After a deflating, frustrating loss in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Cardinals, the Nationals packed their bags for the off season while the Cardinals went on to the NLCS. After such a memorable season, the way the season ended for the Nationals seemed incomprehensible to many and brought many questions in attempts to answer what happened after coming so close.
Now, the baseball season is officially over and there’s other matters to take care of: a rotation spot to fill, manager to re-sign, as well as determining the lineup for next season. Also now, baseball’s form of the ‘best of’ awards is finally here.
Today Adam LaRoche, Ian Desmond, and Stephen Strasburg each won Silver Slugger awards in the National League for first base, shortstop, and pitcher respectively. LaRoche hit 33 home runs with 100 RBI and had a .510 slugging percentage while Desmond hit 25 home runs with 73 RBIs and a .511 slugging percentage. For a pitcher, Strasburg had impressive numbers at the plate: he hit .277 with 7 RBIs. He composed one of the best seasons at the plate for a pitcher in the past 30 years according to the Washington Post.
Adam LaRoche also won his first career Gold Glove for first base in the National League. LaRoche had a .995 fielding average and didn’t make an error all season. He is the only National to win the award since Ryan Zimmerman won in 2009. Ian Desmond, was also a finalist for the award for his position at shortstop, but was beat out by the Phillies Jimmy Rollins.
Other Nationals are also finalists for awards. Leading the team’s nominations from the Baseball Writers Association of America is Davey Johnson as a candidate for National League Manager of the Year. Also nominated is Gio Gonzalez for the NL Cy Young Award who led the majors with 21 wins and Bryce Harper for the NL Rookie of the Year Award.
Each of the Nationals’ award finalists and winners played a intricate role in the Nationals’ historic season. In games that Gio Gonzalez started, the Nationals were 24-8. For Harper, he finished second in home runs among rookies with 22 and fourth in RBIs. Both players have stiff competition in candidates such as R.A. Dickey for the Cy Young and Todd Frazier for Rookie of the Year. Not to be forgotten is Davey Johnson who more than aptly managed a young team that was burdened by injuries at times and led the Nationals to their first division title and first-ever trip to the playoffs. Johnson’s competition is Bruce Bochy (San Francisco Giants) and Dusty Baker (Cincinnati Reds).
Other off season links:
Davey Johnson seems to be close to returning to the Nationals as manager for 2013. Of the official agreement on the contract, General manager Mike Rizzo says, “I’m thinking anytime now.”
The Nationals made a qualifying offer to Adam LaRoche but not Edwin Jackson. LaRoche has a week to accept or reject the offer.
In less baseball related news, Davey Johnsonwon a fishing tournament. Also, some other Nationals are on a boat.
Check out who’s making what with the Nationals’2013 payroll.
If you sawMoneyball(and if you’re a baseball fan, you really should have), you may remember a part in the movie when Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is talking to first baseman Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt) and coaching him on how to play first. Beane encourages Hatteberg to be welcoming at first and chat the guy up.
It turns out, that wasn’t just a part of Hollywood script writing, it really does happen. Often during games, you’ll see the fielders talking with the base runners and sometimes even laughing. No, players aren’t always sworn enemies.
A piece by Nationals Journal today gives us a look into what happens on the basepaths. Here’s some of what Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond had to say.
“It depends: If we’re close friends, usually it’s about hunting, families or something. [...] The majority of the time, what’s going on with their team. The pulse of the team, the pitcher they’re facing, what he just saw, umpires.” –Adam LaRoche
“I kind of feel them out a little bit. Know where their heads at. If they’re really focused, I know that’s a guy we’ve got to watch out for.” –Ian Desmond
Other good stuff (in case you missed it):
The Nationals traded for Kurt Suzuki last week and he’s learning on the go now.
Cesar Izturis is (hopefully) going to be able to provide some infield depth with Ian Desmond injured.
Edwin Jackson summed up last night’s game pretty well: “An ugly win is a better than a good loss.”
During his time with the Nationals, Ankiel was known for his cannon of an arm before his bat.
This morning the Nationals designated Rick Ankiel for assignment in order to make room for closer Drew Storen coming off of the disabled list. With this move the Nationals now have four bench players with an eight-man bullpen. This season Ankiel’s hit .228 in 68 games with 5 home runs and 15 RBIs.
Although the decision to part with Ankiel was “very difficult,” GM Mike Rizzo said “they are decisions you make this time of year.” He also mentioned Ankiel, who turns 33 today, took the news like a pro.
With Ankiel designated for assignment, it begs the question to how close Jayson Werth is returning from his broken wrist. The outfielder took batting practice the last several days and is expected to start a rehab assignment this Friday in Potomac.
Today the Nationals conclude their series with the Mets and go for the sweep at 12:35. Gio Gonzalez starts for the Nationals with R.A. Dickey starting for the Mets.
Other injury updates:
Speaking of Jayson Werth, check out how his injury and recovery process has been like.
Jhonathan Solano was placed on the disabled list with an oblique strain. The Nationals recalled catcher Sandy Leon to replace Solano.
Ian Desmond is sitting out his fifth straight game resting his oblique injury. (That means that Lombardozzi is at 2B and Espinosa is at SS again.)
Chad Tracy is close to returning as well. He’s been practicing with the team lately.
Coming into the 2012 season, there was something the Nationals were used to having to deal with: expectations.
With big off season moves, the impending debut of Bryce Harper, and the momentum the Nats took into the off season at the end of 2011, everyone was expecting an improvement. To say anyone expected the Nats being in first place at the All-Star Break (and having been in that position most of the year) would be crazy.
Yet that’s where we stand. The Nats are not only first in the NL East, but they have the best record in the National League at the halfway point of the season. Here’s a look at what the top stories of 2012 have been.
The way Ian Desmond’s been playing, no one would have guessed he has a left oblique strain. The shortstop had home runs today and yesterday with other hits scattered in between, but still made the tough decision to withdraw from the All-Star Game.
Desmond’s been nursing the injury for a month now, and with his everyday playing (he’s played every single game but one this season), he saw the All-Star Game as an opportunity to rest for the second half of the season and prevent a more severe injury.
“It was definitely a tough decision, one that we spent quite a few days mulling over. In the end, I think it’s best for the team and best for myself to take a rest. I would hate to be two, three weeks down the road and something happened and I didn’t take the four days to rest my body and put the team first.”
Desmond is still officially considered an All-Star but won’t make the trip to Kansas City for the All-Star Game festivities. By going to Kansas City and not being able to play would just add insult to injury, he said. Instead of Desmond, Michael Bourn of the Atlanta Braves was selected to fill Desmond’s spot.
On a hot, humid summer night (there’s no other type of summer night in DC), most fans were lulled to sleep, a languid relaxation or sheer boredom. There really wasn’t that much to cheer and celebrate, for Nats fans. ‘Turn Back the Clock’ night had been a fun promotion, but apart from that, the game had mostly been written off as a missed chance to sweep.
Of course, with this team, nothing is over until the last out is recorded and everyone has packed up and gone home. Last night in the ninth inning, as the Nationals mounted their comeback, in the middle of it all were Tyler Moore, Steve Lombardozzi and Bryce Harper–all direct rewards from the Nationals farm system. Also involved were Ryan Zimmerman, Michael Morse and Adam LaRoche. The first three embody draft picks across the board. Moore was drafted in the 16th round of 2008, Lombardozzi was drafted in the 19th round of 2008 and Harper was drafted first overall in 2010. The later three encompass a mix of veteran experience and utility playing time.
Now, as the Nationals sit atop of the National League East and almost atop baseball in general (the only teams with better records are the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers), it’s even more increasingly obvious that the winning isn’t a fluke. Apart some sheer luck from the baseball gods (such as other teams in the NL East losing when the Nationals lost), this team is finally coming into what they were envisioned to be.
Because everyone is too busy celebrating America’s Amurica’s birthday today, here’s a couple short and sweet notes to keep you in the know:
The Nationals entered July 4th with the best record in the National League. The last time a Washington team’s led its league on Independence Day? 1933. That was also the last DC based team to play in the World Series.
Naturally the Nationals won today, on Amurica’s day. They slugged out four home runs, Ryan Zimmerman’s cortisone shots are still working, and Ian Desmond is still proving he’s All-Star worthy.
Bryce Harper needs your vote! The outfielder and rookie sensation is currently second in the National League Final Vote! Voting ends tomorrow (Thursday) at 4 ET. Vote online or text N3 to 89269. (If you’re worried about future HOFer Chipper Jones not being honored his last go around, don’t worry; he was selected to fill Matt Kemp’s spot.)
Bryce Harper also got his teammates some cool clown shirts. Will they be as cool as the 22Fresh ‘BeastMode’ shirts?
I thought that the Nats were going to have some All-Star candidates with potential, but I honestly didn’t think that Ian Desmond would be one of them. His mistakes and inconsistencies of the past seemed to not be going away.
But this year, that has all changed. Desmond has been a huge steadying force at the plate, and has impacted the Nats positively all year.
Desmond leads the National League shortstops with 37 extra-base hits, with a .302 batting average in June. In the last 11 games, Desmond has had 11 extra base hits.
The realities of the All-Star Game may play against him (which is weird for the Nationals). Mainly, every team has to be represented, and it is a solid bet that Stephen Strasburg and.or Gio Gonzalez will be going to the game. They have both been superb this year.
After the Rays intentionally walked Adam LaRoche before Danny Espinosa, Espinosa delivered the final blow in the sixth inning, breaking the tie. The Nationals went on to win the rubber game of the series 5-2.
The move to walk LaRoche in front of Espinosa made sense to the Rays. Espinosa hit the decisive double from the left side, where he’d only been hitting .188.
“I definitely take it personal in a sense that, I want to get ’em. I want to make them pay for what they’re doing.”
Gio Gonzalez struggled early, throwing 50 pitches over the first two innings but was able to pitch into the sixth inning and earned his ninth win. After Gonzalez left the game, Craig Stammen entered to pitch the seventh and issued a leadoff walk. After two walks, Johnson brought in reliever Michael Gonzalez.
Not to be outdone by Stammen, Gonzalez also issued a walk, thus loading the bases. Johnson then brought in Ryan Mattheus, who reached a full count before he was able to get the job done, striking out Will Rhymes with two outs to leave the Rays stranded.
After a deflating, frustrating loss in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Cardinals, the Nationals packed their bags for the off season while the Cardinals went on to the NLCS. After such a memorable season, the way the season ended for the Nationals seemed incomprehensible to many and brought many questions in attempts to answer what happened after coming so close.
With Ian Desmond on the DL, Corey Brown has been promoted from AAA-Syracuse. Here are some snippets to get familiar with the new guy.
Loading ...