ALL DECADE NATIONALS

Next up in the All Decade series, the 2019 NL Pennant winners -- the Washington Nationals!!! NATITUDE is going to make some series noise in the All Decade league, as Washington is bringing a pretty scary squad to the table! Somehow it took them until the veryyyyyy end of the decade to win a postseason series, and their first ever pennant..... and maybe their first World Series in franchise history! They're going to be a balanced, potent team with a surprising bullpen to support the expected powerful lineup and deep/incredible rotation. Honestly.... I think I like this team more than the Astros and Yankees, despite having less OB 10, HR at 17 and less powerful OB 8 hitters than those respective squads. No matter what, it's definitely a team that Nationals fans should have a blast playing with!

 Bryce and Mad Max are both going to be on the All Decade team from other seasons, 

but here's some of their dominant 2018 cards!

Lineup: There's *so* much potential in this lineup, especially for flexibility. Trea Turner is a natural leadoff man with his 23 speed and tons of extra base pop... but due to the On Base 8 and the SIX OB 10 guys in the lineup, I've decided to put 19 speed Soto at the top to maximize ABs for the best hitters and let Trea act as an "early leadoff man" in the nine spot. Speaking of, Juan Soto is an absolute beast of a leadoff hitter -- he can do it all, with a lot more power than you expect at leadoff. The All Decade Nationals have the quintessential example of "best player hits second" in 2015 MVP Bryce Harper. Perhaps the frontrunner for NL MVP in the All Decade league, this Bryce basically has Soto's chart.... as an OB 11. Pitchers better fear this guy, but he's backed up by lethal OB 10 Rendon!! Sneaky clean up Daniel Murphy is going to be a lethal hitter -- I love his giant double range and triple on his chart. The lineup doesn't let up, with Howie delivering a very good OB 10 card (and here's hoping for some Grand Slam magic at some point from him in the All Decade league)! Jayson Werth, in a beautiful card from Colby/Matthew, shows that his giant contract wasn't a complete waste from a very good 2013 season. He's an OB 10 that gets on at 4 and has speed, making him a dangerous number 6 hitter! Then you've got the basic OB 8, HR at 16 hitter in the 7 hole with Nationals legend Ryan Zimmerman. At catcher, Washington's lucky to avoid having to punt with Wilson Ramos -- a good +7 arm with 15 double and 18 homer. He won't put up giant numbers, but I think he's going to contribute just fine and keep the lineup rolling.... into Trea Turner, who'll essentially be the leadoff man as soon as the lineup has churned through once!

Rotation: Wowza -- what a collection of aces! I don't think anyone is surprised that their rotation is completely loaded. Of course we're starting with a Cy Young Max Scherzer -- a Tier 2 with a giant K range, no doubles, Control 4.... and he could arguably be the #4 starter as the only non-Control 6. Strasburg's best season came in 2017 with a 2.53 ERA, and he earned a Control 6, no doubles card that can absolutely dominate games. At number three comes the only Tier 1 starter, oddly enough, in Colby/Matt's Doug Fister. Hard to argue if you wanted to put him at #1 with his C6, on at 17 card, but I'm (in violation of my own personal opinions) putting the "no doubles" above tiers (in large part because of star power). Rounding it out is one of my personal favorite pitchers of all-time, native of Auburndale, Wisconsin -- Jordan Zimmerman!!! He's a Tier 2, C6 guy with tons of IP and a solid chart. No pitcher in the rotation is below 550 points and the rotation comes in at a staggering 2320 points!

This is a side tangent from the Showdown talk that I hope y'all find entertaining, but I went to a Nats-Brewers game to see Zimmerman pitch. An entire section from Auburndale was there, and it frankly could've been half the town. Auburndale is a town (maybe a town) of about 700 people in central Wisconsin. It's about twenty minutes from my Grandma's house and my family's hometown of Marshfield, WI and it's.... man, there's absolutely nothing there and it's AMAZING that a major league star came out of this part of Central Wisconsin. What's even crazier, former Green Bay Packer Mark Tauscher is also from Auburndale. Town of 700 -- 2 professional athletes. Needless to say, Zimmerman is an absolute legend to our region and I'm *hyped* to have this beautiful card that Matthew Pennertz made to honor/play with him in the All Decade league!

(main street of Zimmerman's hometown... seriously, how are two pro athletes from here??)

Bullpen: Now that we've gotten through the Central Wisconsin history lesson, time to look at a bullpen that's gotta challenge the Yankees for the best we've seen. Honestly crazy how fast we found a contender.... and they've got a real case! Starting it off is Tier 0 Sean Doolittle. Damn, this guy is FILTY with his Control 5, on at 19, no doubles, 1-11 K card. He's supported by not one, not two, but THREE additional Tier 1 cards! 2/3 of those cards have no doubles on their chart and all three are at least Control 4. Rounding out the bullpen is Craig Stammen, who's got 2 IP, Control 6, and is "only" a Tier 2. In terms of total tiers, they're better than the Yankees (5 vs 6), essentially trading a Tier 1, IP 2 pitcher in Chad Green for a Tier 0, IP 1 Doolittle... and since Doolittle gives up no doubles, advantage Washington! Regardless, teams are going to struggle against this epic bullpen supporting the tough-as-nails starters!

The Nationals definitely seem more on par with the Yankees and Astros than the first three squads we rolled out! And the point totals.... SUPPORT this feeling, as the Nationals come in at 7670 points! That's not quite as much as the Yankees... but considering that they don't have as many IP 2 pitchers, the gap becomes pretty slim. I think this is the best team we've presented so far. According to the points alone, here's the current power rankings after 20% of the teams have been revealed:

1.   Yankees     7920 points
2.   Nationals   7670 points
3.   Astros        7420 points
4.   Mariners   6880 points
5.   Marlins     6750 points
6.   Tigers        6710 points