Going into today’s game, the Washington Nations are playing .500 ball (51-51). They are just a game and a half out of the wild card spot. And I couldn’t be more excited.
Why do you ask? Read on.
Despite having the second worse team pitching record in the
National League, the Nats have a top five league leading pitcher in NL All-Star
Foster Griffin. Griffin, a former first round pick of the KC Royals, has won 11
(against two losses) of his twenty starts this season. This is the first major
pickup from our new President of Operations Paul Toboni.
Now to pour some more water in my glass. Today’s Nats fun
fact: Washington leads Major League Baseball in home runs, RBI’s and runs
scored. Not just the National League. Major League Baseball. For those of you
where math is your friend, 17% of their 884 hits (currently fourth in the
league) are “taters”.
I have always wanted to use the word “taters” in a sentence since
I started blogging. Crossing this off my communicational bucket list.
While I didn’t want to trade Juan Soto at the time, the trade
has worked out. From it we got right fielder James Wood and shortstop C.J. Abrams,
both All-Stars this year. Abrams currently leads the league with 76 RBI’s and
Wood is just outside of the top five in home runs with 28.
While I think that I’m all-in with my home teams in general,
there is one word that’s keeping me from really going
all-in... Tanking. My question: Will the Nats be buyers or sellers coming up to
the trading deadline?
Excuse the DC Fan in me, but my position is clear. Try to
make the playoffs every year. In any sport. Not going to get into a debate
about who to add or trade for except to say that they shouldn’t touch our
current nucleus of stars. For me, I’m fine with seeing what happens with what
we got.
Seven years from our World Series championship, I think it
is time for another title run.
By the way, correction on the team record. After today, the Nats
are now 52-51 on the year.
