The Washington Nationals Thread: The Future is Near!

[@DCGoldPants]

17 minutes ago, TheGoodBits said:

He’s still young and needs regular playing time that he would not have gotten now that Senzel is back. 

 

I get that. I would have let him keep playing here. But we'll see what Senzel does on his 1 year $2M deal. If they are going to play him, hopefully he becomes trade bait. 

[Ball Security]

Can we give Luis Garcia some love? This is a guy who was massively disappointing last season. Many people wanted to move on from him, but he is mashing early this season: 8 XBH, 143 OPS+.  He made two wonderful plays in the field last night. A very encouraging start to the season.

[ixcuincle]

I notice he calls himself Luis Garcia Jr now

 

Is that new, he never used to identify as Jr before this year

[Always A Commander Never A Captain]

1 hour ago, Ball Security said:

Can we give Luis Garcia some love? This is a guy who was massively disappointing last season. Many people wanted to move on from him, but he is mashing early this season: 8 XBH, 143 OPS+.  He made two wonderful plays in the field last night. A very encouraging start to the season.

 

Yup! I was one of those, but now he's actually hitting the ball harder.

 

Originally I wanted Lipscomb to get games at 2B, but Garcia deserves to see this out. Wonder what changes he made.

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[Riggo#44]

2 hours ago, @DCGoldPants said:

he was getting on base and moving around the bases well. Because he was playing solid defense and at least getting himself into a position to score more than a few guys above him, I would have like to see him bumped up a few spots to try benefiting from it. 

 

Not really. He was walking at a 5.5% rate, which is 19th percentile. He's good defensively, but he's an automatic out right now (60 OPS+, 58 WRC+). He's in the bottom 20% of most offensive categories per Statcast: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/trey-lipscomb-702358?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

[Riggo#44]

2 hours ago, Ball Security said:

Can we give Luis Garcia some love? This is a guy who was massively disappointing last season. Many people wanted to move on from him, but he is mashing early this season: 8 XBH, 143 OPS+.  He made two wonderful plays in the field last night. A very encouraging start to the season.

He was on my **** list, with Menses, Robles, and Williams. Garcia and Williams are really having a great start. I would LOVE for Garcia to keep this up and lock down second. He has really cut down on the boneheaded plays (still has one here and there, but so do all players).

 

I caught some of Grant and Danny yesterday--they actually said Trevor Williams is a guy who can give you some length and he's been doing well and should be given the ball longer. There is nothing accurate about that statement. He's been doing well because he is not seeing the lineup a third time.

[TheGoodBits]

1 hour ago, Riggo#44 said:

He was on my **** list, with Menses, Robles, and Williams. Garcia and Williams are really having a great start. I would LOVE for Garcia to keep this up and lock down second. He has really cut down on the boneheaded plays (still has one here and there, but so do all players).

 

I've said this before (ironically as a defense of Robles when he has had tough stretches), but we got a little spoiled with Bryce and Soto starting and doing well in their age 19 seasons. Not everyone develops at the same pace. Garcia turns 24 next month. He's definitely getting to the age now where you will know what you've got, but a lot of guys show well defined improvement as they get into their mid to late 20s and hit their athletic peak. 

[ixcuincle]

[Ball Security]

11 hours ago, Riggo#44 said:

He was on my **** list, with Menses, Robles, and Williams. Garcia and Williams are really having a great start. I would LOVE for Garcia to keep this up and lock down second. He has really cut down on the boneheaded plays (still has one here and there, but so do all players).

 

I caught some of Grant and Danny yesterday--they actually said Trevor Williams is a guy who can give you some length and he's been doing well and should be given the ball longer. There is nothing accurate about that statement. He's been doing well because he is not seeing the lineup a third time.

I didn’t hear their show, so I’m not sure about context. I understand and agree that Williams most likely won’t take you deep into games, but I felt that his hook against Oakland was too soon. They were up five to a light hitting A’s team, he let two guys get on base, so what. Let him work out of it. His pitch counts don’t matter like they do for Gore.
 

A third time through the order shouldn’t be a hard rule. Yeah, you don’t ideally want to face the Dodgers a third time, but a team like Oakland? 
 

It’s going to be really tough to get through the season when the pen has to pitch 4+ innings every night. If that’s going to happen, I think they should have more multi-inning relievers. A guy like Adon (who had a nice start tonight) or Herz or Spencer Watkins would work well in that role.

 

It’s tough to go through a series with nine relievers and you have one guy pitch three games in a row and another pitch two, warm up in the third, and then pitch the first game of the next series. At the same time, you have two guys who didn’t get an appearance against Oakland.

 

In an unrelated non-bullpen note, Hassell and Crews were a combined 0-8 heading into the ninth. Hassell triples and Crews walks ‘em off. Almost as exciting as watching Young score from first on an Abrams triple.

[CRobi21]

Tied 2-2 in Harrisburg in the 9th. Hassell triples to right center. Dylan crews drops a soft liner in front of the CFer for a walk off win.

 

 

Edited April 17 by CRobi21

[EmirOfShmo]

Astros' Justin Verlander to make season debut Friday vs. Nationals

 

HOUSTON -- Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander will make his season debut Friday night at the Washington Nationals.

Houston manager Joe Espada made the announcement Wednesday.

"Getting him back is huge because it brings a level of confidence to our team, a boost of confidence that we're going to get someone who's been an MVP, a Cy Young [winner] on the mound," Espada said. "It's [good] for the morale and to get stuff started and moving in the right direction."

 

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39962485/astros-justin-verlander-make-season-debut-friday-vs-nationals

[Ball Security]

1 hour ago, EmirOfShmo said:

Astros' Justin Verlander to make season debut Friday vs. Nationals

 

HOUSTON -- Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander will make his season debut Friday night at the Washington Nationals.

Houston manager Joe Espada made the announcement Wednesday.

"Getting him back is huge because it brings a level of confidence to our team, a boost of confidence that we're going to get someone who's been an MVP, a Cy Young [winner] on the mound," Espada said. "It's [good] for the morale and to get stuff started and moving in the right direction."

 

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39962485/astros-justin-verlander-make-season-debut-friday-vs-nationals

Hope they call up Wood for Friday. Definitely thinking about going.

 

Abrams and Winker are really swing the bats well. CJ just lined out to RF, and I think it was a better swing than his homerun.

[Riggo#44]

Nice win today to get the series win in LA! Harvey and Finnegan looked really good. Irvin was outstanding. And Abrams continues to crush the ball!

[Ball Security]

20 minutes ago, Riggo#44 said:

Nice win today to get the series win in LA! Harvey and Finnegan looked really good. Irvin was outstanding. And Abrams continues to crush the ball!

Irvin was really impressive. I had the feeling that his last outing was a function of a poor Oakland team, but to do this against LAD is quite encouraging. Series win in LA with the two winning pitchers coming from their draft. 
 

Rutledge went two innings again tonight. Great news that he’s back. Bad news is that it’s another short start (rain). Hard for him to get in a groove.

[Warhead36]

Abrams is blossoming into a star

[ixcuincle]

Been skeptical of the Soto deal from day 1 and the hurt still there but getting Abrams in return and Wood may be worth it

 

 

[Always A Commander Never A Captain]

Is Irvin legit an OK pitcher or is this just early season luck? His last 2 games have been low enough pitch counts he could have easily gone an extra inning.

[Dan T.]

3 hours ago, ixcuincle said:

Been skeptical of the Soto deal from day 1 and the hurt still there but getting Abrams in return and Wood may be worth it

 

That trade: Juan Soto and Josh Bell to the Padres.  Nats get: CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Robert Hassell, James Wood, Jarlin Susanna, and Luke Voit. 

 

Seeing Juan go hurt a bunch.  But the Nats did get a haul in return.

 

A couple tidbits related to that trade from my spring training trip to West Palm in March. 

 

- We watched Jarlin Susanna pitch in the Futures game at the Mets' Clover Park in Port St. Lucie.  He is a big boy.  Six six, 235. His fastball was consistently above 100 mph, according to the scoreboard radar.  One pitch clocked at 103 mph.  He just turned 20 in March. 

 

- We saw Josh Bell at an Italian restaurant we were at off Clematis (Elisabetta's not Lynora's.) My friend spoke to him briefly and said we missed him in DC.  He said the plan is to get back to DC.  For what it's worth.

 

 

[@DCGoldPants]

The Soto move was the right one. Even if after this season Boras can't get him the deal he's been promising for years anymore. They traded away so much of the farm to get that WS Ring. This was the fastest way to reloading it. 

[ixcuincle]

biggest kick for me was team control. fine he doesn't want to sign whatever keep him around till the last year and then deal him. 

 

we'll see what happens. need to exert dominance over Astros and get over 500 

[Ball Security]

2 minutes ago, ixcuincle said:

biggest kick for me was team control. fine he doesn't want to sign whatever keep him around till the last year and then deal him. 

 

we'll see what happens. need to exert dominance over Astros and get over 500 

If they waited until this year, you don’t get anywhere close to the return that he got. You definitely don’t get Abrams, Gore, and Wood. You may get a Susana and some other filler. 

[@DCGoldPants]

7 hours ago, Ball Security said:

If they waited until this year, you don’t get anywhere close to the return that he got. You definitely don’t get Abrams, Gore, and Wood. You may get a Susana and some other filler. 

 

and he's one guy when you needed a bunch of guys to rebuild your roster. Waiting till the last year would have been foolish.

[Riggo#44]

18 hours ago, ixcuincle said:

fine he doesn't want to sign whatever keep him around till the last year and then deal him.

What does that accomplish other than diminish his value and minimizes our return?

[Riggo#44]

Look what the Yankees gave up to get Soto for just this year:

Michael King: 28, swingman, currently leading the majors in walks (5.0 BB/9), good ERA, 5.19 FIP

Jhony Brito: 26, 7.00 ERA, 1.778 WHIP. Career 4.72 FIP

Randy Vásquez: 25, another good ERA, 4.98 FIP, lots of walks, few strikeouts

Drew Thorpe: 23, currently at AA, BA's 58th rated prospect. Older than Abrams, Wood, Hassell.

Kyle Higashioka: A big nothing.

 

Compare that to the start Abrams (younger than all of them), Gore (younger than everyone other than Thorpe), Wood (two years younger than Thorpe, vaporizing baseballs at AAA) are having--let alone anything we get from Hassell and Susana. The Padres got a middling return (even though Kiley McDaniel at ESPN was saying the Padres got more than they gave up to us.) That for, what? A year and a half/two years more of Soto? Also, if we have Soto, are we picking 2 and getting Crews or even Langford? What if we're picking 10 last year?