Let me get one thing out of the way immediately; the Washington Nationals should never have expected to be a playoff team in 2025 back when they reported to Spring Training in February. The team has several young players who – when they develop their games to the fullest – will be serious major league properties. But 2025 was never going to be that year. Injuries and a catastrophic month of June placed this young team under a cloud cover worthy of Joe Btfsplk [Hat Tip: Al Capp]. Even now, with the team firmly ensconced in last place in the NL East, the bad news and the what ifs rain down on the Nats.
One of the young players whose future seems bright in MLB is left-hander MacKenzie Gore. The Nats got him from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade a couple of years ago and Gore was the #3 pick in the MLB Draft in his year. No one has mistaken him for Clayton Kershaw just yet, but he gave every indication that he could be the Nats’ “top-of-the-rotation guy” pretty soon. In fact, Gore was named to the All-Star Game in July of this year and in the games leading up to the All-Star Game he ranked second in the NL in strikeouts.
At the trade deadline, there were rumblings that the Nats might consider trading Gore for what would probably have been another bucket of prospects. There was some rationale to that thinking then:
- The Nats’ farm system is not overflowing with top prospects
- It is going to be a couple of years until the Nats are real contenders
- Gore could be hard to sign; his agent is Scott Boras
The Nats interim braintrust – – they fired the manager and the GM in the leadup to the trade deadline – – opted to keep Gore on the team presumably thinking of him as their “top-of-the-rotation” starter very soon. And that is where Joel Btfsplk and his cloud enter stage left…
- MacKenzie Gore ERA prior to All-Star Game = 3.04
- MacKenzie Gore ERA after All-Star Game = 7.54
- MacKenzie Gore is now on the 15-day IL with “shoulder inflammation”
MacKenzie Gore’s trade value – – should the Nats reconsider that option over the winter – – is probably diminished from what it was at the All-Star break. For the MLB 2025 season, the Nats have not been able to catch a break even as well as one might catch a cold.
Moving on … A couple of months ago, reports had it that Malik Beasley – – an NBA free agent looking for a new team and a new deal – – was a target of a federal investigation into “gambling”. As you might imagine, that cooled off the market for his services significantly and immediately. Late last week, the direction of this story changed significantly; the investigation is not finished, but Beasly is no longer a target of the investigation by the Feds. So, all’s well that ends well, right?
Well, maybe … Some reports have said that while Beasley is not a target of the investigation, he is still under investigation and might possibly still be accused of something involved with this probe. Sports leagues take an even dimmer view of “gambling involvement” than the Feds do. The PR folks in every professional sports league have at the ready a whole suite of statements/reactions to any sort of gambling allegation associated with their league. It would not surprise me to learn that they have all of them filed under the heading:
- Integrity of the game
So, while Malik Beasley might not worry so much about the Feds when it comes to “punishment”, he is not necessarily out of the woods when it comes to Adam Silver handing out “punishment”. There have to be a half-dozen words and phrases in the NBA Personal Conduct Policy – – or whatever it is called these days – – that could be applied to Beasley and his peripheral association with the ongoing investigation. Moreover, the league has a positive motivation to mete out some punishment here on the theory that such a punishment might act as a deterrent for any other player to find himself named in any way by a federal gambling investigation.
NBA Training Camps start in 3 weeks; many teams have already set their rosters without considering the possibility of retaining the services of Malik Beasley. His agents have work to do and not a whole lot of time to get it done. And they must work in an environment where their client might still be charged with something by the Feds and/or be subject to the wrath of Adam Silver. Those agents will earn their commission on this one.
Switching gears … As of this morning, the Colorado Rockies have a run differential of minus-352 runs in 2025. The Rockies have 24 more games to play and at the rate they are winning games this year, that means their record over the final 24 games should be 7-17. That also means that one should expect the Rockies’ run differential to get even worse than it is today. So, why is that worth considering this morning?
- The All-Time Record for worst run differential in a season was set by the Boston Red Sox in 1932 at minus-349 runs.
- The Rockies have already sunk below that level and look to put some distance between their “new record” the one that had stood for 93 years.
Finally, this from Lee Trevino:
“Only bad golfers are lucky. They’re the ones bouncing balls off trees, curbs, turtles and cars. Good golfers have bad luck. When you hit the ball straight, a funny bounce is bound to be unlucky.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………