According to Ben Goessling, the Nats are calling up a trio of players today with the expanded roster. Danny Espinosa will be on his first major league stint, 22 year old Wilson Ramos will likely make his longest appearance – in May he was up for a week with the Twins, followed by a 1 [...]

Yesterday, I noted that Mike Morse was hitting very well. This isn’t news to Nats fans, it’s actually one of the biggest stories of the late summer, non-Strasburg category. But suddenly he is doing it against righties, for the first time in his major league career. Last night, he did it again, going 2-3 with [...]

You think you had a good weekend? It probably doesn’t compare to what Mike Morse did. Friday through Sunday he started 3 games, had 12 ABs, with 8 hits, including 3 doubles, a triple and a home run. It brought his season numbers up to .294/.335/.535, and as Ben Goessling pointed out, it put him [...]

It was revealed today that Stephen Strasburg needs Tommy John surgery. Disappointing for sure, but it is at least a reliable surgery with a reliable recovery time. If this was shoulder surgery or something else, he might never throw 99 again. Instead, we miss a year of him when we need him least, assuming that [...]

Jordan Zimmermann. J-Zim. The Double N.  Mr Auburndale, WI himself comes back tonight to pitch for the Nats for the first time since his promising rookie year. This is like the Strasburg debut, only, 50% less exciting. But it is a big night for the team, Zimmermann is their future #2, a guy with real [...]

Perhaps the greatest post I’ve ever seen on the specifics of what is important and what isn’t in the mind of modern baseball has been reposted in the Pinstriped Bible this week. Check it out here and be enlightened. The list of commandments is long, but I agree with 99% of what’s written here. I’ve [...]

Lots of talk of Ian Desmond’s hitting recently, and boy, why not. He is quite hot, hitting .324/.361/.490 since July 1st. His OPS is now up to .731 on the season. His hitting has helped rank him 7th among all rookie position players for VORP. But enough about his hitting, I’d rather talk about his [...]

I was at the Nationals game in Philly yesterday, and had a chance to see their ballpark. I don’t love it, it’s not awful but I am surprised at how cramped the concourses seemed. Parking was great though, $15 and I was like 100 feet from an entrance. There were 6 of us together at [...]

It’s Friday, and I was basically gone for a week, so I decided to key in on a few things I’ve picked up on but wasn’t able to write about. Lannan Looks Good Again In his last 4 starts, since he’s returned to the team, John Lannan has given up exactly 2 ER in each [...]

Finally back in town, I was following the team from afar. I noticed that almost all of the attention in the area was focused on the signing of Bryce Harper, which was important. There was focus on what guys in the clubhouse said about him as well, which was probably less important. And yes, the [...]

I’m leaving for a cross (half) country drive tomorrow morning, so I won’t be updating the site until at least next Thursday, if not longer. I might update the Twitter a bit, but no computer means no blogging. I expect when I get back, Bryce Harper will be signed. I’d be pretty surprised if he [...]

It’s amazing what one good night can do. A day ago, I wrote about Ian Desmond and his ability to hit. Focusing on what he’s done in spurts, it seems like he was doing alright. Then he hit 2 HRs last night, and despite playing pretty much full time, his numbers suddenly look even better. [...]

Ian Desmond has taken quite a bit of grief this year, and deservedly so. He leads the league in errors – by a wide margin. And today, Adam Kilgore pointed out that “Ian Desmond’s .695 OPS ranks second lowest among qualifying major league rookies despite his fortunate .316 batting average on balls put in play.” [...]

Jason Marquis is back in the rotation pushing Craig Stammen into the bullpen. Stammen, meanwhile, has actually been pretty good the last 2 months. Going back to his June 6th start, he’s started 8, thrown 45 1/3 innings, had an ERA of 3.97 and struck out 30 while walking 16. Of course, he’s only finished [...]

Now, I am not going to get all excited about anything involving Bryce Harper until about 11:59 pm on August 16th. And I will be, if the drive goes well, in Texas getting my brother to grad school at that time, so I won’t even write a post about it then. That being said, something [...]

There are a few players in the Nats farm system that are having really good years, and I haven’t been paying a ton of attention to them. So I figured I’d give a heads up on how some of the big name guys, and some guys you may have never heard of, are doing. Chris [...]

Last night was an impressive win for the Nats, because this team of youngsters was able to win on the backs of two veterans. Livan Hernandez and Ivan Rodriguez, who have combined for 35 seasons in the major leagues, were the biggest parts of last night’s win. Livan pitched 7 1/3, gave up only 1 [...]

I don’t normally write news update style posts, but for the 4 seasons I’ve been writing this blog, two things have been constant. The first is the presence of Cristian Guzman on the roster, and the second is my insistence that the team get rid of him. Well, they finally did it, today they traded [...]

Yesterday Matt Capps, the Nationals closer and one of the biggest sources of stability in the bullpen was traded. In exchange, the Nationals received Wilson Ramos, a stud prospect from the Twins. They also acquired Joe Testa, a left handed pitcher. If you are worried about who might be given the ball in relief now, [...]

For all of the bad things Nyjer Morgan has done on the basepaths, and with the bat this year, sometimes he really comes through. Rather than speculate on a pitcher’s shoulder injury, I decided to just post some pictures of the first inning run Morgan manufactured last night. Who’s on First? Nyjer, not getting picked [...]