It's been a while since I've done one of these, but being surprised with that stuff people call free time, I figured I'd give it a go real quick.
So 2013 was a year of high expectations and disappointments in DC. The Nats were one of the early season favorites for the World Series, yet actual performance was far from that as they failed to make the playoffs. With a late season run, they looked more respectable finishing at 86-76 good for 2nd in the AL East, down by 10 games to the Braves, and 4 games out of the 2nd Wild Card spot.
This year brings a new set of expectations, not of world series or bust, but more tempered and hopeful expectations this time around. This offseason, the Nationals made a shrewd move to shore up the rotation by trading for Doug Fister, formally of the Tigers. An already stout starting rotation is now one of the best in baseball with Strasburg, Zimmermann, Gonzalez, Fister and Detwiller. The bullpen was cause for some clubhouse issues last year when the team signed Soriano to be the closer, stripping the job from young Drew Storen. That move didn't sit well with many on the team, and was the beginning of a rift between players and coaches. The team is currently looking to bolster depth, and one of the areas of concern is the pen, where Soriano, Clippard, Stammen and Storen are arguably the team's best RP, and all right-handed. The team recently traded for LHP Jerry Blevins but after him, the only lefties are Xavier Cedeno, and two former highly touted prospects both coming off various degrees of injury recovery in Sammy Solis and Matt Purke. With additional RHP Ohlendorf, Mattheus, and Erik Davis, the team could be looking to acquire another LHP for balance and depth.
A potential match could be found just 40 miles north if the teams were so inclined, as the Baltimore Orioles have an opening at the back of their bullpen after trading Jim Johnson, and have a LHP with a similar salary, service time, and is lights out against lefties in Brian Matusz. A swap of the two would give the Nationals another late inning lefty to counter division foes such as Heyward, Freeman, Utley, Howard, Brown, and Granderson, while giving the Orioles a cost effective option to close for the next few years.
On the offensive side of things, Jason Werth had a great year after returning from injury, leading the team in both average (.318) and OBP (.394). Harper fought some injuries himself (he will learn where the walls are this year I'm sure) but still posted a very respectable OPS for a guy that will be a future MVP candidate. Span rounds out the starting OF, playing a great defensive CF, leading the team in hits last year, and adding some speed to the top of the order. The team went shopping and brought in OF Nate McLouth to be a 4th OF, who is a great fit in that role for a contending team. The infield, anchored by Ryan Zimmerman had to overcome a mysterious case of the yips from their team leader, who for no physical reason had trouble making throws from 3rd last year. For a player that was considered one of the best defensively in the game, it was puzzling to see such a bad issue pop up, but the encouraging sign is that his glove was still solid as the overwhelming majority of his errors came on the throw, and his bat was seemingly unaffected. Ian Desmond progressed even further as a player and has turned into a wonderful option at SS. First base was and will be filled immediately by veteran Adam LaRoche, while 2B is filled with promising young player Anthony Rendon, who has battled through various ankle injuries to finally make it to the majors. While a potential move of Zimmerman to 1B, and Rendon to 3B, his natural position has been speculated, unless the team can trade LaRoche it doesn't make much sense yet.
The last component of the team, and rumor is, a cause of some of the problems last year is the coaching staff. Talks were that Johnson had lost the team last year after the way the bullpen issue was handled, and then through a few various issues throughout the year. Matt Williams, former star 3B for the Giants and Diamondbacks was brought in to manage, leaving much of the old staff including bench coach Randy Knorr, and 1B coach Tony Tarasco in place. This sort of transition can be helpful to a new inexperienced manager, and hopefully will limit the transition pains.
Going into the season, with Danny Espinosa and McLouth on the bench, the team looks very solid on paper, and just needs to perform on the field. A few slight tweaks may remain to be made, but the Nationals look ready to battle the Braves for the NL East crown in 2014.
Showing posts with label Strain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strain. Show all posts
Friday, December 20, 2013
Friday, November 30, 2012
What the Span acquisition means.
With the Nats trading prospect Alex Meyer to the Twins for CF Denard Span, a few things start to become clear for the team going into 2013. Span is one of the league's premier defensive CF, so he will be entrenched there and most likely at the top of the order. Harper and Werth become the team's corner OF, with debate to ensue about needing more range and athleticism to play LF (Haper wins there) and wanting your best arm in RF (Harper wins there too). Their positioning could go either way, but LF is bigger than RF in Nats Park, so you might expect to see Harper in LF and Werth in RF at least to start the year.
This moves Morse to 1B where he's got a lot of power, but not the OBP that LaRoche brings. The team says that it is still focused on resigning LaRoche, which would send Morse to the trading block (he may be better suited for an AL team where he can DH, since his glove is pretty sub par), but it remains to be seen if they will meet the 3 years and $11m per season plus he is looking for. The team is rumored to be kicking tires on Grienke, which would give them hands down the best rotation in baseball, and if they went that route they would go with Morse at 1B to offset the money. Signing a mid rotation guy like Jackson last year will be about $10m, and LaRoche would be about $11 so that $21m could be spent on Grienke and Morse and his affordable contract placed at 1B.
The team should be active tying up this triangle and deciding if they are going after pitching or hitting at the Winter Meetings next week. The OF seems shored up now, and with seemingly somewhere in the ballpark of $20-25m to spend they could make one big splash or two smaller splashes next week. In addition they have key trade piece Anthony Rendon getting healthy, and you could see him packaged out next in a deal for whatever piece puts them over the top this year.
As I said last year when they traded for Gio, they were a playoff team, they proved me right once, and now I'm saying that they are poised to become a WS favorite depending on how these few moves shape up.
This moves Morse to 1B where he's got a lot of power, but not the OBP that LaRoche brings. The team says that it is still focused on resigning LaRoche, which would send Morse to the trading block (he may be better suited for an AL team where he can DH, since his glove is pretty sub par), but it remains to be seen if they will meet the 3 years and $11m per season plus he is looking for. The team is rumored to be kicking tires on Grienke, which would give them hands down the best rotation in baseball, and if they went that route they would go with Morse at 1B to offset the money. Signing a mid rotation guy like Jackson last year will be about $10m, and LaRoche would be about $11 so that $21m could be spent on Grienke and Morse and his affordable contract placed at 1B.
The team should be active tying up this triangle and deciding if they are going after pitching or hitting at the Winter Meetings next week. The OF seems shored up now, and with seemingly somewhere in the ballpark of $20-25m to spend they could make one big splash or two smaller splashes next week. In addition they have key trade piece Anthony Rendon getting healthy, and you could see him packaged out next in a deal for whatever piece puts them over the top this year.
As I said last year when they traded for Gio, they were a playoff team, they proved me right once, and now I'm saying that they are poised to become a WS favorite depending on how these few moves shape up.
Friday, December 2, 2011
2012 Nationals: A brief overview
Being a guy that focuses mostly on the rule 4 draft and prospects, I assumed my first entry would dig right in on that. There is so much to write about that I couldn't decide where to start, with all of the spending in the draft the past couple seasons and the excitement building in DC. Then I took a step back and realized maybe I should write about my personal view on the Nats first, since I am probably the exact demographic the team is looking for. I live about 10 miles from the White House, I have been a major student of the game, have played, and been following the Orioles closely since the early 90's.
Once rumors started flying that an MLB team was thinking about moving to DC and so close to home, you would think you would get excited to have a more true hometown team (Baltimore is 40 miles away). However, I actually cringed at the idea. This is not, and will never be a baseball town. DC is a football city first, and always will be, but it is a sports town, so there will always be some people to show up to games with the tag still on the team t-shirt they are wearing to pretend loyalty for a sport they don't even like. This group of people generally makes up 80% of all attendance for the Nationals right now. If you go to a game, there are more people in the stands in work clothes on their laptops, or their smart phones doing work than watching the game. This comes from a large corporate sponsorship in the DC area with companies that give free tickets to employees. While it puts people in the seats who may or may not actually be watching the game, it creates a very indifferent crowd which usually isn't sure when to cheer or jeer.
The stadium, while built in what us locals referred to a "don't ever go there" area is nice, there isn't a really bad seat in the house and much like New York, famous 3rd party eateries have been brought in to spice things up. Getting to and from can be an adventure because of the lack of parking at the stadium, but the metro that Baltimore lacks helps out with that.
As for the team itself, major strides in the right direction have been made for a couple years now. Young talent has been stockpiled: Strasburg, Harper, Zimmerman, Zimmermann, Rendon, Cole, Bernadina etc. and is beginning to be supplemented with big-name free agents: Werth, and rumors abound about Fielder and Wilson this offseason.
While there has been a stagnation in Baltimore that has gone on for 14 years, the Nationals seem to have gotten the memo and are building excitement. There are players worth buying a ticket to see, and hope that the team can win the division realistically. While I've never personally had any interest in the Nats up til now, my will to support the Orioles is growing weaker each horrible season, and the Nationals seem to know this and are trying to lure me away with promises of exciting players and playing for something after June.
While it is still a work in progress, at least there is real progress, enough to where 2012 or 2013 could be the year the Nationals emerge as a contending force. While a lot of the talk centers around the AL East and the spending that occurs, making it tough for rebuilding teams to ever get a foothold, one could say the same thing about the NL East. The Phillies are one of the top spending teams in baseball right now, with a rotation built to win. The Mets are starting a rebuilding phase, but they are one of the largest market teams in baseball, and will spend the money to get back in the race sooner than later. The Braves always seem to be in the hunt, through player development, even when you think they are going to be terrible they find a way into the wild-card race. Even the Marlins, the major-league feeder team for the rest of the league has a new stadium opening and is showing they want to spend money and get in the race.
I have no animosity towards the Nationals, and as the quality of product improves on the Anacostia, I find myself more and more interested.
Once rumors started flying that an MLB team was thinking about moving to DC and so close to home, you would think you would get excited to have a more true hometown team (Baltimore is 40 miles away). However, I actually cringed at the idea. This is not, and will never be a baseball town. DC is a football city first, and always will be, but it is a sports town, so there will always be some people to show up to games with the tag still on the team t-shirt they are wearing to pretend loyalty for a sport they don't even like. This group of people generally makes up 80% of all attendance for the Nationals right now. If you go to a game, there are more people in the stands in work clothes on their laptops, or their smart phones doing work than watching the game. This comes from a large corporate sponsorship in the DC area with companies that give free tickets to employees. While it puts people in the seats who may or may not actually be watching the game, it creates a very indifferent crowd which usually isn't sure when to cheer or jeer.
The stadium, while built in what us locals referred to a "don't ever go there" area is nice, there isn't a really bad seat in the house and much like New York, famous 3rd party eateries have been brought in to spice things up. Getting to and from can be an adventure because of the lack of parking at the stadium, but the metro that Baltimore lacks helps out with that.
As for the team itself, major strides in the right direction have been made for a couple years now. Young talent has been stockpiled: Strasburg, Harper, Zimmerman, Zimmermann, Rendon, Cole, Bernadina etc. and is beginning to be supplemented with big-name free agents: Werth, and rumors abound about Fielder and Wilson this offseason.
While there has been a stagnation in Baltimore that has gone on for 14 years, the Nationals seem to have gotten the memo and are building excitement. There are players worth buying a ticket to see, and hope that the team can win the division realistically. While I've never personally had any interest in the Nats up til now, my will to support the Orioles is growing weaker each horrible season, and the Nationals seem to know this and are trying to lure me away with promises of exciting players and playing for something after June.
While it is still a work in progress, at least there is real progress, enough to where 2012 or 2013 could be the year the Nationals emerge as a contending force. While a lot of the talk centers around the AL East and the spending that occurs, making it tough for rebuilding teams to ever get a foothold, one could say the same thing about the NL East. The Phillies are one of the top spending teams in baseball right now, with a rotation built to win. The Mets are starting a rebuilding phase, but they are one of the largest market teams in baseball, and will spend the money to get back in the race sooner than later. The Braves always seem to be in the hunt, through player development, even when you think they are going to be terrible they find a way into the wild-card race. Even the Marlins, the major-league feeder team for the rest of the league has a new stadium opening and is showing they want to spend money and get in the race.
I have no animosity towards the Nationals, and as the quality of product improves on the Anacostia, I find myself more and more interested.
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