Tuesday’s News & Notes

11 Commments

1. A couple comments on yesterday’s thread. Pilchard provided an outstanding quote, and I just wanted to agree with him. I have never been a basher of Dave Martinez. He did everything he could with the players he was handed by Rizzo and Mark Lerner. Of course, when a team goes bad, the first instinct is to fire the manager. Maybe the Nats do need a new start as a manager, but I don’t think Dave is as much to blame as a lot of posters do.

   1. I would also like to respond to the frequent quotes about Davey “throwing the players under the bus” and how indefensible that is.
      The full quote is given below, but here is the most relevant part: “It’s always been about the players. Always. I played this game a long time. Never once have I blamed a coach for anything. We worked our asses off to get better. They gave us information, and we used it, so these guys understand what the game is.”

      Sure, he shouldn’t have said it. It was a PR gaffe. But Dave was speaking from the mindset of a former player. And Davey was an excellent player for a long time. Why shouldn’t professional players feel the same way instead of being all hurt and everything? How indefensible is it, really? IOW, maybe Dave was right.

      The full quote:
      Q: When you look at the offense as a whole, I know you guys haven’t produced like you wanted to this month. For you, how much of that is on the players, on the coaching? What’s —

      A: It’s never on coaching. Never on coaching. Coaches work their asses off every single day. We’re not going to finger point here and say it’s coaches. It’s never on the coaches. They work hard.

      The message is clear. All the work is done prior. Sometimes, they got to go out there ,and they got to play the game. It’s always been about the players. Always. I played this game a long time. Never once have I blamed a coach for anything. We worked our asses off to get better. They gave us information, and we used it, so these guys understand what the game is.

      These coaches, l’ve never had such a group of coaches that worked as hard as they do. They’re here diligently. They go over everything. They sit with the players every day. These coaches, they work their asses off. Every coaching staff is like that. And the players know, sometimes you got to put the onus on the players. They got to go out there, and they got to play the game. And play the game the right way. We can’t hit for them. We can’t catch the balls for them. We can’t pitch for them. We can’t throw strikes for them. They got to do that.

      1. If we want to re-litigate this, what was the most shameful part of this wasn’t the quote you’ve posted, it was Davey’s response to his frustrated rant. It’s excusable to let emotions get the better of you, and say something stupid, and later apologize for that. What is NOT excusable – to me, at least – was what Davey said the next day to explain his remarks. Here’s the quotes from the following day:

         “They were great. I talked to a lot of them already…Hey, it wasn’t on them, right? My comments were nothing about them. They know that. They read through it. Like I said, I talked to them about it, and they’re all good.”

         “Was never about them, right? I never mentioned anything about players, right? I appreciate those players. I played. I understand how hard this game is. They know that.”

         Davey made no apology. He just flat out lied and denied even MENTIONING the players. If Davey wanted to instill a culture of responsibility and accountability – ironically, a point he was using to lampoon the players for trying to shirk responsibility and pass it to the coaches – well, he did a miserable job at it. He managed to angrily deny ANY responsibility (“it’s never on the coaches”), shift blame to the players (“they got to play the game”), and then had the audacity to deny ever saying any of it (“My comments were nothing about them.” “I never mentioned anything about players”!!!).

         Man, if I were Abrams, I’d be pissed for facing real consequences for his gambling addiction/irresponsibility/whatever it was that caused him to get sent to the minors, if Davey is leading by example that the way out of accountability is just bald-faced denying it, when there’s literal video out there of him saying these things.

         That for me is the straw that broke the camel’s back. But it was the weight of underperforming expectations in 7 of his 8 seasons with the team that made his position largely untenable.

         1. Underperforming expectations in 7 of the last 8 years?

            What were the reasonable expectations for the Nats each of those seasons going in?

            From a Las Vegas team wins over/under perspective and from pythagorean W-L perspective, Davey had the Nats over their expected win total in each of the last two seasons.

            Sorry, but don’t see how anyone can reasonable claim that the 2023 or 2024 Nats underperformed expectations.

            The first three months of this season? Yes, but not by that much. Look at this roster. Who does much more with this bullpen and this lineup?

            1. Fair enough. You’re right, the Nats did narrowly outperform expectations in both 2023 and 2024. But you got me to check. FanGraphs lists out their projections from years past, so it was easiest to compare (see here: https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds?date=2025-03-26&dateDelta=), and here’s the Nats projected wins vs reality

               2018: -10.1 wins
               2019: +2.5 wins and flags fly forever
               2020: -6.7 wins (over a normal season, this would’ve been -18 wins, but 2020 wasn’t a normal season in any way)
               2021: -16.4 wins
               2022: -15.4 wins
               2023: +4.3 wins
               2024: +6.4 wins
               2025: -3 wins (on pace for -5.5 wins if Davey lasted the season)
               Total: -38.4 wins below projected, and 5 of 8 seasons below projected.

               You’re right that it’s better than 7 of 8 seasons, but it’s not an argument in his favor. Could another manager have turned this team into a winner? Absolutely not. But could a better manager (who surrounded himself with competent coaches) have made this team better than a .411 winning percentage? Absolutely.

            2. Can’t agree Will.

               Of course, the 2021 and 2022 under-performed pre-season projections by a massive amount. You think it was managing?

               Hmmm…. How about the massive sell-off in 2021 of Trea Turner, Max Scherzer, Kyle Schwarber, Yan Gomes, Daniel Hudson, Brad Hand. Not to mention injuries to Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg and Will Harris, and the decent of Patrick Corbin into the abyss.

               Essentially, the Nats started year with Trea Turner and ended it with Alcides Escobar, and you putting the 2nd half losses on managing?

               Same with 2022 with the Juan Soto and Josh Bell sell off. The team that the Nats were projected to have and ended up with were not the same either of the seasons.

               Anyone thinking that Davey and Rizzo were the primary problem with the Nats horrible performance over the past 4 seasons is simply wrong. The current team has a $65 million payroll. Trevor Williams is the third highest paid player. They forced to play the Keibert Ruiz essentially everyday because he is the one player that the Lerners extended over the past 4 years.

         2. Cavilli is the cherry on top of the Rizzo era
            Number one pick ripped today proving that he’s bullpen AAA fodder
            Stop drafting from OU, guys
            Wow Elijah has hit more HRs than yo – yo but Elijah sees more fastballs in the complex compared to AA yo yo

            1. Let’s shift the debate to the shift in this full moon to the scouting department in the vapors of Rizzo departure leaving the guys with Arizona , Oriole and Braves resume .
               This middle infielder hit skills talent may work put in the long run but Seaver King was truly a signing pool effect draft and sign .
               We have taken a turn into the surreal

2. MLB coaching staff changes after the shake up:

   – Henry Blanco moves up to be the bench coach (new manager Miguel Cairo was the bench coach)
   – Bob “Sendly” Henley is back on the staff as a Field Coordinator

   So, after all of the calls upon Davey to shake up the coaching staff, we essentially have the same MLB coaches, except Davey is gone. Kind of funny as just didn’t see Davey as the one holding back Darnell Coles or Jim Hickey, but the Lerners have no clue; so, we have the same coaching staff without the one guy that held them all together. Don’t see any world where these same group of coaches are suddenly better with Davey.

   We also go into the trading deadline without the Director Baseball Ops (Rizz) that is considered the best trade negotiator in MLB. Now, former Nat Intern who worked his way up, Mike DeBartolo will be the point man to negotiate deals with Andrew Friedman, Jed Hoyer, Dave Dombroski, David Stearns. That scares me.

   The Nats are broken, and there are legit gripes about both Davey and Rizzo (this past off-season the FA signings were unreal-bad, but if I had to guess, would think DeBartolo and those still left played a role in those awful additions), but the timing of the Rizz and Davey firings feels like just doing something so they Lerners can claim they are doing something, but if anything, the timing of the firings just further hurts the Nats franchise.

3. I’ve been criticized on various Nats fan pages for not being angry ENOUGH at Rizzo and Martinez as people were calling for them to be fired. The organization finally fires them, and now many are criticizing the organization for doing what so many have been calling for, some literally for years.

   Tough gig.

4. Where was the Post with these criticisms while Rizzo still had a job? https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/07/08/nationals-drafting-development-problems/

   The graphic about a third of the way in is most damning: Since 2012, hitters drafted by the Nationals have generated 1.2 WAR (2.1 of which was produced by Jacob Young). The 2nd worst team in that span is the Colorado Rockies, whose hitters have produced 27 WAR. League average was over 50 WAR. Holy cow….

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