The new baseball season will bring a new look to the broadcast booth, as MASN and the Nationals have announced Kevin Frandsen as the new color commentator for Nats broadcasts this year.
Frandsen will join play-by-play announcer Bob Carpenter in the MASN broadcast booth for the 2022 campaign after spending the last four seasons as a member of the Phillies radio broadcast team.
"Thrilled is an understatement for the way I feel right now," said Frandsen in a released statement. "I'd like to...
The Nationals on Thursday morning announced the scheduled game times for the upcoming regular season.
First pitch for opening day against the Mets at Citi Field is scheduled for a 1:10 p.m. start on Thursday, March 31. Both subsequent games of the opening series on Saturday and Sunday are also starting at 1:10 p.m., possibly including the first time Max Scherzer faces the Nats as a member of the Mets.
The home opener at Nationals Park is scheduled for a 1:05 p.m. first pitch against the...
Whenever the Nationals actually report to West Palm Beach, there will be plenty of position battles to dissect. You can pretty much go right up the middle of the field.
Will Keibert Ruiz get a strong hold of the starting catcher's spot? Who will fill out the back ends of both the rotation and bullpen? Who will start in the middle part of the infield? Can Victor Robles earn his spot in center field back from Lane Thomas? You can even throw in questions about Carter Kieboom at third base.
But...
This was always going to be an important offseason for the Nationals. Not in terms of signing big-name free agents or making a big splash on the trade market, but in terms of making significant changes and improvements on the minor league side to start this first full year of the rebuild off on the right foot.
They have already signed a handful of veteran players to minor league deals to potentially help the major league roster and add depth to the upper levels of the farm system. They signed a...
The Nationals announced their 2022 minor league player development staff on Tuesday, with 14 new roles and more than 20 new members.
This completes the process this offseason of completely revamping the department as the Nationals focus more on the growth of their minor league players during the first year of what is hoped to be a quick rebuild.
General manager Mike Rizzo hinted at these changes coming to the organization during his press conference on the last day of the regular season.
"We...
As has been widely expected, the Nationals officially announced the signing of Cuban outfielder Cristhian Vaquero as the international signing period opened today. The 17-year-old switch-hitter is considered by many the top prospect in this international class.
The Nationals agreed to terms with 10 players from three different countries, headlined by Vaquero, to open this signing period.
Vaquero has reportedly been signed to a $4,925,000 bonus, which is a new club record for an international...
Today marks an important day on the baseball calendar, especially for teams looking to bolster their farm systems. The international signing period begins today, as opposed to the traditional July 2 opening, and runs through Dec. 15, allowing teams to sign young talent from foreign countries to their lower level minor league teams.
For the Nationals, this presents another opportunity to add young talent as they attempt to revamp their entire organization from top to bottom. But unlike the...
As the calendar turns to a new year this January, a new baseball season is on the horizon. When it will actually begin, however, remains to be seen.
The lockout is currently keeping teams from making any major league roster moves, which is a shame because Mike Rizzo is usually very busy during the year's first month. No matter the pace of an offseason's free agent market, we have seen the Nationals general manager put together a competitive roster well before the start of spring training year...
Yesterday, Mark Zuckerman rang in the new year with hopes for the Nationals in 2022. Things the team would like to see come to fruition this season. Best-case scenarios for the players, coaches and front office staff.
The fact of the matter is 2022 is going to be a year unlike we've seen on South Capitol Street in over a decade.
Exactly 10 years ago, expectations were sky high for the Nationals. They ended the 2012 season with the club's first National League East division title, starting...
In honor of this weekend's release of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," I'm going to attempt to create parallels between the blockbuster movie and the upcoming Nationals season.
I like baseball and superheroes, and we're in a lockout, so bear with me.
This is a spoiler-free reference to "No Way Home" for those of you who have yet to see the film. I saw it opening night since Spider-Man is one of my favorite characters of all time, and I hate when people spoil things for me, so I will not do...
It's crazy how much we take after our role models. It's unfortunate that you sometimes don't fully understand their impact and the similarities between you until those people are gone.
My grandfather passed away early Sunday morning. Ramiro Blanco was 91 and thankfully passed away peacefully. He had a few ailments that came with old age, including prostate cancer, but it was just his time.
He was at peace with that. And so is the rest of the Blanco Family Circus, as we so lovingly call...
The development of prospects is a vital part of any rebuilding team and the Arizona Fall League presents teams with an opportunity to send a handful of their minor league players to continue that process after the conclusions of their regular seasons.
Whether they missed time due to injuries or coaches want to see them play more, the AFL is a great chance for prospects to accumulate more innings or more at-bats against other top prospects across the sport.
The Nationals have eight players...
When word got out that Kevin Long would be leaving D.C. to take the hitting coach job in Philadelphia, Darnell Coles must have had a keen eye on the opening with the Nationals.
Not only for the opportunity to rejoin the organization with which he started his coaching career and to be alongside longtime friend Davey Martinez in the dugout, but also for the chance to work with one of baseball's best hitters in Juan Soto. (Not to mention a power switch-hitter in Josh Bell and a core of young...
It ain't broke, don't fix it. A common phrase that Nationals manager Davey Martinez is taking to heart over the last month or so of the season as it pertains to his lineup.
Ever since Lane Thomas solidified his role in the leadoff spot on Aug. 28, Martinez's lineups have mostly looked like this:
CF Lane ThomasSS Alcides EscobarRF Juan Soto1B Josh BellLF Yadiel Hernandez3B Carter KieboomC Keibert Ruiz2B Luis GarcÃaPitcher's spot
Those top four spots haven't changed, essentially, and for...
There are only so many ways to say this, and given the frequency with which it's happening, we're running dangerously low on options. So I'll be blunt: The Nationals bullpen blew two more leads in Friday's 9-8 loss to the Rockies on South Capitol Street.
Handed a one-run lead after a late rally in the eighth, Kyle Finnegan needed only three outs in the ninth to seal a win and record his 10th save of the season. Instead, he gave up a leadoff game-tying home run to blow his fourth save...
Wins and losses don't really point to the successes and failures of a starting pitcher. So many things can happen throughout the course of a game that are out of the pitchers' control, it wouldn't be fair to judge them on their record alone. There are other numbers that tell a better story.
That being said, wins and losses aren't totally meaningless to pitchers. And for a young hurler, earning his first victory is an important milestone.
For Josiah Gray, the new face of the Nationals'...
There are only 16 games left in the Nationals' season, which means Josiah Gray probably only has four starts remaining, starting with tonight's series opener against the Rockies.
Gray started his career in D.C. strong, pitching to a 2.89 ERA over his first five starts. But he has since struggled with an ERA of 12.75 over his last three outings. If the right-hander wants to finish strong and give the organization confidence in him going into next year, he's going to have to limit the walks...
I had someone ask me the other day, "How do you keep watching the Nationals when they're losing so many games?"
Aside from it being my job, my answer was easy: They're always in it.
You've heard manager Davey Martinez say it time and time again: "The boys are battling." Well, what does that mean exactly, aside from the obvious definition of playing hard?
"Yeah, I mean, it's something that I preach every day with these guys that they're never really out of it," Martinez said during...
It's no secret: The Nationals pitching staff is the team's biggest liability at this point in the season. It seems like no lead is safe and every deficit could continue to grow.
That was certainly the case during tonight's 10-7 loss to the Pirates, the Nats' third straight defeat, second in Pittsburgh. Optimists would say entering the bottom of the fifth inning with a 5-2 lead would have been a good path toward victory. Realists would say that a three-run lead wouldn't be enough.
The...
It's a tough day for all Americans today. The 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., brings a lot of emotions to all who remember that tragic day for our nation.
Like many of us, Nationals manager Davey Martinez remembers exactly where he was and what he was doing on that fateful morning.
"Yeah, you know, it was a day no one will ever forget, obviously," Martinez said while getting visibly emotional...
