Last night come rain, thunder, or lightning, Stephen Strasburg made one of his last starts of the 2012 season. The right-hander’s pitch meter now sits at 145 1/3 innings with his impending shutdown looming. Strasburg—notwithstanding the Nationals winning record—has propelled the Nationals to become of the hottest topics across the nation on. General Manager Mike Rizzo is standing by his plan to eventually shut the pitcher down. There is no clear innings limit, although it’s speculated to be around 160-180 innings.

Now everyone has suddenly become and expert and has an opinion about shutting down Stephen Strasburg, whether that is a yes or no. There are a lot of questions and (unknown) variables that factor into the impending Strasburg shutdown.

• Why should the Nationals shut down Strasburg, arguably one of their top pitchers if they’re in the hunt for the postseason?
• Will Strasburg resent the Nationals for shutting him down?
• What if the Nationals don’t shut Strasburg down? How will that affect his arm and career in the future?
• Will the Nationals still be able to compete without Strasburg?

There’s also a lot of other theories surrounding how the Nationals could (or some people think should handle Strasburg’s situation);

• Skip starts
• Go to a six man rotation
• Reduce his innings

» Continue reading “The Strasburg shutdown: it’s not the end of the world”

One thing is always consistent when the trade deadline comes around: we all expect craziness. We look forward to the scramble, the drama, and the excitement. It rarely lives up to the hype, and yesterday the Nats were part of that lack of motion.

And they’re possibly a better team for it.

The Nats are 2.5 games ahead of the Braves for first in the NL East. Their 61-41 record is second in the league (and majors) behind Cincinnati, who has just one more win at 62-41. They are ahead of the 60-43 Yankees.

Since Michael Morse has returned to the lineup and Steve Lombardozzi found his stride, the once putrid offense has become consistent (save for last night). The pitching has continues to be superb, and it more than good enough to make a deep playoff run.

There were two areas the Nats could have improved on before 4 p.m. yesterday: a strong bat for offensive insurance and veteran playoff experience to potentially guide the team in the fall. Both of these things, however, would have cost the Nats more than they were worth.

Unlike years past, the Nats could’ve lost at the deadline. They had pieces that if traded, could’ve put their season in jeopardy. They also weren’t desperate. Being in first place means you can afford to be cautious. In fact, it means you can’t afford not to.

Everyone always wants their team to make a dramatics move, to shake everything up and bring in a big player. But Mike Rizzo probably made the best move possible…by not making one.

With the added wild card team, more teams are in the playoff race. That means fewer sellers at the deadline, as everyone is nervous to make a move that would cost their team the post season. There were fewer players on the table this season, and the price for those players available was higher because of it.

This team is good. They’ve proven that through 4 months of play. Rizzo is right to let this group play it out, and work for the playoffs to complete the turnaround together.

The Nationals are in an unusual spot at this years deadline: they are in first.

A bat to help solidify the offense and a starting pitcher to fill in when Stephen Strasburg is shut down would be good pickups, but there is no move that the Nats just HAVE to make before the trade deadline.

What do you think will happen? Will the Nats pick up a rental or two for the push? Who should the target? What are the latest rumors? Discuss in the comments!
» Continue reading “Nats Trade Deadline Live Blog and Open Thread”

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.

Working out…

» Continue reading “Getting to Know Corey Brown”

John Lannan was supposed to be the fifth starter in the rotation for the Nationals this season. Davey Johnson changed his mind last minute, giving the spot to Ross Detwiler.  That left Lannan to twiddle his thumbs in AAA…until now.

According to Mark Zuckerman, Lannan will return to the Nats for a start on Saturday.  However, with Stephen Strasburg on an innings limit and Chien-Ming Wang’s health what it is, we could see Lannan on a regular basis down the road.

Just when the Nats won’t want him.

Rumors say the Nats are shopping for another starter, something they seem to have an abundance of already.  But when Strasburg is inevitably shut down, they will need another arm, and the options they have aren’t great.

Barring a trade and a remarkable health turnaround for Wang, the Nats could turn to two main sources: Lannan or Tom Gorzelanny. Yeah, that’s the situation we’re dealing with.

» Continue reading “Lannan’s Return…Not Too Exciting”

The series finale before heading up to New York should be full of pine tar.

Start time: 7:10 p.m. EST

Starting Pitchers

Nationals: Jackson

Marlins: Zambrano

Enjoy and keep it classy kids!

We’ve been saying it over and over this season: the Nationals’ pitching has been superb, and the only thing standing in the way of dominance is the inconsistency of the offense.  Well, after sweeping a series against the top 3 Giants starters, coming back twice, that time may have come.

The Nationals scored a combined 24 runs against the Giants over the three games.  In game two, they went down 3-0 in the first before roaring back to a 9-4 victory.  Last night, during throwback night, they rallied from a 5-1 deficit to walk-off with a 6-5 victory, courtesy of clutch hitting by Bryce Harper and Adam LaRoche.

This series changed the book on the Nats.  Earlier in the season, opponents could take comfort in the fact that if they got the Nats down a few runs early, they wouldn’t be able to come back.  They used to be the Lindsay Lohan of the league, but now they are closer to J. Lo’s revived music career.

» Continue reading “Look Out NL…The Nats Can Come Back”

Today Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Ian Desmond were selected to the 2012 All-Star team. This is the first time in Nationals history three players were named to the team. Pitchers Strasburg and Gonzalez were selected by the players’ squad, while Desmond was selected by Tony La Russa, the manager of this year’s NL team. The only other time the team’s had more than one representative was when baseball returned to DC in 2005 when Chad Cordero and Livan Hernandez were selected.

For Strasburg, this is the first time he’ll be an All-Star, but to have other teammates as representatives with him in Kansas City is just as important.

“Obviously when you get more than one guy, get Desi and Gio in there too, it’s huge. It means that we’re winning. Typicallythe team in last place only gets one guy.”

Gio Gonzalez will also be joining his fellow pitcher in Kansas City. His selection this year marks the 2nd time he’s an All-Star, but for the first time in the National League. Last year, he was an All-Star while with the Oakland Athletics.

Both Strasburg and Gonzalez have anchored the Nationals rotation as the #1 and #2 starters, respectively. Strasburg is 9-3 with 122 strikeouts and a 2.81 ERA. Batters are only hitting .217 against him. GM Mike Rizzo said Strasburg would be allowed to pitch if he was selected and Strasburg’s pitching schedule allows it.

A part from his personable character, Gio Gonzalez has also exerted dominance on the mound. Gonzalez, who was traded for this past off season is 10-3 with a 2.78 ERA. He’s struck out 108 batters with a .190 batting average against.

» Continue reading “Strasburg, Gonzalez & Desmond selected for All-Star Game”

I’ll be honest, I didn’t see this day coming.

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.

» Continue reading “Ian Desmond’s All-Star Case”

This was a pretty hotly anticipated series.  Nats fans wanted to see how this team stacked up against the cream of the baseball crop, hoping that recent success would carry them through another series against a top team.

That didn’t happen.

Although the Nats have done very well against the Yankees in recent years when the team wasn’t doing so great overall, this year was different.  The Nats have developed their talent, but there is a difference between having talent and knowing how to win, and that is what this weekend came down to.

The Nats can take away a few lessons from this series:

1) Talent isn’t always enough

Leaving men on base, misjudging how to play a certain ball at a certain time, deciding when to use which pitchers…all of these little things add up to runs.  The Nats lost this series on the little things, and looked out of their league doing it.

However, they are all problems that can be fixed.  Now that the talent is developed, there is time to mold it into what will become a winner.  The Nats are new to winning, and once they get a handle on it, they won’t have performances like this.

» Continue reading “Things Nats Learned Being Swept By Yankees”