Looking for roster improvement over the offseason proves actions didn’t speak louder than words!

Posted on February 15, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Owner Mark Lerner and GM Mike Rizzo in a suite (Photo by Sol Tucker)

After Washington Nationals’ general manager Mike Rizzo dropped a bombshell yesterday that the team most likely will not be signing another player (pitcher or position player) on a MLB contract, social media immediately exploded with frustration. The fans want someone to blame for an offseason that saw no starting pitchers signed to the MLB roster. Why? That is the multi-million dollar question without a clear answer — but follow back to all of the soundbites — and you find a lot of words of promise that did not turn into action. Clearly, actions speak louder than words.

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The Offseason is over as the Preseason begins!

Posted on February 14, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Circle of Trust; Photo by Sol Tucker

This was a long off-season for the Washington Nationals when their offseason began at 6:20 pm EDT on October 1 of last year and ended today with the official opening of their Spring Training camp. The team missed the postseason for the fourth consecutive season after winning the World Series in 2019. This offseason totaled 136 long days.

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Spring Training storylines for the Nats’ Minor Leaguers

Posted on February 12, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Craig Nedrow for TalkNats

Of course you have minor league players in Spring Training trying to make the big league roster — or at the very least — impress the coaches like Joey Meneses did in 2022. While Meneses did not make the Opening Day roster in 2022, he impressed manager Dave Martinez enough that he got a callup mid-season and became an instant starter.

Some minor leaguers are in camp as Non-Roster Invitees (NRI), and some are on the 40-man roster having never made their MLB debut. For Robert Hassell III, he is one of many NRIs in camp. He is also one of the biggest storylines for the Washington Nationals’ minor leaguers. There are others too, of course.

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Patience will pay off for some teams and some players, but not all!

Posted on February 11, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Laura Peebles for TalkNats

There are still 40 percent of the Top-10 ranked free agents unsigned, and they are all reportedly Scott Boras clients. Yes, No 2. ranked Cody Bellinger, No 4. Blake Snell, No. 6. Jordan Montgomery, and No. 7. Matt Chapman are all without contracts at the moment. The waiting game is tough all around, and there are not many teams looking to add $200 million contracts and fewer at $300+ million. Patience will pay off for some teams and some players, but not all. They are at polar opposites of this tug-of-war for the money and roster spots. Some players have tired of waiting like Corey Kluber who reportedly was going to submit his retirement papers this week.

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Coaches are a key to player development and the Washington Nationals just upgraded

Posted on February 9, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
FREDERICKSBURG, VA | Manager/Third base coach Jake Lowery congratulates Sammy Infante ; Photo by Sol Tucker | TalkNats

As the farm rankings of the Washington Nationals system were getting published, the news was not good as evaluators dropped the Nats farm system from as high as No. 7 last year to an average of No. 15 this year. The best ranking came from Keith Law of The Athletic, and he dropped the Nats to 11th in his rankings today. Regardless of farm rankings, changes had to be made in the leadership of the player development system.

The team’s President of Baseball Operations and General Manager, Mike Rizzo, made numerous changes like not renewing the contract of his VP of Player Development, De Jon Watson, and he replaced Watson with Eddie Longosz — an internal promotion.

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Opening Day is right around the corner!

Posted on February 8, 2024 by Matthew Larson

It’s time Nats fans. Opening Day is right around the corner. What should we expect from our Nats, or better who should we expect? The Nationals opening day roster is nothing but up in the air. It is going to come down to spring training to determine who is healthy, who will perform, and who will outperform. There could be a few position battles this spring. Some players like Keibert Ruiz, CJ Abrams and Lane Thomas are automatic to be in the lineup — but who will fill those other spots, and how will they perform?

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The W/L projections are based on what?

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

We are just 50-days from Opening Day for the Washington Nationals, and the latest rounds of Win/Loss projections had a new entry from PECOTA that has the Nats finishing with a 58-104 record. Vegas has improved the Nats to 66.5 wins for their Over/Under betting lines, and FanGraphs has the Nats at a .405 winning percentage which translates to 66 wins. Remember, last year the Nats blew past every W/L projection and finished with 71 wins. Their pythagorean W/L for 2023 at the end of the season was 67-95. Pythagorean tries to neutralize the luck factor based on just runs scored versus runs given up.

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Time flies and 8 years later: Still called ‘Nationals Park’

Posted on February 6, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Yes, we finally have a new main videoboard and state-of-the-art LED lighting at Nationals Park. All of this comes after the first large scale upgrades from the DC Stadium Authority in the 16-years since the stadium opened. The ballpark needed technology updates, and could use some new “wow factor” too.

But this stadium still does not have a naming rights partner. It was eight years ago when news broke that the Washington Nationals had contracted with Korn Ferry and MLB Advanced Media to sell the naming rights for the stadium on South Capitol Street. There was speculation at the time that the Nationals could wrap-up a deal quickly which was not the case.

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The 2023 rules have changed the speed game; the Nats are now taking advantage!

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Dylan Crews stealing a base; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
Dylan Crews stealing a base; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

When MLB implemented larger bases and put restrictions on pickoff plays that began with the 2023 season, the stolen base attempts increased by 40.7 percent. The success rate of stolen bases also increased by 8.7 percent. General manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were clear at the Hot Stove event last month that the Washington Nationals were going to be taking advantage more of the speed game, and we saw it in the Rule-5 draft taking speedster Nasim Nunez as well as with the promotion at the end of August with Jacob Young.

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The offseason ends in just 10-days

Posted on February 3, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Most of the Washington Nationals players and staff are taking advantage of those two-month rentals and have already taken occupancy of their Spring Training homes on Feb 1. They hope their occupancy will run through March 24 in West Palm Beach — and from there they hope to go north. On March 27, there will be 26-players loading onto their Delta chartered jet headed to Kentucky for that first game in Cincinnati for Opening Day on March 28. For now, the Nats are firming up their remaining 10-days of this offseason. The fans hope for a positive surprise.

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