While this Nationals season has had lots of ups and downs, the one consistent has been the ongoing Ryan Zimmerman Resurgence. Though Ryan started raking on Opening Day and has not let up since, the narrative around his success has changed over time.
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Who Should You Expect to Represent the Nationals in the All Star Game (Plus One Guy You Should Want To Be There)
Ah, the 2017 All-Star weekend: when you’ll watch the likes of Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge try to destroy the Marlins’ hideous statue in left center with homers before baseball fans everywhere can finally enjoy watching the game’s best players without the exhibition deciding home field advantage.
But you, wise and curious Nationals fan, want to know exactly who will be suiting up to play in front of the league’s most consistent fan base. Herein lies this week’s looming question: Which curly-w-clad gentlemen will head to Miami for the Midsummer Classic? The starters will be revealed on the evening of 2 June, with the following all but guaranteed, and thus, not altogether interesting to discuss.
The Braves Position Themselves as a Threat in the Future NL East
With a nine-game lead, a potent offense, one of the best pitchers in baseball, a stout rotation following him (Tanner and Ross’ struggles notwithstanding) it’s a fun summer to be a Nationals fan. As we laugh at every Mets goof, gaffe, and idiotic mistake after idiotic mistake, we are ignoring the looming specter of the real challenger in the NL East: The Atlanta Braves.
Get ready for that annoying chop played 64 times an inning. The Freeze is cool now, pun intended, but get ready to hate him too. The Braves have many of their pieces in place already, and have more coming…a lot more.
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Tanner Roark’s Not-so-Hot June
It’s Sunday afternoon under a bright June sun. Bryce Harper is jogging towards the right field bullpen fence as a fly ball from Scooter Gennett sails 391feet over his head into the Nationals pen with one out in the top of the second inning.
On the mound, Tanner Roark, just a few months removed from his performance as a national baseball hero in the World Baseball Classic, is rubbing up a fresh baseball as the Reds diminutive second baseman is rounding the bases, probably wondering what went wrong. Again.
The Gio Gonzalez Trade is Still Paying Off
Gio Gonzalez‘s great start to this season and the impending trade deadline inspired me to take a look back at the top Nats trades to see how they added up. Mark Zuckerman complied a great list this winter, so I decided to break down the ten trades he wrote about to see how they compared in total WAR for the players involved.
Ranking Bryce Harper’s Eight Career Walk-Off Hits
Bryce Harper is an absolute stud. There’s no other way about it. He’s raked since the day he stepped foot into the league, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to slow down anytime soon. But there’s one factor he has that makes him incredibly important to the Nationals: he’s clutch.
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The Nats Best Free Agent Signing
The Washington Nationals aren’t known for making big free agent signings. Most of their big acquisitions are made via trade or extensions to internal players, with a few notable exceptions. After the latest outstanding start by Max Scherzer, I started to think about the Nats’ best free agent signing to date. There were three obvious candidates: Scherzer, Jayson Werth, and Daniel Murphy. So, I put a poll in the (Twitter) field, and Scherzer was the landslide winner.
I wanted to take some time to breakdown the arguments for and the (few) arguments against each, and then I’ll share my pick for the team’s best free agent signing.
Go Take a Lap, Everyone: A Reminder To Keep Some Perspective
On Wednesday afternoon, Max Scherzer (yet again) took a no-hitter into the eighth inning. After a bad luck hit, a couple mistakes, and a key error at first base, the Nationals found themselves on the losing end of a 2-1 decision. Immediately, panic struck #NatsTwitter as fans lamented yet another gut-wrenching loss. And why wouldn’t this be the reaction? The defeat must have pushed them about 6 games back of the Mets, whose super rotation is domina… wait a second…
*Checks National League East standings* *blinks* *shakes head*
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Point-Counterpoint with Dan and Court
In a rare crossover, Dan Zaudtke and Court Swift have teamed up to tackle some of Natstown’s hottest questions from opposite viewpoints. Enjoy!