Unless they feel the Correa situation is a legitimate danger to his October availability, adding a bat still isn't a priority to me. I like Tony Kemp as a LF fallback for Tucker. I can't for the life of me understand why he's not the everyday 2B in Altuve's absence. The bullpen is a major problem though, I could live with us not having a lockdown closer, plenty of teams have won without an all world closer. But not having any reliable bullpen arms is terrifying. McHugh is legit the only guy I'm happy to see come in the game.
This is a bit of a head scratcher. Maybe because Marwin is used to playing most every day, we are reluctant to bench him and let him start thinking he has been demoted. With Bregman playing the lions share at SS, maybe let Marwin play some 3rd?
I don’t think Washington will trade Harper even if they sell. If they did, the Machado trade is a useful comparison: one middle-to-back-end top 100 prospect and a bunch of B - to C level guys to fill out the trade.
I can’t imagine they do either. They’re 6 games out behind 2 relatively inexperienced teams. They’re not out of it at all. The only way I see it happening is if they fall to double digits back before the Aug 31st deadline and he cleared waivers.
Almost all teams fan bases feel this way though. You always remember when the pen gives up runs cause it is late in games I can only imagine what I would be reading on here this morning if we traded for Britton and he gave up 2 hits and 2 walks in 1 inning like he did yesterday for the yanks
Not sure they are looking at it like that. Making the playoffs is one thing, feeling like your team has the right makeup to win it all is another
Making up a 6 game deficit and winning the division certainly changes one's outlook. That would likely mean they've gotten hot at the right time. Trading Harper, maybe not in reality, signals that they're giving up on the season. It would be a complete shock, at least to me, if they did that by Tuesday.
I would not sell if I was the Nationals. It’s still 50/50 they make the playoffs. The team that needs to change course is the Giants. They need to trade McCutchen, Smith, Dyson, and Holland, and see if they can get a godfather offer on MadBum.
On what planet has Hector Rondon not been reliable this season? Before last night’s implosion in a non-save situation, his era was 1.49 in 36.1 innings of work. It’s now 2.41, which is still outstanding. Even if Correa, Altuve and McCann were healthy, they could still use a bat. Marwin and Reddick have not duplicated their success from last season, Gattis runs hot and cold at DH, and Tucker hasn’t hit well since his call up.
Predicting and ranking the 25 man playoff roster to determine needs/options: Locks: 1. 2B Altuve 2. SS Correa 3. 3B Bregman 4. SP Verlander 5. SP Cole 6. CF Springer 7. SP Keuchel 8. P Morton 9. P McCullers 10. 1B Gurriel 11. RF Reddick 12. RP McHugh 13. RP Rondon 14. UT Marwin Near locks (in as long as they don’t suck in September): 15. RP Devenski 16. RP Pressly 17. DH Gattis 18. RP Peacock 19. RP Sipp Last in: 20. RP Smith 21. C McCann 22. C Maldonado 23. LF Kemp 24. C Stassi 25. OF Marisnick Last out: 26. RP Harris 27. RP C Perez 28. OF Fisher 29. IF White 30. IF Davis 31. LF Tucker 32. RP Giles Out: 33. RP Paulino 34. RP Deetz 35. 1B/DH Reed 36. RP Guduan 37. RP Boshers 38. P Rodgers 39. P Martes 40. RP Gustave Realistic Non 40 man options: OF Straw P Whitley Looking at that, catcher looks like the real hole, but Luhnow obviously feels comfortable with patching together a unit from an injured aging veteran, a rookie, and a defensive specialist. They could still get Realmuto and send Maldonado or Stassi going to Miami. The next need would be at closer. The bullpen in that roster above is great, especially considering Morton or McCullers would likely be available to close games. But an experienced/excellent closer would fit. Iglesias is the only guy I’ve seen rumored to be available that fits that bill. Finally, LF would still be a question mark. If Tucker breaks out that would be the easy answer, but for now I don’t think they’re counting on that. There are a lot of options out there ranging from cheap rentals (Granderson) to big controllable bats (Abreu). Hopefully Houston adds here as I think this is the one spot that could really haunt them come playoff time.
Definitely something to monitor. They lost last night on a walk off in extra innings. Harper kinda snapped. Nats down 5-0 in the 6th inning at the moment.
Probably looking at game game Division lead going into tmrw’s series with Mariners. Looking at August schedule and I’m beginning to get a little worried. Need Altuve and Correa to come back healthy and ready to rock and roll.
Poor timing for the bats to go cold. 10 out the the next 12 games vs the Mariners and Dodgers Edit:thought I was in the game thread lol. Oh well, still fits I guess
What's the significance of playing the Dodgers? It could very well be the better time to go cold... things have a way of evening out. Would rather have the crappy games against the Rockies and Rangers vs. the Mariners/A's.
