I'm thrilled to be here blogging with this great group of ladies. I'll be brief tonight, but I wanted to do a quick check-in and introduce myself. As you may have read, I'm a Coast Guard wife. Once upon a time, I served in the Marine Corps. So, in a sense, I'm already a part of this family since the Marines falls under the Department of the Navy. That works, for you, right?
Today, my brevity is a direct result of the wonderfulness that the military life can offer. What is that you may ask? Well, it's the homecoming reunions, of course. My husband just returned this afternoon, and as I type, he is snoring on the couch snuggled up with one of our children (who just couldn't get enough daddy time today). The house has been abuzz with excitement since he got back, and I feel whole again. I know so many of you can relate to that feeling.
Perhaps one the best parts of homecoming time is the peace that comes over me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a frantic mess the day before and the morning of getting things ready (house cleaning, shopping, laundry, etc.). I even find that I still get anxious right up until the moment I see him. My mind is reeling with thoughts. Will he like my outfit? Did he miss me and the kids nearly as much as we missed him? Will we reconnect quickly or will there be an awkward period? How are the kids going to react? We all have most of these kinds of questions, I imagine.
The peace sets in when we are back at home though. When I know I'm with my partner again, and I can breathe for a moment. I don't have to have two kids on my hips while cooking dinner and answering the phone. I don't have to walk the dog every single time she starts yelping to relieve herself. I don't have to be super-mom anymore. I will go to bed next to him instead of the telephone. Overall, though, I can just breathe and be me. How peaceful.
With that, I'm going to log off here and tuck the snuggly little one into bed, get into some jammies and enjoy my peace with my darling husband.
Thank you for welcoming me into your family. I look forward to sharing some more of my part of this amazing military life with you as time goes on.


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Archive for the 'cristian guzman' tag
Hall of Fame candidates with Nationals ties (2019 version)
Dunn on the 2020 HoF ballot. Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images North America
This is a semi-recurring piece that we're bringing back out because your 2020 Hall of Fame class has not one but two former Nats players of some prominence have made it onto the 2020 ballot. We have not done this post in a couple years, so I'll catch up the last two HoF ballots and then do the 2020 ballot Nats players.
See the 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 versions.
At the end we speculate about who the first Hall of Famer might be wearing the Curly-W.
2020 Ballot players with Nats ties (2020 ballot). Mark Zuckerman beat me to the punch here, writing an excellent article on both the below players.
Adam Dunn; two seasons of three true outcomes, the slugger Dunn was a great presence, took a beer-league softball player approach to hitting, and crushed the ball for this team for two seasons while Mike Rizzo rebuilt the farm system. In 2010 he somehow avoided the ignominious feat of 200 strikeouts in a season by just one … a figure he subsequently blew through two seasons later as his career collapsed in Chicago. I doubt he gets any votes and his career implosion upon moving to Chicago remains an oddity; he had 462 career homers but was essentially done as a player at the age of 33. He should have had 5-6 more seasons of hitting 35 homers, putting himself firmly in the conversation of the best power hitters in the sport's history. Sometimes sluggers just … lose it, and fast.
Alfonso Soriano played one infamous year in Washington in 2006, was forcibly removed from his preferred position at 2B in spring training, had a 40/40 season, still holds the franchise season record for homers, and used his one season in Washington as a launching pad for a massive contract in a big market going forward. His departure netted us two comp picks under the old system (he was a "type A" FA), which we used to select Josh Smoker and Jordan Zimmermann, one of which helped setup the franchise for
One other interesting name on this ballot? Cliff Lee, who was with the franchise just prior to its move to DC, but was part of the ridiculous Bartolo Colon trade made in 2002.
2019 Ballot players with Nat's ties: (2019 ballot with voting results and stats from baseball-reference.com).
We forgot to do this post last year, but there was one candidate with Nats ties:
Rick Ankiel, who spent two full seasons with Washington providing amazing defense in center (to go along with his amazing arm) but paltry hitting at the plate from 2011-2012. In 2012 he was essentially a backup to newly promoted Bryce Harper for the Nats break-out season, but he did not appear for the team in the 2012 post-season ( he was not on their 2012 post-season roster). Ankiel's comeback story is pretty compelling, but it did not earn him any hall of fame votes and he fell off the ballot after one year.
2018 Ballot players with Nats ties (2018 HoF Ballot):
Livan Hernandez: wow, what an important player in our history. He was the starter in our first ever game in DC, and also started our first home game. He made the all-star team that year. He came back to the team in 2010, retired in 2014 and for a time was part of the Nats spring training staff. He was named on one ballot and has fallen off going forward.
Brad Lidge: an infamous member of the Nats-to-Oblivion club, he signed on as a former-closer middle reliever for the 2012 team and got lit up. Not Trevor Rosenthal lit up, but he was not effective. He was released in June and hung em up. He did not receive any votes on the ballot.
Notably, Vladimir Guerrero was elected in this ballot, long time Montreal player. If only he had made it to Washington.
Nats connected names on the 2017 ballot and 2017 eligible:
Ivan Rodriguez, aka "Pudge," who surprisingly signed a 2-year deal with the team after the 2009 season and played his last two years with the rebuilding team, splitting time with the up-and-coming Wilson Ramos and retiring after the 2011 season. He was part of the rebound years for the franchise but missed out on their breakout 2012 season. There was some surprise when he got in on the 1st ballot, given his PED rumors, but I take his election as a sign of the changing times with the electorate. There's definitely a difference between suspicions and a real failed test, and inarguably Pudge is one of the best catchers of all time so there's no reason to keep him out. Here's a great link of a video of Pudge finding out he was elected.
Matt Stairs, whose name I can't quite say without cursing, who sucked at the teet of the Washington Nationals payroll for half a season in 2011 before being mercifully released on August 1st of that year. His final slash line in his sole season with the team: .154/.257/.169. He went 10-65 with just one XBH for the entire season. Stairs now is now a regular in my semi-annual "Nats to Oblivion" posts, last done in April of 2016. He received zero votes and falls off the ballot.
Alex Cora: like Stairs, he signed on as a veteran FA to be a role player with the 2011 Nats and retired after the 2011 season. Unlike Stairs, Cora wasn't judged to even be worthy to make the ballot.
(As we all know, Tim Raines, Vladimir Guerrero, Orlando Cabrera and Larry Walker all grew up with the Montreal franchise, but never appeared for the team post-move to Washington, so I havn't included them here. Cabrera was the closest to appearing in a Nats uniform, getting traded to Boston mid 2004 season just prior to the move).
Useful Hall of Fame links links:
2017 Ballot on baseball-reference.com, with links to vote counts, stats, etc.
Full Voting figures via BBWAA.com
The rest of this post will let you answer the trivia question, "Prior to Ivan Rodrigiez's enshrinement, what former Nats player has come the closest to Hall of Fame enshrinement?" (Answer at the bottom).
We'll work from most recent to oldest.
2016 Ballot:
Not a single Nats-connected was on the official Class of 2016 ballot. As it turned out, There's actually quite a few guys who were *candidates* for the 2016 ballot by requirements, but who didn't make the cut who also had connections to the Nationals. In fact, there's quite a few of them. Here's a good list, thanks to the excellent research by Bill from platoonadvantage.com.
Ronnie Belliard: Played pretty well for the god-awful stretch of Nationals teams from 2007-2009, posting a nifty 123 OPS+ during the middle season before getting traded away at the 2009 trade deadline for two minor leaguers who never went anywhere (Luis Garcia, Victor Garate). Stuck with Los Angeles one more season before hanging them up at 35. Played parts of 13 seasons in the majors but didn't rate a spot on the ballot.
Jesus Colome was an important part of the Nats bullpen during the same 2007-2009 span that Belliard was involved with, getting more than 120 appearances his first two seasons before posting an 8 ERA in 2009 and getting DFA'd in July. He got picked up the next year by Seattle and got a few appearances (hence why he's not on the "Nats to Oblivion" lists) and, if you can believe it, is still pitching at age 37 in the independent Atlantic league as we speak. He did manage 10 distinct years w/ MLB appearances though, so he qualified.
Jose Guillen came to Washington with the Expos, played one solid year in 2005, had a season-ending elbow injury in 2006, then bounced around the league for a few more years. He was active for 14 total seasons but never made an all star game. He hit 24 homers for the surprising 2005 Nats … and led the league in HBPs.
Cristian Guzman signed a somewhat controversial 4yr/$16M contract (it cost the team its 2nd round pick) that started when the team moved to Washington, was god-awful his first year, then had to have shoulder surgery to miss the entirety of 2006. He recovered his stroke in 2007 and actually made the all-star team in 2008 (our only representative during the dark years) … which was enough to convince our idiot GM Jim Bowden to give him a 2yr/$16M extension to an aging shortstop w/ no power on the wrong side of 30. Not surprisingly, his OPS dropped 100 points in 2009 and the team dumped him on Texas in a trade-deadline deal after he had lost his starting job to Ian Desmond, netting the Nats two RHPs (one of which Tanner Roark makes this one of the better trades ever consummated by the Nats executive staff). Guzman played in 15 more games for Texas, batted .152 and never played again.
Aaron Boone, who signed a 1yr/$1M FA contract to be a backup corner infielder with the abhorrent 2008 Nationals team. Boone's crowning baseball achievement was his extra innings walk-off homer that ended one of the best games in MLB history (Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS between Boston and the Yankees, ranked #6 by MLB's panel a few years back when ranking the best 20 games of the last half century). Ironically one of his lowest moments was just a couple months later, blowing out his ACL that subsequent winter while playing pickup basketball, costing him the entirety of the 2004 season and the trust of the Yankees organization. He missed 2/3rds of the 2007 season after another left knee injury and the Nats were probably his last gasp shot at extending his career at the age of 35. He got a decent amount of playing time thanks to the fragility of Ryan Zimmerman and Nick Johnson, somehow got another guaranteed MLB deal the following year, went 0-14 for Houston and was released. He's now an analyst with ESPN. Received 2 votes on the 2015 ballot.
Ron Villone signed a minor league deal in 2009 and was quickly added to the Nats active roster, where he appeared in 63 games as our primary one-out lefty. He pitched the entirety of 2010 on another minor league contract with Syracuse, posting a 6.59 ERA as a 40-year old and never earning a call-up. In 2011 he was invited to spring training again (perhaps with the hope that he'd join the organization as a coach) but he got cut, then pitched a handful of indy league games for his home-town New Jersey indy league team, got hammered, and hung them up. He retired having played in 15 seasons for no less than 12 different teams. In 2012 he took a pitching coach job with the Cubs organization (one of the teams he managed NOT to play for during his career) and has been moving up their organization in that capacity since. Received Zero Hall-of-Fame votes by virtue of not appearing on the BBWAA ballot.
Julian Tavarez signed a one-year deal in the beginning of 2009, started out decently but had an awful stretch that resulted in his DFA in mid July 2009. He never threw another pitch in organized ball, abruptly retiring considering his mid-season release. He ended a 17-year career spanning 11 different franchises. Received Zero Hall-of-Fame votes by virtue of not appearing on the BBWAA ballot. According to his wiki page, he now resides in a suburb of Cleveland (his original professional team) but does not list any post-career activities, baseball-related or otherwise. Received Zero Hall-of-Fame votes by virtue of not appearing on the BBWAA ballot.
Both Tavarez and Villone belong to the infamous "From Nationals to Oblivion" club, a topic we revisit on an annual basis.
Note: it is not entirely clear to me why Villone and Tavarez were not actually ON the 2015 ballot; both seem to have the qualifications (10 years of experience and 5 years retired) and both were on previous versions of the "anticipated ballot" at baseball-reference.com, but neither showed up on BBWAA's official ballot for this year. Pete Kerzel did a post reviewing "Nats connected" 2015 ballot members when the ballot came out in Nov 2014 and only mentioned Boone. I include them here since it seems to me they *should* be on the ballot and I'm not sure why they were not (unless someone is passing judgement on the "quality" of HoFame ballot members). Are they pushed to subsequent ballots for some reason? If anyone has insight i'd love to know.
Paul Lo Duca: one of Bowden's more infamous signings; he went from our opening day catcher in the 2008 season to being released by August 1st. The highlight of his tenure here was having his name being revealed in the Mitchell Report just a couple days after signing with us. After his release, he signed on to finish out the season with Florida, took a year off and attempted a come back in 2010 (signing a ML contract with Colorado but never appearing above AAA). Hard to believe this guy was a 4-time all-star. Received Zero hall-of-fame votes.
Royce Clayton; signed a contract to be the Nats shortstop during the lean Jim Bowden years, and then was included in the Mega swap of players that headed to Cincinnati in the 2006 season. He hung around for one more season in 2007 as a backup short stop and retired afterwards. Received Zero hall-of-fame votes.
Mike Stanton was picked up in mid 2005 after being released by the Yankees, and he pitched well enough for the Nats that he was able to fetch a couple of low-level prospects in a late September move to Boston (who was looking for some late season bullpen cover). The team then re-signed Stanton for 2006, and flipped him again mid-season, this time to the Giants for Shairon Martis. Stanton toiled a one more season before hanging them up after 2007. Received Zero hall-of-fame votes.
Vinny Castilla: signed a two year deal to join the Nats, timed with their inaugural season in Washington, but was traded to Colorado for SP Brian Lawrence when it became apparent that Ryan Zimmerman was set to man the hot corner in DC for the next decade or so. Played one more season and retired after 2006. Received Six (6) Hall-of-fame votes.
Carlos Baerga: signed a one year deal as a 36-yr old to join the Nats in their inaugural season and serve as a backup infielder. Hit .253 in part-time duty and hung 'em up after a 14-year career that can be well described as "journey-man." He was an integral part of the early 90s Cleveland Indians as their starting 2nd baseman and a 3-time all-star, and ended up playing on 6 major league teams and spent parts one season in Korea. Received Zero hall-of-fame votes.
So, outside of Pudge's election, the Nats greatest Hall of Fame achievement is Vinny Castilla receiving 6 sympathy votes.
We still have to wait a while to see another player with a "W" on their hat in Cooperstown.
So, who might that actually be? In the years since we started this sad post, the team has acquired and played more than a few elite, regular all-star type players who may very well be in Cooperstown at some point.
Bryce Harper? Not likely; if he makes it, he'll likely wear a Philly cap based on the 13-yr contract he's signed there.
Anthony Rendon? despite his great 2019 season, he suffers from similar issues as guys like Scott Rolen; top-notch defensive 3B are a tough sell to Cooperstown. He's now signed with LAA for the next 8 years or so; if he makes it to Cooperstown, he'll have earned it likely based on his next few seasons of work moreso than what he's done with Washington … which means no curly-W for him.
Max Scherzer: most likely; he's basically guaranteed his Cooperstown entry with his 3rd Cy Young award, two of which have come with Washington. I think that pushes him over the edge to wearing our hat.
Stephen Strasburg: right now he seems like he's in the Kevin Brown category of good but not great pitchers when it comes to Cooperstown consideration; he needs a Cy Young on his resume before someone really considers him.
Posted in Hall of Fame,Nats in General
Tagged with aaron boone, adam dunn, alex cora, alfonso soriano, anthony rendon, bartolo colon, brad lidge, brian lawrence, bryce harper, carlos baerga, cliff lee, cristian guzman, ian desmond, ivan rodriguez, jesus colome, jim bowden, jordan zimmermann, jose guillen, josh smoker, julian tavarez, kevin brown, larry walker, livan hernandez, mark zuckerman, matt stairs, max scherzer, mike rizzo, mike stanton, nick johnson, orlando cabrera, paul lo duca, pete kerzel, rick ankiel, ron villone, ronnie belliard, royce clayton, ryan zimmerman, scott rolen, shairon martis, stephen strasburg, tanner roark, tim raines, trevor rosenthal, vinny castilla, vladimir guerrero, wilson ramos
Nats All-Star review: 2018 and years past
Here's my annual Nationals All Star selection post.
Fun Trivia:
All-time leader in Nats all-star appearances: Harper with 6 appearances. Scherzer also has been named 6 times but some pre-dated his time here.
All-time leader in All-Star Game starts: Also Harper, getting his 5th start.
Total number of Starters in the history of the Franchise: Now is 10; Harper 5 times, Scherzer twice, and one each for Soriano, Murphy, Zimmerman.
Most all-star players named in a single year: 5 in both 2016 and 2017.
Least all-star game players named in a single year: 1 in multiple years during the "dark years" of 2006 through 2011.
(* == All-Star game starter)
Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Max Scherzer*, Sean Doolittle
Possible Snubs: Juan Soto, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon
Narrative: For the home-town All Star Game, Harper gets the starting nod from the fans despite his abhorrent season at the plate (his slash line on 7/8/18: .219/.371/.475). However, by making the ASG, Harper now keeps his promise to participate in the Home Run Derby one last time before hitting free agency. There's no real "snubs" on this Nationals team; The #2 player on the team in terms of seasonal bWAR is Trea Turner but he's not exactly having a head-turning season. He was named to the "last 5 ballot" but was a huge long-shot to make it (update; he didn't: the very deserving Jesus Aguilar did). Anthony Rendon is having his typical under-rated season and got no love from the voters over the more famous Nolan Arenado (a common refrain when it comes to Gold Gloves/Silver Sluggers too). None of our starters besides Scherzer are really deserving; Stephen Strasburg was having a decent but not spectacular season but missed a month and is on the D/L. Nor is any of the bullpen past Doolittle. Its an odd-season where a team-wide malaise is contributing to the team hovering at .500 at the All Star Break. Only Juan Soto really is deserving … but he was never going to make the ASG (not when recent more spectacular rookies failed to make it) and thanks to his missing all of April and most of May he wasn't on any ballots and may struggle to win the RoY over guys who have played longer this season. Scherzer is named to the team on 7/8/18 was named the NL starter for the 2nd year running on 7/16/18.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Daniel Murphy*, Ryan Zimmerman*, Max Scherzer*, Stephen Strasburg
Snubs: Anthony Rendon, Gio Gonzalez
Narrative: For the second year in a row, the Nats are well and properly represented in the All Star Game. We have three starters named in the field, including Zimmerman who beats out a slew of 1B sluggers in the NL to not only make the team but get his first start. Its also likely i'll be editing this post and adding in Scherzer as an additional starter; he is the obvious choice to start the game for the NL given his first half production (7/10/17 update: yes indeed we did). Rendon is having a very quiet solid season and is in the "last 5" popular vote, but he seems unlikely to win given that last year's MVP Kris Bryant is also in the voting (Update: neither guy got in). Gonzalez misses out despite having a better first half than Strasburg by nearly any statistic; he's having a career year but seems unlikely to get rewarded with his 3rd ASG appearance. There's no other real snub from our 2017 team; certainly there's nobody in the bullpen meriting a spot, and Trea Turner's torrid 2016 2nd half did not translate into the 2017 season (not to mention, he's had two separate D/L trips). Once again i'm slightly perturbed that Harper continues to refuse to participate in the HR derby; why the reticence? Its a fun event that is quickly becoming better than the actual game itself and practically every other slugger is participating. Is he afraid to lose? On a larger scale, i'm really happy to see (finally) that deserving rookies are named: Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger are both named and are both on the inside track for ROY awards; too many times in the past we see deserving rookies unnamed. On July 10th, the fourth Nat starter was named: Scherzer got the starting pitcher nod, a first for the Nats. August Update: Rendon's omission is looking even more ridiculous; he's top 5 in the league in bWAR.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Stephen Strasburg, Daniel Murphy, Wilson Ramos, Max Scherzer (named as replacement for Strasburg on 7/8/16),
Possible Snubs: Danny Espinosa, Tanner Roark
Narrative: The four obvious candidates from the Nats this year were all initially correctly selected, though voting shenanigans out of Chicago elected Ben Zobrist over Daniel Murphy by a scant 500 votes. I thought perhaps Strasburg would have a chance to start the game, given his 12-0 record, but it seems the team pre-empted any such thought when Scherzer's naming occurred. For the first time writing this post, I can't really name any "snubs" and the team has (finally?) earned the proper respect it deserves in terms of naming its players properly. Espinosa had a week for the ages just prior to the end of voting but really stood little chance of selection in the grand scheme of things. He's not really a "snub" but is worthy of mention based on his resurgent year. At the break, Espinosa ranked 3rd in NL fWAR but 7th or 8th in bWAR thanks to differing defensive value metrics, so maybe/maybe not on him being a "snub." As pointed out in the comments, even I missed the sneaky good season Roark is having; he's 12th in the NL in bWAR at the break and 9th in fWAR but was left off in favor of any number of starters that stand below him in value rankings. Unfortunately for fans (and for Harper's "Make Baseball Fun again" campaign, he opted to skip the Home Run Derby again. I guess its kind of like the NBA superstars skipping the dunk contest; the Union should really do a better job of helping out in this regard. The new format is fantastic and makes the event watchable again; is it ego keeping him from getting beat by someone like Giancarlo Stanton?
Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Max Scherzer
Possible Snubs: Yunel Escobar, Drew Storen
Narrative: Harper not only made it in as a starter for the 2nd time, he led the NL in votes, setting a MLB record for total votes received. This is no surprise; Harper's easily in the MVP lead for the NL thanks to his amazing first half (his split at the half-way point of the season: .347/.474/.722 with 25 homers and an astounding 225 OPS+). I guess he won't be earning the "Most overrated player" award next year. That Harper is electing to skip the Home run derby in a disappointment; his father is nursing an arm injury can cannot throw to him in the event. In a weird year for the Nats, the only other regular worth mentioning is newly acquired Escobar, who is hitting above .300 and filling in ably at multiple positions that, prior to this year, he had never played. Storen is having another excellent regular season … but at a time when mandatory members from each team often leads to other closers being selected (there are 5 NL closers and 7 AL relievers), the odds of him making the All-Star team were always going to be slim. Scherzer deservedly makes the team and probably would have been the NL starter; he's got sub 2.00 ERA and FIP and leads all NL pitchers in WAR at the mid-way point of the season. But his turn came up in the final game of the first half, making him ineligible for the game and forcing his replacement on the roster.
As a side note, the 2015 All-Star game will go down as the "Ballot-Gate" game thanks to MLB's short-sighted plan to allow 30+ online ballots per email address. This led to severe "ballot stuffing" by the Kansas City Royals fans, led to MLB having to eliminate 60 million+ fraudulent ballots, but still led to several Royals being elected starters over more deserving candidates.
Nationals All-Star representative: Jordan Zimmermann (Update post-publishing: Zimmermann strained a bicep, and had to withdraw from the ASG. For a bit it looked like the Nats wouldn't even have a representative, until Tyler Clippard was named on 7/13/14).
Possible Snubs: Adam LaRoche, Anthony Rendon, Rafael Soriano, Drew Storen
Narrative: Zimmermann's been the best SP on the best pitching staff in the majors this year, and thus earns his spot. I find it somewhat odd that a first place team (or near to it) gets just one representative on the team (as discussed above). Rendon tried to make the team via the "last man in" voting, but historically Nationals have not fared well in this competition (especially when better known players from large markets are in the competition, aka Anthony Rizzo from the Chicago Cubs), and indeed Rendon finished 4th in the last-man voting. LaRoche is having a very good season, almost single handedly carrying the Nats offense while major parts were out injured, but he's never going to beat out the slew of great NL first basemen (Joey Votto couldn't even get into this game). Soriano has quietly put together one of the best seasons of any closer in the game; at the time of this writing he has a 1.03 ERA and a .829 whip; those are Dennis Eckersley numbers. But, the farce that is the all-star game selection criteria (having to select one player from each team) means that teams need a representative, and deserving guys like Soriano get squeezed. Then, Soriano indignantly said he wouldn't even go if named as a replacement … likely leading to Clippard's replacement selection. The same goes for non-closer Storen, who sports a sub 2.00 ERA on the year. Advanced stats columnists (Keith Law) also think that Stephen Strasburg is a snub but I'm not entirely sure: he may lead the NL in K's right now and have far better advanced numbers than "traditional," but its hard to make an argument that a guy with a 7-6 record and a 3.50+ ERA is all-star worthy.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper*, Jordan Zimmermann
Snubs: Stephen Strasburg, Ian Desmond
Narrative: Harper comes in 3rd in the NL outfielder voting, ahead of some big-time names, to become only the second Nationals position player elected as an All-Star starter. He was 4th in the final pre-selection vote, so a big last minute push got him the starter spot. Harper also becomes the first National to participate in the Home Run Derby. Zimmermann was 12-3 heading into the game and was on mid-season Cy Young short lists in July in a breakout season. Strasburg's advanced stats are all better than Zimmermann's, but his W/L record (4-6 as the ASG) means he's not an all-star. It also probably doesn't help that he missed a few weeks. Desmond loses out to Troy Tulowitzki, Everth Cabrera and Jean Segura. Tulowitzki was having a very solid year and was a deserving elected starter, while Cabrera and Segura are both having breakout seasons. Desmond was on the "Final vote" roster, but my vote (and most others' I'm guessing) would be for Yasiel Puig there ([Editor Update: Desmond and Puig lost out to Freddie Freeman: I still wished that Puig finds a way onto the roster but ultimately he did not and I believe the ASG was diminished because of it). Gio Gonzalez, Ryan Zimmerman, and Rafael Soriano are all having solid but unspectacular years and miss out behind those having great seasons.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Ian Desmond, Bryce Harper
Possible Snubs: Adam LaRoche, Craig Stammen
Narrative: The two SPs Strasburg and Gonzalez were the obvious candidates, and my personal prediction was that they'd be the only two candidates selected. Gonzalez' first half was a prelude to his 21-win, 3rd place Cy Young season. The inclusion of Desmond is a surprise, but also a testament to how far he's come as a player in 2012. Harper was a last-minute injury replacement, but had earned his spot by virtue of his fast start as one of the youngest players in the league. Of the "snubs," LaRoche has had a fantastic come back season in 2012 but fared little shot against better, more well-known NL first basemen. Stammen was our best bullpen arm, but like LaRoche fared little chance of getting selected during a year when the Nats had two deserving pitchers selected.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Tyler Clippard
Possible Snubs: Danny Espinosa, Michael Morse, Drew Storen, Jordan Zimmermann
Narrative: While Clippard was (arguably) the Nats best and most important reliever, I think Zimmermann was a more rightful choice. He was 10th in the league in ERA at the time of the selections and has put in a series of dominant performances. Meanwhile Espinosa was on pace for a 28-homer season and almost a certain Rookie-of-the-Year award (though a precipitous fall-off in the 2nd half cost him any realistic shot at the ROY), and perhaps both players are just too young to be known around the league. Lastly Morse is certainly known and he merited a spot in the "last man in" vote sponsored by MLB (though he fared little chance against popular players in this last-man-in voting).
Nationals All-Star representatives: Matt Capps
Possible Snubs: Adam Dunn, Josh Willingham, Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg
Narrative: Capps was clearly deserving, having a breakout season as a closer after his off-season non-tender from the Pirates. The 3-4-5 hitters Zimmerman-Dunn-Willingham all had dominant offensive seasons as the team improved markedly from its 103-loss season. But perhaps the surprise non-inclusion was Strasburg, who despite only having a few starts as of the all-star break was already the talk of baseball. I think MLB missed a great PR opportunity to name him to the team to give him the exposure that the rest of the national media expected. But in the end, Capps was a deserving candidate and I can't argue that our hitters did anything special enough to merit inclusion.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Ryan Zimmerman
Possible Snubs: Adam Dunn
Narrative: The addition of Dunn and Willingham to the lineup gave Zimmerman the protection he never had, and he produced with his career-best season. His first and deserved all-star appearance en-route to a 33 homer season. Dunn continued his monster homer totals with little all-star recognition.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Cristian Guzman
Possible Snubs: Jon Rauch
Narrative: The first of two "hitting rock-bottom" seasons for the team; no one really merited selection. Zimmerman was coming off of hamate-bone surgery in November 2007 and the team was more or less awful across the board. Rauch performed ably after Cordero went down with season-ending (and basically career-ending) shoulder surgery. Guzman's selection a great example of why one-per-team rules don't make any sense. Guzman ended up playing far longer than he deserved in the game itself by virtue of the 15-inning affair.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Dmitri Young
Possible Snubs: Ryan Zimmerman, Shawn Hill (though I wouldn't argue for either)
Narrative: Young gets a deserved all-star appearance en route to comeback player of the year. Zimmerman played a full season but didn't dominate. Our 2007 staff gave starts to 13 different players, most of whom were out of the league within the next year or two. Not a good team.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Alfonso Soriano*
Possible Snubs: Nick Johnson, Ryan Zimmerman, Chad Cordero
Narrative: Soriano made the team as an elected starter, the first time the Nats have had such an honor. Our pitching staff took massive steps backwards and no starter came even close to meriting a spot. Cordero was good but not lights out as he had been in 2005. Soriano's 40-40 season is a poster child for "contract year" production and he has failed to come close to such production since. The team was poor and getting worse. Johnson had a career year but got overshadowed by bigger, better first basemen in the league (a recurring theme for our first basemen over the years).
Nationals All-Star representatives: Livan Hernandez, Chad Cordero
Possible Snubs: Nick Johnson, John Patterson.
Narrative: The Nats went into the All Star break surprisingly in first place, having run to a 50-31 record by the halfway point. Should a first place team have gotten more than just two representatives? Perhaps. But the team was filled with non-stars and played far over its head to go 50-31 (as evidenced by the reverse 31-50 record the rest of the way).
Posted in Awards,Nats in General
Tagged with aaron judge, adam du nn, adam laroche, alfonso soriano, anthony rendon, anthony rizzo, ben zobrist, bryce harper, chad cordero, cody bellinger, craig stammen, cristian guzman, daniel murphy, danny espinosa, dennis eckersley, dmitri young, drew storen, everth cabrera, freddie freeman, giancarlo stanton, gio gonzalez, ian desmond, jean segura, jesus aguilar, joey votto, john patterson, jon rauch, jordan zimmermann, josh willingham, juan soto, keith law, kris bryant, livan hernandez, matt capps, max scherzer, michael morse, nick johnson, rafael soriano, ryan zimmerman, sean doolittle, shawn hill, stephen strasburg, tanner roark, trea turner, try tolowitzki, tyler clippard, wilson ramos, yasiel puig, yunel escobar
All-time leader in Nats all-star appearances: Harper with 5 appearances. Technically Scherzer also has been named 5 times but some pre-dated his time here.
Total number of Starters in the history of the Franchise: Now is Eight; Harper 4-times, and one each for Soriano, Murphy, Zimmerman and Scherzer
Most all-star players named in a single year: 5 in both 2016 and now 2017.
July 5th, 2017 at 10:35 am
Tagged with aaron judge, adam dunn, adam laroche, anthony rendon, anthony rizzo, ben zobrist, bryce harper, chad cordero, cody bellinger, craig stammen, cristian guzman, daniel murphy, danny espinosa, dennis eckersley, dmitri young, drew storen, everth cabrera, freddie freeman, giancarlo stanton, gio gonzalez, ian desmond, jean segura, joey votto, john patterson, jon rauch, jordan zimmermann, josh willingham, keith law, kris bryant, livan hernandez, matt capps, max scherzer, michael morse, nich johnson, rafael soriano, ryan zimmerman, shawn hill, stephen strasburg, tanner roark, trea turner, troy tulowitzki, tyler clippard, wilson ramos, yasiel puig, yunel escobar
This photo is an oldie but a goodie, and one we'll probably see year over year for the next decade at least. Photo unk
(* == All-Star game starter. The Nats now have four ASG starters in their history, dating to 2005. Soriano once, Harper thrice).
Narrative: The four obvious candidates from the Nats this year were all initially correctly selected, though voting shenanigans out of Chicago elected Ben Zobrist over Daniel Murphy by a scant 500 votes. I thought perhaps Strasburg would have a chance to start the game, given his 12-0 record, but it seems the team pre-empted any such thought when Scherzer's naming occurred). For the first time writing this post, I can't really name any "snubs" and the team has (finally?) earned the proper respect it deserves in terms of naming its players properly. Espinosa had a week for the ages just prior to the end of voting but really stood little chance of selection in the grand scheme of things. He's not really a "snub" but is worthy of mention based on his resurgent year. At the break, Espinosa ranked 3rd in NL fWAR but 7th or 8th in bWAR thanks to differing defensive value metrics, so maybe/maybe not on him being a "snub." As pointed out in the comments, even I missed the sneaky good season Roark is having; he's 12th in the NL in bWAR at the break and 9th in fWAR but was left off in favor of any number of starters that stand below him in value rankings. Unfortunately for fans (and for Harper's "Make Baseball Fun again" campaign, he opted to skip the Home Run Derby again. I guess its kind of like the NBA superstars skipping the dunk contest; the Union should really do a better job of helping out in this regard. The new format is fantastic and makes the event watchable again; is it ego keeping him from getting beat by someone like Giancarlo Stanton?
Here's past year's information, mostly recycled information from past posts on the topic but fun to read nonetheless, especially the early years.
Tagged with adam dunn, adam laroche, anthony rendon, anthony rizzo, bryce harper, chad cordero, craig stammen, cristian guzman, daniel murphy, danny espinosa, dennis eckersley, dmitri young, drew storen, everth cabrera, freddie freeman, gio gonzalez, ian desmond, jean segura, joey votto, john patterson, jon rauch, jordan zimmermann, josh willingham, keith law, livan hernandez, matt capps, max scherzer, michael morse, nick johnson, rafael soriano, shawn hill, stephen strasburg, troy tulowitzki, tyler clippard, wilson ramos, yasiel puig, yunel escobar
Griffey was nearly unanimous. Photo via freeteam.com
Congrats to Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza for their election this year. Hopefully the high vote totals for Bagwell and Raines will lead to their election next year, where the ballot doesn't really have any obvious candidates. (And let me qualify: I absolutely think there's players on next year's ballot who deserve to be in … its just that PED stain will probably prevent them from being slam-dunk candidates. More on that in next year's episode of "how the Hall of Fame Ballot turns").
This is the Class of 2016 Version of this post: first one was done after the 2014 Hall of Fame class was announced and the voting results made public, and then the next was done after the Class of 2015 was announced.
Here's a review of every player who has Nationals ties who has appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot, along with their voting results. This post will let you answer the trivia question, "What former Nats player has come the closest to Hall of Fame enshrinement?" (Answer at the bottom)
Not a single Nats-connected is on the official Class of 2016 ballot. So, really the rest of this post is just cut and pasted from last year's post. But we've published it for a trip down memory lane.
Post-publishing update: as I suspected but didn't have a good way to research, there's actually quite a few guys who were *candidates* for the 2016 ballot by requirements, but who didn't make the cut who also had connections to the Nationals. In fact, there's quite a few of them. Here's a good list, thanks to the excellent research by Bill from platoonadvantage.com.
So, thus far the Nats greatest Hall of Fame achievement is Vinny Castilla receiving 6 sympathy votes. I'm sure this will change when Pudge hits the ballot next year (2017 class ballot). Stay tuned!
Tagged with aaron boone, brian lawrence, carlos baerga, cristian guzman, ian desmond, jeff bagwell, jesus colome, jim bowden, jose guillen, julian tavarez, ken griffey jr, luis garcia, mike piazza, mike stanton, nick johnson, paul lo duca, pete kerzel, ron villone, ronnie belliard, royce clayton, ryan zimmerman, tanner roark, tim raines, victor garate, vinny castilla
Harper becomes just the 3rd starter in Nats history. Photo via fansided.com
(* == All-Star game starter. The Nats now have three ASG starters in their history, dating to 2005).
Possible Snubs: Adam Dunn, Josh Willingham, Ryan Zimmerman, Steven Strasburg
Posted in Awards,Baseball in General,Nats in General
Tagged with adam dunn, adam laroche, alfonso soriano, anthony rendon, anthony rizzo, bryce harper, chad cordero, craig stammen, cristian guzman, danny espinosa, dennis eckersley, dmitri young, drew storen, everth cabrera, freddie freeman, gio gonzalez, ian desmond, joey votto, john patterson, jon rauch, jordan zimmermann, josh willingham, keith law, livan hernandez, matt capps, michael morse, nick johnson, rafael soriano, ryan zimmerman, shawn hill, stephen strasburg, troy tulowitzki, tyler clippard, yasiel puig
Congrats to Zimmermann on his 2014 all-star selection. Photo dcist.com/(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Here's my annual Nationals All Star selection post. As with last year's post (which also links to subsequent years), I'm including a retrospective on our "illustrious" All Star representative history from years past. If you read on and it sounds familiar, that's because a lot of it is cut-n-pasted from previous versions of this post. Even so, reading backwards to see who our All-star representatives were in the lean years is an interesting exercise. There were many years that the "one representative per team" rule was bent pretty far in order to include a member of our lousy teams.
Discussion item for the comments: Do you feel that the Major League all-star game should be a collection of the games biggest and best stars year after year, or should it represent who's having the best current season? I'll put in my two cents: right now (thanks partly to the one player from each team rule) the rosters are somewhat of a mix of these two philosophies but are leaning more and more towards "who is having the best season." This year for example, future hall of famers like Albert Pujols are not on the team while 2-month flash in the pans like Charlie Blackmon are. But I feel like a showcase event like the All-Star game needs to highlight the games biggest stars. And I don't feel like it does.
Keith Law is right: when (to use our local examples) marquee/famous players like Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg are not selected in lieu of middle relievers who have a great ERA through 20 innings in the first couple months of the season, it does a disservice to the game. Harper can't open his mouth without it making national news and he'd be a draw at the game. Same for Strasburg just on fame factor. In this respect I always thought the NBA all-star game did the best job of making its event an actual "All Stars" event. If you want to have an event that rewards players for the best SEASON … then do what the NFL does and have the all-star game after the season. Right now we give all- star spots to guys who have a couple of hot months and who might be hitting .220 again by the end of the season.
The most egregious example of this lately probably was 2012's Cubs representative Bryan LaHair, who made the all-star game thanks to a scorching first half in 2012. You know where LaHair is now? Chicago *released* him at the end of 2012; what all-star gets released in the season in which they make the team? He played in Japan in 2013 (perhaps why he was released but still indicative of what the team thought of his true talents), hit .230 there, and is currently sitting on Cleveland's AA roster (having hit .113 for their AAA team and getting demoted). I dunno; is this the kind of "all star" you want to see in your league's marquee event? I don't think so; even if Joey Votto is having a down year, I want to see him suit up and not some flash in the pan.
One other quick point. If the season ended today, here's your playoff teams and the number of players they have in the ASG: NL: Atlanta (3), Milwaukee (4), Los Angeles (4), Washington (1) and San Francisco (2). And AL: Baltimore (3), Detroit (3), Oakland (6), Los Angeles (1) and Seattle (2). Wow; looks to me like both the Nats and the Angels have some serious griping about player selection. The Angels have the 2nd best record in the league and got just one representative (Mike Trout of course).
Anyway, on to the Nats historical representatives.
Here's a link to the All Star Rosters for 2014, prior to the "last man in" voting and any pending injury replacements.
Snubs: Adam LaRoche, Anthony Rendon, Rafael Soriano, Drew Storen
Narrative: Zimmermann's been the best starter on the best pitching staff in the majors this year, and thus earns his spot. I find it somewhat odd that a first place team (or near to it) gets just one representative on the team (as discussed above). Rendon tried to make the team via the "last man in" voting, but historically Nationals have not fared well in this competition (especially when better known players from large markets are in the competition, aka Anthony Rizzo from the Chicago Cubs), and indeed Rendon finished 4th in the last-man voting. LaRoche is having a very good season, almost single handedly carrying the Nats offense while major parts were out injured, but he's never going to beat out the slew of great NL first basemen (Joey Votto couldn't even get into this game). Soriano has quietly put together one of the best seasons of any closer in the game; at the time of this writing he has a 1.03 ERA and a .829 whip; those are Dennis Eckersley numbers. But, the farce that is the all-star game selection criteria (having to select one player from each team) means that teams need a representative, and deserving guys like Soriano get squeezed. Then, Soriano indignantly said he wouldn't even go if named as a replacement … likely leading to Clippard's replacement selection. The same goes for non-closer Storen, who sports a sub 2.00 ERA on the year. Advanced stats columnists (Keith Law) also think that Stephen Strasburg is a snub but i'm not entirely sure: he may lead the NL in K's right now and have far better advanced numbers than "traditional," but its hard to make an argument that a guy with a 7-6 record and a 3.50+ ERA is all-star worthy.
All Star Game Trivia Challenge: Thanks to his 2 month absence, Bryce Harper will not make the 2014 all-star team, thus he drops off as an answer to one of my favorite baseball trivia questions. Prior to this season, Harper had been selected as an all-star in every season in which he has appeared in a game. As far as I can tell in baseball history, there's now just 4 players in Major League History who can say this. Name them (discuss in comments):
Nationals All-Star representatives: Bryce Harper, Jordan Zimmermann
Narrative: Harper comes in 3rd in the NL outfielder voting, ahead of some big-time names, to become only the second Nationals position player elected as an All-Star starter. He was 4th in the final pre-selection vote, so a big last minute push got him the starter spot. Harper also becomes the first National to participate in the Home Run Derby. Zimmermann was 12-3 heading into the game and was on mid-season Cy Young short lists in July in a breakout season. Strasburg's advanced stats are all better than Zimmermann's, but his W/L record (4-6 as the ASG) means he's not an all-star. It also probably doesn't help that he missed a few weeks. Desmond loses out to Troy Tulowitzki, Everth Cabrera and Jean Segura. Tulowitzki wass having a very solid year and wass a deserving elected starter, while Cabrera and Segura are both having breakout seasons. Desmond was on the "Final vote" roster, but my vote (and most others' I'm guessing) would be for Yasiel Puig there ([Editor Update: Desmond and Puig lost out to Freddie Freeman: I still wished that Puig finds a way onto the roster but ultimately he did not and I believe the ASG was diminished because of it). Gio Gonzalez, Ryan Zimmerman,and Rafael Soriano are all having solid but unspectacular years and miss out behind those having great seasons.
Narrative: The two starters Strasburg and Gonzalez were the obvious candidates, and my personal prediction was that they'd be the only two candidates selected. Gonzalez' first half was a prelude to his 21-win, 3rd place Cy Young season. The inclusion of Desmond is a surprise, but also a testament to how far he's come as a player in 2012. Harper was a last-minute injury replacement, but had earned his spot by virtue of his fast start as one of the youngest players in the league. Of the "snubs," LaRoche has had a fantastic come back season in 2012 but fared little shot against better, more well-known NL first basemen. Stammen was our best bullpen arm, but like LaRoche fared little chance of getting selected during a year when the Nats had two deserving starters.
Narrative: While Clippard was (arguably) the Nats best and most important reliever, I think Zimmermann was a more rightful choice. He was 10th in the league in ERA at the time of the selections and has put in a series of dominant performances. Meanwhile Espinosa is on pace for a 28homer season and almost a certain Rookie-of-the-Year award (though a precipitous fall-off in the 2nd half cost him any realistic shot at the ROY), and perhaps both players are just too young to be known around the league. Lastly Morse is certainly known and he merited a spot in the "last man in" vote sponsored by MLB (though he fared little chance against popular players in this last-man-in voting).
Narrative: Young gets a deserved all-star appearance en route to comeback player of the year. Zimmerman played a full season but didn't dominate. Our rotation featured 6 primary starters, none of whom are still in the league now, though Hill showed flashes of dominance throughout the year.
Nationals All-Star representatives: Alfonso Soriano
Possible Snubs: Nick Johnson, Ryan Zimmerman
Tagged with adam dunn, adam laroche, albert pujols, alfonso soriano, anthony rendon, anthony rizzo, bryan lahair, bryce harper, chad cordero, craig stammen, cristian guzman, danny espinosa, dennis eckersley, dmitri young, drew storen, everth cabrera, freddie freeman, gio gonzalez, ian desmond, jean segura, joey votto, john patterson, jon rauch, jordan zimmermann, josh willingham, keith law, livan hernandez, matt capps, michael morse, mike trout, nick johnson, rafael soriano, ryan zimmerman, shawn hill, stephen strasburg, troy tulowitzki, tyler clippard, yasiel puig
Nats Draft History; what were the rumors on draft day historically?
Zimmerman was the Nats first ever pick. Photo unknown credit via fantasyknuckleheads.com
I thought I'd do a different take on the "history of Nats drafts." What was the mood/feel around the team approaching draft day year after year? Who do we think they were focusing on as the big day rolled around and why? We focus mostly on the first round pick, where so many of the mock drafts focus, but we'll also mention significant moves further down.
To be honest, I didn't really start closely following the draft and track who the Nats were "rumored" to be with until the 2008 draft. So if you remember something differently than me, please feel free to chime in. I also focus pretty heavily on the early picks here, simply because teams generally get the most value out of their 1st round picks, and the thought processes in taking the first round pick often is the focus of draft analysis and mock drafts posted head of each actual draft.
The Draft Tracker xls (created by Brian Oliver, now maintained by SpringFieldFan) is vital for any Nats fan interested in tracking the teams' drafting history.
2005: Nats picked 4th overall and did not have a 2nd or 3rd round picks (the 2nd round pick went to Colorado for the Vinny Castilla FA signing and the 3rd round pick went to Minnesota as compesation for the Cristian Guzman signing)). The team was also under MLB control and was (presumably) given quite strict financial guidelines over signings. Given those considerations, they knew they needed a splash with their #1 overall pick, they needed someone affordable and they needed someone that would speak to their new fan-base. They wanted college draftees, quick to the majors. The team was looking at the three top 3rd Basemen in the draft. Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun and Alex Gordon. All three were playing at good schools with good numbers. Gordon went 2nd overall to Kansas City and the Nats snapped up Zimmerman. Zimmerman signed quickly for an acceptable amount ($2.9M as the 4th overall pick) and was playing in the majors by September. Zimmerman's selection made sense geographically (he grew up in Va Beach and attended UVA) and it made sense considering the talent available at the Nats pick. MASN's David Huzzard printed a retrospective of the 2005 draft ahead of 2014's draft.
2006: Thanks to a couple of FA losses (Hector Carrasco and Esteban Loiaza), the team had two extra picks in the first two rounds. The team had a roller coaster 2005; first place at mid-season and then a collapse as MLB refused to allow reinforcements. By draft-day 2006 the team was firmly under the control of Jim Bowden, and his philosophy had always skewed towards "toolsy" players, potential over actual. But the team didn't have an owner yet, so were still operating under MLB's guidelines. These two facts were quite evident by looking at the haul the Nats had with their early picks. 6 picks in the top 4 rounds and they were all high school players. Chris Marrero, Colten Willems, Stephen Englund, Sean Black, Stephen King and Glenn Gibson. The team got Marrero for a relatively cheap $1.6M deal mid-way through the first round, failed to sign Black altogether, and got 5 of these 6 players to sign for around $5M all told. The team on the field was under-performing thanks to a limited MLB-dictated budget, but Bowden was drafting for the longer run. Unfortunately none of these high school players ever amounted to much of anything, with only Marrero ever reaching the majors and Willems retiring before ever advancing out of A-Ball.
2007: The team had another haul of upper-end draft picks, thanks to their acquisition of Alfonso Soriano and his type-A free agency sending them both an extra first rounder and a supplimental first rounder. The team took lefty Ross Detwiler from small school Missouri State with the 6th overall pick, a selection that has been lampooned based on who else was available at the time (Madison Bumgarner and Jason Heyward in particular), but literature from 2007 supports his selection at 6th overall. After Detwiler, the nats spent their two supplimental first round picks on high school raw talents (as was Bowden's custom), neither of which ever panned out (Josh Smoker and Michael Burgess). This draft turned into one of the more productive in Nat history, with at least four current major leaguers picked (along with Detwiler, Stephen Souza, Derek Norris and especially 2nd round pick Jordan Zimmermann, so it is unfair to focus on the misses out of 2007. This was easily Bowden's best draft while in charge in Washington.
2008: The year of Aaron Crow. Crow had a strong summer and a strong spring and was the 2nd best college arm in the draft, no question. There was apparently antagonism between Bowden and Crow's agents from the moment that he was drafted, and the negotiations between the sides never really came together. The signing deadline came and went with no signature, and Crow went to Indy ball before getting picked the following summer. There was talk about how the Crow non-signing was purposeful; the Nats spent significantly less money in the draft in 2008 than they had in 2007 and the ownership group was still being labeled as "cheap." Either way, this lack of signing was one more bullet in the ammunition guns of opinion makers in the industry about the state of the Nationals organization under the leadership of Bowden. This would serve to be his last draft; he was embroiled in the bonus scandal over the off-season and relinquished his job ahead of the 2009 season.
2009: We all are quite familiar with the story by now; Stephen Strasburg was a laconic out-of-shape hurler in high school who barely merited a college spot, then re-made himself into the "greatest pitching prospect of all time" while at San Diego State. Despite his reported bonus demands (he ended up with more than $15M deal) and his representation (Scott Boras), the Nats never seriously considered not selecting him with the first overall pick. For me the big question was who the Nats were going to take at #10. I wanted another starter, and there were some significant college pitchers projected to be available at #9. Kyle Gibson, Alex White, Tyler Maztek, Chad Jenkins and Tanner Scheppers were all left on the board to draft a Stanford reliever in Drew Storen. Keith Law had Storen ranked as his 28th prospect, a guy who was clearly "good" but who was over-drafted by nearly 20 spots. This had "signability pick" written all over it, a thought that was even more proven when the team drafted college senior Trevor Holder with their 3rd pick and signed him for 1/2 of slot. Holder wasn't even his team's friday starter and had a 4.48 ERA. So, the team got Strasburg and paid him significant money, and the 2008 draft misstep turned into an effective closer in Storen, so the draft wasn't a disaster, but with a bit more money allocated (remember, this was the same year they were paying Guzman $8M to be a mediocre shortstop) the team really could have hit it out of the park.
2010: After another 100+ loss season, the Nats were fortunate to have another no-brainer, consensus #1 overall pick in Bryce Harper. But the real story of the 2010 draft was Mike Rizzo's finally convincing the ownership group and Ted Lerner of the power of the over-slot pick. The Nationals gave Harper a 40-man deal and a lot of guaranteed money … but they also bought two high-end high school arms out of their college commitments for 1st-2nd round money (A.J. Cole and Robbie Ray). The Nats were quickly becoming a team that was ignoring the advice of the penurious commissioner Bud Selig, known for railing against teams and owners who ignored his "slot recommendations." The Lerners tried to be friends with Selig and play by the rules, only to watch other teams out-spend and out-sign them. Remember this fact when we see the next CBA come out, assigning slot deals ahead of time and implementing draconian policies on teams that over-spend in the draft.
2011: The Nats were looking at a handful of players with their #6 pick; George Springer, Sonny Gray, Taylor Jungman, Jackie Bradley, and the like. In a pretty shocking draft-day shake-up, teams passed on former college player of the year Anthony Rendon and suddenly he fell into the Nationals' lap. The sliding of Rendon to the Nats was amazing; Rendon was considered a clear consensus 1-1 pick for nearly 2 seasons, and the pro track record of BA college players of the year is pretty solid. The Nats had two extra first rounders (compensation for type-A FA Adam Dunn) and the selection of Alex Meyer with the #17 overall pick was a given; some pundits had the Nats taking him at #6 overall, so much they were enthralled with the huge right hander from Kentucky. As with 2010, the team continued to write big checks to convince Brian Goodwin, Matt Purke and Kylin Turnbull to leave school early. The Purke pick in particular showed that the Nats were willing to spend money to get big-time players and were willing to risk the dice on injury concerns. The Nats had no 2nd rounder (lost as compensation for Adam LaRoche but with three 1st/supp-1st rounders got plenty of cracks at top-end talent.
2012: The Nats had a mid-draft pick after their .500 record in 2011 and were focusing on arms. By now, Rizzo's drafting mentality has been made evident; he focuses on college players, and more specifically college arms, unless an outlier falls into his lap. Well, the definition of a draft-day outlier fell into the Nats lap in 2012 when Lucas Giolito, a big-time prep prospect who was under consideration of being the first ever high school right handed pitcher to go 1st overall early in the process. Giolito's size, power and secondary offerings were the makings of a 1-1 pick, but his senior prep season was derailed by what was initially called an "elbow strain" but which turned out to really be a "small elbow ligament tear." Nonetheless, the Nats grabbed him, signed him for over-slot money (nearly $3M), and they had their man. Years later, Rizzo revealed that the next guy on their draft board was St. Louis sensation Michael Wacha … a "what if" question for this team that may be asked for quite a while, given Wacha's quick rise and overall dominance at such a young age. The rest of the Nats draft class was entirely about saving dollars to over-pay Giolito and buy him out of his college committment (as is seen by the bonus figures and senior draftees for the rest of the first 10 rounds), and we're already seeing the after-effects of this strategy; the team has already released 10 of its 2012 draft class after just two pro seasons, and outside of Giolito its hard to see any potential impact players out of the entire class. The Nats may get a couple of RHP bullpen arms, but little else.
2013: The team knew it didn't have a first rounder thanks to its signing of Rafael Soriano (though to be honest, knowing that they were picking last thanks to their MLB-best record in 2012, they probably weren't as reticent about losing that pick), and the new CBA had taken affect, meaning that the team had a very limited budget for signing players. Their first pick wasn't until the end of the second round, and they went with a big power college arm in Jake Johansen. It was impossible to predict who would be available to the Nats at the 68th pick (their first pick), so the Nats draft philosophy seemed to revert to default; lots of college players, lots of college arms. Of their first 15 selected players, just one prep player was selected (Drew Ward) and a number of their guys signed for significantly under-slot to pay Ward and a couple of other players.
2014: After a disappointing 2013 season, the team kept its first round pick in a draft that seems deep on college arms but thin in other areas (especially college hitters). The Nats farm system, after years of drafting predominantly college arms for the past few drafts, has plenty of arms but is thin on hitters, leading some pundits to presume the Nats are looking at college bats. But a couple of late spring elbow injuries on significant names (James Hoffman and Erick Fedde) also has other pundits thinking that the Nats will have no concerns about taking a pitcher who is known to need Tommy John surgery (given their handling of the likes of Strasburg, Solis, Zimmermann and their picking of Giolito in 2012). Mock drafts frequently have the Nats selecting Fedde at #18. And indeed that is who the Nats select. A run on high-end college arms just prior to the Nats pick probably sealed their fate on taking Fedde. They take a good balance of pitchers and hitters in the top 10 rounds, almost entirely out of the college ranks (as is their custom). Like 2013 and 2012, they gambled on one prep player in the top 10 (this year Jakson Reetz) and bought a high-end prep prospect out of his college committment, but otherwise stayed the course drafting college players.
The following links were crucial to doing this post:
Nats Draft Tracker (maintained by SpringfieldFan)
B-R.com's Draft database of players.
Posted in Draft
Tagged with aaron crow, adam dunn, aj cole, alex gordon, alex meyer, alex white, alfonso soriano, anthony rendon, brian goodwin, brian oliver, bryce harper, bud selig, chad jenkins, chris marrero, colten willems, cristian guzman, david huzzard, derek norris, drew storen, drew ward, erick fedde, esteban loiaza, george springer, glenn gibson, hector carrasco, jackie bradley, jake johansen, jakson reetz, james hoffman, jason heyward, jim bowden, jordan zimmermann, josh smoker, keith law, kyle gibson, kylin turnbull, lucas giolito, madison bumgarner, matt purke, michael wacha, michale burgess, rafael soriano, robbie ray, ross detwiler, ryan braun, ryan zimmerman, sammy solis, scott boras, sean black, sonny gray, stephen englund, stephen king, stephen strasburg, steven souza, tanner scheppers, taylor jungman, ted lerner, trevor holder, tyler maztek, vinny castilla
Ask Boswell 3/24/14 edition
Should this man be on this team? Photo Nats official 2014 via rantsports.com
Despite there being just a scant week until games start … i'm at a loss for content here! Fear not; Mr. Tom Boswell always chats on mondays. Here's the 3/24/14 edition. This was a monster chat; he took questions for 3.5 hours.
Q: Steven Souza just had a monster spring: Does he need a year at Syracuse or can the Nats use him now?
A: Some guys here love Steven Souza. But he's an outfielder in a system that already has 5 multi-million dollar outfielders under contract, so he's not going to break camp with the team. He's yet to play above AA and could use some seasoning against the near-MLB quality AAA starters. But the Nats didn't put him on the 40-man roster for the heck of it; you have to think he's going to feature this year to cover for injuries. He needs some positional flexibility. He's listed as a third baseman as well; another position we don't really need any cover for right now. Souza's problem is that he's a corner player (LF/RF/3B/1B) on a team with a bunch of them already. So he's going to have to out-hit a starter to get ABs. Boswell says the same thing I do about not ever playing above AA. Lets see how he does in upstate NY in April.
Q: Is Moore going to lose out on his spot to Peterson?
A: I've said it before and I'll say it again: if a guy already is on the 40-man (Tyler Moore), then the odds of someone who is NOT currently on our (full) 40-man (aka Brock Peterson) beating out an established 40-man player AND dislodging an existing guy off the 40-man roster seems rather remote. Besides, are we even sure Moore is making the 25-man roster at this point? The team already has 5 OFers and needs another guy who can play middle infield, not a guy who can only play a corner. Peterson is a 1B/OF type, much as Moore is. Maybe this is all a precursor towards moving Moore to a team that covets him (Houston). Boswell agrees that Moore is "on the bubble" and then notes that 1B competition after LaRoche is gone will be quite interesting.
[Interlude: someone asked a question about what "Cybermetrics" was. WAR, OPS and WHIP]. Boswell answered it well, getting in his own dig at WAR while he was at it.
Q: Will Lobaton's throwing arm add to an already-weak area?
A: Maybe; but I'm not sweating the throwing arm mechancis of our once-a-week catcher. I'm more worried about whether Doug Fister is going to be ready for 4/1. Boswell points out that Lobaton's pitch framing is one of the best … and that if your backup catcher has just one weakness then you're doing a-ok.
Q: Who's the 5th starter going to be?
A: Now I'm flip-flopping again, trying to read the tea-leaves, and I'm guessing Taylor Jordan wins it. Ironically it will come down to Tanner Roark's flexibility; he'll head to the pen to be the 7th man and he'll be happy about it. If Roark were to win the spot, Jordan would be heading to AAA to keep starting and we'd be basically auditioning a kid in the #7 spot (since it seems like Ryan Mattheus is heading to the D/L and Christian Garcia just hasn't shown he's got the stuff). I'm ok with this configuration. Boswell uses my previous arguments in saying that Roark deserves it and should have it on merit. We'll see.
Q: Are you worried about the back of the Nats bullpen with Storen and Soriano's shaky spring training stats?
A: Yes. Short Sample Sizes, Spring Training stats, blah blah. Soriano has looked awful, Storen not much better. The Bullpen was the weakest part of this team last year and these guys are making too much coin to be just so-so. Problem is, if Soriano blows a bunch of saves and loses the closer job, you might as well just release him because his non-closer splits show what a moper he can be. This is an area to keep an eye on early in the season. Boswell seems to think Soriano will be fine but worries about Storen.
Q: Are the Nationals vindicated in "Shutdown gate" now that Medlen is going in for a second TJ?
A: Phew, I tell you this is a topic I've avoided because I want to keep my blood pressure down. But others have certainly chimed in on it (Ted Leavengood at Seamheads.com opined on 3/18/14, as did Thom Loverro in the WashingtonTimes on 3/13/14 and Rantsports.com's less than cordial website posted its own opinion in the same timeframe). You'll notice that nowhere in this list are the blowhards at NBCSports' HardballTalk, some of the more loud and ardent critics of the Nationals 2012 decisions. I wonder why; its like it is in the Newspaper business; nobody notices when you print a retraction of a 20-point headline and bury it on page 12 a few days later; all people remember is the headline.
I think honestly my opinion is in line iwth Loverro's; we won't really know if the Strasburg plan or the Medlen plan is really "the best" course of action until both guys are retired. If Strasburg breaks down again, he'll be in the same place as Medlen. Yes the Nats plan looks better now that we have Strasburg going on opening day and the Braves will be lucky to have Medlen back and healthy this time next year. But it still doens't prove anything about pitcher mechanics and proclivity to injury (another topic that makes my blood boil; people just spouting off internet theories about biomechanics and presenting themselves as experts on the topic … another topic for another day).
An important note from another questioner on the same topic: all four guys going in for their 2nd TJ surgery this spring (Medlen, Brandon Beachy, Patrick Corbin and Jarrod Parker had their first TJ surgery AFTER both Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann's surgeries. The Nats approach seems to be more and more vindicated by the year.
Boswell doesn't really bite at the offer to say "I told you so" but offers a link to a paper at NIH on the topic.
Q: Does Espinosa beat out Rendon?
A: No. Yes Espinosa is superior defensively; you don't need the second coming of Mark Belanger at second. Boswell agrees.
Q: Did Rick Shue really make that big of a difference on this team?
A: Looking at splits both pre- and post- Rick Eckstein/Rick Shue hiring/firing, you would be inclined to say yes. Was this causation or correlation? Who knows. Boswell doesn't address the second part of a two-part question.
Q: Is the game of baseball headed for disaster thanks to big market dominance, over-emphasis on the teams in the 4 biggest cities and declining popularity?
A: I sense this questioner has a bit of bias. Yes baseball's ratings are miniscule when compared to Football's; ask yourself how Football's ratings would look if there was a game every night. Baseball attendance dwarfs any other sport and is rising. There's national emphasis on "national" teams sure … but I've heard cogent, well put arguments that baseball itself is now basically a regional sport. A strong sport with strong local ties that don't translate nation-wide. As compared to the NFL, where if the superbowl is Green Bay vs New England people tune in because they associate those teams with their star quarterbacks, not with their geography.
The thing that I worry about is the incredible revenue disparities we're starting to see. I do believe that the RSN monies that large market teams are pulling in will eventually give way to some sort of small-market owner revolt as the playoffs become the same teams year after year. Sort of like what we see in European Soccer leagues. Nobody wants to see that.
Boswell notes some stats about attendance, calls the game booming and also repeats my "regional points."
Q: How important at the two early-season series versus Atlanta (April 4-6 at home and then April 11-13 away)?
A: I'd like to be a cynic and say something pithy like, "a game on April 5th counts the same in the standings as a game on September 30th." But in this case, I think a new manager, a weakened rival and a team that got its *ss handed to them last year by Atlanta will want to make a statement. It could be damaging if the Braves somehow come in here and take 2 of 3. Boswell does talk about the opportunity to put pressure on the Braves early.
Q: Is this the year Strasburg puts it all together?
A: It seems like it; he's in the same place Zimmermann was in 2013 in terms of surgery recovery; I'd love to see him win 20 games. Boswell drinks the kool-aid and then points out the excellent Adam Kilgore piece in the WP a few days ago on Strasburg; its worth a read.
Q: Who do you think has the most upside between Brian Goodwin, Eury Perez and Michael Taylor? Are the Nats still high on Destin Hood?
A: A prospect question! I'd go Goodwin, Taylor then Perez at this point. But if Goodwin plateaus again this summer Taylor will surpass him. I think Perez has peaked as a late-innings defensive replacement/pinch runner at this point and may be trade-able/DFA able sooner than later. Hood's time with the organization is running out; he's entering his 7th minor league season after hitting just .224 with no power in AA last year. I'm thinking he'll repeat and then hit free agency. Too bad. Boswell doesn't sound like he likes any of these guys.
Q: Between the Morse trade (Cole, Krol, Treinen), the Guzman trade (Roark), and the Capps trade (Ramos), plus a few others, it seems like the Nats have made some really good trades. Umm, please tell me that the people who scouted these players before any of us had heard of them are well compensated.
A: Yeah, the Nats pro scouting squad has definitely done some great work as of late. Boswell notes that scouts are not paid a ton … but that the Nats raided other teams for quality guys by giving them more respect and input in this org.
Q: Every year the number of pitchers requiring Tommy John surgery seems to be higher than the year before. It has to be clear at this point that the innings limit (alone) is not the answer. When does baseball finally figure this out?
A: Well, what's the answer then? You can look at literally every pitcher and find a fault or two with his mechanics; this guy has the "inverted W," this guy subluxes his shoulder, this guy's arm isn't in the right position when he lands, this guy's arm is too high, this guy's arm is too low. Nobody can define what "perfect mechanics" are. I started pulling up video/images of the career MLB leaders of innings pitched and, guess what, those guys don't have perfect mechanics either. Don Sutton? 7th all-time in baseball IP and basically 2nd if you take out knuckleballers and dead-ball guys … and he has a perfect inverted-W in his motion.
What is the answer? I wish I knew; i'd be the most in-demand pitching consultant on the planet. When fully 1/3rd of major league pitchers have had Tommy John surgery, and that numbers seems to be rising, maybe the answer is found by looking at the evolving role of pitchers. Velocity is king now: 30 years ago if someone threw 90 it was special; now its mediocre. Relievers especially; think about how power arms in the bullpen are coveted now. Is it possible that the answer to all these arm issues is simply that guys are just trying to throw too hard these days? That's not much of an answer though. We can talk about youth development, over-throwing as kids, AAU/travel leagues and 10year olds going from playing 18-20 little league games to 45 travel-league games a year. But I'm not sure that's entirely it; baseball recruits from the Dominican Republic basically did nothing for years except play sand-lot baseball from sun-up to sun-down and that doesn't seem to affect their longer term injuries….
Or does it? I wonder if there's any correlation to the "nature" of a players youth development versus future injury? American system versus Japanese versus a developing latino country like Venezuela/Puerto Rico or the D.R.? Excellent post topic.
Boswell totally punts on the question; maybe since there's no real answer.
Q: Given what Souza has been doing lately, should we focus less on "age appropriateness" in the minors?
A: No. I think Souza is the exception, not the rule. If you're in your mid 20s and you've yet to succeed beyond high A … that's pretty indicative of what your ceiling may be. Simple as that. Boswell points out that Roark is 27 and is a classic "late bloomer."
Q: Does the news that Scherzer and Desmond declined long-term deals portend eventual trouble for the likes of Strasburg and Harper?
A: No; i think those guys were already going to be trouble. What's the common denominator here? Two words: Scott Boras. Scherzer == Boras client. Strasburg? same. Harper? Same. Desmond isn't a Boras client but he's gotta be looking at some of the monster SS deals out there and saying, I'm going to hit the FA market to see what's out there. Can't blame him. The 2016 off-season is going to be an interesting one for this team. Boswell mentions the Elvis Andrus contract, as I have many times, as a game-changer for Desmond.
Posted in Chat/Mailbag Responses
Tagged with adam kilgore, adam laroche, aj cole, anthony rendon, blake treinen, brandon beachy, brian goodwin, brock peterson, bryce harper, christian garcia, cristian guzman, danny espinosa, destin hood, don sutton, doug fister, drew storen, elvis andrus, eury perez, ian desmond, ian krol, jarrod parker, jordan zimmermann, jose lobaton, kris medlen, mark belanger, matt capps, michael morse, michael taylor, patrick corbin, rafael soriano, rick eckstein, rick shue, ryan mattheus, scott boras, stephen strasburg, steven souza, tanner roark, taylor jordan, ted leavengood, thom loverro, tom boswell, tommy john, tyler moore, wilson ramos
Hall of Fame candidates with Nationals ties
Remember this guy? Photo unk via yahoo.com
Hey, how about a Hall of Fame post that doesn't cause any arguments?
Here's a fun exercise; after seeing Paul Lo Duca's name on this year's Hall of Fame ballot, I got to thinking; wouldn't it be interesting to see a list of guys who qualified for Hall of Fame ballots who had actually played for the Washington Nationals? Mostly by the nature of the question, so far we're talking mostly about longer-serving veterans who hooked on with the Nats late in their career within the past few years. Thanks to the mandatory 5 year waiting period after retirement and the Nats inaugural season occurring in 2005, we start by looking at the 2011 ballot and move forward:
So, thus far the Nats greatest Hall of Fame achievement is Vinny Castilla receiving 6 sympathy votes.
The next few ballots have more of the same: 2015's features Ron Villone and Julian Tavarez and 2016's ballot features Cristian Guzman and Jose Guillen. Not until we hit 2017 do we get our first, legitimate Hall candidate/former National in Ivan Rodriguez … and of course there's no way he gets elected thanks to his ties to PEDs. But i'm sure it'll be fun to write this post again next year.
Anyway; interesting topic. Now we know the answer to the trivia question, "What former Washington National has come closest to Hall of Fame election?" 🙂
Tagged with brian lawrence, carlos baerga, cristian guzman, ivan rodriguez, jim bowden, jose guillen, julian tavarez, mike stanton, paul lo duca, ron villone, royce clayton, ryan zimmerman, shairon martis, vinny castilla

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Little if anything is expected of "The 33's" 9 p.m. local newscasts. They're stitched together on a relatively dinky budget and seem to mainly exist as a nightly one-hour link to the Dallas-based station's remodeled website.
Attention should be paid on occasion, though, since this is, after all, the country's 5th-largest TV market. And we don't want to be completely embarrassed -- or do we? -- when strangers come to town.
Wednesday's one-hour newscast as usual included a segment by lifestyles/entertainment "reporter" Roni Proter, who joined the station in January as part of news director David Duitch's numerous additions and subtractions.
"Tonight we revisit Madison Avenue," Proter said, introducing her weekly "Up All Night" tie-in with Quick newspaper, a weekend freebie and satellite publication of The Dallas Morning News.
Apparently one infomercial wasn't enough for Madison Avenue. On Feb. 4th's 9 p.m. newscast, Proter cooed in exactly the same fashion over the McKinney St. bar. Everybody said it was a wonderful place, and Proter of course readily agreed. She ended her piece from the bar's "huge patio."
Because it was the "dead of winter," no one else joined her outside, Proter said. "But I bet when summertime comes around, this place is going to be packed!" she enthused.
The "dead of winter" reference was repeated Wednesday night, even though spring is just a week-and-a-half away. In fact, the entire piece was a word-for-word, video-for-video repeat of Feb. 4th's wet kiss. We all know about prime-time reruns, but this seems to be charting new territory. Gooey, uncritical infomercials within local newscasts are bad enough. But on The 33, they compound the original sin by repeating it in full.
Wednesday's 9 p.m. edition had a total of 33,215 D-FW viewers, a relative pittance in a market of more than six million people. So I'm probably just wasting my time being an occasional watchdog. The 33 "newscast" is going to do what it's going to do. And until the bottom inevitably drops out, no one's going to shame them into doing otherwise.


History is seldom remembered as it actually happened. Even – or maybe, especially – when you have lived through it. Wednesday was the 50th anniversary of one of the key moments in American civil rights and Martin Luther King and the March on Washington (BBC2) was a more-than-handy corrective for faulty memories. Over time, the march has become inextricably linked with Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech and his voice and delivery still send shivers through the listener. Yet it turned out that the most quoted part of the speech was something of an afterthought. King had been talking for some time when Mahalia Jackson whispered in his ear: "Tell them about your dream." He did and history was made.
While this film aimed to do little more than retell the story of the march from the perspective of those who took part, it also couldn't help pointing a few fingers along the way. And not just at the obvious targets of "Bull" Connor, the police chief of Birmingham, Alabama, who vigorously pursued the city's racial discrimination policies, and George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, whose most famous line was "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation for ever". President Kennedy also copped it. For all his liberal rhetoric, JFK had done precisely nothing to advance civil rights legislation in his two and a half years in office. Indeed, he came across – as did all the figures of the American establishment – as a man terrified by the thought of mass black protest on the steps of Congress. He called to mind Augustine's prayer: "Lord make me pure, but not yet."
There were other smaller but, in their own way, equally telling memory jolts to be had. Harry Belafonte was asked to use his clout to recruit his Hollywood friends to the cause. Who was one of the leading white actors to speak out for civil rights? None other than Charlton Heston. Chuck is now remembered for being one of Hollywood's staunchest Republican supporters and a key figure in the National Rifle Association: if he were alive today, I wonder what he would make of his younger, more liberal self.
As much as anything else, though, the success of this documentary lay in its range of different voices. So often in TV archive footage the March on Washington is depicted as the Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Martin Luther King show, yet here we heard not just from the ordinary people who attended but from the other black civil rights leaders involved in its organisation. Not least John Lewis, whose speech was considered too inflammatory and had to be toned down at the last minute. The shocks didn't come from hearing American TV refer to "negroes" in their reports; they came from King using precisely the same terminology.


Today's weather is turning out to be patchy rain possible. The visibility is going to be around 19 km i.e. 11 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 1013 mb . The daytime temperature is going to reach 20 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 11 °c at night. It will be mostly dry with little or no precipitation and cloud covering 41% of the sky, the humidity will be around 56%.
Tomorrow weather is forecasted to be partly cloudy. The visibility is going to be around 20 km i.e. 12 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 1017 mb. The daytime temperature is going to reach 23 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 6 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 3% of the sky, the humidity will be around 42%.
On Sunday weather will be moderate rain at times with daytime temperature reaching 23 °c. Night time temperature are expected to be 9 °c.It will be mostly dry with little or no precipitation. The visibility is going to be around 20 km i.e. 12 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 1014 mb. It will be mostly dry with little or no precipitation and cloud covering 30% of the sky, the humidity will be around 53%.
Monday seems to be partly cloudy. Matsumoto, Japan visibility is going to be around 20 km i.e. 12 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 1016 mb. The daytime temperature is going to reach 26 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 9 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 9% of the sky, the humidity will be around 56%.
Partly cloudy will be the weather pattern for the Tuesday. The visibility is going to be around 20 km i.e. 12 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 1017 mb. The daytime temperature is going to reach 29 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 8 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 4% of the sky, the humidity will be around 50%.
Looking at the weather in Matsumoto, Japan over the next 7 days, the maximum temperature will be 29℃ (or 84℉) on Tuesday 23rd April at around 3 pm. In the same week the minimum temperature will be 2℃ (or 36℉) on Thursday 18th April at around 3 am.
The national weather service for Matsumoto, Japan is reporting Sunday 21st April to be the wettest day in the coming week with around 0.60mm (or 0.0 inches) of rainfall. Make sure to carry an umbrella if you are out and about in Matsumoto, Japan.
The windiest of all days will be Wednesday 24th April as wind will reach 7mph (or 12kmph) at around 3 pm.


text:
Q: Sumif Dates are equal or greater with exception Hello I am working with a formula that adds a range of cells after comparing dates. For example range A1:A5 has random dates within the year 2017, range B1:B5 each contain the number 10, cell C3 contains the word "OFF". Range A6:A371 begins with 1/1/17 and ends with 12/31/17. I would like a formula that adds the 10 onwards beginning on the date mentioned in A1:A5 but not if it says "OFF" from that date onwards. The formula I have to add them is
=SUMIF(A7,">="&$A$1,$B$1)+SUMIF(A7,">="&$A$2,$B$2)+SUMIF(A7,">="&$A$3,$B$3)+SUMIF(A7,">="&$A$4,$B$4)+SUMIF(A7,">="&$A$5,$B$5)
Is there a better formula and how can I have it not include the date that has "OFF" in column C? I hope I have explained the problem and goal well, if not please ask me to clarify further.

A: In B6 put:
=SUMIFS($B$1:$B$5,$A$1:$A$5,"<=" & A6,$C$1:$C$5,"<>OFF")

Then copy down the dataset

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


If you are a 3d artist, then the difference between a good one versus an aficionado is the speed. A good artist could model a 3d art in a single day while an aficionado could do the same in a month.
TDD if it involves spending more than 10% of the developer time. In fact, 10% is still a big waste.
Docker, Kubernetes and such (if you spend so much time configuring it).
Full SOLID, for example, to add Interface for a class that will be used only once.
Reusability of the code when (and again) it will be called only once.
It's interesting that you've emphasized speed so strongly while discounting things that are often attributed to quality.
I didn't write about the skills and abilities a professional may carry, because that isn't the point of this article.
I wrote about what people industry do with any skill or ability. I wrote about what happens when, "Professionals" become complicit in doing poor work because of a fake deadline, when they harm themselves staying up late or on weekends because they are pressured to, when they build something that is unethical, illegal or causes harm, when they sit at their desk when they know bullying or harassment happens.
That's the line I draw here. How much of that does each of us bring and allow into our workplace while still claiming we're responsible professionals?
It is because we usually don't know the "name of the game".
I explain. Let's say that our user (if not the company that we worked) is a Knight, if it is a Knight then we are a blacksmith.
Now, some ogres attacked a village and our knight must fight them back.
Hey blacksmith, I need a shield and a sword right now (or, I need it for yesterday I have hear it tons of time).
So, we could give it a fast-but-cheap shield and sword but at least the knight could do its job, or we could say "yes, I will give you the best one but it will take a month". Of course, a month means that all villagers will be dead. Some knights even improvise with their own resources (while they are waiting for proper equipment), some even throw rocks because they are accessible and they know how to use it (Ms excel).
So we do what we can (with our limited resources) and we hope it for the best.
Our ethics suffer if we do a poor job. However, maybe our ethics (or ego) is intact if we take the time to build a better tool but, our usability is compromised (we are useless!) and finally it is the same. So we usually should balance time and quality but we could have them all, we should read the "mood" of the project.
Now, the software has a duration date, right now is around 3 years, it could be extended two cycles (6-7 years) but anything over it is insane. This doesn't mean that there are not systems and programs around here that aren't older than 7 years (aka legacy) but they are costly. It means that if we took 3 years to develop a system, then the end result borns outdated.
Hmmm.... It might be hard especially ethics can mean different things in different cultures or country.
Like while reading the book by Peter F Drucker that talked about US politicians was jailed due to bribery by japanese companies.
It was totally fine for Japanese companies giving kickbacks since their culture has the Japanese companies taking care politicians when they retire due to the low wage of a politician.
Unless we could come up with something every developer could agree universally it will be very hard.
But I do agree on raising our standards of excellence to be able to sleep at night.
Without worrying of the backlash of what you had done is unethical and cause harm to another fellow human being.


text:
Q: How do I use forward class declaration for circular dependencies in an iOS iPhone app? I am working on an iPhone app that requires sequential flow in order for me to capitalize on user-friendly handling. The application is one large loop of multiple view controllers, where a user advances through the various modules of the app. I have an internal loop within the main application loop that consists of just 2 of the view controllers, and concludes whenever the user decides to proceed onward.
The internal 2-controller loop is what I am targeting with my question. It consists of a table view controller (apply change to the user's selection) and a detail view controller (display the changes). Currently, my issue is with increasing memory usage every time the loop proceeds to one of the view controllers. I've heard that forward class declaration is a good way to handle circular dependencies (2-controller loop), but I haven't seen any working example that applies to my situation. Can forward class declaration be used in my case to effectively loop multiple view controllers, and if so how can I do it?
Below is an example of what I'm thinking I need to employ. Is this reasonable? (I am very new to objective-c and the forward declaration concept)
TableViewController.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@class detailViewController;

@interface TableViewController : UITableViewController
{
    // Stuff for TableViewController object
}

@end

detailViewController.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@class TableViewController

@interface detailViewController : UIViewController
{
    // Stuff for detailViewController object
}

@end

A: I'm not 100% I understand the structure of your project, but here are some hints I can give you:
You are discussing two different problems.
Retain Cycles
Retain Cycles can cause memory issues in your program. When you are facing a memory issue in your app (and are using ARC) the changes are high that you have created a retain cycle. This means that two objects in your code each reference each other through a strong relationship. That will cause both objects to stay in memory forever. In your application it seems likely that the TableViewController and the DetailViewController are referencing each other strongly. If you only want to pass information from one ViewController to another, you should use a weak reference:
@property (weak) DetailViewController *detailViewController;

Circular Dependencies
Circular Dependencies occur when two Classes try to import each others header. If Class A imports Class B in its header and Class B imports Class A in its header you will have a unresolvable circular dependency because the preprocessor will not know how to import Header files that depend on each other. This is resolved by using forward declarations instead of import statements. But this has nothing to do with memory management. Basically you should be using forward declarations whenever it is possible (when you only need to know that a certain class exists) and only use #import statements when it's actually necessary to know details about the interface of that class (subclassing, accessing properties of other Classes in .m files).

A: Your .h file is just a public interface. Without inclusion into your .h file, you can still have members of view controllers visible to each other, while oblivious to other classes.
If no public data members are dependent upon another View Controller, you can consider including one view controller .h file inside another one's .m file, instead of it's .h file. That way, circular dependency can be avoided.
As you know, you can declare private data members within .m file as well, after @interface keyword. Like this:
2.m:
#import 1.h

@interface 2
{

}

1.m:
#import 2.h
@interface 1
{

}

Even removing from either .h the reference to another .h file may solve the circular dependency problem.
Having said that, circular dependency is something you need to handle at compile / build time, and it has nothing to do how you navigate between the two view controllers when your app runs.
Assuming that is your question, and you have a storyboard in front of you, you should consider:
1 - embedding your first view controller inside a Navigation controller
2 - create a push segue from first to second view controller. use performSegueUsingIdentifier to navigate from first to second VC.
3 - Similarly, you can use popViewController function to navigate from second to first.
None of these steps require you to deal with circular dependency, and you should read the documentation very thoroughly to understand what you want to achieve.
In short, RTFM.

A: You know, I really think you're asking for nothing more than how to pop on and pop off a view controller.  It's really trivial and it will solve all your problems. Check it out.
Just regarding putting "@class blah;" at the top of a file - yeah, whatever, do that. It's no big deal. If it's "not finding" a class, sure, just put it in.
As everyone has explained, you do not and should not think about "memory management" today in iPhone programming. It's irrelevant.