Nats

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.