Narratives of the Washington Nationals

[ixcuincle]

The Washington Nationals were in 2007 , flying 10 games over .500 and 2nd in the NL East to the Mets. With the Braves a few games behind and the season almost halfway done , the Nationals were leading the wild-card race and appeared to be headed for playoff contention.

Then , in an instant it was all gone. The team built up of youthful pitching such as Daniel Cabrera , Noah Lowry , and Brad Halsey vanished into thin air when a reformat wiped out the entire franchise. When I reloaded the franchise off a saved cd , I found out I had lost everything. The entire 2007 was practically wiped out.

Now , the 2007 season will be replayed here from start to finish , or as far as I can go until the laptop suffers technical difficulties again.

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The Nationals 2007 , Version 1 team was one built on youth , as they had several young talented players taking the field every day. In addition to pitching , the Nationals youth also included former Rookie of the Year Angel Berroa , 2nd baseman J. Castillo , and right fielder Ryan Church. The Nationals made sure to add in veteran leadership too , as Ken Griffey Jr. joined the team in a trade for Livan Hernandez , and Rocco Baldelli was traded to the Red Sox for Johnny Damon.

The Nationals 2007 , Version 2 tried to duplicate Version 1 as much as possible , reaquiring Berroa , Castillo , Griffey , and Damon. The major difference between the 2 versions is the huge acquistion of Carl Pavano , who signed aboard for a 2 year , 9 million dollar deal (yes , the monetary figures are very low compared to real-life MLB). Pavano replaces a previously shaky ace rotation which plagued the first version. With a solid starting lineup of Pavano , Cabrera , Tony Armas Jr. , Noah Lowry , and Brad Halsey , the Nationals are a huge pitching threat in the NL.

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AAA Roster : http://zargotelc.tidalwaveclan.com/MVP05/AAA_roster.JPG

MLB Roster : http://zargotelc.tidalwaveclan.com/MVP05/MLB_roster.JPG

MLB Roster 2: http://zargotelc.tidalwaveclan.com/MVP05/MLB_roster_2.JPG

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MLB Rotation : http://zargotelc.tidalwaveclan.com/MVP05/MLB_rotation.JPG

Ballpark

The team got an 80 million dollar boost from the city of Washington from a donor named Art Money. Art's generous donation helped the young team get on it's feet , immediately upgrading the stadium to 40,000 capacity.

BALLPARK IMAGES GO HERE

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Team Settings

The games will be played on Pro , with settings used from somewhere on this site (can't remember which ). The season is full-length , with default game rosters.

[ixcuincle]

List of offseason acquisitions

MLB

Pitching

-Ramiro Mendoza

-Chris Hammond

Hitting

-Robinson Cano

-A.J. Pierzynski

-Brad Hawpe

-Josh Bard

AAA

Hitting

-Brandon Inge

-Bobby Hill

Many of these players accepted low 1 million-2 million (sometimes even less) dollar deals to play for the Nationals. The team avoided signing high-priced talent such as Jim Thome (~ 10 mil. per year) and Scott Rolen. (~ 9 mil per year).

[ixcuincle]

Nationals Report - Game 1

Nationals 8 - Dodgers 6

Carl Pavano got his first win of the young season , and the Nationals beat the Dodgers today , 8-6.

Pavano struggled early as he gave up a home run in the first to give the Dodgers a 1-run lead , 1-0. The Nationals would tie the game up in the bottom of the first but another home run to right field in the 2nd gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead. The Nationals fell behind 4-1 , and appeared to be shut down by Derek Lowe until the bottom of the 4th inning , when the offense awakened. Scoring 4 times in the inning , the Nationals took the lead and never looked back , going ahead 8-4 at one point before the manager became frightened and ran off into the dugout.

Daniel Cabrera starts for the Nationals tommorow.

[ixcuincle]

Nationals Report - Game 2

Dodgers 2 - Nationals 1

The Dodgers won today under the great pitching of Odalis Perez , and gave the Nationals their first loss of the season.

The Nationals were held scoreless until the bottom of the 8th , when down 2-0 they managed to rack up a few hits to get a run on the board. But any chance of winning the game was extinguished in the 9th when Brazelban closed the game out for the Dodgers.

Daniel Cabrera got his first loss of the season in a brilliantly pitched game. He had a no-hitter going through 3 innings , and kept Los Angeles scoreless through 5 innings. In the end though , lack of run support cost him a potential win.

Notes : A.J. Pierzynski started his first game as catcher for the Nationals. He went 0-3. Robinson Cano played shortstop to give Deivi Cruz and Angel Berroa the day off.

[ixcuincle]

Nationals 12 - Dodgers 1

Brad Halsey pitched a great game , the Nationals exploded in the 4th , and a 1-0 Dodgers lead quickly became a Nationals blowout as the bats awakened from a brief slumber.

[TheNateGBent]

So far so good, nice to see another Nats fan here!

[ixcuincle]

Update : I was still mad over losing all my hard work in a reformat and didn't feel like playing 100 games all over again so I simulated to approximately where the last franchise ended. Luckily , the Nationals were still above .500 , and were 60-40.

Nationals 5 - Cardinals 4

In a much-anticipated matchup between two 60-win teams , the Nationals won the first game in dramatic fashion , 5-4.

The Cardinals took control early , scoring three times off starter Carl Pavano. Pavano eventually got his control back , and pitched well until the 7th , when he was taken out. The Nationals showed no signs of offense for most of the game.

In the 9th inning , the score was 4-0. With Chris Carpenter going for the complete game , he began to struggle. With S. Tang up to bat (0-3) , the manager put Jose Guillen , who had the day off , to pinch hit. Guillen got a hit , and then Termel Sledge pinch hit for Cano. Sledge hit a ball into center field , and 2 runs scored. With 2 runners on , the bullpen called for Eric Gagne to close the game out. A.J. Pierzynski came up to bat , and hit a game-winning 3-run homerun into left field to win the game.

"Seeing how rare it is to hit home runs in this game , a home run against a closer , especially in the 9th , is an extremely rare feat." , general manager Ixcuincle said after the game.

Notes : Nick Johnson was injured sliding into 3rd in the 9th inning. He was put on the 15-day DL. AAA 1st baseman Edgar Gonzalez was called up to temporarily play 1st until Johnson recovers.

[Matroska]

Losing all that data, man, thats a swift kick to the nuts.

Looks good accept Baldelli for Damon? Couldn't quite grasp the logic behind that.

[ixcuincle]

Nationals 9 - Cardinals 8

A.J. Pierzynski had 3 home runs and 6 RBI as the Nationals managed to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals today , 9-8.

With the score 4-2 , Pierzynski hit the first home run , a 2 run shot to tie the game at 4. Pierzyski's 2nd home run tied the game at 5. The Cardinals would begin to score off the Nationals bullpen , and took an 7-5 lead until Pierzynski hit a 3 run shot to give the Nationals a one-run lead in the 8th.

But Chad Cordero could not get the save , and the game went to extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th , with 2 players on base , the Nationals put Brad Hawpe in to pinch-hit. Hawpe hit a double to left field. The runner from 2nd scored to win the game , and finalize a sweep of the Cardinals.

Note : Ramiro Mendoza helped lead the Nationals to a win in the 2nd game of the series. After today's game , Mendoza returned to his regular duties in the bullpen , and Daniel Cabrera returned to the rotation.