The Morning Briefing: September 25

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, September 4.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

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Leading this Morning's Briefing: Crews On the Struggle Bus

Dylan Crews has struggled to adjust at each new level beginning with AA, and the major have been no exception. Crew is 6 for his last 44, a stretch which includes a three-hit game, and is now slashing .196/.252/.324 in his 111 plate appearances. He is looking positively Roblesian against anything with spin off the plate away, and pitchers are not giving him many fastballs as a consequence.

Last Game Out

Cole Ragans threw six shutout innings for the Royals...but Mitchell Parker also threw five, and neither bullpen allowed an earned run. In the tenth, however, the Royals pushed across the zombie runner because Juan Yepez couldn't keep a bad throw from Nasim Nuñez in front of him (why was Joey Gallo not in the game for defense???), and then Gallo struck out to end the game one pitch after hooking a hanging slider foul by a few feet on what would have been a walk-off home run.

Nationals Headline of the Day: Nats Announce MiLB Awards

The Nationals announced six players for their various organizational players of the year yesterday, and four of the six (the other two are on the major league roster) joined the radio and television booths for an inning each last night. Much like Ryan Zimmerman (in the TV booth as well), I came away impressed with each of the four. Here were the winners:

Pitcher of the Year: Travis Sykora

Hitter of the Year: Dylan Crews

Defensive Player of the Year: Elijah Green

Baserunner of the Year: Darren Baker

Nationals Way Award: Daylen Lile & Brad Lord

Down on the Farm

The Nationals are sending seven minor leaguers to the Arizona Fall League for some extra competition and preparation for 2025: Cayden Wallace, Robert Hassell III, Matt Cronin, Michael Cuevas, Max Romero, Dustin Saenz, Chase Solesky, and Luke Young.

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

In addition to being the Nationals' minor league Pitcher of the Year, Sykora is a finalist for the Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award along with Caden Dana (Angels) and Quinn Matthews (Cardinals). Previous winners of this award include José Fernández, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow (twice), Dylan Cease, and MacKenzie Gore.

Former National of the Day

Let's take a minute to remember fan favorite Mike Morse, a 6'5", 245-pound behemoth of an outfielder who was originally drafted as...a shortstop??? Acquired in June 2009 from Seattle for Ryan Langerhans, Morse played 378 games across four seasons for the Nats, mostly in the outfield but also occasionally at first base. He had a career year in 2011, batting .303/.360/.550 with 31 bombs (he also still holds the stadium record for distance, clanking one off of the top railing in front of the Brew House restaurant - 465 feet away from home plate - in a slugfest against the Barves that I attended in July 2012) and 95 RBI. Morse moved on after the 2012 season, and his career ended in 2017 via a concussion sustained thanks to a collision with Giants teammate Jeff Samardzija during a brawl precipitated by Hunter Strickland drilling Bryce Harper in retaliation for a couple of NLDS moonshots back in 2014.

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