District Daily: Long-term continuity key for Nationals to take next step
By Pablo Roa
Oct 2, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Nationals general manager and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo watches during baseball workouts at Nationals Park. The Nationals will play the San Francisco Giants Friday in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. Mandatory Credit: H.Darr Beiser-USA TODAY Sports
Good afternoon DoD readers! Checkout some great Washington Nationals articles from around the web in today’s District Daily:
Long-term continuity key for Nats to take next step
WASHINGTON — The Nationals had a solid season in 2014, winning their second division title in three years. But they fell short in the postseason, losing to the Giants in four games in the National League Division Series.
One can bet that as soon as the team was eliminated, general manager Mike Rizzo immediately began trying to find ways to improve the team this offseason.
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Free agents/options
Washington has six free agents — second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, first baseman Adam LaRoche, outfielders Scott Hairston and Nate Schierholtz, and right-handers Rafael Soriano and Ross Ohlendorf. Read full article here.
Nationals Second Base Search: Free Agent Third Basemen
(Jim Meyerriecks, Federal Baseball)
Earlier this week, we looked at some of the available middle infielders that the Nats could sign as free agents to fill their need at second base. We’ve also profiled one of the international free agents on the market and given some consideration to what RSOD could do. Today, we’re going to complete our look at possible free agents that the Nats could target to solve their second base issue by looking at the available third basemen.
In the case that the Nats were to sign a third baseman, they would be committing to move Anthony Rendon back to second base. I’m not going to argue that he’s better defensively at either position. The metrics seemed to like him at both second base and third base this past season, though defensive metrics usually take more than a year’s worth of data to be trusted. The “eye test” tells me that I’m more comfortable with him at third base, but that’s more because I feel he’s an exceptional third baseman than anything else. He was strong defensively at second base late in 2013 and early in 2014 before moving to third when Ryan Zimmerman was injured. Read full article here.