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How Winning Teams Are Built: How It Applies To The Nationals In 2014

The Nationals failed to meet expectations as the Preseason favorites to lock down the World Series in 2013. Heck, they didn’t even qualify for the playoffs. Whether it was injury, or complacency, the talent of this team didn’t maximize their potential this year. However, the club did go 24 – 12 in their last 36 Games Played, and made a late charge at the 2nd Wild Card Spot. Most of the nucleus is coming back for the 2014 year. Their Starting Pitching Staff could have 3 potential Cy Young Winners, and Rafael Soriano is among the top Closers in the game of baseball.
By David Huzzard (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @davidhuzzard
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Last week I wrote about the dangers of the WARpire (VoRPire) and why it is important to have a bottom of the roster that won’t cost a team any games, or to word it a different way won’t cancel out the contributions of the top of the roster.
Having a 5.0 fWAR player means nothing if there are enough negative players to cancel that out. The middle and bottom of the roster are the foundation upon which the stars stand.
A team needs that bottom of the roster in order to win because without them the stars cannot flourish. ‘
Think about the Red Sox and the changes they made going into 2013.
Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, and Jonny Gomes aren’t stars, but they aren’t negative assets either and their presence on the roster allows David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia contributions to matter. Read the rest of this entry
Just How Good Is The Washington Nationals Rotation?
By David Huzzard (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @davidhuzzard
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Around this time of year for the past three seasons this column has been written.
It was first sparked in 2012 when Davey Johnson said that the Nationals rotation was every bit as talented as the Phillies.
Then again in 2013, because Gio Gonzalez was coming off a third place Cy Young finish, Stephen Strasburg wasn’t being shut down, and the Nationals had signed Dan Haren.
This year it is time to once again explore the great question of how good is the Nats rotation because newly acquired Doug Fister says he believes them to be better than the Tigers.
This sounds a lot like Doug Fister believing in Doug Fister and that he was the key difference in making the Tigers’ rotation the best in baseball. Read the rest of this entry
The Washington Nationals State Of The Union Part 1: Fall 2013 Through Spring 2014

The Nationals failed to meet expectations as the Preseason favorites to lock down the World Series in 2013. Heck, they didn’t even qualify for the playoffs. Whether it was injury, or complacency, the talent of this team didn’t maximize their potential this year. However, the club did go 24 – 12 in their last 36 Games Played, and made a late charge at the 2nd Wild Card Spot in the Nationals League. Most of the nucleus is coming back for the 2014 year. Here are some priorities for the winter.
By David Huzzard (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @davidhuzzard
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1. Find a Manager
There are moves that can be made without a new manager in place, but this is the most important thing the Nationals have to do this off-season. Not having the leader of the team will make all the other moves more difficult.
Players want to know who they are playing for and the manager is going to have a lot of input into what free agents the Nationals go after for the bench and bullpen, which happen to be their two biggest needs personnel-wise.
It is also important to get the new manager in place early so that he has an entire off-season to communicate with the players already in the majors and to familiarize himself with the system and the minor leaguers that could help during the season.
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Jordan Zimmermann Interview
Add Another Season Of Misery For The City Of Washington: 80 Years + 3 Franchises Have Disappointed

The Nationals are just the latest in a string of failures the city of Washington has seen. It has been 80 years since an MLB club from the District has seen World Series Baseball, and now they will have to wait another season. Despite being the Preseason favorite to make the Fall Classic, Washington has missed the playoffs outright in 2013.
By James O’Hara (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @nextyeardc
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On Oct. 1, 1971 in the last game played by the Washington Senators at RFK Stadium, fans began tearing apart the stadium and field to claim souvenirs. Much like the current Washington Nationals are tearing apart Washington, D.C.
A lot is made of the Chicago Cubs (not winning a World Series since 1909 – or playing in one since 1945) and Boston Red Sox decades long pursuit of World Series titles and the pressure from it – before knocking the monkey from their back in 2004.
But that cannot compare to the pressure of being in town without baseball for 33 years – and having not played in the World Series at all since the Joe Cronin led 1933 squad lost.
From 1971 – 2004, Thirty-three World Series champions were crowned without a team from Washington, D.C. even entering the fight.

It is almost fitting in a way that the Montreal Expos moved to Washington, as you are talking about 1 of 2 teams in the MLB currently, that have never played (other is Seattle) in a World Series before. The Expos/Nats club have now completed their 45th season in the Majors without showing up in the “Fall Classic”.
The Washington Nationals Brand Of Baseball Is Hard To Watch Right Now
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Surely a team with Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond and Bryce Harper can at least be in the Wild Card Race being stocked with so much talent right? After an atrocious stretch, the Nats are 55 – 60 – buried 15.5 Games behind the Braves in the NL East. They are even 9 Games behind the 2nd Wild Card team (Reds). This team was supposed to challenge for a World Series, and now it will take a small miracle now to make the playoffs.
By David Huzzard (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @davidhuzzard
Digging through numbers and searching through the rubble of the Nats season to find answers to what went so horribly wrong can numb the mind.
The reasons are right there spelled out in bold and painful numbers, but many of them raise more questions than they do answers. The Nats are awful in high leverage situations.
More than .040 points of OPS worse than the next worst team.
This could simply be a sample size issue or it could be an issue of the players internalizing all the pressure or it could be that the manager makes the moments feel more tense.
The main issue with trying to find the reason behind the numbers is that some of the possible explanations are beyond our ability to know.
The Nats Mindset 6 months ago
Knorr Skippers Nats To A Win Behind Ian Krol, Lights A Fire Under The Club – Winning 4 of 5
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The Nationals don’t have the best history when it comes to their win loss record, but the 2012 season brought on a lot of “what could have been” from fans in the area hungry for a championship. In 2011, Davey Johnson took the manager’s role after Jim Riggleman decided to (as it is now rightfully dubbed) pull a Riggleman and walk out on the team because of his dispute with Mike Rizzo regarding a contract extension. Since then, Davey Johnson has been loved by the D.C. fanbase and players alike because of his honest criticisms and confidence in players.
By Matthew Davila (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @sodapop6548
In 2011,Davey Johnson was a welcome breath of fresh air.
Jim Riggleman was just kind of there, a place holder manager, but at the time there was no reason to fire him.
There were concerns at times over Jim Riggleman “losing the clubhouse,” but that is standard the-team-isn’t-playing-great jargon. When Riggleman walked out, things changed greatly.
Davey Johnson made it his mission to get a slumping Jayson Werth going and to figure out why it was that Ian Desmond, who had flashed power in the past, wasn’t able to put any baseballs into the seats.
Davey Johnson was not afraid to point out when a pitcher wasn’t doing his job, either.
Things Haven’t Been As Rosy In 2013 For Davey Johnson
As Nats Battle Tough Sked – A New ? Arises: Who Will Be The Future 2B: Rendon Or Espinosa?
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Danny Espinosa had best start producing for this talented Washington Nationals club – with the likes of Anthony Rendon looking for a position to overtake. The 25 Year Old has started the campaign at a 3 Slash Line of .176/.222/.556 -even though he has cutdown his SO so far.
During the course of a baseball season there are going to be ups and downs, and for the past week and a half I have written that reality far too much. The Nats started the season with a tough stretch that doesn’t end until June.
Consider for a moment that between April 1 and May 31 the Nats play 33 games against teams that were over .500 in 2012 – and only 22 afterwards. They play more games against team that had winning records the season before in the first two months of the season than they do in the final four.
That is an odd balance. Combine that with the unseemly amount of errors and irregular Bullpen play – and it is a recipe for a slow start, or exactly the start the Nationals are off to.
It was the effort by the Nationals in a while – and they ended up losing a one run game. During the course of the season those are the types of games that even out. It is unusual for a team, good or bad, to have a record much above or below .500 in one run games. Read the rest of this entry
Dan Haren Has Not Pitched Well For The Nationals!
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Dan Haren signed a 1 YR/ $13 Million Contract over the winter with the Washington Nationals. He was supposed to be a competent #5 Starter that would give the Nats an edge versus opponents #5 Starters. The 32 Year Old is 1 – 2 with a 8.10 ERA and 2.03 WHIP so far – spanning 3 Games Started and 13.1 Innings Pitched.
By David Huzzard (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @davidhuzzard
Dan Haren has not pitched well for the Nationals. There have been a multitude of issues, but the main and most important one is he has been getting hit hard. His line drive rate is up to 25.9% from his career average of 19.9% – and his ground ball rate is down to 25.9% from his career average of 43.0%.
Avoiding line drives and inducing ground balls is good for a pitcher. Most line drives are hits -while most ground balls are not.
Giving up more line drives and less ground balls is never good and it has led to Haren having a .420 BABIP so far on the season compared to his career average of .292, and this doesn’t include the five homeruns he has given up, but even if nothing else changes a 3.38 HR/9 is unsustainable.
MLB Talk on the Haren Signing at the Winter Meetings 2012:
Nats Acquire LHP Ian Krol To Complete The Mike Morse Deal
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Ian Krol is a 6 FT 1 and 190 LB native of Illinois – who was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 7th Round of the 2009 Amateur Draft, He was selected right out of high school and jumped two levels of the Minor Leagues before he even hit the age of 19. Controversies and in injuries then ensued. Last year he played with Stockton (A+) and Midland (AA) – going 3 – 9 with a 5.20 ERA.
By Sean Hogan (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @seanhoganvt
The Nationals already came out ahead in the Michael Morse trade, acquiring two Righties with upside in A.J. Cole and Blake Treinen. Last Wednesday, they added to the previous bounty when the player to be named later was named:was… wait for it……..
LHP Ian Krol. The Lefty, who was once lauded by prospect gurus Kevin Goldstein and Keith Law in 2010, has fought through some self-inflicted drama as well as some minor injuries since then; the Nationals are picking him up in hopes that he’ll continue to be “a joy to watch” as Goldstein mentioned and will build upon his solid 2012 season.
Krol is a pitcher, not a thrower. His mechanics are excellent, throwing from a ¾ arm slot, and he has no issues locating his three pitches. Like former Nats prospects Tommy Milone and Danny Rosenbaum, Krol lacks velocity, topping out at 90-91 MPH. In order to keep climbing up the ladder, he must continue to exhibit excellent command on the hill and induce ground balls.
Ian Krol Bullpen Session:
Ross Detwiler And 1st Pitch Strikes
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By David Huzzard (Nationals Correspondent via Citizens of Natstown.com – view website here): Follow @davidhuzzard
After making his Spring Training debut yesterday Ross Detwiler was asked what he wanted to improve upon in 2013 and his answer was first pitch strikes. Detwiler said this, but he isn’t a non-strike thrower. He is around league average in that category with 62% first pitch strikes compared to a league average of 60% and an overall Strike Percentage of 64% compared to a league average of 63%. As a strike thrower Detwiler is right around league average, if he has a flaw – it is that he doesn’t strike many batters out.
For his career Detwiler strikes out 14.4% of the batters he faces – and has walked 8.3%. Both of those numbers improved in 2012 – as his Strikeout Percentage rose to 15.3% and Walk Percentage fell to 7.6%, but Detwiler would like to improve that even further and getting ahead of hitters is one easy way to do that. Detwiler was around league average in most control categories, but he is a below average strikeout pitcher. He is an above average ground ball pitcher with 50.8% ground ball rate in 2012. This number is up from his overall career average and the reason for that is Detwiler has started to rely on his sinker.
Rob Dibble interviews Ross Detwiler from a few years back:
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