LATEST STORIES FROM NATS TRIPLE PLAY
The Worst-Case Scenario Opening Day Roster
The Nationals' off season to date has been characterized by a marked lack of activity on the position player front. No major free agents (Sorry, Mark DeRosa does not qualify as a blockbuster signing.), no "big" trades; lots of sound, very little fury (apart from certain quarters of the fanbase). Signifying what, exactly?Unlike seasons past, when the plan for the winter...
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January 10, 2012
Discuss
Learning to Love the "Links"
Already this offseason the Nationals have been "linked" in one form or another to free agent starting pitchers C.J. Wilson, Mark Buehrle, Roy Oswalt and Edwin Jackson, as well as potential Japanese imports like Yu Darvish and Tsuyoshi Wada. And that's just the pitchers. The Nationals have also been named as a potential destination for free agent hitters from Prince...
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November 08, 2011
Bye Bye Bixler
Scrappy utility player Kory Casto Anderson Hernandez Pete Orr Alberto Gonzalez Brian Bixler was claimed off waivers today by the Houston Astros, ending his Nationals tenure after 79 games, 83 at-bats, a 205/267/265 batting line, and a few memorable plays like this one.Now we can expect Stephen Lombardozzi to compete with a few veteran free agents (possibly including 2010 Syracuse...
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November 03, 2011
Nate's Nats Notes - 11/2/11
If you're reading this (which I suppose you pretty obviously are) you may have noticed that Nats Triple Play went through some fairly significant content generation droughts in 2011. Some of that is the inevitable impact of running out of new things to say about this team after 6+ years, but more often it went something like:1. Read/hear/see something interesting about the Nationals...
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November 02, 2011
Meet the New Boss, Etc.
Your clubhouse leader for least surprising press release of the 2012 offseason:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, October 31, 2011DAVEY JOHNSON TO RETURN AS NATIONALS FIELD MANAGER IN 2012 The Washington Nationals today announced they have exercised...
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October 31, 2011
Checking Up on the 40-Man Roster
As you may have noticed, reports of our death, while not wildly exaggerated, were at least slightly premature. C'mon, it's not like anything interesting really happened in the last 3 months anyway. Have you seen the Nats blogosphere lately? It's all Mike Rizzo pledging to go out and fill the same two positions he was pledging to fill last offseason, and the gripping drama...
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October 30, 2011
Universal Truths, Observed Realities & Umpiring
I love National Public Radio as much as the next East Coast liberal elitist, but there is such a thing a over-thinking an issue. Today's example: metaphysics and the theory of umpiring.All pretentiousness aside, it's a good read, and will provide all sorts of philosophical underpinnings for your argument the next time you suggest that the home plate ump consult a seeing eye...
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October 27, 2011
Jonny Gomes Isn't Jackie Robinson Either
So... the Washington Nationals organization didn't exactly cover itself in glory tonight, did it? The big boys got whipped by Florida (of course), AAA Syracuse found itself on the wrong end of a perfect game, and Nats director of player development Doug Harris felt the need to compare Bryce Harper to Jackie Robinson for reasons passing understanding.As it happens I was in Bowie...
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July 26, 2011
Snakebitten
This team cannot catch a break. We draft one of the most heralded pitchers in recent memory and he lives up to the hype only to have his arm fall off. Then we draft a wunderkind who has all the physical gifts needed to be great at this game and who may or may not be a potential clubhouse cancer. We lose our face-of-the-franchise third baseman for the first third of the season...
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June 24, 2011
Answer Unclear, Ask Again Later
Are the 2011 Washington Nationals surprise NL Wild Card contenders or just slightly better than expected playoff pretenders? The next 10 days should tell us quite a bit about the suddenly scrappy boys in red, white and blue.Starting tonight the Nats play a nine game stretch versus the Mariners, at the White Sox, and at the Angels before wrapping up June with an off day. All three...
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June 21, 2011
Drew Storen > Aaron Crow
Erstwhile never-quite-a-Nat Aaron Crow was just named Kansas City's pitcher of the month for April. The lefty reliever worked 12 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out 11 and stranding all 10 runners he inherited. That's nice work for a setup man, no doubt, but Crow was supposed to be a starter, a dominant lefty that the Nats could pair with Jordan Zimmermann atop the rotation...
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May 02, 2011
Not Dead Yet
Whew, this once a month posting schedule is punishing. Much like watching Chad Gaudin pitch. Which we won't have to do for at least two weeks. Apparently the enormous sucking force generated by his 6.48 ERA placed an insupportable strain on his shoulder, causing inflammation. Get well, Chad, but not soon. And have your doctor take a look at Doug Slaten too, hmmm? He may have...
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April 27, 2011
Beyond Baseball
WaPo's Barry Svrluga was the chronicler of baseball's return to Washington, D.C. in 2005, so it's only fitting that he authored this heart-breaking, inspiring story of Chad Cordero's most recent return to the game following the sudden death of his infant daughter.For those of us who mark the spring of 2005 as the return of our interest in baseball, the members of...
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March 22, 2011
Spring Training in Photos
Clearly we've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus here at NTP, but some things just can't pass unremarked. This is either a training exercise or a particularly unsavory clause in Jayson Werth's $126M contract:Shots like that are why Mark Zuckerman gets paid the big bucks. Is that a camouflage bungee? Of course it is. Now for your daily double, speaking of big bucks:Meet...
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February 22, 2011
Not Quite Good to the Last Drop
Look, when the Nationals DFA Justin Maxwell to make room for Todd Coffey you're going to get puns. Deal with it. There was a time when I thought Justin could be another homegrown draw for a franchise that desperately needs to forge connections to its community. A Maryland native and University of Maryland grad, Maxwell would have formed a great 1-2 punch with Ryan Zimmerman....
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January 27, 2011
Down on the Farm
The acquisition of Tom Gorzelanny does not make me tingle in my special places. (In case you were curious, my special places are Charlottesville, Edinburgh, and Montego Bay.) He's youngish and left-handed, which can be accounted pluses, but also wildly inconsistent both in terms of results and underlying stats. He strikes me as another version of Lannan/Marquis/Livo/Maya, but...
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January 18, 2011
The Digging and Filling of Holes
Zack Greinke wasn't coming to Washington, D.C. unless Boston's lineup and Philly's rotation agreed to come with him. That simple, seemingly indisputable fact renders all the digital ink spilled on the subject moot. And yet...It's one thing to be spurned by Cliff Lee and told that the Phillies, Yankees or Rangers are closer to contention. None but the most over-eggnoged...
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December 19, 2010
On Rizzo & Responsibility
Let's get this out of the way first: I firmly believe that Jayson Werth's 7-year, $126M contract is a bad deal for the Washington Nationals. It is an overpay both in dollars and in years, and Werth would need to defy both physics and history to come close to earning his salary.That said, there is a strain of analysis that says that this is not just a bad contract of the...
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December 06, 2010
This is a Job for WikiLeaks
As soon as Julian Assange is done wasting his time with the military, the diplomatic corps and the financial sector, he's got serious work to do. I want to know what the hell goes on in the front offices of the Washington Nationals. I want a raft of emails from Mike Rizzo, Mark Lerner, Stan Kasten, and Uncle Teddy explaining exactly how subtracting Adam Dunn from the roster...
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December 03, 2010
Adam Dunn's Red Flag?
If Adam Dunn never plays another home game in Washington, his career at Nationals Park ended on a particularly ignominious note: 0-4, 4Ks. The golden sombrero. Of course, he didn't get cheated on any of those swings, so it's not hard to believe than Adam was pressing to give the home fans a memorable show. Dunn's 2010 has been marked by his traditional display of power...
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September 30, 2010
Pay to Win
It doesn't get much easier to understand than this, courtesy of the NY Times:Vertical axis: Wins. Horizontal axis: Payroll. Notice any correlation? Yes, there are exceptions to every rule (sweet, holy giraffe the Mets suck!) but the trend line is unmistakable. More dollars (in general) equals more wins.Please print, clip and mail the graphic above to:Nationals ParkAttn: Mr. Theodore...
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September 28, 2010
It's The Lerners' Team Now.
Sell the StanSpeak translator for scrap; Kasten is headed for the door. Boswell's oddly well-timed column has some background that will provide copious fodder for the recently diminished ranks of the "Teh Lerners are Cheep!!1!" movement. Chris Needham correctly assesses the likely fallout.This is a gut-punch for a franchise in need of a drama-free offseason. Leaving...
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September 23, 2010
Nats 2011 Slogan Suggestion: It Could Always Be Worse
Now this is how a mature fanbase handles an extended period of failure and incompetence:Somebody get Bob Boone on the phone. He's got work to do.
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September 20, 2010
The Time Has Come
I'm a fairly lazy custodian of our "Nat(m)osphere" sidebar. I tend to stick with what I know and what I like. Hey, it's our sidebar. And, as previously noted, I'm a lousy housekeeper. What that means in practice is that I'm slow to update when new bloggers join the party and even slower to delete those who may have signed off or gone off the rails.Every...
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September 13, 2010
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