Marty Niland: For Harper, here's hoping best is yet to come

Marty Niland: For Harper, here's hoping best is yet to come
Of all the red-letter days in Washington's baseball history, Nationals fans may well look back on April 28, 2012 as the most important date of all. It was on that date that a 19-year-old rookie named Bryce Aron Max Harper made his major league debut, amid the media spotlight of Los Angeles. He singled and drove in a run for a Nats team that was struggling offensively, and while Washington would fall to the Dodgers, both Harper and the Nats would soon heat up and not look back. Harper...

Marty Niland: Keep expectations realistic for Anthony Rendon

Marty Niland: Keep expectations realistic for Anthony Rendon
Welcome to the big leagues, Anthony Rendon. Making his major league debut Sunday against the New York Mets, the Nationals' 2011 first-round draft pick went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts, including one to end a 2-0 loss. He made a nice foul catch in the first inning, but like the rest of the Washington offense, never got comfortable at the plate against Mets starter Dillon Gee. That might seem disappointing, but it's probably typical for a rookie who has fewer than 60 games of minor...

Marty Niland: Three reasons not to hit the panic button

Marty Niland: Three reasons not to hit the panic button
It's hard to blame Nationals fans for feeling down after last weekend's three-game sweep at the hands of the Atlanta Braves. After a big buildup to a supposed early season showdown between the top teams in the National League East - if not the entire NL - the Nats fell flat. Almost every aspect of the game was a disappointment at some point in the series, from Ryan Zimmerman's crucial throwing errors in Friday and Saturday's losses to the bullpen on Friday to the starting pitching and...

Marty Niland: How will Nats respond to getting roughed up?

Marty Niland: How will Nats respond to getting roughed up?
It was a tough weekend for the Nationals. After a glorious opening series against Miami that included back-to-back shutouts, the Nats found the going much tougher on the season's first weekend in Cincinnati. They lost two of three to the Reds, including a 15-0 thumping on Friday night - the most lopsided loss since the team moved to Washington in 2005. Their first series loss in the magical 2012 season did not come until a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers in the final series of April. If...

Marty Niland: The top five reasons the Nationals will live up to their high expectations

Marty Niland: The top five reasons the Nationals will live up to their high expectations
By any measure, the Nationals' 2012 season was an historic time in the nation's capital. It was the city's first winning season since 1969, its most wins and first postseason appearance in almost 80 years, and first postseason victory since the 1933 World Series. The 2013 season could be even more historic. Few people alive today can remember a season with such high expectations for a Washington baseball team. The pundits at Sports Illustrated and other national media outlets are picking...

MASNsports.com sets Nats guest blogger rotation for first half of 2013

MASNsports.com sets Nats guest blogger rotation for first half of 2013
The way MASNsports.com is structured, conversation is encouraged. And good conversation requires strong, distinctive voices. The blogosphere covering baseball is Washington, D.C., is one of the strongest collections of baseball observers in the major leagues, chocked full of well-reasoned opinions and creative storytellers. We're happy to once again welcome these dedicated writers to our pages for the 2013. Guest bloggers will return to MASNsports.com, offering their viewpoints each weekday...

Marty Niland: A magical season, a boy and a lesson in life

Marty Niland: A magical season, a boy and a lesson in life
I got to be 11, all over again this summer, thanks to the greatest season in Washington Nationals history, and my boy, Mark. Growing up in the suburbs of Washington, baseball was not a huge part of my life. When I was 11, in 1975, I could still remember the Senators and their move to Texas. I followed the game, watched what was offered on network TV, occasionally read the boxscores in paper and knew the stars. I rooted for the Red Sox in the World Series against Cincinnati because my dad was...

Marty Niland: It's all Werthwhile now

Marty Niland: It's all Werthwhile now
After Chad Tracy grounded out to end the eighth inning and leave the score tied at 1-1 in Thursday's National League Division Series Game 4, a friend turned to me and asked, "Deep down, in your heart of hearts, you really wanted a walkoff, didn't you?" Who would want anything else? Didn't every one of the 44,392 screaming, red-clad Nationals fans packed into Nationals Park want one? How could everyone watching on TV, listening on the radio or rooting for the Nats in any way, shape or...

Marty Niland: The folly of baseball's new playoff system

Marty Niland: The folly of baseball's new playoff system
First the good news: By virtue of the best record in baseball, the Nationals have the home field advantage in a best-of-five series against Friday's wild card winner. Now the bad news: By virtue of the best record in baseball, the Nationals have the home field advantage in a best-of-five series against Friday's wild card winner. How's that? The half-baked playoff system that Major League Baseball came up with this year means the Nats will take to the road for two games in either Atlanta...

Marty Niland: Cy Young for Gonzalez? Not a clear-cut choice

Marty Niland: Cy Young for Gonzalez? Not a clear-cut choice
Several interesting discussions about the National League Cy Young Award broke out Thursday among some Facebook friends, as Mets fans congratulated RA Dickey on winning his 20th game of the season. Posters and commenters began comparing Dickey and Gio Gonzalez, the only other 20-game winner in the majors this season, and speculating on which pitcher would win. So who does deserve to win the award as the league's top pitcher, Gonzalez or Dickey? Gonzalez won his 21st game Thursday night by...

Marty Niland: Memories of 1981 Expos, franchise's last playoff team

Marty Niland: Memories of 1981 Expos, franchise's last playoff team
Nationals fans no longer have to dream of the day their team makes the playoffs. It's a reality. Thursday's night's win over the Dodgers put the city of Washington, D.C., in the baseball postseason for the first time since 1933 and this franchise in the playoffs for the first time in 31 years. The team that moved to Washington to become the Nationals, the Montreal Expos, made its first - and only - National League playoff appearance in 1981. In a year when baseball fans endured a nearly...

Marty Niland: G. Gonzalez primed to join elite company

Marty Niland: G. Gonzalez primed to join elite company
Nationals left-hander Gio Gonzalez will be looking to join an exclusive club this weekend in Atlanta. He's set to take the mound Sunday bidding for his 20th win of the season. If he gets it, he'll not only be the first 20-game winner in the major leagues this year, he'll be the first player in a Washington uniform to do it in 59 years. With a win in Atlanta or another of his final starts this season, Gonzalez will join a club that includes Walter Johnson, who won at least 20 a dozen times...

Marty Niland: The spirit of 1969 and Washington's last winning season

Marty Niland: The spirit of 1969 and Washington's last winning season
Of all the milestones the Nationals have passed in this special season, none means more so far to their long-suffering fans than Monday's 2-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. The Nats' 82nd win of 2012 guaranteed their first winning season since moving to Washington. That's a treasure for the fans who stuck with the team through its lean years since 2005 and those who remember the expansion Senators. To quote the Eagles, "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969." That was the last time...

Marty Niland: A lesson to be found in losing streaks

Marty Niland: A lesson to be found in losing streaks
It's been one interesting week since my prediction that the Nationals would make the playoffs with the best record in baseball. It didn't seem so bold at the time, given their 6 1/2-game lead over Atlanta in the National League East and their two-game lead over Cincinnati for the major leagues' best mark. It's amazing, though, how a losing streak can rock some people's faith. Five days later, it seemed I was talking some people down from the ledge. The terms "choking" and "cracking...

Marty Niland: Forget jinxes, Nats are going to the playoffs

Marty Niland: Forget jinxes, Nats are going to the playoffs
Don't read this if you are superstitious. Is the word "playoffs" taboo in your household? Do you use euphemisms to talk about that sort of thing? Then maybe you can find a new argument about the Stephen Strasburg shutdown to read. Believe in jinxes? Stop here. This is for fans who dare to dream. Because the Nationals are going to the postseason. Not only that, they will win the National League East and have home-field advantage as deep as they go. There. It's been said. It's not the...

Marty Niland: Road-warrior Nats overcome past failures

Marty Niland: Road-warrior Nats overcome past failures
The Nationals are returning home this weekend as conquering heroes. Not only have they completed one of the best road trips in team history at 8-2 and amassed the best road record in the majors, they have been passing key tests that they failed earlier in the season, showing how they have grown and matured as a team. Remember back in late April when the Nats hit the West Coast for the first time? After taking two in San Diego, they stumbled in the series finale against the Padres before...

Marty Niland: The last Washington pennant race in 1945

Marty Niland: The last Washington pennant race in 1945
The kind of success the Nationals are seeing this year isn't even a once-in-a-generation thing. It's more like several generations. A ballclub from the nation's capital hasn't contended for a title this late in the season since 1945, when a Senators team full of rookies, castoffs and even an amputee pitcher made an improbable run that went down to the last week of the season and ended all too early, literally. If it wasn't for Senators owner Clark Griffith, baseball might have been called...

Marty Niland: Jordan Zimmermann finally gets his due

Marty Niland: Jordan Zimmermann finally gets his due
It looks like Jordan Zimmermann's teammates - along with the rest of the baseball world - are finally starting to appreciate him. Of all the moves Davey Johnson has made this season, the best may have been resetting his pitching rotation after the All-Star break with the 26-year-old right-hander at the top. Zimmermann has been the team's most consistent pitcher all season, with an major league-leading 19 quality starts in 21 outings. In fact, he has never pitched fewer than six innings - one...

Marty Niland: Remembering your grandfather's Nats and the last time Washington led the majors

Marty Niland: Remembering your grandfather's Nats and the last time Washington led the majors
At 20 games over .500, the Nationals have hit their high-water mark since moving to Washington in 2005, and with the right combination of events this weekend, they could find themselves with the best record in baseball. Think about that for a minute. Before this season, anyone who might even dare to form that combination of words would have been laughed out of town - just as the relocated Nats were regarded in many circles as the laughingstock of baseball Such a statement was completely...

Marty Niland: Hail to "The Chief" and Cordero's return for first-pitch ceremony

Marty Niland: Hail to "The Chief" and Cordero's return for first-pitch ceremony
For fans who have followed the Nationals since they moved from Montreal, it's not hard to forget the last time they were in first place this late in the season - that wonderful summer when baseball returned to the nation's capital in 2005. A big part of that success will be at Nationals Park tonight to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the opening of this weekend's National League East showdown with Atlanta. "The Chief," Chad Cordero, has been in town to conduct a celebrity...