Pete Kerzel

Tale of the helmet snatchers

Tale of the helmet snatchers
When Ian Desmond returns to the Nationals dugout after hitting a home run, he gets the usual handshakes and high fives. But if you watch MASN, you'll see another courtesy extended a player who returns after circling the bases or some other significant offense accomplishment. The batting helmet on a player's head doesn't stay there for long. In a sea of arms, a teammate's hands reach out and pluck the headgear. What started as a simple congratulatory maneuver has become a celebratory rite...
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Josh Land

Will Yoder: Hard to choose the Nats' first-half MVP

Will Yoder: Hard to choose the Nats' first-half MVP
The Nationals are about to wrap up their best first half in franchise history. At 45-32, Washington has the best record in the National League, is 3.5 games ahead of the second place team in the NL East, and is on pace to win 95 games this season. What has been perhaps most impressive about the team's run so far this year is that when former cellar-dwellers come out of nowhere in this fashion, they usually do so on the shoulders of one identifiable superstar. Whether it be a franchise player...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: More All-Stars where these came from

Ted Leavengood: More All-Stars where these came from
Yesterday, Nationals fans saw - for the first time this season, really - the Ryan Zimmerman who has been the most enduring Nationals All-Star since 2006. His two-run double in the first inning off Tim Hudson was the telling blow in an 8-4 win to take another road series against perennial National League contenders, the Atlanta Braves. He had a solo home run as well, his third longball in a week, and another clutch hit in the ninth to help put the game out of reach. He is hitting .378 for the...
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Josh Land

Harper looks to join trio of Nats in Kansas City for Midsummer Classic

Harper looks to join trio of Nats in Kansas City for Midsummer Classic
It was a continuous debate, at least for the past month or so, whether Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper should/would make the All-Star team. So with the announcement of the rosters for the 83rd annual Midsummer Classic, I'm happy to report the debate has been settled - kind of. Harper wasn't selected by the fans or National League manager Tony LaRussa - that honor was reserved for Nationals pitchers Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez, along with infielder Ian Desmond. But Harper is among...
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Josh Land

Marty Niland: Nats will turn back the clock, recall Washington's glory days

Marty Niland: Nats will turn back the clock, recall Washington's glory days
A visit to Nationals Park will be like a trip back in time for fans attending Thursday night's game between the Nationals and the San Francisco Giants. Turn Back the Clock Night will recall the last (and only) time Washington celebrated a World Series championship: 1924, when the Senators and the then-New York Giants met in a Fall Classic that many historians rate as one of the best. For this game, the curly W won't be in fashion. The centerpiece of the celebration will be the uniforms,...
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Josh Land

Dave Nichols: Nats reap benefits of exercising patience with flawed prospect

Dave Nichols: Nats reap benefits of exercising patience with flawed prospect
How 'bout that Tyler Moore? In the last two minor league seasons, Nats rookie Moore has hit a combined 62 home runs - 31 each season - and 202 RBIs. That's an awful lot of pop, enough that he should have received a fair bit of notice in the offseason prospect lists. However, his defensive limitations, and being older than other prospects at each level, have tempered long-range expectations for the Mississippi native. Those tempered expectations may be the only reason he remains property...
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Josh Land

Rachel Levitin: Nats no longer the new kids in the class

Rachel Levitin: Nats no longer the new kids in the class
When I leave to go out of town on trips, like today for example, my favorite topic of conversation along the way tends to veer toward sports, baseball in particular. Whether I'm listening in on a stats-based debate or checking game scores on one of the many televisions within the terminal, there's always a lesson to be learned from these types of conversations. There's a little more to those conversations than what appears on the surface, though. It's one thing to strike up a sports...
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Josh Land

Zimmerman to receive Lou Gehrig Memorial Award

Zimmerman to receive Lou Gehrig Memorial Award
As I type this, Ryan Zimmerman just reached a career milestone. With a single in the fifth inning in Colorado on Tuesday night, the Nats third baseman collected his 1,000th-career hit, needing only 903 games in which to do so. It's a great accomplishment, particularly for a guy who has battled some nagging injuries in recent memory. And while Zimmerman continues to achieve greatness on the field, it stands to reason things would be the same off the diamond. That certainly rings true, as it...
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Josh Land

Will Yoder: June swoon may dictate Nats' path at trade deadline

Will Yoder: June swoon may dictate Nats' path at trade deadline
The Nationals may still have the second-best record in the National League at 41-30, but the team is currently in a tailspin. The Nats have lost seven of their past 10 contests and have been outscored 25-34 in that span. The club will be the first to admit it: Their offense is struggling and the team, as a whole, is suffering. Earlier in the year, the team was able to get by game-to-game with one-run victories, but it seems the luck has run out as the edged-out wins just aren't happening....
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: Pitching to contact

Ted Leavengood: Pitching to contact
The three contests played by the Orioles and Nationals this weekend were more like soccer matches, as fans watched for small shifts in momentum amid long scoreless stretches. Each team had their scoring chances, but it was the sudden, late scoring strike by Matt Wieters on Sunday that tilted the series toward Baltimore. What made it work for the Orioles, however, was how well their three best starters matched up well against the bottom three in the Nationals rotation in a series that was all...
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Josh Land

Marty Niland: Nationals' transformation mirrors Rays' progression

Marty Niland: Nationals' transformation mirrors Rays' progression
The Nationals have to feel good about taking two of three games form the Tampa Bay Rays this week. Tuesday night's pine tar dust-up aside, the Nats can take pride in bouncing back from a tough series against the Yankees and beating a very good team. If the Nationals could look into a mirror and see themselves in a few years, they might look just like the Rays, but with red jerseys instead of blue. In fact, as an organization, the Rays are everything the Nats want to be. From 2005 to 2007,...
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Josh Land

Dave Nichols: Managers feuding over interpretations of baseball's unwritten rules

Dave Nichols: Managers feuding over interpretations of baseball's unwritten rules
In Tuesday night's loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Nationals manager Davey Johnson had a simple request of home plate umpire Tim Tschida: Enforce the written rules of baseball. Johnson knew that Rays relief pitcher Joel Peralta "liked a little pine tar" - that is, Peralta hid the sticky stuff in and on his glove in order to help him grip the baseball better and, therefore, have better control over his breaking pitches. Pine tar is one of those classic foreign substances that is specifically...
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Josh Land

Rachel Levitin: The developing Nats fan base

Rachel Levitin: The developing Nats fan base
So a Red Sox fan, a Yankees fan, a Cubs fan, a Dodgers fan and an Expos fan all walk into a bar ... sounds like the start of a really messed up baseball joke, right? For as odd as it may appear at first glance, that was my Monday night. Only all those fans actually had something in common, they were all Nats fans. too. Some called it cheating, others call it a sweet affair. But at the end of the day, it really all boils down to a love for the game of Major League Baseball by charging their fan...
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Josh Land

Braves-Nationals game rescheduled

Braves-Nationals game rescheduled
After rain washed out the game between the Braves and Nationals back on June 1, the team today released its plans to move the game to July 21. The two division foes will play a split doubleheader at Nationals Park, with the first game beginning at 1:05 p.m. and first pitch for the second game to follow at 7:05 p.m. The two games against the Braves on July 21 will require separate admission. Season Ticket Holders and Mini Plan Holders with game tickets to the postponed June 1 contest may use...
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Josh Land

Will Yoder: Where is the 2010 Ryan Zimmerman?

Will Yoder: Where is the 2010 Ryan Zimmerman?
If you followed Nationals spring training closely, you may have rightfully believed that Ryan Zimmerman was the best hitter on the planet. The 27-year-old was mashing the ball to all corners of the ballpark, and it looked as if the third baseman who once made his debut in Washington as a 20-year-old kid had finally reached his prime. While Zimmerman has started slowly on the stat sheet this season, everyone who was watching the games knew he was absolutely pounding the ball. On opening day,...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: Not ready for prime time

Ted Leavengood: Not ready for prime time
Win six in a row, lose three in a row. Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. Such smug acceptance offers little consolation for Washington baseball fans. The six wins leading into the Yankees series only served to raise expectations. The idea was rampant going into the three-game weekend series that even the vaunted Yankees were fair game for the first-place Nationals. Only it did not turn out that way. The enthusiastic crowds that witnessed the Yankees series had playoff...
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Josh Land

Marty Niland: Could Harper make an impact on All-Star Game?

Marty Niland: Could Harper make an impact on All-Star Game?
With the Nationals still atop the National League East, there has been much talk lately about the All-Star Game and which Nats deserve to go. However, it's a safe bet that no one in a Washington uniform will be voted into the starting lineup, since none of the regulars is close to the lead at any position. That leaves pitchers, the team's main strength this season, and reserves. Their fate is up to NL manager Tony LaRussa and his staff. On the mound, Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez...
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Josh Land

Will Yoder: Revisiting some preseason predictions

Will Yoder: Revisiting some preseason predictions
Several days before the 2012 campaign, I wrote a post at The Nats Blog offering five bold predictions on the impending Nationals season. I said at the time that the week before the season was a wonderful time for bloggers because it marked perhaps the only time all year long that we would have yet to be wrong. Well, it's nearly 60 games into the season now, so I went back to see what my preseason predictions were, and unfortunately, I have not fared well so far. Let's review: 5. Adam...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: A special place makes for a special weekend

Ted Leavengood: A special place makes for a special weekend
As Bryce Harper pumped for all he was worth to score the winning run on Roger Bernadina's clutch double Sunday afternoon, the Fenway Park faithful had probably seen all they wanted of the Nationals and their young prodigies. Harper, Strasburg, and the rest of them. Espinosa, Clippard, Desmond, Gonzalez, they all had a hand on the broom that swept clean the old park on Lansdowne Street, "the little bandbox of a ballpark," as John Updike lovingly called it. With Yankee Stadium lost forever,...
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Josh Land

Nationals need help in latest All-Star numbers

Nationals need help in latest All-Star numbers
I'm disappointed, Nationals fans. Disappointed in you. Here we sit, only a month away from this year's All-Star Game, and when I look at the current vote totals, no Nationals players are above fifth at their respective position. I'd shake my head if it didn't result in so many typos on my part. Fortunately, there is still time to redeem yourselves and help send your favorite Nationals players to the National League starting lineups for this year's festivities in Kansas City on July...
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