The Morning Briefing: September 3

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, September 3rd.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: So, About that Crews Guy

I think it was a stellar choice in the end to bring up Crews for two high-profile home series against the Yankees and the Cubs. Crews seems like a guy built for big crowds and high-energy games, and he showed off every part of his all-around game this weekend. Two home runs, a steal, just about every ball hit on the nose, an outfield assist, etc. The early returns are great - he has five fully red bars on his Statcast page in his first week.

Last Game Out

The Cubs got football season started early by hanging two touchdowns on the Nats in Sunday's series finale to complete a sweep in which the home team looked awful for all but a couple of the series' 27 innings. Darren Baker and Zach Brzykcy became the ninth and tenth Nationals to debut in the 2024 season (Lipscomb, Nuñez, Parker, Herz, Wood, Chaparro, Ribalta, Crews), with Baker getting a pinch-hit single on the first pitch he saw and Brzykcy coming thisclose to a scoreless inning before things got further out of hand.

Nationals Headline of the Day: Baker has a Moment

I didn't think there was going to be room for Baker in this organization, especially not once José Tena started hitting right away. But the 25-year-old, who spent much of two teenaged summers hanging around with his dad in the Nats' clubhouse, came full circle and debuted for that same organization as a player with Dusty in the stands, as Jessica Camerato writes at MLB.com.

Down on the Farm

Robert Hassell III is moving north to Rochester, and it looks like the Red Wings' lineup could open next season with a big crop of somewhat lesser if still very legitimate prospects on hand. Do not be surprised if Hassell, Brady House, Andrew Pinckney, Yohandy Morales, Andry Lara, Andrew Alvarez, Brad Lord, Tyler Stuart, and Marquis Grissom Jr. are on Rochester's Opening Day roster in the spring, quite likely joined by Nasim Nuñez.

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

Assuming that people continue to pitch to him, Shohei Ohtani looks like he is on track to have the first 50-50 season in major league history.

Former National of the Day

Dusty Baker was a very good player who fell just short of 2000 hits in his nineteen-year major league career. But as a manager he is one of the best ever, with a .540 winning percentage over 26 years and the only man to take five different clubs to the postseason, doing so with the Nationals in both 2016 and 2017. Plus he invented the high-five, so there's that.

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