General Manager Mike Rizzo is not going to call up James Wood, Brady House or Dylan Crews before the weekend, maybe it makes sense to see what the next tier of players can do. The Nats 40-man roster has one opening, so that is something we can take advantage of.
I am going to throw out some ideas that you can agree with, shoot down, and comment on.
The Washington Nationals split yesterday’s doubleheader, and today have the finale with the White Sox in Chicago. Today is a key game for the Nats with a tough weekend series lined up against the Phillies. With a goal to win series, the Nats have that within reach to take the rubber game in this match.
The Washington Nationals won the first game of this doubleheader today, and 19-31 will not happen as the team notched their 20th win of the 2024 season. With the season 25 percent complete, the sample sizes are fairly large now. Some stats you want to believe can still improve, and some like Trevor Williams‘ ERA of 1.94 you hope is going to be the greatest season in Nationals’ history.
The Washington Nationals have a doubleheader today after yesterday’s rainout. One thing for sure, the team cannot get everyone in the offense rowing together. At different points of the season it was CJ Abrams and Jesse Winker carrying the offense. Eddie Rosario, at the end of April, was batting .088 — and then he caught fire the past week to be named the NL Player of the Week. Rosario batted .467 with a .600 OBP and a 1.733 OPS in the past week, and took his -0.9 WAR and brought it back to 0.0.
