OT: Nats, Wiz, O's, Ravens, Terps, Navy, Gtown, Mystics, Golf, Summer 2024 (Paris Olympics 2024 as well)

[usiel]

This was my logical train of thought after hey cool drafting #1!

 

[usiel]

Typically need to wait till the how spring play shapes out to evaluate the current draft class. Ethan Holliday is on espn's big board. Do like this tid bit:

There was pre-lottery buzz that Ethan wouldn't get past Colorado (tied for the best odds for the top pick), in part due to his father Matt's legacy with the team. That's less relevant now as the Rockies ended up sliding to the fourth pick. In addition, the Nationals have a history of shooting for the moon with upside at the top pick (Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg), though no one in this class is the slam dunk generational talent that those two were known to be a year ahead of time. Nats general manager Mike Rizzo followed that playbook even before that, drafting Justin Upton at the top pick in 2005 when he was the Diamondbacks' scouting director, another pretty easy call at the time. This pick is an open question right now, but Holliday fits Washington's tendencies best, if he continues to develop as many expect.

Nationals win 2025 MLB draft lottery! Here's a mini-mock draft predicting the top 5 picks

With Washington notching the No. 1 overall pick for next summer, let's see how the start of the first round could go down.

www.espn.com

https://www.mlb.com/news/draft-top-100-prospects-list-2025?msockid=2f0b58ecfcb86d421a394da9fdf76cb1

1. Ethan Holliday, SS/3B, Stillwater HS, Okla.
2. Jace LaViolette, OF, Texas A&M
3. Jamie Arnold, LHP, Florida State
4. Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC Santa Barbara
5. Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS, Calif.
6. Kayson Cunningham, SS, Johnson HS, Tex.
7. Aiva Arquette, 2B, Oregon State
8. Xavier Neyens, 3B, Mount Vernon HS, Wash.
9. Kruz Schoolcraft, LHP/1B, Sunset HS, Ore.
10. Brendan Summerhill, OF, Arizona

 

[Ridley Simon]

Another Holiday. Shocker?

I assume the Orioles are picking in the late 20’s?

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

I don’t care if Jace from Texas A&M has an uppercase V in his last name, no to drafting someone whose last name is Laviolette. That name is bad juju in Washington.

 

[usiel]

I don’t care if Jace from Texas A&M has an uppercase V in his last name, no to drafting someone whose last name is Laviolette. That name is bad juju in Washington.

Watched a good amount of homers its basically all fastballs figured I'd see at least one homer on off speed. Velocity off the bat is pretty great.

Matt Adams was the Nationals rep for the lottery so representing as someone from the championship squad.

 

[Random schmoe]

Another Holiday. Shocker?

I assume the Orioles are picking in the late 20’s?

19.

The order for playoff teams factors when they got knocked out.

 

[usiel]

Mike Rizzo comments with MLB after the lottery queued up:

 

[usiel]

The Washington Nationals selected right-hander Evan Reifert with the sixth pick of the Rule 5 draft Wednesday. Reifert, 25, had the best season of his career in 2024, pitching to a 1.96 ERA in 35 relief appearances for the Tampa Bay Rays’ Class AA affiliate. He gives Washington another young arm in what is set to be an inexperienced bullpen.

“Just pure joy and excitement from just hearing my name getting called,” Reifert said. “It’s just been a surge of emotions kind of coming over me. Super excited for my opportunity here with the Nationals.”
The Nationals also added right-hander Hyun-il Choi in the first round of the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. Choi spent five seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization, which signed him out of South Korea in 2018.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/12/11/nationals-evan-reifert/

 

[Brian23]

Don't get me wrong, Mark Lerner seems to be an awful owner, but I really don't know if I can' blame them for not being hard on Soto. It's a little disappointing they didn't even try to get a cup of coffee, but that kind of money is ludicrous for a single player (even a HOFer like Soto). I give it less the 5 years before the Met's fanbase is ready to run him out of town.

Baseball is in desperate need of both a hard cap on salaries and a hard, much higher, floor. Too many owners just using the teams to prop themselves up. If they can't afford the floor, then sell the team and go be billionaires somewhere else in the world.

I will, however, say they need to spend something this year. I think it'll be a detriment to the teams future if they just muddle along again for another year.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Adding a 1st overall pick with Crews is exciting. If our owners ever want to spend again is another thing. It will suck seeing Harper, Turner, and Soto all in the div

 

[usiel]

Don't get me wrong, Mark Lerner seems to be an awful owner, but I really don't know if I can' blame them for not being hard on Soto. It's a little disappointing they didn't even try to get a cup of coffee, but that kind of money is ludicrous for a single player (even a HOFer like Soto). I give it less the 5 years before the Met's fanbase is ready to run him out of town.

Baseball is in desperate need of both a hard cap on salaries and a hard, much higher, floor. Too many owners just using the teams to prop themselves up. If they can't afford the floor, then sell the team and go be billionaires somewhere else in the world.

I will, however, say they need to spend something this year. I think it'll be a detriment to the teams future if they just muddle along again for another year.

I think the quandry is signing Soto is a sure thing performance wise for the near term. Probably wouldn't setup resigning any player that popped of the current National prospects.

I'm going to wait till spring to see how the current draft crop for the 2025 mlb draft turns out. Don't want a knee jerk reaction to draft a pitcher if they are not the BPA at #1. Holliday gives you another later developing prospect timing wise.

 

[g00n]

'I was wrong': Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau open up on the evolution of their relationship ahead of The Showdown

The former foes turned teammates were surprisingly candid about the current state of their relationship on a conference call Tuesday.

www.golfdigest.com

BRO-HUG WARNING

 

[NobodyBeatsTheWiz]

I've seen all I need to see from Bryson over the past year or so. Confirmed POS.

 

[marcel snapshot]

There's just a serious competitive cleavage in MLB now between owners worried about how much $ they're spending and owners who aren't. You got guys that could set a million dollars on fire in their driveway every day for the rest of their lives without consequence, and then you have guys like the Lerners, who worry about every penny and are terrified of what a wrong move might do to their net worth. It's baffling, because the value of the franchise is like a put that insulates bad decisions from any real financial consequence, and yet they still refuse to take risks.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I've seen all I need to see from Bryson over the past year or so. Confirmed POS.

Oh please do tell….

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

There's just a serious competitive cleavage in MLB now between owners worried about how much $ they're spending and owners who aren't. You got guys that could set a million dollars on fire in their driveway every day for the rest of their lives without consequence, and then you have guys like the Lerners, who worry about every penny and are terrified of what a wrong move might do to their net worth. It's baffling, because the value of the franchise is like a put that insulates bad decisions from any real financial consequence, and yet they still refuse to take risks.

It’s easy to understand IMO….

They ponied up for Strasburg, got bit in the ass, and they were already the thrifty types.

Do Nats fans wish they had paid Soto $765 mil? I mean Harper maybe if you knew what you know today…but he’s also had his ups and downs and injuries…Rendon, a huge bust on that contract…bullet dodged.


I mean they delivered a title 5 years ago. Not all bad.

These are all businessmen and all run their empires with differing levels of acceptable risk.

 

[Random schmoe]

I don't really think it's fair to criticize the Lerners/Nats for not spending. The team has been rebuilding the past few years, which we should all recognize was needed. But go back to the years they were trying to be competitive and they consistently ranked in the upper echelon of payroll.

2013: 11th
2014: 8th
2015: 5th
2016: 15th
2017: 6th
2018: 5th
2019: 7th
2020: 7th
2021: 13th

(Edit to add: Above numbers from Spotrac.)

 

[Ajax1995]

It’s easy to understand IMO….

They ponied up for Strasburg, got bit in the ass, and they were already the thrifty types.

Agreed and they also didn’t/couldn’t insure that contract and thus completely ate its full value.

 

[marcel snapshot]

It’s easy to understand IMO….

They ponied up for Strasburg, got bit in the ass, and they were already the thrifty types.

Do Nats fans wish they had paid Soto $765 mil? I mean Harper maybe if you knew what you know today…but he’s also had his ups and downs and injuries…Rendon, a huge bust on that contract…bullet dodged.


I mean they delivered a title 5 years ago. Not all bad.

These are all businessmen and all run their empires with differing levels of acceptable risk.

All fair points. Just seems like their appetite for risk has shrunk considerably in the last couple of years, as evidenced by the fact that in the last 3 years they're at 20, 25, and 24, a pretty big shift from the earlier numbers above referenced by Rando Schmo.

Also, is fair to suggest that if they couldn't insure Strasburg's contract - that was kind of a signal about the contract. And if they wouldn't insure that contract, that was serious mismanagement.

 

[NobodyBeatsTheWiz]

Oh please do tell….

Those sorts of issue aren't allowed to be discussed on this board.

 

[Ajax1995]

All fair points. Just seems like their appetite for risk has shrunk considerably in the last couple of years

Of course it did. That family made their money chiefly in commercial real estate. Not the business to be in over the last few years…

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Those sorts of issue aren't allowed to be discussed on this board.

Ahh must be political? Gotcha…

 

[g00n]

Ahh must be political? Gotcha…

I assume it's because he golfed with a certain potus.

pros always so that so don't care