I went to the Nationals-Cardinals recreation on Wednesday afternoon at Nats Park to test in on the 2 rebuilding golf equipment early within the season. Washington has been in a perpetual rebuild for just about everything of the 2020s, whereas St. Louis simply tore its roster right down to the studs this previous offseason. And but, with Chaim Bloom put in as the brand new president of baseball operations, a deep farm system, and several other younger place gamers beginning to come into their very own, the Cardinals appear to be nearer to their subsequent profitable season than the Nationals.
That’s definitely how issues performed out on Wednesday, when the Playing cards beat the Nats, 6-1, to take two out of three within the sequence. St. Louis first baseman Alec Burleson, the workforce’s second-longest tenured place participant, went 3-for-4 and knocked in three runs, and second baseman JJ Wetherholt made a number of slick performs within the discipline. Wetherholt, who entered this yr because the Twelfth-ranked prospect in baseball, has reached base in all 11 of his begins this yr, and he has no less than one hit in 10 of them. (He went 0-for-4 with a stroll and a run on Wednesday.) The massive story, although, was Jordan Walker, who hammered his fifth residence run of the season within the fifth inning. It was the seventeenth time in franchise historical past {that a} participant has homered 5 instances inside his first 12 video games to start out the season. After two below-replacement-level seasons, it appeared much less doubtless that Walker would ever make good on his former high prospect pedigree, however now he appears to be like like a totally totally different participant. He appears far more assured and is making significantly better swing choices; he’s lifting the ball, whereas strolling extra and placing out much less. Sure, it’s solely been 12 video games, however the early returns are promising. He enters Friday evening’s recreation in opposition to the Pink Sox slashing .295/.367/.682 with a 192 wRC+.
I’ll speak extra concerning the Nationals in my reply to the primary query beneath. We’ll additionally reply your questions concerning the World Sequence groups whose gamers accrued essentially the most and least WAR by the tip of their careers, the potential accidents that may cease the Dodgers from being World Sequence favorites, and essentially the most profitable three-true-outcomes pitchers of all time. However first, I’d prefer to remind you that this mailbag is unique to FanGraphs Members. If you happen to aren’t but a Member and wish to maintain studying, you possibly can join a Membership right here. It’s one of the best ways to each expertise the location and help our workers, and it comes with a bunch of different nice advantages. Additionally, in the event you’d prefer to ask a query for an upcoming mailbag, ship me an e-mail at mailbag@fangraphs.com.