Discuss the Nationals

Earlier this week I witnessed the Nationals’ first win in the Riggleman era. The Nats picked up a game on the Mets, making them only 17 games behind New York for fourth place. And they’re still on track to at least challenge the 1962 Mets for the worst team in the modern era of baseball. They play a brand of baseball so pathetic that I show up to the ballpark expecting to watch the Nationals...

The more I follow the Nationals, the more one singular thought rattles through my head with the annoying screech of a Metro pulling into a station: Teddy Lerner is cheap. Not quite “Pirates perpetual firesale” cheap – just not willing to spend the money it takes to be really good. There’s an implicit buy-in to be a successful major league baseball team...

Seeing as some 72 of the Nats’ 162 games (and the first 21 games) are against the NL East, I figured it would be nice to give everyone a preview of this year’s NL East teams. And if you don’t think these first three games are going to unduly cloud my thinking, you’re crazy. I know it’s not exciting to pick the same division...

Flowers are peeking out of the ground, the sun is starting to stay out later and my NCAA Tournament bracket is ruined. That can all add up to one fact: It’s baseball season. And in D.C. that means it is Nationals time.

I’ll save all the “a new season means anyone can win the division” rhetoric, because sometimes it isn’t true. Teams like the Nats, Pirates and Orioles all have virtually no chance of winning the division before the season even starts, due to their lack...