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Tag Archives: Jose Lobaton

It’s Time for the Nationals to Stop Playing Jose Lobaton

2017 Articles 3 Comments

By the time you read this article, it’ll be September. As we all know, that means rosters expand and anyone on the 40-man roster is eligible to be called up. Chief among the certain recalls will be Pedro Severino, the catching prospect who the Nationals are fond of, at least to the extent that they wouldn’t trade him straight-up for White Sox closer David Robertson. The next few minutes of your life will not be spent reading about why Severino is the next Buster Posey, or even why he should be starting games: neither is really true. Pedro has found some success at the Major League level which I will discuss in a minute, but his inability to get on base consistently or hit for much power at any level is why he has not been banging down Matt Wieter’s door this season. Instead, this is a condemnation of one of baseball’s worst hitters in 2017: Jose Lobaton.

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The Biggest Over- and Under-Performers of the First Half

2017 Articles Leave a Comment

The Nationals kick off the second half of the 2017 season tonight on the road against the Reds sitting 9.5 games up in the NL East. While the squad has sat in first place for practically the entire season, it hasn’t been an easy road getting there. Some players have outplayed their expectations while others have been disappointing so far this season.

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Nats Power Rankings: June 19

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Welcome back to the latest in a series, in which we review the previous week in Nationals baseball and power rank the players according to their performance. This is an extremely unserious exercise; at no point should it ever be confused with actual baseball analysis. Don’t worry, I will do my best to make sure that is obvious. Without further ado: your Washington Nationals, ranked according to power.

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Nats Catchers Are Struggling at Framing

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The struggles of the Nationals’ bullpen has understandably garnered most of the negative headlines around DC lately. The bullpen isn’t the only facet of the Nationals performing at near league worst levels, though. The combo of Matt Wieters and Jose Lobaton has quietly been undercutting Nationals’ pitchers this season, one pitch at a time.

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Lobaton Dings Off Harvey, Hilarity Ensues

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Some days the universe works to wreak havoc. It laughs at the person realizing they studied the wrong chapters for an exam or at the person getting in the wrong metro car when they were already late. Some days, the culmination of events is just so perverse that it laughs you recount every life event that led the victim to their moment of reckoning.

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Wieters Signing Gives Nationals Options

2016 Articles 3 Comments

Did you hear the news? The Nationals have agreed with Matt Wieters on what is essentially a one-year, $10.5 million deal with an identical player option for next year. A quick bit of analysis: It’s good. For Mike Rizzo, it’s found money; it didn’t seem like ownership was going to spend that money anywhere else this offseason, and now he gets another asset. For Ted Lerner, it’s a likely upgrade at catcher and a chance to stick it to Peter Angelos and the Orioles. For the team, it’s a better bat and better defender behind the dish (though seemingly a worse pitch framer) instead of hoping for a bounce-back from literally the worst hitter in baseball last year.

But this piece won’t be an analysis of Wieters’ merits as a player. Instead, I want to look at the many doors this move has opened for the Nationals. With a surplus of catching, the team has myriad options on how to move forward.

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How Deep Are The Nationals?

2016 Articles Leave a Comment

January is typically the doldrums of the MLB offseason. Never mind that it is just a few days until the two-year anniversary of the Nationals’ signing of Max Scherzer: At this point in the offseason, most teams have made their moves and are filling their teams out around the edges. The Nationals have surely already made their biggest move in offloading several top prospects for Adam Eaton.

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Nats Celebrate Christmas

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With Rhett Wiseman, RC Orlan, and Nick Rickles still in the minors, there are no Jewish Nationals at the major league level. So, while the first night of Hanukah and Christmas eve fell on the same night, setting up the potential for a cross-holiday social media spectacular, a naked baby Eaton in a Santa hat and Ryan Zimmerman juggling limes will do just fine in its place.

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