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Washington Nationals: District on Deck 2018 End of Season Awards

By Blake Finney

The 2016 National League Cy Young Award is presented to Max Scherzer #32 of the Washington Nationals before the start of the Opening Day game against the Miami Marlins on April 3, 2017 at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. The Nationals won 4-2. Also pictured is Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo (R). (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The 2016 National League Cy Young Award is presented to Max Scherzer #32 of the Washington Nationals before the start of the Opening Day game against the Miami Marlins on April 3, 2017 at Nationals Park in Washington, DC. The Nationals won 4-2. Also pictured is Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo (R). (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Matt Hazlett/Getty Images) /

Misc. Awards

To wrap up the District on Deck awards, we had a little bit of fun and included some miscellaneous categories. Once again, voting was not compulsory in this section, but given the nature of the awards, the full panel voted for most of them.

Best Hitting Pitcher

  1. Max Scherzer (100%)

Our final unanimous award went to Max Scherzer as the team’s best hitting pitcher. While he did slow down towards the end of the season, he finished with a slash line of .243/.274/.271, which is impressive by pitcher standards.

The only pitcher to hit a home run this year for the Nats was AJ Cole in his first start of the year against the Atlanta Braves. However, that wasn’t enough to earn any votes while Scherzer cruised home, and he will hope to win the Silver Slugger for the position at the end of the year.

Best Hair

Washington Nationals Bryce Harper
(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /
  1. Bryce Harper (46%)
  2. Sean Doolittle (27%)
  3. Wilmer Difo (18%)

Surprise, surprise, the player with an advertising deal with a hair care company wins the best hair. But given the slick hair and facial hair for that matter, this is surely Bryce Harper’s biggest honor in a Nationals uniform.

The rest of the order was a bit of a surprise, as Sean Doolittle was able to climb into second place ahead of Wilmer Difo and his early-season dreadlocks. Sadly, for the facial hair fans, Tanner Roark and the funky sideburns didn’t get a single vote.

More from District on Deck

Best Rain Delay

  1. Stevenson arrives mid-delay (50%)
  2. Blowtorches! (40%)
  3. Beat Reporter Meltdown (10%)

We had so many rain delays in the 2018 season so we thought it was very fitting to have an award dedicated to the “best” delay. The victor turned out to be one of the more memorable late-season moments when Andrew Stevenson arrived during the rain delay, only to then hit the game-tying home run in a game the Nats would go on to win.

There was a strong voting contingent who were appreciative of the blowtorches in Philadelphia which provided much amusement and joke on Twitter, but not enough to win the award. Clearly, Ross Shinberg is a fan of chaos as the only person to vote for the meltdown of the Nats beat reporters during the four-hour rain delay that resulted in a postponement against the Cubs.

Weirdest Davey Gimmick

  1. Camels (67%)
  2. Walk-Off Practice (22%)
  3. Mariachi (11%)

Well, it’s safe to say that Davey Martinez certainly picked up the quirky side of Joe Maddon from his time as his bench coach. But he took it to a new level when one day at Spring Training he rocked up with camels. The camels cantered home as Martinez’s weirdest gimmick this year.

After the camels, we also had some votes for walk-off practice, that didn’t actually get much use during the season as the team was only able to manage a handful. Finally, the Cinco de Mayo Mariachi band also drew a vote, but nobody could get over the hump and take down the camels.

Best Interview Quote

  1. Martinez (on pulling Max before 300 Ks): “I value my life.” (46%)
  2. Soto: “Keep Doing Juan Soto Things” (36%)
  3. Rendon (on Soto): “That man is the TRUTH” (9%)

Our final award goes to the season’s best quote, and there were plenty of contenders for this one. But in the end, Davey Martinez be terrified of Scherzer and what he might do if he didn’t let him get 300 strikeouts stole the award.

Juan Soto Things are very good things these days, and Nationals fans are looking forward more of those same things next year. Andy Beckham clearly took stock in Anthony Rendon using the few words he does say to express his confidence in Soto while he was still in the minors. Maybe Rendon has a future in scouting and can find more Truths down the road.

Next. 5 Biggest Storylines to follow this offseason. dark

Thanks for following the Washington Nationals with us at District on Deck. Keep an eye on our site throughout the offseason as we look ahead to an interesting winter for the Nats.

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