Author Topic: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better (& it has)  (Read 3888 times)

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Offline Smithian

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The patron saint of Nationals beat writers, Thomas Boswell, set the tone in the Washington Post
Quote
This is the bottom. And it feels like it. You may not want to learn the new Nats’ names — and their stories — quite yet. But the evidence of the past 146 major league seasons says you probably will become curious again — about C.J. Abrams, MacKenzie Gore and a whole bunch more — far sooner than you think.

And was followed by Barry Svrluga
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But the Nationals of next season or 2024 aren’t the Nationals of Tuesday night. They’re not going to lose 100 games in perpetuity. There’s a path back to contention, and it became more identifiable because the Nationals swallowed hard and traded the untradeable Juan José Soto. The tears are real, but the progress is, too.

As one of the few (only?) remaining SSS members on WNFF, I choose blind and irrational optimism. The trade has happened and it is time to look forward.

Offline Mattionals

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #1: August 02, 2022, 11:47:19 PM »
The patron saint of Nationals beat writers, Thomas Boswell, set the tone in the Washington Post
And was followed by Barry Svrluga
As one of the few (only?) remaining SSS members on WNFF, I choose blind and irrational optimism. The trade has happened and it is time to look forward.


Count me in. I wasn't sure if I could endure the trade, but it's over and happened. I just can't throw my fandom away, so I'll hope that these new guys play well and hope to one day watch another parade for the franchise.

Offline Smithian

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #2: August 02, 2022, 11:52:39 PM »

Count me in. I wasn't sure if I could endure the trade, but it's over and happened. I just can't throw my fandom away, so I'll hope that these new guys play well and hope to one day watch another parade for the franchise.
Somewhere up above, the patron saint of the SSS, Baseball Is Life, is smiling down upon this post

Offline DPMOmaha

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #3: August 03, 2022, 12:11:31 AM »
No, Smitty, you’re not the only one. :cheers:

Offline ZimW1N

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #4: August 03, 2022, 12:42:55 AM »
Sign Juan Soto in 2025.

Offline imref

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #5: August 03, 2022, 07:43:45 AM »
Sign Juan Soto in 2025.

Yep. That’s when the next window opens :)

Offline Mattionals

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #6: August 03, 2022, 10:17:53 AM »
Sign Juan Soto in 2025.


I feel like these guys that came over in the deal, combined with Green, House, and Cavalli, could really set up a nice stage to entice Soto to come back. Gotta pay for him, but stuffing Soto at DH while Hassall, Green, Wood, Vaquero occupy the OF/1B. Prospects are prospects and they don't all pan out, but there is no denying the Nats farm looks better today than it did on Monday. Gotta gut the coaching/development with new ownership though. Start stealing some TB/LAD guys to start revamping the whole development team.

Offline Five Banners

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #7: August 03, 2022, 10:26:56 AM »
Sign Juan Soto in 2025.

Or be shocked and stunned when he doesn’t actually go to free agency

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #8: August 03, 2022, 10:29:27 AM »
Sign Juan Soto in 2025.
:clap:  It'll be Werth 2.0.

Offline Smithian

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #9: August 03, 2022, 10:35:31 AM »
Or be shocked and stunned when he doesn’t actually go to free agency
I'm happy to spend a few years without panicking if X player will leave.

Harper in 2018, Rendon and Strasburg in 2019, Turner and Scherzer in 2021, Soto this year.

It was worth all the winning, but I don't mind going a couple years without panicking about team control and arbitration years.

Offline catocony

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #10: August 03, 2022, 10:50:23 AM »
Fedde and Robles are going into their A2 years and Voit into A3.  Rainey into A3 as well.  Thomas and Finnegan are hitting arbitration for the first time, but no one big to truly worry about. 

Offline metssuck

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #11: August 03, 2022, 11:04:29 AM »
Man after those  Adam Dunn seasons, this is light work..I’m telling you even with a young RZimm it was hard to se e the light at the end of the tunnel during that time and then bamm!: young guys just started  developing and producing and lo and behold we dominated a whole decade. In spite of the Lerners

Offline mimontero88

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #12: August 03, 2022, 11:05:44 AM »
I'm happy to spend a few years without panicking if X player will leave.

Harper in 2018, Rendon and Strasburg in 2019, Turner and Scherzer in 2021, Soto this year.

It was worth all the winning, but I don't mind going a couple years without panicking about team control and arbitration years.
Truthfully, the second we won the World Series, I stopped worrying about this stuff. The core of the team was either aging vets or young superstars that we couldn't afford to keep together. When we won it all, I knew we were closer to the end than the beginning of that run. Sometimes it feels like we should have gotten more than one World Series out of that run, but I will never complain about winning one.

The fact that we won that one makes the rebuilding tolerable and I know Mike Rizzo has always been a controversial figure here, but I still believe in him. I was one of his biggest defenders here before we were even a winning team. I still believe he can take us back. He's already done it once and what he inherited was essentially nothing.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #13: August 03, 2022, 11:43:43 AM »
Won't new ownership likely clean house?

I'm thankful for 2019.  Feels like I lived a full cycle with this team, from the laughable 2005-2011 years, to the perennial contender (and disappointment) years, to the crazy season that was 2019.  Everything that happened in 2020 and since has really made it a clean break from that story.  This is practically an entirely new franchise, and I'm not going to be invested in them until they give me a reason to be.

Offline Smithian

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #14: August 03, 2022, 11:45:37 AM »
Won't new ownership likely clean house?
I think they give Rizzo and Martinez a year while they evaluate non-baseball parts of the organization. Can't go wrong saying you're sticking with a championship manager and GM.

If there isn't serious progress in 2023, Rizzo and Martinez are shot out of a cannon. Possibly before the trade deadline.

Offline HondoKillebrew

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #15: August 03, 2022, 11:52:11 AM »
Gotta gut the coaching/development with new ownership though. Start stealing some TB/LAD guys to start revamping the whole development team.

This.  I'm optimistic that the trade will work out and provide a basis for competing in a few years, but I really want to new owner to know that this is a problem that must be addressed.  Does that necessarily mean dumping Rizzo?  I'm not sure.  The internal dynamic between him and the Lerners when it comes to where to focus resources continues to be a mystery.  Svrluga has written about it a bit it's still not clear. 

Offline UMDNats

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #16: August 03, 2022, 11:54:26 AM »
I think Rizzo and Davey survive through 2023 and if there are issues on the field or in player development they'll be gone. I think Rizzo is more likely to stick around as a team president type.

Offline mimontero88

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #17: August 03, 2022, 11:58:55 AM »
I think they give Rizzo and Martinez a year while they evaluate non-baseball parts of the organization. Can't go wrong saying you're sticking with a championship manager and GM.

If there isn't serious progress in 2023, Rizzo and Martinez are shot out of a cannon. Possibly before the trade deadline.
I think Rizzo is safe for at least a while. I think people within baseball realize Rizzo accomplished a lot with some pretty significant restraints. One of the big reasons we couldn't keep all the talent we had was that the Lerners simply didn't want to be a luxury tax team. And that meant that eventually a rebuild was inevitable. Outside of the Strasburg contract (and really, thoracic outlet syndrome is just bad luck whether you have an injury history or not), he really hasn't made any major missteps and he's made a TON of very positive moves in his time here. If he got fired here, someone else would scoop him up in a heartbeat and that's generally the sign of someone you want to keep in your organization.

Offline imref

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #18: August 03, 2022, 12:41:25 PM »
Something to remember, we're on track to draft Dylan Crews next year, who would also likely have a 2025 anticipated arrival (he'll be 21 next year).

https://www.prospectslive.com/prospects-live/2022/1/15/2023-mlb-draft-prospects

Quote
Crews burst onto the scene as a true freshman, crushing baseballs, earning All-American honors almost unanimously. He carried that over into an equally impressive sophomore campaign in 2022. Crews produces elite exit velocities and balances the raw power with a strong approach and feel for the strike zone. He doesn't strike out and draws a ton of walks as well. In the field, Crews is likely destined for right field where his plus throwing arm and above average speed will be valuable assets. Crews is as close to a 5-tool talent as you’ll find in this class at the college level and could move quickly through the minor leagues given his position and skillset with the bat. He’s got a way about impacting the game in every aspect of the game.

Offline HondoKillebrew

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #19: August 03, 2022, 12:55:18 PM »
Something to remember, we're on track to draft Dylan Crews next year, who would also likely have a 2025 anticipated arrival (he'll be 21 next year).

https://www.prospectslive.com/prospects-live/2022/1/15/2023-mlb-draft-prospects

Quote
Crews burst onto the scene as a true freshman, crushing baseballs, earning All-American honors almost unanimously. He carried that over into an equally impressive sophomore campaign in 2022. Crews produces elite exit velocities and balances the raw power with a strong approach and feel for the strike zone. He doesn't strike out and draws a ton of walks as well. In the field, Crews is likely destined for right field where his plus throwing arm and above average speed will be valuable assets. Crews is as close to a 5-tool talent as you’ll find in this class at the college level and could move quickly through the minor leagues given his position and skillset with the bat. He’s got a way about impacting the game in every aspect of the game.

There will be a lottery (between the worst 6 record teams I think) starting next year, so here's hoping we don't get screwed out of a top pick. 

Offline Smithian

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #20: August 03, 2022, 01:01:28 PM »
I'm really not worried about draft positioning. Last year at #11, the Nats picked up the best high school hitter in the draft. And before his weird injury situation, that pick was working out great.

Baseball is so boom and bust in the draft. Unlike football and basketball, I'd prefer a late season surge and some offseason optimism than I would securing the high draft pick.

Offline van lingle mungo

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #21: August 03, 2022, 01:31:16 PM »

If there isn't serious progress in 2023, Rizzo and Martinez are shot out of a cannon. Possibly before the trade deadline.

I wouldn't expect any serious progress unless they start filling in the cavernous hole that now exists in the middle of their batting order, and I'm wondering how they intend to go about doing that. There is no one in the organization that remotely fits the bill, unless we're talking Voit and Joey Meneses, who btw homered in his mlb debut last night. Heavy hitting free agents cost money, and now that the Nats have basically become the Pittsburgh Pirates, I'm hard pressed to see them spending any.

Offline mimontero88

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #22: August 03, 2022, 01:34:19 PM »
I wouldn't expect any serious progress unless they start filling in the cavernous hole that now exists in the middle of their batting order, and I'm wondering how they intend to go about doing that. There is no one in the organization  that remotely fits the bill, unless we're talking Voit and Joey Meneses, who btw homered in his mlb debut last night. Heavy hitting free agents cost money, and now that the Nats have basically become the Pittsburgh Pirates, I'm hard pressed to see them spending any.
There is kinda a false assumption here that the Nats won't spend money forever. Sure, there is no reason for them to do it right this second, but that's fine. They can suck right now without much consequence as they rebuild/develop the farm. This is what a rebuild looks like. It's fine. In the long run, James Wood looks pretty promising to be the MOTO bat that we build around so there is someone in the organization even if he's not ready yet.

Offline Mattionals

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #23: August 03, 2022, 01:55:42 PM »
I'd like to see new ownership come in and sign a deal with some of our young players to lock them up through their arb years and maybe buy out a year or two of FA. I would love that to happen with Ruiz, but he is a Boras client, so forget that happening.

Offline Elvir Ovcina

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Re: Sunshine Squad 2022 - It Can Only Get Better
« Reply #24: August 03, 2022, 02:20:50 PM »
Or it can just turn into a DC-located version of the Pirates.

When you trade stars for prospects, those prospects better hit at a high enough rate and to a high enough degree and get you into serious playoff contention.  Otherwise you're just in a perpetual rebuild.

The reason this seems worse than 2008-09 is because it started from a much better place.  To get from a World Series win with several young, core pieces remaining to the present state in two seasons is pretty jarring.  Yes, there's nowhere to go but up, but there's no guarantee the height of that rise is any more than mediocrity.

But I choose to believe in the optimistic case.  I think at least three of these dudes will be quite good.  I just hope it's all at the same time.