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The Washington Nationals Thread: The Future is Near!

Riggo#44

By Riggo#44
in The Tailgate

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TheGoodBits

TheGoodBits

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Ok so Lerners are bleeding money, stuck in extension talks with Rizzo and can’t get the deal done (because they’re cheap/broke), and now Strasburg’s retirement thing was unexpectedly canceled? Are they trying to screw him over with a cheap settlement? Take less money and we’ll put you in the ring of fame? Yeeeessh. 
 

Thanks for what you all did to win a championship but I’ll be glad when their ownership is over. 

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Riggo#44

Riggo#44

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41 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

Whatever it is, it’s a bad look. If details weren’t finalized before, they shouldn’t have announced a date for his retirement celebration. Now that it’s been postponed, the fans are missing out.

It was never officially announced, it was always tentatively scheduled. I agree it's a bad look and they handled this whole situation poorly, but a lot of national writers are piling on with a lot of assumptions passed as fact. Ghiroli said there was going to be a number retirement this weekend, as well as passing off her judgement/opinion as fact. Rosenthal (who never hesitates to criticize the Nationals, "Nats Gonna Nat" in 2019 is one of he best Freezing Cold Takes) is now piling on, parroting the same information. They keep saying the team is for sale, but that was put on hold for at least this year--probably longer. They make it sound like the ESPN "story" from about 10-12 years ago that they created from their own narrative: https://deadspin.com/how-espn-manufactures-a-story-colin-kaepernick-edition-1185400028

 

I am losing respect for Mark Lerner, he is nowhere near as savvy as his father. However, The Athletic is treating him like John Angelos. It comes across as petty and personal.

Here's what Svrluga and Doughtery said: 

 

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Metalhead

Metalhead

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The Lerner's shelled out major money and contracts for years and now all of a sudden they are terrible? Please. They are feeling the financial constraints of a rebuilding ballclub, fewer home wins (less money coming in), and being screwed by Masn and the Orioles.

 

Regarding Stras, the news of his retirement was leaked before talks were even finished. There was nothing finalized and some reporters ran with the fragments. Not much else to it.

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Ball Security

Ball Security

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11 hours ago, The Evil Genius said:

 

This whole story is really weird:

From the reporting a couple of weeks ago it looked like both sides were on the same page about retirement and full payout.

 

Is Lerner reneging? That doesn’t make sense to me because Strasburg would simply delay retirement. Lerner isn’t going to be saving any money here.

 

Then we have the Bowden tweet/tweet deletion. Is there any truth to MLB owners stepping in to prevent this precedent? I think it’s likely. But again, Strasburg could just delay retirement and get his money. So what’s the point? Did Lerner float that story to Bowden to make it seem like Manfred was the problem? Possible, but if so, it was ineffective. If Lerner is heading to mlb pressure, he is letting himself get killed in the public relations battle.

 

The Rizzo situation: Rizzo definitely slow-played the resigning to take advantage of the White Sox opening. Now that it has closed, did Washington decrease their offer? Is Rizzo now waiting for October when other positions open for leverage?

 

DiPuglio resigns. Scout life is a hard life. The club should be more transparent about what is going on with him and the fires scouts. The Dominican League team was horrid this season. But they have a really good prospect named Hurtado on the line. They better not lose him during the international signing period.

 

Ghiroli’s mention that Lerner is going out of pocket for team expenses. I don’t buy that at all. Even if that was true, they have always turned down millions in revenue by leasing the stadium naming rights. So it’s tough to cry poor.

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bearrock

bearrock

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3 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

This whole story is really weird:

From the reporting a couple of weeks ago it looked like both sides were on the same page about retirement and full payout.

 

Is Lerner reneging? That doesn’t make sense to me because Strasburg would simply delay retirement. Lerner isn’t going to be saving any money here.

 

Then we have the Bowden tweet/tweet deletion. Is there any truth to MLB owners stepping in to prevent this precedent? I think it’s likely. But again, Strasburg could just delay retirement and get his money. So what’s the point? Did Lerner float that story to Bowden to make it seem like Manfred was the problem? Possible, but if so, it was ineffective. If Lerner is heading to mlb pressure, he is letting himself get killed in the public relations battle.

 

The Rizzo situation: Rizzo definitely so-played the resigning to take advantage of the White Sox opening. Now that it has closed, did Washington decrease their offer? Is Rizzo now waiting for October when other positions open for leverage?

 

DiPuglio resigns. Scout life is a hard life. The club should be more transparent about what is going on with him and the fires scouts. The Dominican League team was horrid this season. But they have a really good prospect named Hurtado on the line. They better not lose him during the international signing period.

 

Ghiroli’s mention that Lerner is going out of pocket for team expenses. I don’t buy that at all. Even if that was true, they have always turned down millions in revenue by leasing the stadium naming rights. So it’s tough to cry poor.

 

One angle I can imagine on the Strasburg retirement is that in order to continue his contract and be entitled to his salary without retirement, there may be contractual obligations regarding efforts towards rehab and such.  Some reports were talking about how he has difficulty with even day to day activities and he may not have the appetite to put in rehab efforts towards a return to baseball that in all probability is an impossibility at this point.  I still wish the team found a way to have some kind of an honorary ceremony for him on the 9th.  If Stras and his family made arrangements with the team indicating that retirement ceremony would be on the 9th, then it seems bad to just call e everything off.  It may be one those things where we won't know the full details for a long time, but the narrative is being spun and at the moment, it looks it will end up being a public relations egg on the face for the team.

 

On the Rizzo angle, I don't think Rizzo would have to look at just the upcoming openings.  Even if he doesn't find an opening to his liking or gets passed over for spots this offseason, he probably won't have much difficulty finding an opportunity pretty soon.  Rizzo extension would be the biggest offseason issue for me and losing him would put a definite damper on an otherwise very good rebuilding season.

 

It would also be astonishing if Lerners actually needed to put money back into the team this season.  Can't imagine how that would be the case unless there's some major residual loss still to be accounted for during Covid.  Seems off to me.

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Riggo#44

Riggo#44

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On 9/9/2023 at 10:12 AM, Ball Security said:

Ghiroli’s mention that Lerner is going out of pocket for team expenses. I don’t buy that at all. Even if that was true, they have always turned down millions in revenue by leasing the stadium naming rights. So it’s tough to cry poor.

Two words, Scott Boras. Nightengale and Heyman are notorious Boras mouthpieces and we can add Ghiroli to that list. Nightengale blatantly said his source was Scott Boras, in his usual half-assed, lazy, Boras PR generated article.

 

Here's the other thing that generally irks me with Rosenthal. He continually bashes the Nationals and the Lerners, who have actually won something recently--yet is basically cheerleading for the Mets to hire Stearns, and they're perpetually a mess. It's a demonstrable double-standard.

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Riggo#44

Riggo#44

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4 hours ago, Always A Commander Never A Captain said:

 

Nobody is buying a team that doesn't have any TV revenue. It was reported he made an offer, but from talking to people in his organization there was none. He expressed interest and the media was a little too eager.

 

There has been absolutely no movement on the sale in months. TalkNats reported that the sale was basically off for now. Yet National media continues to run that narrative, and tying the scouts being released, Dipuglia resigning, Rizzo's delays, etc as somehow cutting costs for this supposed sale. That is completely opposite of what both Lerner and Rizzo have said, recently: they WILL spend money when the time comes and the owners are ALL-IN. They are blatantly ignoring direct quotes to tell the story they want to tell. Ghiroli should be ashamed of herself.

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@DCGoldPants

@DCGoldPants

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Good news is good news. Rizzo was the most important piece to keep. He did make those moves to speed up a rebuild. We see it in the talent in Harrisburg. Some of these guys he moved are not even with those other teams anymore. Max,Trea.... and Soto probably will be moving on.

 

As far as the scouting. I'm not down on that right now. We complained enough that they didn't draft well and needed to make these trades. Maybe they need different scouts and the money issue while part of it, wasn't the only factor.

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Riggo#44

Riggo#44

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52 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

I believe with Rutledge making his debut tonight, that will be the fifth drafted National to get their first MLB appearance this season: Irvin, Alu, Willingham, and Young.

More than that: Ferrer, Millas

 

Edit. You said drafted. I read the words really goodly.

Edited by Riggo#44
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