For better or worse, here are the guys we’ll be watching, cursing, rooting for, and/or sending “get well” cards to for 2024. This upcoming year will be Year Three of the rebuild. Consequently, expectations will be higher despite (or perhaps because of) the “Big Nats” exceeding projections this past season, going from 55 wins to …
It’s National Mathematics Day for those who aren’t non-plussed, National Short Person for the down-to-earth, the Friday before Christmas for those who celebrate, and the Winter Solstice for us in the Northern Hemisphere. The latter probably is the ray of hope that I’ll choose to focus on, what with two major wars raging in Europe …
We hate to interrupt your National Bake Cookies Day, but we also have to make posts like these to ensure people know the lights are still on. I wish I could tell you why this has become the norm. The cynic in me says this is by design, as MLB no longer wants (or needs) …
With all eyes and interest on the Shohei Otani contract—and its rather familiar deferral of paymemts [insert Bobby Bonilla joke here]—there’s not very much to pass along to our little corner of the Natmosphere. I suppose it’s a bit of a story regarding the new vice president of amateur scouting, but you’ll forgive me for …
Two years ago, the Nats took four in the minor-league phase of the Rule 5 Draft. Last year, they took one—Thad Ward—via the MLB phase. This year, they did both – one in the MLB phase, and four in the minor-league phases for a total of five players. One the one hand, you can argue …
After today’s Rule 5 draft, things will slow down considerably. Love to be wrong, but I’ve been doing this a while… The Cleveland Guardians were the winners of the second MLB Draft Lottery, after the Nats messed things up by “winning” twice. Fortunately, they did not “lose” their best possible draft position of #10 in …
Once again, we’re seeing three clear trends: starters are getting more love than relievers (as they should), likewise for guys who can contribute sooner vs. later, and of course, southpaws (indicated by *) over northpaws: Cade Cavalli (1)(1) Jackson Rutledge (8)(4) DJ Herz* Travis Sykora Jake Bennett* (3) Andrew Alvarez* Mitchell Parker* (4)(7) Cole Henry …
As threat…er, promised we’re moving on to what used to be the more interesting of the two offseason votes. That was back when the Nats had as many pitchers as position players in a given Top XX list. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the current MLB Pipeline Top 30. Just 10 of them …
The turnout this year was better than last but the consensus was much stronger – only 14 different players were listed in the Top 10 (I’m excluding honorable mentions for obvious reasons). Before I go any further… James Wood (1) Dylan Crews Brady House (4) Yohandy Morales Drew Millas Daylen Lile Jacob Young Chrithian Vaquero …
With another week to go before the Winter Meetings, it’s time to turn another ritual to fill the void. For this, I’m pretty sure I’ll get enough participation. The next one… are there even 10 pitchers that remotely qualify? For those of you who don’t know the deal, it’s what they call it when they …