Droooo!!!

The conventional wisdom is that too much hubris will bring retribution.  The Greek gods are long gone from the equation.  But, the meltdown and pending exit of one Drew Storen from the Nationals is the fodder of Greek Tragedies.  Rather than start at the beginning, let’s cut to the chase.

There’s always a silver lining!

Context is important. So please don’t get me wrong! I’ve been a season ticket holder since day 1. I was a Senators fan way back when (yes, I am that old). So I’m happy to have a home town baseball team.

• Do I want the Nats to win the World Series? Of course!
• In the greater scheme of things, what does it matter if they don’t? To tell you the truth, except for bragging rights, not much.

Inside Corner: Lucas Giolito has quite the talented family.

The name Lindsay Frost is a name you will hear a lot more of in Washington, DC in the near future, and it has nothing to do with politics. You will hear her name as a popular artist and as the proud mother of Lucas Giolito. Once you meet her, don’t be surprised if you then recognize her on some TV re-runs. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296534/

Lindsay’s bio lists her as an artist, Hollywood actress, daughter of an actor, sister of a Hollywood producer, married to Rick Giolito (nice to see that was corrected on Wiki which is part of an inside joke as to some of the inaccuracies on Wiki) and mother of Nats 1st round draft pick and MLB #1 prospect Lucas Giolito, and mother of Casey Giolito a High School baseball player. That is quite the bio and that’s really only a partial list.

Storen, Janssen, it’s déjà vu all over again.

We all like Drew Storen and Casey Janssen, but these men are paid as “closers” to do their role in the earlier innings or different situations in what is supposed to be lower stress situations, and combined in 2 games in a row they lost Nats leads that turned into Nats losses.

You can’t be a playoff calibre team making mental mistakes and pitching mistakes when you have a lead.  That’s my opinion.

RECAP: Brandon Moss’ #walkoff heroics lift #STLCards to 4th straight win: http://t.co/pckJyS5Js2 pic.twitter.com/ekvM5Kz8Zj

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 2, 2015

For anyone wondering what happened to Drew Storen, it happened before the error on the throw occurred.

Single to Pham on a poor pitch:

Moving to TalkNats.com (September 2nd)

Hi all,

We are about ready to take the leap and move over to http://www.talknats.com! To make this is as smooth as possible, we’re going to start the data transfer tomorrow around 11:00am EST. After 11:00am, any post or comment you make here will NOT make it over to the new site, so go ahead and hold off. Once the transfer is complete, you should automatically be redirected to the new website when you try to access squeezeplay2.wordpress.com.

Right off the bat you will find our new handy “Edit” button that will allow you to edit your comments for up to 5 minutes. The “Post a Reply” box has also been moved above the list of comments. More new features will be coming soon! Any issues that arise from the site move will be corrected as quickly as possible.

Comments Box at the top with newest first should make commenting easy and efficient!

If you have questions, feel free to comment here and I will try my best to answer.

Brandon
ImageWorks Creative

In-Game: Joe Cool to the Rescue?

© Ffooter | Dreamstime.com – Busch Stadium – St. Louis Cardinals Photo

The Nationals send Joe Ross to the hill for his 12th start against Cardinal’s Left-handed prospect Marco Gonzalez. The originally scheduled pitcher was Carlos Martinez. But, he was scratched with a sore neck.

BREAKING: Sources tell us Severino to be added to 40 man & called up! The Reserves are coming. The Reserves are coming!

Our sources tell us Pedro Severino will be added to the 40 man roster and called up as a 3rd catcher.

Photo Credit USA Today

We expect Dan Uggla today and Tyler Moore tomorrow or Wednesday when he’s eligible to come off of the DL.

Where is the bullpen help with Sammy Solis, Matt Grace, Rafael Martin, Abel and some of the starters like Taylor Hill who could help in the pen.

UPDATE (4:48PM): David Carpenter’s season is over as he was moved to the 60 DL to make room for Severino on the 40 man roster. Dan Uggla as we have been saying officially activated off the DL to the Nats roster and Sammy Solis joins the Nats as a September callup. We believe those will be the only moves for today per our sources.

Site enhancements are coming soon!

Hello Nats fans!

We are working hard to improve the overall blog experience. We have lots of great feedback, and are moving forward with a better, more robust hosting situation and a new comment module https://disqus.com/. This is what MASN uses (see it here http://www.masnsports.com/nationals-pastime/2015/08/rough-start-for-stephen-strasburg-nats-down-3-0.html#disqus_thread )

We are also changing the name to a more memorable and simple talknats.com –  Steve and his team are committed to making this the best baseball blog possible. We thank you for your support and patience. Stay tuned, and tell all your friends!

In-Game 1st game of the Cardinals series, Yunel is back!

This series bookends the last day of August and the first days of September in St. Louis where the Nats have a crucial 3 game series.

The Cardinals bring their MLB best 84-46 record into this series, and as we know the Nats need to turn their 66-63 record into at least 68 or 69 wins before they leave St. Louis.  No pressure.

#Nats at Cardinals: Werth LF, Rendon 2B, Harper RF, Zim 1B, Escobar 3B, Desmond SS, Lobaton C, Taylor CF, Gonzalez P pic.twitter.com/4n7texU9GJ

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) August 31, 2015

Meltdown Soup Mix

If you have hopes for the Nats to come back and win the division this year there may be good underpinnings for that. September is notorious for division leader collapses. The list is quite long including the 1964 Phillies, 2007 Mets, and infamously the 1969 Cubs. These collapses share common traits to the point that the collapse appears to be some kind of formula. Add a little of this, a little of that, add heat and Voila’. It’s much like cooking soup. If it is a formula, then you should be able to see the components taking shape ahead of time. In other words, it may be predictable.