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Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Nationals fans, sign up HERE to join SB Nation Reacts.
I wonder if the thinking here has changed now that the defending World Series champion Washington Nationals are 1-4, having dropped the first two games of this week’s matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays in the nation’s capital.
This poll went out of Monday, after the Nats dropped two of three to New York’s Yankees in the season opening series this past week, and fans in D.C. were likely still basking in the so-called glow of seeing their team get their rings and kick off the defense of their title.
A positive COVID-19 test for Juan Soto, a nerve issue for Stephen Strasburg, and four losses in the first five games later? Has the thinking changed at all?
SB Nation Reacts voters got a set of confidence polls this week, asking if they felt good about the pitching staff, lineup, and coaching staff?
Before the injury for Strasburg, voters were overwhelmingly confident in the rotation that features Max Scherzer, Stras, Patrick Corbin, Aníbal Sánchez, and Austin Voth. With Stras out of the picture for now? Who will fill in? Erick Fedde took the first turn in the rotation in this past week’s match with New York. Will Strasburg return for his next start? We’ll see.
But for now, the SB Nation Reacts voters are extremely happy with the starting mix:
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Davey Martinez’s boys haven’t exactly been piling up runs early, though he’s said that he’s liked what he’s seen from his team at the plate, and SB Nation Reacts voters seem to like what Mike Rizzo and Co. in the Nationals’ front office did to set the club up for the defense of their crown:
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Pitching and defense are the key to the Nationals’ success, but as they say, you have to put runs on the board to win. If they continue to struggle, however, Nationals fans have faith in Martinez’s staff’s abilities to help them turn it around:
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Is this all post-World Series win glow? Or an objective view of the club that the Nationals have assembled for the 60-game 2020 campaign?