UPDATED: From 2004 to 2024, the leverage has turned on Baltimore

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
The Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower in the background; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

With a possible sale of the Baltimore Orioles to David Rubenstein and partners, the Angelos family that currently controls the team is now on the clock to help push the sale to the finish line. While this sale should not be as complicated as the sale of the Montreal Expos to MLB — then subsequently to the Lerner family and their partners, these sales often have issues to overcome. All sales of teams must adhere to the rules of the MLB Constitution. That is a key document, and all thirty MLB owners must agree to its terms.

The MLB Constitution is a confidential document comprised of 16-pages filled with an abundance of legal language, and normally you would never have seen it unless you owned an MLB team. But there we have this document because it was an evidentiary exhibit in the first MASN lawsuit brought by Peter Angelos against the Nationals nearly a decade ago.

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BREAKING: The Orioles could be sold to two private equity firm billionaires per reports. What is the impact of that sale on the Nationals?

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

News has been breaking that an agreement has been made to sell the Baltimore Orioles to two private equity firm billionaires with David Rubenstein, 74, taking over as principal owner from the Angelos family that has run the team for the past 31 years. Rumors also have been reported that a Baltimore legend, Cal Ripken Jr., would have a small ownership interest with the Rubenstein group.

Remember that Bloomberg News first reported the Rubenstein rumor in early December. The very next day, per Andy Kosta of The Baltimore Banner, John Angelos told Maryland Governor, Wes Moore, that his family did not plan on selling the Orioles. That essentially killed the Rubenstein rumors at the time, and until today’s news.

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The NRI list is published, and can only be described as quality over quantity!

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

So far and officially speaking, only 11-players have been extended invitations as non-roster invitees (NRI) to big league camp with the Washington Nationals big league club. It is the smallest squad ever for the team in what can only be described as quality over quantity since the Top-3 prospects are on the list as well as some promising players signed as free agents to straight minor league deals this offseason.

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Mike Rizzo’s “State of the Union” address

Posted on January 29, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals had their annual “Hot Stove” event on Saturday for top season ticket planholders. With general manager Mike Rizzo and his field manager Dave Martinez giving their state of the union addresses, the takeaways gave a few clues as to the near-term future. They both see this 2024 season as a transitional year to improve over the 2023 season that had the Nats at 71-wins and that was a 16-win improvement over the prior season. Great. “What have you done for me lately” is the common fan retort.

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SABR Day for Bob Davids Chapter

Posted on January 28, 2024 by ArVaFan aka Laura Peebles

By Laura Peebles

January 27, 2024

Yesterday while the Washington Nationals were holding their Hot Stove event, the SABR Day for Bob Davids Chapter event was going on simultaneously. After the announcements, the first speaker was Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. She spoke at length about what has changed in baseball since she left the political beat and returned to sports.

These are my summaries of her comments.

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“I Don’t Care How Fast You Throw Ball Four” — GM Mike Rizzo

Posted on January 27, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Hot Stove event is really the best season ticket planholder’s perk if you ask me. That annual event was held today with a huge crowd that was described to me as the largest ever — and that is because they expanded the event for full-season as well as half-season planholders. Special guest and new coach, Sean Doolittle, was a huge draw of course.

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MLB Pipeline releases their Top-100 rankings

Posted on January 26, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

You know the offseason is wrapping up when everyone is posting their top prospect lists. Today it was MLB Pipeline unveiling their Top-100 prospects after both Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America published their lists earlier. Dylan Crews, James Wood, and Brady House are ranked at №7, №14, and №48 respectively on MLB Pipeline’s list. Honorable mention to Yohandy Morales who was named a Top-10 third baseman in all of the prospects at that position. While he did not make the Top-100, Morales has to be close to breaking through on the list. Also of note, with House ranked so high as a third baseman, is there a position switch to the other corner of the infield for Morales? All of them are expected to receive non-roster invites (NRI) for big league camp with the Washington Nationals next month in West Palm Beach, Florida.

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FanGraphs projections for the Washington Nationals in 2024

Posted on January 26, 2024 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

The offseason has just 19-days remaining before we click into preseason mode as Spring Training camp opens for the Washington Nationals on Valentine’s Day. While we expect another starting pitcher to be signed by the Nats, nothing is certain — and the roster still has some question marks as to the 26-players who will be named to the Opening Day roster on March 28.

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Washington 2024 MLB Season Chances

Posted on January 25, 2024 by Stan4Nats
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Pre-season is a quiet time of year for lovers of Major League Baseball. There are no games on the schedule, and with the new campaign still a few weeks away, it can begin to feel like a long and boring time of year with no light at the end of the tunnel. While fans of tennis enjoy the Australian Open, and lovers of football make predictions at the best online betting apps offering Super Bowl odds, baseball enthusiasts begin to grow restless. But the 2024 season is approaching and will be here before you know it.

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Starting Pitcher FAs – Take 2

Posted on January 24, 2024 by DonH
Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Time to turn our attention back to what FA pitcher(s) to sign. An update to a previous post on Starting Pitchers.

Steve: First off Don, that left-handed power bat article that we started writing in December kind of nailed it on Joey Gallo. Let’s see if we can be that good on guessing who Rizzo might snag as his starting pitcher to be signed.

Don: We removed Shota Imanaga, Marcus Stroman and James Paxton since they have each signed, or in Paxton’s case is close to signing with another team. And we added Matthew Boyd, Brad Keller, Eric Lauer, Jake Odorizzi and Hyun Jin Ryu to list from before that included Michael Lorenzen, Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell and Alex Wood. And some of these are clearly tier-3 candidates. But even a tier-3 guy could potentially push Trevor Williams to the bullpen.

Steve: I liked that Jon Heyman of the NY Post thought that the Nats would be trying to get a tier-2 pitcher — but I am very skeptical on Michael Lorenzen because he was really bad and looked burned-out after throwing that complete game no-hitter. Where have we seen that before? Johan Santana comes to mind and the near no-no with Atlanta’s Sean Newcomb changed both pitcher’s futures after that. I’m sure there are more names. Also, Heyman had Ryu as a tier-2 pitcher with Alex Wood, Stroman and Paxton. Going from what I heard is Rizzo has his eyes on Ryu. My fear is that if he doesn’t get his price on Ryu that this drops to a tier-3 signing, and then I think, why bother?

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