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6 games back with 2 full months. I don't follow them a lot but find it hard to believe things can't get better.
Nationals have 9 games left with the Phillies & 6 against the Braves.
Braves have 3 games left with the Phillies.
I'm not sure how good the Phillies really are but would be surprised if they keep up there current pace. I just think the Nationals could gain some ground in the next month without playing the Phillies. Then you take into consideration playing them 9 times. Could they gain at least 2 games?
Granted you still have the Braves but I think they are similar to the Phillies. A good team on the rise but probably not quite good enough to make a serious run this year with the Cubs & Dodgers around.
Which is boring.
I'd read an idea of Harper to Oakland, Realmuto to Washington and prospects from both teams to Miami. A deal like this, that's help the Nats this year, and beyond, would have made sense. And would have been fun
Though, he could still be traded in August. It's just more difficult
Which is boring.
I'd read an idea of Harper to Oakland, Realmuto to Washington and prospects from both teams to Miami. A deal like this, that's help the Nats this year, and beyond, would have made sense. And would have been fun
Though, he could still be traded in August. It's just more difficult
So you think the Nationals still compete this year with Realmunto instead of Harper? I agree Realmunto helps in future years.
Think about this too. If Harper stays with the Nationals they will get a 1st round pick type player because Harper will probably rejected qualifying offer.
Ignoring the whole Realmunto to Nationals (because I think that would be a huge pick up) unless the Nationals got a very good prospect for Harper they almost are better just keeping him & giving it a long shot of getting into the playoffs (which I don't think is that long but difficult and a lot has to happen). Because by keeping him you're getting a 1st round pick & you'd have to hope that the scouting is good enough to pick somebody that is likely a future mlb star (being a 1st round pick).
Trading Harper for Realmuto (or similar) allows them to compete this year and improve the team for next year. I've already said I think this will be a competitive team next season with a good core in place. Trading Harper for prospects takes them out of the running this year and next since those players aren't likely to be immediately useful. Keeping him and taking the QO keeps their slim door alive this year but isn't as helpful next year since the pick won't be ready for years.
Trading him for a guy they can plug in now and next year is the best way to keep the current window open. Testing him for prospects or QOing him closes the window faster
There’s only 2 logical reasons for the Nats non-existent movement today:
A) GM Mike Rizzo fell asleep in the afternoon and missed all his potential calls
B) Rizzo’s phone died, so he missed all the potential calls.
Very odd for them to be silent save for trading a reliever, a controllable one at that. Taking out Harper for a moment because he’s the only one that will get a qualifying offer out of the potential free agents (if Herrera started the year with the team like I said he should he’d probably get the QO, but getting traded he can’t receive it anymore). So, that leaves us with: Gio (Gonzalez), Jeremy Hellickson, Matt Adams, Shawn Kelley, Ryan Madson. None of them are getting a QO, which means if any or even all leave in FA you get absolutely nothing for losing them. So I’ll preference my rant with that note.
At this time of year you should identify yourself as a team that thinks it CAN’T win (Twins, Padres, Marlins for 3 examples) or a team that thinks it CAN win (Dodgers, Red Sox, Mariners for 3 examples). If you think you CAN win, than you need to identify weaknesses that are holding you back (I.e. Yankees mid rotation starting pitching, Braves any pitching) in which case I can see why Rizzo held the roster together. Sure the team is 53-53, but they have about a +60 run differential meaning they should be a lot better, and really Phils and Braves aren’t running away either. But their biggest weakness that anyone with half a brain knows is their catching posistion, and they all but gave up on the Realmuto discussion. Which makes you think Rizzo thought they weren’t a contender which is why he traded Kintzler (one of the few relievers with team control), but they don’t trade any of the other impeding FA’s. Huh?? and I go back to what I said above NONE of these other impeding free agents have a QO and impeding comp pick coming with them meaning we get nothing if they sign elsewhere. Why not get something for some of them?? I’m not sure where Rizzo was born, or where he went to school, but where I grew up something is infinitely better than nothing, and something has an infinitelty better chance of being productive or hell just being average than nothing!
So very weird their day, and honestly I don’t have a damn clue what their plan is beyond “just play at least one game this October, and we’ll go from there.” This has Phillies & Tigers written all over it with the only exception being the Nats seem to have better positional players. I said this back in November when they fired Dusty and hired Davey Martinez (man how stupid does that look now?? Dusty may not win in October but at least he got there!) it will be easier being a Marlins or Padres fan: sure the teams may stink right now, but at least they have a plan in place. The Nats are stuck at the fork in the road and have pulled the car over into the side of the road because they can’t make a choice which direction they want to go.
I also thought it was a bit stupid to get rid of Dusty this year. Granted they've struggled in the playoffs but only so much can be blamed with the manager IMO. I'm not saying I would've kept Dusty around after this season but considering it was Harpers last year & they still had that team together from several years. I would've thought it was the last chance to win something. Instead you almost take a step back. Only a few managers have ever gone to the WS in their first season with a ball club.
I think it more likely that Baker was not fired because of post season losses, but rather because he is pretty much the last of his breed, the last of the old time "instinct" managers who ignored metrics and had never bothered to learn anything about the true odds behind his decisions. Dusty's thing was managing by professional example, a dynamic where his focus was on keeping his players in the right frame of mind to play, and keeping them playing hard by inspiring a strong desire not to let Dusty down. He was a decent manager in his time, but his time has now passed.
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and I go back to what I said above NONE of these other impeding free agents have a QO and impeding comp pick coming with them meaning we get nothing if they sign elsewhere. Why not get something for some of them?? I’m not sure where Rizzo was born, or where he went to school, but where I grew up something is infinitely better than nothing, and something has an infinitelty better chance of being productive or hell just being average than nothing!