Sunshine Squad: No More Screwing Around

[PowerBoater69]

not to abuse copyright, I posted 3 paragraphs in  the Borgshulte  thread:If the link doesn't  work, then you try navigating to the article from the Banner's Nats page.


The article has  some nice comments from CJ and Millas on how  the players were talking to each other between ABs, and Millas talking about feeding off each other as the momentum built. Then the article notes that House's  HR came of a righty and how Mikolas was able to keep them in the game before the offense got going in the middle innings.

It just seems these guys are responding well to what Butera is trying to do.

Mid-game adjustments, nice!

[PowerBoater69]

17-20 is a heck of a start in a season I thought was at risk of being a true bottoming out until some late spring pitching adds.

There are some 2010 vibes this year. I wouldn't be surprised if the floor fell out at some point, but for now I'm really please with the progress of the org. We'll see how it looks in a few months, but the small sample size is possible.

I've been wearing my 2012 playoff hoodie around. I'm getting that vibe again. My October Natitude hat too. Might not be this year, but it's all coming around.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

6-4 in our last 10. Kind of a big game today to hopefully keep the momentum going and potentially pick up our 3rd series win in our last 4.

win today and it's a 3-3 home stand. That'd be an improvement.

[PowerBoater69]

Then it gets bigger from here, if we play well against the Marlins, not only do we pull ahead of them in the division race, but we put ourselves in a spot where we can take over the Reds Wild Card position next week.

Here we go, this time next week the Nats could very well be in playoff position. No more screwing around.

[imref]

Sole possession of 2nd place.

[IanRubbish]

Here we go, this time next week the Nats could very well be in playoff position. No more screwing around.

I don't want to bring rain to the sunshine thread, but I don't think the Lerner screwing around is about to stop.  Trade deadline will bring us all back to reality.

Sunshine: When the catcher hits and Garcia doesn't play, it's not the world's worst lineup. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I don't want to bring rain to the sunshine thread, but I don't think the Lerner screwing around is about to stop.  Trade deadline will bring us all back to reality.

I hear you, but other than CJ, I'm not sure this team will have wow trade chips at the deadline if they actually are close to the wild card. I suppose  you'd have to assume that the pitching staff as a whole would be doing well if they are at that level, so you could see some cashing out on the bullpen. OTOH, so many of the guys like Poulin, Varland, Ribalta, etc... would be pre-arb and cheap, there would be no money saved by dealing them (your Lerner fear). Lovelady would be the exception with about 4 years service time around the deadline. The rotation would have 3 pitchers with no team control after this year (Griffin, Littell, and Mikolas), so you might see cashing out regardless of contention. Beyond that, there's not much money to dump. Garcia? great, not sure  that hurts the team. Same for Young. It's just CJ.

[rileyn]

Here we go, this time next week the Nats could very well be in playoff position. No more screwing around.

If we were in the American League.......

[Slateman]

If we were in the American League.......

We'd be in a playoff position right now if we were in the AL

[Smithian]

I don't want to bring rain to the sunshine thread, but I don't think the Lerner screwing around is about to stop.  Trade deadline will bring us all back to reality.

Sunshine: When the catcher hits and Garcia doesn't play, it's not the world's worst lineup. 

If the Nats are hanging around .500 at the deadline, I see no reason to go all in when we're ahead of schedule on the eve of a possible labor meltdown. If by some miracle a deal were signed pre-deadline, I'll readjust my thinking.

The sunshine is when you're bad and sell, you're mostly selling toxic assets. If the Nats are around .500 at deadline, it means we have some players in the midst of decent seasons who will fetch a bit of value. Considering DeBartolo turned some zero value assets last deadline into interesting prospects, including Ronny Cruz, I would be trusting this front office at the deadline.

[nobleisthyname]

It just seems these guys are responding well to what Butera is trying to do.

I'm curious how it will play out over the course of a full season, but he seems to be really encouraging a competitive atmosphere in the clubhouse in a way that Davey didn't. This is shown in all the aggressive bullpen usage and pinch hitting for match-ups he does; trying to win every feasibly winnable game, long-term consequences be damned. But also things like having TVs in the clubhouse displaying various team leaderboards instead of just playing MLB Network in the background.

[welch]

Showdown in Miami. Nats are a game ahead of Miami and Philadelphia. Griffin pitching tonight. Come on Nats!

[PowerBoater69]

Showdown in Miami. Nats are a game ahead of Miami and Philadelphia. Griffin pitching tonight. Come on Nats!

Heck of a start for Griffin tonight, the Nats are only 2.5 out of the Wild Card spot, I think we give him the ball when we get to that point. The team is tied for third in MLB in total runs scored, just five behind the Braves, we won't discuss run allowed in this thread, but at least the games have been exciting. The team is also tied for most games won against teams over .500, with ten wins. The Nats have played 23 games against teams with winning records, the most in MLB, the Braves haven't played a single winning team, our schedule will get easier while theirs gets harder.

[Natsinpwc]

Still in a three way tie for second place. Just four games back in the wild card

[PowerBoater69]

Still in a three way tie for second place. Just four games back in the wild card

A team whose highest hope is to grasp that last Wild Card spot is going to have setbacks. We just need to play better in Cinci, and beat the damn Os this weekend.

[imref]

2nd most runs scored

[PowerBoater69]

How about that one?

[imref]

10-6 in our last 16.

[imref]

Sole possession of 2nd. 2.5 back of the WC.

[PowerBoater69]

The Braves just walked off the Red Sox and took over the lead in total runs scored for the season. But on the bright side, on May 15th, for over an hour, the Nats were leading the league in runs scored.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

https://www.federalbaseball.com/washington-nationals-analysis/91059/can-washington-nationals-finally-get-back-500

Notes the Nats are 0 for the last 15 games when they could reach .500 with a win.

Sunshine? We have Cade Cavalli going, Varland (9) and Lovelady (11) did not throw that many pitches while Alvarez gave the  rest of the bullpen a day off, and Lord and Schultz should be available with 3 days off.

[PowerBoater69]

https://www.federalbaseball.com/washington-nationals-analysis/91059/can-washington-nationals-finally-get-back-500

Notes the Nats are 0 for the last 15 games when they could reach .500 with a win.

Sunshine? We have Cade Cavalli going, Varland (9) and Lovelady (11) did not throw that many pitches while Alvarez gave the  rest of the bullpen a day off, and Lord and Schultz should be available with 3 days off.

Wish they had the list of games. How far back does this go? How many games under Butera? How many of these were during the first week of the season?

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Wish they had the list of games. How far back does this go? How many games under Butera? How many of these were during the first week of the season?

looks like Zuckerman did  the homework. he may have a  list

[welch]

https://www.federalbaseball.com/washington-nationals-analysis/91059/can-washington-nationals-finally-get-back-500

Notes the Nats are 0 for the last 15 games when they could reach .500 with a win.

Sunshine? We have Cade Cavalli going, Varland (9) and Lovelady (11) did not throw that many pitches while Alvarez gave the  rest of the bullpen a day off, and Lord and Schultz should be available with 3 days off.

Spencer Nussbaum had a list, I think. May 14, in The Athletic. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7280097/2026/05/14/washington-nationals-500-record-streak/

Nationals have had 15 chances to get to .500 in the past 2 years. They’re 0-15 in those games

CINCINNATI — On Thursday, gravitas was supposed to give way to catharsis.

It was not supposed to end with outfielder Joey Wiemer chuckling on the mound, nor with infielder Jose Tena losing a flyball in the sun in right field, then accidentally kicking the ball away when he couldn’t find it. It was not supposed to end in a 15-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, at least not in their ideal version of events.

It’s an almost unfathomable streak to process. Especially if you’ve been around for all 15 of them.

“We’ve been teasing (that .500 mark) for a while here,” outfielder Jacob Young said. “Hopefully, we can kind of get over that hump and start going the other way.”

It’s never bad to play .500 baseball on the road, Young said. Whether the Nationals are snakebitten or the wounds are self-inflicted, whether they blame youth or an Etsy curse, whether they think about it or they don’t, it’s not an easy thing to stomach.

“You want to be contending, and to be contending, you’ve got to be at least .500,” Young said. “Everyone knows that. We’ve been teetering with it, of course. But I think if we can just catch a little momentum here and win a few in a row, we can kind of just forget about that number and go the other way.

“It’s a team goal. Once you go out there, you try to execute to get to that main goal, but it’s not something you can think about when you’re out there. You’re just going out to play that game, win that game, and … when you get in the clubhouse afterwards, you kind of assess where we are as a team, and go from there.”

The newcomers felt a bit different. They’re happy with how this road trip went — a 3-3 stretch against the Reds and Miami Marlins. Lefty Foster Griffin (signed this winter) said it was just the sort of thing they’ll have to figure out over the course of 162 games. He was more concerned with the nine runs he had just given up.

[PowerBoater69]

Two hundred and fifty two runs scored.