Nationals Baseball: Monday Quickie - The Three-Quarter of a Billion Dollar Man

Monday, October 21, 2024

Monday Quickie - The Three-Quarter of a Billion Dollar Man

Juan Soto is awesome. 

Juan Soto is very young. 

Juan Soto is about to go from very rich to unfathomably so. Buy an island house to buy an island. 

Juan Soto was really bothered by the events of 2022. That's the truth because I can't otherwise explain how this guy hits .242 for a season. 275? Ok bad year. .242?


Anyway the Yankees and Dodgers in the World Series.  It's the teams that spend the most in the biggest markets so it should draw eyeballs and media interest. Some people hate this. The biggest markets ALWAYS get the eyeballs and media interest. Not all teams have owners that want to (or very rarely "can") spend a ton of money. Take whatever view of it you want to.

Who do Nats fans root for (if they wish to root for anyone)? Probably depends on how you feel about Juan Soto post Nats and the Yankees. Clearly if you hate the Yankees and/or Soto you are probably rooting against them. If the Yankees aren't your least favorite team and you hold no grudges against Soto you probably are rooting at least for him, and thus tangentially for the Yankees.  

If neither of these hold true, things get more wonky.  You may hate the Dodgers a bit more with the Nats running into them in the playoffs a couple times. Although they did beat the Dodgers on the way to the title so how much can you hate a team you are 1-1 against? You may be a "root against any NL team" person or a "root FOR the NL" person. You may love Ohtani. (easy to do)  or Aaron Judge (a bit less likely but he isn't really hateable just bland, but the guy is a physical phenomenon  He's not a lumbering beast. He just a 6'2" guy scaled up by 15%). You could like someone else - probably Mookie, though Stanton is fun as just a "swing big hit ball hard" guy.  Kershaw? OK, everyone has their kinks. You could hate the Dodgers for the go nowhere trade for Ruiz/Gray that sent off Max and Trea. You could be a former Orioles fan still harboring anti-Yankee sentiments*

If you don't want to follow the series that's fine too. Hell you might shut down after the Nats do.

Anyway this kid is excited. 15 years is a long time to wait.


*Though it's fun to think it's been 20 years now of Nationals. Anyone 25-30 or younger are very unlikely to be a "former O's fan" thing unless their parents did the "root for the Os in the AL, Nats in the NL" thing.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will be rooting for Soto to play well and for the Yankees to suffer maximum pain and humiliation in a loss. The Dodgers being on the other side makes it hard--I cannot and will not root *for* the Dodgers. But there is no excuse for non-Yankees fans to root for the Yankees. The Yankees are evil and the world is a better place when evil is defeated.

Harper said...

America's Sweethearts? Everyone should root for them!

Anonymous said...

There are those of us who are fond of the players but hate the teams equally. I suppose that means I am rooting for good baseball, with indifference to the result.

DezoPenguin said...

I will be rooting for the Dodgers because they're my wife's second favorite team, and against the Yankees because I've disliked them since the years where they'd pay their starting infield more than half the AL teams would pay their rosters whereas every free agent the Expos had would be out the door before the sound of the final gun of game 162 would stop echoing. I will be rooting for Juan Soto to do well because I'll always root for pretty much anybody who gave me happy memories of my favorite team.

(I will also be rooting for Mike Rizzo to offer Soto something financially obscene in the offseason, and if it takes 15/$750M, then I will swallow very hard and hope he manages to age like Justin Turner.)

Sheriff said...

I will be rooting for the Dodgers. If Soto wins the World Series with the Yankees that takes away from the special and uniqueness of him winning his only WS with the nats and make our part of his career less relevant.

Anonymous said...

Where do I tick the box for love Soto, hate Yankees, don't much like the Dodgers, scream into the void....

Chas R said...

I hate them both but I'm happy for you Harper!

Cautiously Pessimistic said...

Yeah this is literally the worst case scenario for me for a WS when looking at the teams that made the playoffs. Maybe Phillies-Yankees would be worse? I guess I'm rooting for the Dodgers, but I'll be doing so silently with my Giants fan wife in the house

Kevin Rusch said...

I'm hoping the Yankees lose and Soto goes 1-for-25, and the Yankee fans boo him and he ends up hating New York and coming home in December.

billyhacker said...

My goal is for Soto to financially disable a behemoth (like Mets) with an inconscionable payday. Ohtani showing a lot of WS value might persuade an emotional owner to go above 600 for the only comparable theatrical impact.

Also persuasive: Soto just staying Soto.

Sheriff said...

Exactly!

Anonymous said...

I am completely indifferent. I don’t have strong feelings for either team. My only real issue is it feels like we are entering a time period where this match up will be a frequent one and that’s boring to me. Dynasties are boring.

Steven Grossman said...

It does feel unconscionable and dull to have two dynasties with as much money to spend as they want---and the ability to treat the other 26 teams (exclude the Mets and maybe the Phillies) as their farm system. But the current match-up of the two wealthiest teams is actually a rare occasion. It may be the Yankees and the Dodgers against the field, but the field really does win a lot.

Harper said...

The real issue is that the way the teams are run (which they shouldn't be) is in a sense where merch and TV revenue drives payroll instead of personal wealth and team appreciation. The former means the Dodgers/Yankees/ few others have a distinct advantage but there's no reason other than "I'm not chipping in my billions" for the latter not to be how teams are run. And fans, bc their own lives run far more like the former, tend to buy into the owners takes.

I said a long while back that a lot of Yankee hate is because they were lucky as much as good. Every post-season series thanks to talent and shortness is close to a 50/50 one but the Old Yankees and the 90s Yankees both won WAY more than 50/50 would have gotten them (the 70s Yankees were just kind of hateable in the time of hating cities)

Like people hate Atlanta but not like the Yankees bc in large part the Braves haven;t turned all those division titles into CS, WS appearances and WS titles.

Harper said...

When you add to that the truth that the NY and LA teams get more coverage just in general, one can get sick of it.

Sheriff said...

I agree with these and have been saying this. The owners have the money to spend on the team. The problem is they don’t want to. Most don’t, George did with NYY and people were just jealous.

The Ghost of Ole Cole Henry (JDBrew) said...

You know, I don’t like any of these teams. And I don’t wanna see my exes be happy and successful with their new boyfriends while I’m
sitting home drinking beer alone.

So I’m hoping for am the first ever World Series tie…all of ‘em are losers….

No, honestly I’m hoping the Yankees win and Juan realizes he just enjoyed winning one with the Nats so much more so that he returns next year on a lifetime contract. Good luck Juan!!

DezoPenguin said...

Harper's not wrong. When a team wins so many WS in a row, it definitely starts to feel like the rest of the league is just there to be jobbers to let them show off. Most of the aggressive spending outside of the big media markets come from owners like Ted Lerner, Mike Ilitch, and Peter Siedler, who are at the end of their lives and want to win a WS with their fancy toy.

John C. said...

I don't get the "I hate dynasties" chatter in this year's WS match up. The Dodgers and Yankees have amazing histories, but almost all of that is well in the past. Yes, the Dodgers have been in the playoffs the last 12 seasons in a row, but they lost in the first round six of those 12 times and have only been to the WS three times (2017, 2018, and 2020) and of course lost the first two of those. In the 15 years since they last won the WS the Yankees have made the playoffs 11 times but have never even made it to the WS (losing 2x in the WC game, 3x in the ALDS, and 5x in the ALCS).

I find a lot to like about both of these teams. It's hard not to like Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, Judge, Soto, Cole, etc. I'm just rooting for good baseball.

If either/both of these teams

Anonymous said...

I actually want Soto to do extremely well and every other Yankee to do so poorly that they get swept. In this scenario, I could possibly imagine him looking around and thinking the Yanks are the problem. Maybe. But probably not.

Anonymous said...

Only Yankee fans can say 15 years between WS appearances, much less wins, is a long time. But the Dodgers are the new evil empire, so if I do turn it on, I think I'll wind up wanting Soto to be the hero.

Sheriff said...

I mean, it’s a decent amount of time for a lot. I sure hope it doesn’t take us that long for our next WS appearance!

Robot said...

I like Soto. I like Ohtani. I guess Judge is a'ight. I hate both of these teams, though. I guess I'm pulling for the Yankees because winning the World Series used to be their thing.

Chris said...

I'll be rooting for the Dodgers as I stand to win $275 on Draftkings if they win it all

Steven Grossman said...

I finally find my rooting interest: re. landing Soto for the Nats.....root for the Dodgers to win in 4 or 5 and have Judge stay in his current batting funk. Teamwise, the Yankees don't have much to offer Soto if they can't provide him protection in the batting order. Then it becomes LA (batting with Freeman and Ohtani) vs. the Mets (with Lindnor, et al)....with a chance that we can sneak into consideration based on our future hitting stars. Offering the most money will also be required. This isn''t going to go our way, but we can hope.