Nationals look like favorites to host 2018 All-Star Game

The Washington Nationals are the leaders in the clubhouse to host the All-Star game three-years from now.

For the people who reside near the beltway, unless you’ve declared yourself a Baltimore Orioles fan, it’s been a pretty good day.

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First, news came down that free agent stud pitcher Max Scherzer would be coming to town. He agreed to a seven-year deal worth $210 million to bolster an already star studded Washington Nationals rotation.

Now it appears that the All-Star Game will be coming to the DC area in 2018.

According to Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post, he heard from “people with reason to know” that the Nationals will be the host team for the 2018 All-Star Game.

Last year, for Derek Jeter’s farewell, the All-Star Game was held in Minnesota, an American League venue. This year’s game will be in Cincinnati and 2016 will be held in San Diego.

This marks the first time since 1962 where the same league will host the mid-summer classic two-seasons in a row (Boston Red Sox and Washington Senators from the American League).

The Nationals were in the running to host the game in 2017, but due to pre-existing agreements with conventions and events they had to fall out. Also, baseball did not want to see the NL host the game three-seasons consecutively.

It’s interesting to think that baseball would even consider with the idea of allowing either league host the game two-years in a row considering the “value” they want to place on the game. If I’m representing a team from the visiting league, I’d be upset if my team had a shot to content for a title and we didn’t get home-field advantage.

Alternating seasons between AL and NL is the only sensible way to go.

The cities of Miami and Baltimore are currently fighting for the 2017 slot.

As far as the team is concerned, they’re coming off their second strong season in their past three. They finished 96-66 as NL East Champions and marked the best record in the National League.

Another disappointing playoff series has scarred their offseason. Falling to the defending World Series Champion San Francisco Giants in four-games in the Divisional Round has yet again put enormous scrutiny on their offseason.

They’ll hope the Scherzer signing will be what puts them over the top in 2015. Currently their staff features the likes of Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Ryan Zimmermann and Doug Fister.

Very few teams in the bigs can match what Washington will be throwing out there on a daily basis.

Already, Vegas is taking notice as they’ve been placed as the new favorites to win the 2015 World Series at 6/1.

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