Federal Baseball: FanPosts

Bullpen Banter's Nationals Preview and Top 25 Prospects

2010-03-01T18:25:19Z

Hello Nationals' Fans! My name is Michael Herrick and I am one of the writers for a new baseball site, Bullpen Banter. We have started our 2010 Season Previews, starting with the NL and AL East divisions. Up first is your Washington Nationals. We have also posted our Top 25 Prospects for 2010, headlined by Stephen Strasburg. We are four guys who have been members of various SBN sites for many years. We take a round table approach to topics, looking at issues from different perspectives. We have a forum area, chat room, and we are looking for guest writers who can provide insight into topics like the 2010 MLB Draft, NCAA baseball, and individual team's farm systems.

Please check us out, sign up for an account and leave some comments, and contact us if you're interested in a guest writing spot.

Thanks,

The Bullpen Banter Team

Desmond at SS everyday

2010-02-28T20:52:36Z

Here is an article from Rotographs on Ian Desmond at SS. I hope desmond gets a serious shot this season as he looks ready enough to me.

http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/a-desmond-in-the-rough

He does not mention that Desmond made 17 errors last season in the minors, but errors are somewhat coachable and can be improved. All the other aspects of defense such as range and arm Desmond has plenty enough to be good.

2010 NL East Fan Projections: SPs

2010-02-28T16:16:37Z

2010 NL East Fan Projections: SPs

This is a link to a post I did over at the Braves blog Talking Chop about some of FanGraphs' 2010 fan projections, including projections for the Nationals' starters. I thought it would be relevant to you guys, so head on over to take a look if you're interested. There are lots of cool graphs, too. (Just to forewarn you: the Nats' rotation doesn't come out well in these projections. Feel free to leave a comment explaining why you think that won't be the case.)

Call me crazy

2010-02-26T18:50:31Z

Call me reallllllllllyyy crazy

I am a lifelong Yankees fan but I enjoy following the Nationals because I know Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen personally, but call me crazy but I personally believe that if the rotation can stay healthy and Strasburg is called up in June that this team could be a Wild Card contender this next year possibly this year. The Mets lets be honest they are awful The Phillies are aging like my Yankees and the Marlins and Braves aren't great either but I like how young this Nationals team is and I believe if they are well coached and groomed into the system this could be a great comeback story. Let me know what you think.

Larry Stone on Riggleman and McLaren

2010-02-24T15:07:21Z

A Seattle media guy catches up with Riggleman and McLaren and how McLaren went from being the Mariners' manager to the Nats' bench coach. Most of the article is about their time in Seattle, but there is an interesting part about how Riggleman didn't connect with the Seattle pitching staff during his time as manager. As he says in the article, he it wasn't just one or two guys, but the entire pitching staff. So this plus the Detwiler injury is not looking so good...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thehotstoneleague/2011165765_checking_in_with_riggleman_and.html

Strasburg Featured on ESPN MLB Front Page

2010-02-22T15:49:17Z

Tim Kurkjian ran a feature piece on the Greatest Prospect Ever(TM) and DC's Savior: Stephen Strasburg, a future hall of famer who is already the best pitcher in baseball--without throwing a single major league pitch.

Thought y'all might be interested.

The Stephen Strasburg Era began Sunday with a wind sprint on a back field in Viera, Fla., 41 years to the day after the great Ted Williams signed a five-year deal to manage the Washington Senators.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2010/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=4934071

Nationals stock rising; just not buying quite yet

2010-02-22T02:57:51Z

It’s been a whirlwind offseason with a lot of players putting on new uniforms in the upcoming weeks for Spring Training. Many fans and experts are buzzing about the Mariners and Red Sox for their offseason signings. People are talking about the Mets picking up Jason Bay and St Louis able to keep Matt Holliday. And all the while, under the radar has been the Washington Nationals. They may be low on the list of good grades for offseason moves but for their credit they made the right moves for their team.

Assumingly a big market team who hasn’t quite caught up to their market, they didn’t have the money to make a big signing or the farm system to trade for an established player. They went out to fill the holes. Holes that seemed to go on forever. Washington has seen its share of bad years. This may be the year they finally start making the climb out of the NL East.

Once a team without a city and at one point seriously thinking about the idea of playing home games in Puerto Rico, the Nats finally found a home in Washington, DC. They found a home in a stadium where the rows of seats would bounce up and down for the United and Redskins. Those seats rarely moved when the Nationals took the field. They needed a newer home, a starting over. The team got their stadium. Ryan Zimmerman, face of the franchise, made sure opening night would be unforgettable. His walk off homerun against the Braves marked the first opening day win since they moved the team to DC from Montreal.

It seems now; the Nationals are finally coming into their own. It has been a very sneaky successful offseason for this team and first, full, year GM Mike Rizzo. First he added a legitimate starting pitcher Jason Marquis to a rotation that saw 11 different guys make starts last season. He will probably be considered this team’s ace, if you can call him that. His durability will be a big question mark this season. Knowing he had a core group of young pitchers with John Lannan, Jordan Zimmerman, Ross Detwiller, Garret Mock and Shairon Martis, Rizzo brought in future Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez. And with the recent signing of Chien-Ming Wang it’s a crapshoot for the starting rotation.

Add in a real second baseman in Adam Kennedy and Matt Capps, a closer with actual closing experience and it shows you that Rizzo is committed to making this team better with the money given to him to work with.

So going into Spring Training what can the fans expect; hope. It will be a better season than last year. I am not saying the seasons of 100 losses are behind them, but I think at least for this year they are. It is going to be hard competing with the Phillies and Braves in the NL East with their current line up. Team ERA should be down this year, but with runs scored being near the basement of the league is going to make for some frustrated fans. But give it time. In the waiting is Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen, the 1st and 10th pick of last April’s amateur draft, respectively. So I say the stock is rising on the Washington Nationals. Slowly, but it is rising.

Hot Stove keeps me all warm and fuzzy inside

2010-02-20T02:10:18Z

Thank the man, or woman, or came up with the idea of an all day everyday look into the world of baseball. Thank you to the incredible mother who carried this sports baby for 9 months and finally gave birth to MLB Network. And, finally, thank you Peter Gammons for realizing your worth and deciding you wanted to talk about baseball all the time and not just Wednesday and Sunday nights on Baseball Tonight.

Thank you MLBN

First Annual Federal Baseball Fantasy Baseball League!

2010-02-19T16:41:03Z

CALLING ALL MIKE RIZZOS!

Federal Baseball is putting together a rotisserie fantasy league on ESPN this year. It's a standard 5x5, so the categories are batting average, runs scored, stolen bases, home runs and RBIs for batters and ERA, WHIP, saves, strikeouts and wins for pitchers. None of this is set in stone, so if we decide we want to change something we can certainly do that. As of now, the draft is set to happen on March 25 at 8 PM EST. That can change too.

It doesn't cost anything to enter, but the winner of the league will receive both bobbleheads from the 2009 season, Adam Dunn and Frank Howard, shipped to their door.

It's a 10 team league, so if you're interested please reply. But also, please only play if you're going to be serious about it... it's no fun having a 10 team league with only six people playing.

I also realize there is a FB/BD league going on, so this isn't meant to detract from that in any way. I'm sure there are enough people to fill both leagues!

Buccos Dugout/Federal Baseball Fantasy Baseball League

2010-02-17T18:38:07Z

While arguing back and forth with the quality baseball fans over at buccos dugout, one of them suggested the idea of a fantasy baseball league to see 'who is the bigger idiot' I believe were his words. I said I'd be happy to orchestrate such a league and that I'd get people from here. The format will be two divisions (FB and BD), head to head (points or roto, it doesnt matter to me). Who's interested?

Nats recognize need for catching depth

2010-02-16T10:16:38Z

http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090922&content_id=7099100&vkey=news_was&fext=.jsp&c_id=was

Have the Nats added anyone besides Jaime Burke? I see Burke and Derek Norris are the only two invited to camp thus far as non-roster invitees. Have the Nats brought in any six year free agents, or others to add to the overall depth in the system. What if Pudge gets hurt before Flores is ready, then who gets the call? Did Pete Orr learn the trade of catching over the winter so he can qualify as an emergency catcher? What is the status of the Nats catching core after Pudge/Flores?

Looking Through The Lens Of Optimism For A .500 Nationals Season In 2010

2010-02-12T18:19:07Z

The Washington Nationals began the 2009 campaign without a full, healthy cadre of starting pitchers, and a horrible bullpen. We didn’t notice it as much then as we obviously do now, because we had hopes for Baltimore reject Daniel Cabrera, journeyman Julian Tavarez, and a host of young pitchers (Hanrahan, Ledezma, Colome, Hinckley, Shell, Martis, etc). Most of that bullpen has been replaced with a much better staff, and the starting rotation is also in much better shape heading into a more positive 2010 spring training.

As a result of the Nationals pitching woes in 2009, the team played a horrible .298 pre-All-Star season, which resulted in the firing of Manager Manny Acta. I was one of the ones calling foul, thinking that Manny received a raw deal, but I am beginning to see the err of my ways. The first half of the year, which only resulted in 26 wins in 87 attempts, included 20 Blown Saves from the horrid bullpen. The team ERA was a ridiculously high .521, and Nationals pitchers walked 355 batters. The team defensively did not help the pitchers any either, by having a NL high 143 fielding errors during the entire 2009 season (over 80 during the first half alone).

The Post All-Star half of the season, the Nationals realized marked improvement, even though the team began by losing 7 out of the first 9 games in that early July timeframe. This was likely most attributed to the team becoming more acquainted with the managerial style of new Manager, Jim Riggleman. The team finished the second half of the season by winning 33 games out of 75 attempts, for a .440 winning average, even while playing many games without the injured Nyjer Morgan, and throwing many youngsters into the mix and shutting down some of the starting pitchers during September. During the month of August, in fact, the Nationals won 14 out of 29 games (.498) which proved to be very promising for the ballclub, even though they lost 7 out of 9 during a tough road-trip during the later part of the month.

Considering the improvements that have been made to the team since the middle of last season, it would seem reasonable to think that the team will at least be able to play at the same level of success and intensity that they finished with during the second half of last season. Therefore, without any improvement at all from the second half of 2009, the Nationals should win 44% of their games and finish no worse than 72-90…nine games under .500. The mere thought of the Nationals winning less than 72 games would be to suggest that the Nationals will actually regress this upcoming season, which would be shameful considering the off-season acquisitions. The question would now become, has the rebuilding of the bullpen, the solidifying of the 2B position, the addition of a veteran catcher, the signing of a true closer, the young starters beginning a second season with experience, and the acquisition of Jason Marquis, resulted in a nine win difference in 2010? Call me an optimist, or even a homer, but it seems very possible looking through my lens of optimism at the upcoming 2010 Season.

Nationals-Braves....A Mirrored Historical Image?

2010-02-09T21:29:58Z

The Atlanta Braves struggled through two tough decades in the 70’s and 80’s. With the exception of a few Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, and Phil Niekro years, the Braves were unarguably the laughing stock of Major League Baseball. Even though the Braves were Ted Turner proclaimed as America’s Team, not even Atlanta considered itself a baseball town. Attendance at Fulton County Stadium averaged as small as 6,000 fans per game at one point, and only rose above 20,000 (26,000 being the highest season average) during three solid seasons in the early 80’s. The Braves attendance, in fact, stayed around the 10,000 fans per game average much of this era.

Since 1990, however, the Atlanta Braves have become one of the elite franchises in all of Major League Baseball. The Braves owned their division for more than a decade, and attendance has only dropped below a 30,000 fans per game average once in that time span. The first year of this transformation (1991), a prominent billboard located on I-85 (in downtown Atlanta) illustrated a huge tomahawk crashing down and through the sign. The sign was cited, “Who said Atlanta is not a Baseball Town?” How did the Braves turn around a franchise in demise to a perennial powerhouse? The answer is simply Stan Kasten. Stan took the reigns of the Braves franchise in 1986 when he was named President. Stan and then GM Bobby Cox began the rebuilding process. Kasten later (4 years) hired John Schuerholz as GM, to continue the development of the club, when Cox stepped down to manage the team. The following year, the Braves would realize a World Series appearance.

The Braves, from 1985-1990, would lose an average of 96 games per season, with a high of 106 losses in 1988. The three years prior to their first World Series appearance (1991), the Braves lost an average of 100 games per season (106, 97, & 97). Those three years under Kasten must have left most Braves fans thinking the hire was a mistake; however, behind the scenes, the process was working, and was working well. Beginning in 1991, the “Young Guns” (a spin-off of the southern term “young’uns”) of the pitching staff (Glavine, Avery, Smoltz) began to formalize into a solid pitching corps. Tom Glavine had struggled through four seasons to have a 2.92 ERA. Smoltz, who had a tough first season in 1988, had dropped his ERA down to 2.94 in his second season, and was already rolling by 1991. Steve Avery, thought to be the best of the three, dropped his first season ERA in 1990 from 5.64 to 3.38 in 1991 with 18 wins, three complete games and one shutout. The Braves had a journeyman behind the plate (Mike Heath) paired with second year player Greg Olson. The OF consisted of the speedy Journeyman Otis Nixon in CF with Ron Gant in LF and third year player David Justice in RF. The Infield consisted of solid journeymen Rafael Belliard, Sid Bream, Jeff Treadway, and Terry Pendleton….neither of which, with the exception of Pendleton, were terrifying with the bat.

The Washington Nationals seem to be traveling this same course. The Montreal Expos were never considered a championship franchise, and the thus far short existence in DC has shown no progression in the record books. When MLB took over the ownership of the Expos franchise, in an attempt to contract the team from the league, the franchise would begin seeing the decay of its team, overall management, and farm system. Stan Kasten, after the purchase of the team by the current ownership group, took over the franchise in 2006 (exactly twenty years after taking over the Braves), and with the exception of an unfortunate turn of events with the previous GM, the team seems to be finally heading in the right direction. Kasten also named a new GM exactly four years after taking over in both cities (from Cox to Schuerholz in Atlanta, and Bowden to Rizzo in DC).

Similar to the Braves of the 80’s, the Nats are being directed by the same President, with the same process of building the franchise through the farm system, on the foundation of solid pitching. There is nothing to suggest that the 2010 Nationals will compete for playoff contention, but neither did the 1990 Atlanta Braves. There does seem to be promise however. John Lannan will be in his third year. Stammen, Detwiler, and Martin will all be in their second season. Zimmermann will hopefully be back by 2011, and we all know about a certain guy named Strasburg. The Nationals certainly have their own group of “young’uns” who could soon very well take over that “Young Guns” nickname. This is Kasten’s fourth season in DC. The fourth Braves team under Kasten’s watch lost 97 games (1990). It is highly unlikely that the 2010 Nationals will lose 97 games like the 1990 Braves, which leads one to believe that the Nationals are a little ahead of the Braves in the Kasten “process” of building a champion. The Braves had three strong young pitchers in 1990….the Nationals have more, and although it will be several years to determine for sure, the Nats may have a better rotation of young starters. The Braves were still working on their outfield and infield, but had a solid defensive unit by 1991, which even include a little pop with the bat….the Nats seem to be heading in that direction, and have already put together an impressive offensive unit. The similarities are odd, and hopefully more than a coincidence; heck, even the owners last names rhyme (Turner and Lerner), each with the first name TED! Go figure!

The Nationals, in the opinion of this writer, are a step ahead of the Braves in Stan Kasten’s fourth season at the helm. Can the 2011 Washington Nationals be the 1991 Atlanta Braves? If history does repeat itself, hopefully it will not be a similar “worst to first” season….hopefully the Nationals will make a much louder volume of noise in the 2010 campaign than did the 97 loss Bravos of 1990!

Nice To Have Found This Site....Any Other Good Ones?

2010-02-09T19:12:48Z

It is truly refreshing that I found this site....the Nationals.com and ESPN Nationals Board sites have become boring with the negativity. This site seems to have really great fans, and really good articles and updates on the Washington Nationals. For those of you who browse and post on the other sites, I am the poster known as "Natz" on Nationals.com, and my identity on ESPN is easy to identify considering my screen name here. I look forward to sharing Nationals stories with you guys! My seats are in Section 204....can't wait till opening day! Any other great sites that cover the Nationals well?

Predictions Group

2010-02-06T22:43:21Z

Hey everyone this is Brandon C. from SB Nation's Yankees Blog Pinstripe Alley. I was wondering if anyone would like to join our standings prediction group. The group is open to any SB nation writer or reader and you get to compete with everyone in SB Nation and see who makes the most accurate pre-season predictions.

You can sign up here http://www.fan-exchange.com/signup.asp

You can join the group here http://www.fan-exchange.com/my/headtoheadadd.asp

The Group ID is 8

The Group Password is mlbsbnation

Please make your username your SB Nation name

Good luck and hope to see you there!

Another Kennedy Heads to Washington

2010-02-05T08:30:52Z

According to Bill Ladson at MLB.com the Nats have agreed to sign Adam Kennedy. Fangraphs has CHONE and fan projections suggesting he'll be worth about one run above replacement, and about 3.5-4.5 million dollars. Even at that modest rate of production he would still about 3 or 4 wins better than the Nats' second basemen last year (assuming he plays every game). He'd be something like one or two wins worse than Orlando Hudson. But he should be a lot cheaper and is still an upgrade.

Another move to be quietly contented with from Mike Rizzo.

Nationals Draft Preview

2010-02-03T00:12:35Z

Hey guys, I've appreciated the links I've gotten in this community before, so I thought I'd share an article I just posted.

I'm starting up my team-by-team draft previews at my blog, and I started with the team that picks #1 overall in the Washington Nationals. Scouting director Kris Kline is in his first year, so I picked out players from his region as West Coast crosschecker with Arizona and Washington, then focused on 2009's draft with Washington, when he was a national crosschecker.

Here's an excerpt from the writeup, which features small writeups on 23 players involved with Kline's work:

Kris Kline’s experience as a scout goes back two decades, and there aren’t many people who can claim that he isn’t qualified to be a scouting director. The interesting dynamic in Washington is that Kline is essentially part of a drafting team that starts with Mike Rizzo at the GM level. Rizzo was Kline’s boss in his years with Arizona, when Rizzo ran Arizona’s drafts as their scouting director. Kline followed Rizzo to Washington for the 2007 draft, when Rizzo became the head of baseball ops under Jim Bowden. Rizzo’s ascension to general manager ensures Kline’s job security, at least for a few years. It also means that drafting will be done in a team environment, especially considering the arrival of Roy Clark from Atlanta, another previous scouting director. Clark took over the scouting department in Atlanta from the legendary Paul Snyder, and he enters Washington as Vice President of Player Personnel, essentially Rizzo’s right-hand man for scouting. This triumvirate will mean excellent scouting and use of scouting resources this season, and despite Kline’s lack of experience at the scouting director level, I don’t expect a weak draft, even going beyond whoever they selected at number one overall. This Washington front office is set up to be very successful for the coming years if they use the combined scouting knowledge they have in the front office.

Direct link here.

What do you think? What will the Nationals do?

Bryce Harper Article at AOL Fanhouse

2010-02-02T02:46:48Z

Jeff Fletcher wrote a lengthy article on catching phenom, and possible #1 pick in the 2010 baseball draft, Bryce Harper over at AOL Fanhouse. The article includes quotes from his college coach, who happens to be a friend of the family, quotes from a scout who thinks he will eventually move to 3B or the outfield, and a minute long video of Harper fielding grounders at 3b, and getting his first college hit.

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/02/01/bryce-harper-embarks-on-old-college-try/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The Hammer vs Bay

2010-01-30T23:20:26Z

Dave Cameron over at fangaphs actually has the balls to say that Josh Willingham is nearly as good as Jason bay.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/willingham-and-bay

Although bloggers stuck on counting stats did not agree with him, I have to say his arguements are fairly solid. My own quick analysis shows Bay has had 516 more plate appearences than the hammer 2006-2009 add in park effects, and team quality differences and you have accounted for much of the difference in their counting stats (HRs, RBIs, Runs, etc) over that time. Note: Willingham is 5-6 runs per full season better defensively than Bay which closes the gap a little more. Bay is paid $66 million over 4 years and we get Hammer for $4.6 million! We have a steal of the highest order! Here is hope we give/get Hammer 600 At bats this season.

Buster Olney says...

2010-01-23T00:09:43Z

Heard this: The Nationals have again put Josh Willingham back out on the market. If they deal him, could clear the way for Dunn to go to OF.

like the idea of trading Josh, especially if it is for a top of the line prospect pitcher. What I don't like, is Dunn back in LF.

I guess this is why they are looking at Mike Jacobs. It just depends on if we can get a good deal.