Victory formation! Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
Everything seemed so right on May 10th, and the next day in a 2-2 tie was the pick-off play that seemed to change everything in that 8th inning. The Boston Pick-off Party started the slide backwards. Since that point, the team has gone just 2-9. A team known for its great baserunning got Victor Robles off of the IL for his second start, and the TOOTBLANs were back. Sloppy. Maybe that turned a team that was capitalizing on good baserunning into being more conservative in that 11-game stretch. This was how the team was manufacturing runs in their first 37-games. Also, manager Dave Martinez looked a lot smarter when his team was executing.
The roster will have a decision to make shortly when Lane Thomas is activated off of the 10-day IL with a knee sprain. He is currently playing rehab games at Double-A Harrisburg. But there are other moves to make as someone has to leave the roster to make room for Thomas.
Don: The obvious move is Thomas up and someone off the roster. I could think of several moves.
Steve: I am making lots of moves over the next five days. I make more in three weeks from Friday when I bring up James Wood on June 14.
The Washington Nationals have a series to win today to at least get things right before their day-off tomorrow. They have their own Minnesotan on the mound this afternoon in Jake Irvin who was born in Minnesota and first drafted by the Twins in 2015. Irvin turned down the Twins then and headed to college, and he hopes to turn down the Twins today.
In 2022, Luis Arraez hit .316 for the season and won the AL Batting Crown. He was an All-Star, an MVP candidate, and a Silver Slugger. He repeated all of that in 2023 for the Marlins in the NL. In his career, Arraez has a .325 batting average. What would the opposite be if a pitcher was giving up over a .325 batting average to the other team? You wouldn’t believe that is possible — yet it is. Patrick Corbin‘s batting average given up this season stands at .336. He is the only qualified pitcher who has surpassed Arraez’s career average. Any other starters who were that bad have been DFA’d or optioned back to the minors. On top of that, Corbin has the worst ERA and WHIP at 6.29 and 1.770 respectively.
The Washington Nationals snapped their losing streak and got back into the W column on Monday. The offense put up 12-runs on the Twins for a decisive 12-3 win. The running game and the power surge turned the game into a blow-out.
Fans are nervous, and some are waiting for the sky to fall. When the Nationals and Orioles squared off two weeks ago in a game matching up Trevor Williams and Corbin Burnes, there were actually Orioles fans calling it the easiest money they would win on a bet. Burnes, the 2021 NL Cy Young winner, took the loss after giving up three runs, and Williams looked like the Cy guy with no-hit stuff. The Nats starter had a scoreless game with eight Ks, no walks and two hits finding seams.
The Nats and Williams found the secret sauce. A combination of pulling him after two times through the opposing team’s batting order and keeping an eye on his pitch count.
The Washington Nationals are mired in a five-game losing skid and hope to find the same magic they found last year on April 21 in L’Étoile du Nord against the original Washington Senators, now known as the Twins. A month ago from today, the Nats were celebrating a walk-off against the Astros and a march towards the .500 mark. The starting pitching isn’t the problem here. Every starter on the mound for manager Davey Martinez did enough to be the stopper in the last time through the rotation, and it was some combination of either the defense, baserunning, the bullpen, or the offense that could not get it done to push a game into the W column.
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.
