Hot Stove-itude

I have to interrupt this Carolina basketball blogging to comment on how nice of an off season the Nationals have had.

The Doug Fister move was very nice.  Any time you can add a durable, play-off tested pitcher with a sub-4.00 ERA in the American League as your third starter* you are having a good off season. The Nats' rotation will once again be one of the best if not the best in the National League, with Strasburg, Zimmermann, Fister, Gio (*anyone who walks that many batters has to be our fourth starter) and either Ross Detwiler, Taylor Jordan or my personal favorite, Tanner Roarke, as our fifth starter.

Of course, the starting pitching was not the issue for the 2013 Nats but the bullpen was as Washington struggled to replace lefty set up man Sean Burnett. But this off season has solved that problem, too, as the Nationals acquired lefthander Jerry Blevins from the A's.  Not only does Blevins give the Nats a proven southpaw who should be just as good as Burnett was, it also means Washington's pitching staff includes the only two University of Dayton Flyers - Blevins and Craig Stammen - in the majors.  Book the UD Alumni Association night out at Nats Park NOW!

Not only did the Nats improve their rotation and the left side of their bullpen but our division rivals the Atlanta Braves have gotten worse.  They lost Nats-killer Tim Hudson to the Giants, but more importantly lost their heart and soul when Atlanta native and perennial all-star catcher Brian McCann signed with the Yankees.  

Sure, the Braves signed Gavin Floyd, and their remaining starters from last year - Medlin, Miner, Teheran - are very good. And they still have Craig Kimbrell, Freddie Freeman and Justin Upton.  But this off season our roster has gotten better, and their's has not.

Reignite the Natitude!

A few more Nats - and baseball - notes:

• Nate McLouth, meh. Then again, I guess GM Mike Rizzo is taking the safe bet that one of our outfielders will likely get hurt, and McLouth is a more than capable back up.
• It seems that the only remaining move will be adding a back up catcher.  Otherwise, the Nats' non-pitching roster seems set.
• I have no idea what the Yankees or Phillies have done this off season, but I think I would rather have Robinson Cano than Carlos Beltran**, Brian Roberts and Jacoby Ellsbury.  Adding McCann makes sense but the Yankees' other moves don't.  And the Phillies have signed older guys like Marlon Byrd while losing Roy Halladay to retirement.  Both those squads are way over the hill. 
• Great to see the Cardinals get worse, too, in losing Beltran!
• The length of Cano's contract is phenomenal.  I guess no one in the other Washington learned anything from the infamous A-Rod, Soriano, Pujols, Hamilton contracts.

Birthplace of our hometown team

Among other things - second largest French-speaking city on the planet, home of poutine - Montreal is the home of the Nationals, the city where our hometown team was born in 1969.

We visited the town where Jackie Robinson played his first season of professaional (white) baseball and Andre Dawson and Gary Carter became Hall of Famers last week, and surprisingly and happily found some lingering Expos love.  And some souvenirs.

One of the first places we visited was the Olympic Stadium, mainly to ride to the top of the tower that holds the roof of the stadium in place for the view. While in the observation deck at the top, Evan and I struck up a conversation with one of the guides there. He wistfully recalled many good times rooting for the Expos, and said Montreal remains a good baseball town with many fans still rooting for the Nats. He thought that most Montreal fans had switched their allegiance to the Blue Jays, but we did run into two local Montreal citizens/fans wearing Nats gear who yelled "Go Nats" when they saw Evan wearing a curly W.

Even though he worked at the Olympic Stadium even he called it a horrible venue for baseball (it hasn't aged well either; the concrete looks worn and crumbly and even the CFL's Alouettes play most of their games at McGill University). As you know, the stadium was built for the 1976 Olympic Games so most of the seats were pretty far from the field. He did say it was loud and had a great echo, so a small crowd could sound huge.

Finally, he knew a lot of the teams' history, both the Expos and the Nats.  He even apologized for the lack of talent that came from Montreal in 2005.  Evan and I defended that team, which after all went 81 and 81, and some of the players.

We expected a lot from our vacation to Montreal, but discussing the merits of Brad Wilkerson and Jose Vidro was not on that list.

Rue Saint Paul is the heart of old Montreal, and features lots of restaurants and tourist shops.  We found a decent amount of Expos gear for sale but all of it was old.  We saw a Gary Carter replica jersey at a few stores, but at each shop they only had 1 small size jersey left.  I was able to find a nameless Expos jersey in my size, a black Expos, and a fitted, authentic New Era hat for Evan. Both hats had been on the shelf so long that the New Era stickers on the bills were hard to remove. And the clerk told me that we bought probably the last, fitted Expos hat he would EVER sell.  He doubted he would ever order any more, or could even order more if he wanted to.  Once their stock is gone, memories of the Expos may disappear, too.

Evan and I wore our new Expos gear the next day, and got a few thumbs up and compliments from folks on the street. We probably had around a dozen Expos interactions with Montrealers if you include seeing 3 or 4 folks we saw on the street wearing their hats or shirts. It was enough to make me feel a little guilty for gaining from their loss

A Few Nats Notes

• The good news: the Nats have won 6 of 10. The bad news: we can't seem to beat the Braves!  What a frustrating series.
• The other good news: we take on the Cubs this week, so a 4-game winning streak may be on the horizon.
• Finally, I don't know what to make of Straburg on Saturday night. I hope he's not hurt, but the way be lost it in the second inning is a concern. He had pin-point control in the first, evidenced by the perfectly placed pitch that hit Justin Upton in the posterior. But in the second he practically beaned the mascot.
• Anyway, we're still 'only' 9 and a half back in the wild card. GO NATS!

162 games in one night

That sound you heard last night was an entire, 162-game season, passing by in one night.  The Nats' 2-3 loss to our new archrival Braves encompassed a season's worth of frustration and sadness - and frustration. Let us count the ways.  

• The game featured another wasted start by Stephen Strasburg. Stras struck out 9 in 7 innings as he had some nasty off speed stuff working.  The Braves tied the game at 1-1 on back to back to back bleeders, and probably had two good swings off of Strasburg all night.  Once again that effort was not good enough thanks to an anemic offense.
• No loss is complete without a wasted key at bat from Jayson Werth. Pinch hitting for Strasburg in the seventh with the go-ahead run on second Werth's strike out was practically pre-ordained. The only surprise is that he went down swinging. Despite being the July Player of the Month Werth and his $14 million-a-year salary is still unreliable in the clutch, and his dramatic game-winning homer in game 4 last year increasingly looks like a case of the blind squirrel finding an acorn.
• Last year, Natitude translated into lots of good luck: walk-off wins due to wild pitches; game-winning pinch hits from Chad Tracy or Tyler Moore; Harper taking baseball by the throat, etc. etc. This year's declaration of 'World Series or Bust' broke one of the cardinal rules of baseball: you have to be humble - or else. Davey Johnson forgot that the greatest sin a human can commit (at least to the ancient Greeks, who have been validated by 3,000 years of history) is hubris. 
• Last year, Natitude also translated into hard hit balls finding gaps and driving in runs. This year, as it was last night, it seems like 90 percent of our line drives find gloves. Case in point is the seventh. Harper hits the ball on the screws right to Heyward. Of course, that line-drive out would have scored the go-ahead run IF Werth had moved the runner to third instead of striking out.  There were numerous line-drive outs last night: Rendon's sacrifice fly could have been a double to the gap; Uggla robs Desmond, etc.
• Last night's loss even featured a bull pen melt down even when Davey made the right move. Clippard has been lights out all season but even he faltered last night, giving up the game-winning homer.  #snakebit. 

I guess to be more precise, I should blog that last night's loss means the passing of the NL East. Catching the Braves, even if we someone sweep the remaining 8 matchups, is unlikely but the wild card is still an option. The Nats are 'only' 7 games back of the Reds and only have to pass one other team, the Diamondbacks, to get there. But as many have said, before the Nats can realistically make ANY run to the playoffs they have to start hitting.  

That brings me to our ray of hope: kudos to Bryce Harper for calling out the team, from the manager on down, last week. Last September he carried us down the stretch and he can do it again. Unless he does, it will be a long, long off season.

Go Nats!

The Nats are killing me

As some of you may have noticed via social media, I've been a bit cranky when it comes to our hometown Washington Nationals.  Most of that crankiness was initially aimed at often ridiculous (the violence that pops up all to often during the Presidents race) and sometimes important (the stale and cheap patriotism of a standing ovation to honor convalescing veterans, an ovation that seems to absolve fans of actually helping veterans or thinking about our 13-year odyssey in Afghanistan*) topics.

But my crankiness is now metastasizing into full-on, Carolina losing to Dook after Zeller tipped in one of THEIR shots, depression.

The Nats are killing me.  

Two Sundays ago, Evan and I watched Washington complete a four game sweep of the Padres by scoring 13 runs.  THIRTEEN!  We had won 7 of 10 games, and were only 4 games back of the Braves.  Natitude was back!

But since then we've played our worst baseball of the year.  After this weekend's sweep to the Dodgers the Nats are now 2 and 8 in our last 10 games. Whatever good mojo the Nationals had has been eviscerated.  The Nats are now in 3rd place, half a game behind the Phillies for second in the East, and seven games behind the Braves AND the second wild-card spot.

It's hard to understand how a team that has Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, Ian Desmond, and Ryan Zimmerman can be this mediocre, and unable to build up ANY momentum over the course of 100 games.

Injuries is part of the story, especially for the lack of momentum that has kept this squad from ripping off a few 5 or 6-game win streaks.  Two weeks ago the 7 out 10 streak coincided with Harper then Wilson Ramos coming off the disabled list. 

But what gives now?  The big 3 pitchers have been great (despite today's stinker from ZNN), and even Dan Haren (on the hill tomorrow looking to end a 3-game losing streak!) has pitched better since coming off the DL.

It's not news that the offense has been horrible, frustrating, depressing, you name it. Saturday night's game was indicative of one of the biggest issues: driving in runs. The Nats had 12 hits but only scored one run, driven in by pinch hitter Roger Bernadina.  Against the Dodgers the Nats batted .077 with runners in scoring position.  

When a team with so many good players underachieves, who is to blame?  Is it Davey Johnson, his line ups, the way he uses the bull pen?  Is it hitting coach Rick Eckstein?  The Nats rank near to bottom of almost every offensive category.

Is it underachievers like Denard Span or Jayson Werth, who had a great second half last year but is currently making almost $500,000 per RBI this season and is hitting less than .200 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs?

I'll offer two things that could help a now healthy squad play better, maybe catch the Braves, and/or secure one of the two wild card spots.  I'm not going to touch the pitching, which outside of 2 or 3 bad outings from Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano has been generally great.

One is a simple line up change.  I'd go back to the future, and move Werth and Harper back to the top of the order, Zimmerman, then my big move of Desmond at clean up, followed by LaRoche, Rendon, Ramos, and Span (who has played great defense but is simply not getting on base enough).

Werth seems to stink everywhere else, and excelled at lead off last year. The second slot is the new third; you want to put you best hitter there since that spot gets about 15-20 more plate appearances than the 3 hole does a year.

Desmond often rises to the occasion with runners on base, and moving him up two places gets him a few more - important - at bats.  He's a free swinger but drives in runs.  

Two, fire Rick Eckstein for a number of reasons. One is admittedly cosmetic. Do something to get the team's attention/make them feel guilty/light a fire/insert sports cliche here. 

But others are valid.  The team is not hitting, and more importantly their approach to pitchers seems odd and confusing.  

Hitters guess and look for one pitch when they should be aggressive, take pitches when they should be expanding the zone looking for a pitch to drive.  

Or they frequently expand the zone at the wrong times, swinging at first pitches when it's actually time to work the count.  At bats look discombobulated; case in point was Harper Saturday night. He struck out LOOKING, taking all three strikes, when the situation called for looking for a pitch to drive no matter where it was (like Joe DiMaggio** or Tony Gwynn).  As much as I pick on Werth - ask Evan - we can not ignore that Harper has been swinging at too many bad pitches and taking too many 2-strike ones since he came off the DL; his pitch recognition - or approach - needs some improvement.

You can't fire the players so sadly have to fire the hitting coach. Bring in Frank Robinson, or Mrs. Robinson (the nation(als) turn their lonely eyes to you**) but do something.

These changes would work, or are at least worth trying, and I hope the Nats do something soon. It's past time to get hot. Going to last year's line up with Desmond at clean up and Eckstein at home could very well work.

GO NATS!

* One other thing I've been cranky about has been the generally lousy music the Nats play but that has gotten a little better. Positive developments include LaRoche using Steve Earle's 'Copperhead Road' as his walk up song; LCD Soundsystem's 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' and Stevie Wonder's 'You Haven't Done Nothing' making appearances lately, and Chuck Brown's 'Bustin' Loose' is heard after most homers (but there is still too much modern shlock country, too much AC/DC).
* One ray of hope. Line up change or no line up change, Harper is capable of getting red hot and carrying a team as he did in May and September last season. The big 3 should continue to be awesome. And we play the Braves head to head alot; if we sweep those games we're in!

THAT'S what it is!

As many folks know, the Washington Nationals' new slogan is 'Natitude.'  It's hard to define a made-up term, one primarily chosen - in this case - because it sounds cool and is a nice melding of Nationals with a sports and societal buzzword.

In the old days, when lions like Dean Smith or John Wooden or Bobby Cox or even Joe Torre coached a team, attitude was bad. Teams strove for the antithesis, a sort of honest blend of confidence, success and humility sometimes called class, grace, or simply sportsmanship.

Now attitude is strived for, easy to market and exploit.  Combine that with a team coming into it's own led by young and therefore modern stars, and voila - Natitude.

I like using the hash tag #Natitude, but could not really define it in the case of the 2012 Nats.  But that was before this weekend's sweep of the Red Sox IN FENWAY.

The Nats went into Boston and were not intimidated as they swept the three-game series. Nor did they display much attitude.  They were LeBron James in game 6 serious as, for 3 nights, they picked up each other.  On Saturday, Ian Desmond got a big hit, with help from Adam LaRoche.

On Sunday, it was Danny Espinosa and Roger Bernadina with huge hits, with help from Michael Morse and Ryan Zimmerman.

On the mound, Mike Gonzalez and Sean Burnett picked up Gio Gonzalez one night, Tom Gorzelanny picked up Jordan Zimmerman the next.

And Tyler Clippard picked up everyone all three nights, earning an equal number of saves.

Doing your job, helping your team and teammates, is one definition of Natitude.

The one exception was Friday night, when the Nats' modern young stars simply dominated and didn't need much help.  Stephen Strasburg struck out 13, including Kevin Youkilis with the bases loaded in the 6th, to shut down the Sox with poise and simply nasty stuff.  Bryce Harper did the same  with his bat in blasting 3 hits, including a 420+ foot bomb to center.

Harper may best epitomize Natitude, specifically his home run trot.  It's actually a sprint that takes less than 20 seconds.   No boasting, no standing in the batter's box admiring his handy work.  Simply and confidently blasting a home run, then not showing up the pitcher and getting back in the dug out as fast as you can.

Success without excess.  Natitude.

Good Playoffs, Shorter Seasons

Watching the NBA playoffs, one wonders why bother with the regular season?  Of course, you need the regular season to figure out who makes the playoffs.  But it's striking - and obviously obvious - to see how much better the play is in the post season.

Both series are pretty compelling; the young Thunder led by arguably the best scorer since Michael Jordan taking on a Spurs team that is professional and compelling, and the old guard Celtics led by young gun/old soul Rajon Rondo taking on the must see TV that is LaBron James and the Heat.

The NBA should consider institutionalizing the 66-game, lock-out induced schedule.  Like all leagues, the NBA regular season is too, too long at 82 games (the only exception to this is college basketball, whose 30 game schedule capped by a tournament seems about as perfect as 90 feet between the bases*).  There are too many bad NBA teams - thanks mainly to expansion - to waste our time watching.  Shorten the season, and put us and hapless teams like our hometown Wizards out of our collective misery sooner than later.

But the playoffs are a different story. The level of play is fantastic, as is the effort.

That, along with wanting to see who wins,  is what really stands out for me watching these playoffs.  Effort.

One stereotype about the NBA is that players don't play hard for four quarters or that defense is an afterthought. Watching the playoffs should dispel both of those lazy analyses. 

In the playoffs, every shot is contested. And that's true for the first shot of the game and especially the last.  You can feel the defensive intensity oozing from your TV screen.

The effort extends both ways.  It was pretty compelling to watch Rajon Rondo play 53 minutes - 53! - and make shot after shot in a losing cause.  It was inspiring stuff. 

Ditto Manu Ginobili or James Harden as they recklessly and repeatedly attack the hoop, or Kevin Garnett go down low - though he hates it - to exploit Miami's lack of a big man.  Or watch Kevin Durant patiently wait for the game come to him then simply blow up and take over, as he did last night.

Anyway, check it out.  It's the playoffs after all not the regular season - inspiring stuff.

A few more sports notes:

• What else is inspiring? Watching Stephen Strasburg bounce back from 3 consecutive average outings, only one of which he actually pitched badly BTW, with seven innings of shut out ball, with 9 strike outs and no walks to boot.  Not only was it great to see him dominate yesterday and lay to rest rumors of a tired arm or similar post-Tommy John surgery problems, Strasburg did what number one pitchers do on a contending team - he slammed the door on a 3-game losing streak.  
• We're heading to Nats Park in about an hour for Evan's annual birthday party game with his crew.  Excellent weather, an excellent celebration - and we get Gio Gonzalez on the bump.

* Schedules

Back to scheduling for one more second.  On one level, it's easy to understand the main reason why owners and TV execs in particular would oppose shortened seasons: fewer games to sell tickets and TV rights.  

But shortened seasons would benefit all four of the major leagues (baseball, basketball, football and soccer; I do not consider a sport that penalizes players 5 minutes a game for fighting a major sport; you ball your fist in any of the real major leagues and you get suspended 5 GAMES - as it should be. Grow up NHL.)

Expansion has greatly diluted talent pools for all the sports, as has the simple explosions of sports and leagues.  The larger number of teams in each league is one - but not the main - reason you see so many foreign players in all the leagues not named the NFL.


One way to minimize the impact of a diluted talent pool is to player few games.  A shorter season in all the leagues would help immeasurably.  Or, measurably.

• It would help cover the lack of pitching depth in the majors.  If MLB went to the old 154-game schedule teams could experiment for 4-man rotations, need fewer pitchers in general, and baseball can get rid of the asterisks that go along with comparing records in the pre and post-162 game era.   And, with baseball expanding it's post season a shorter season would ensure that the Fall Classic is completed before November.  Baseball is already a grind; why not make it a little less grindier?
• We've already discussed the NBA.  A shorter season gets us to what we want to watch - the playoffs - sooner.  No one pays attention to the NBA any way until after March Madness anyway. Start the season like the NBA did this year - with a Christmas Day triple header (which was awesome, BTW).  Let the NFL have Thanksgiving, the NBA can take Christmas.
• The MLS season already makes no sense, interrupted with side competitions, national team games, etc. and spanning from who knows when to who knows why. They should go back to the traditional world football schedule of games from October to May; MLS is afraid of competing with the NFL for fields and attention.  But with teams getting their own venues that is no longer a problem. And the NFL only plays once a week; MLS should shoot for the other six days and play a shorter season, too. Like the NBA, the MLS playoffs are usually more compelling that a numbingly boring 0-0 tie played in August during the regular season.   
• In an earlier post I pontificated on how to fix college football, including a shorter season, and try to restore the balance between being a student and athlete.
• But the NFL is most in need of a shorter season.  In the old days, when I first started watching the NFL, they played a 12-game season. It's now ballooned to an abusive 18-game schedules that wears out bodies faster and faster. In an era with heightened concerns over head injuries and an epidemic of debilitating injuries, doesn't it make sense to expose the players to fewer risks via fewer games?  The NFL will still make boatloads of money thanks to their lucrative television deals.  The least they could do is shorten their employees' exposure to life altering traumas by playing fewer games (and giving out guaranteed contracts).

Nats Name George Allen New GM

The future is now at Nationals Park!

In trading four prospects, 3 of whom were among our top 10 according to Baseball America, for 2011 All Star Gio Gonzalez GM Mike Rizzo in NOT looking towards 2013.  In the suddenly competitive NL East Rizzo clearly thinks - as does Manager Davey Johnson - that the Nats can compete with the pitching-rich Phillies, the young Braves, and the renamed and restocked Miami Marlins.

The real loss in that trade is losing prospects - and pitchers - like Brad Peacock and A.J. Cole.  Peacock was the Nats' minor league pitcher of the year last season, and in 12 big league innings only gave up one run.  Tom Milone also looked good during a late season call up.  But the move reflects both a desire to get better now, and the fact that Washington has quite a bit of pitching depth in the minors.

In an end of the season interview with the Washington Post Johnson went so far as to say the Nats were only one player away from contending for a playoff spot in 2012. Most folks thought Johnson meant a center fielder or legit lead off hitter.  

We'll see if a 26-year old All Star who won 31 games, in the tough American League, in the last two years while pitching in the gargantuan Oakland Coliseum - who now is our number 2 or 3 starter after Strasburg and Zimmerman -  is that 'one player.'

A few Nats Notes:

• It will be - at least look like - a big league rotation next year, with Strasburg, Zimmermann, Gonzalez, Chien Ming Wang and John Lannan.
• Lannan was our number one starter in 2009 and 2010; now he's number 5.  Bad for Lannan but proof of progress in our pitching staff, right?
• The two other off season moves the Nats have made also fit the 'contending team' model.  Veterans like Mike Cameron, our new back up outfielder, and Mark DeRosa, who can play everywhere, are the kind of bench players contending teams feature.  Then again, you could probably say the same thing about Jerry Hairston last year.

Another nice win

After a weekend of nail biters, loud fans and walk-off wins against the dreaded Phillies, things returned to 'normal' last night as our hometown Nationals calmly defeated the somehow-in-first place Diamondbacks 4-1.  It was a relatively ho-hum, by-the-book night of pitching, an excellent start from emerging lefty Ross Detwiler, defense, Ryan Zimmerman making 3 stellar plays, and timely hitting by Jayson Werth, whose three-run homer sealed Detwiler's win.

It was also a tidy game, as the Nats won in about 2 and half hours. It seems like every game Evan and I attend the Nats win and the game is quick (almost always 2 and half hour with not many walks or dead time).  Hard to beat.

Their recent streak - centered around Zimmerman's hot hitting and some nice found-money pitching from Detwiler and Chien-Ming Wang among others - have the Nats only 2 games under .500 at 62-64.  Washington has to merely go 19 and 17 the rest of the way to finish at 81 and 81. 

That is certainly doable since our Nats play 19 of those games in Washington.  Best of all, it's not exactly a Murderers Row of teams coming to South Capital Street, either.  We've got home stands coming up against the fourth-place Mets (3 games), fifth-place Dodgers (4 games), sixth-place Astros (3 games), and fifth-place Marlins (3). The only good teams we play are 3 more this week versus the Diamondbacks and 3 games in September versus the Braves. Assuming we win each series against the bad teams - not sweep, just win - and split the six versus the good ones, that get us 12 curly Ws.

On the road, the Nationals go to Cincinnati for 3, Atlanta for 3, Philly for 4, New York for 4 and Florida for 3. I feel good about splitting with Philly and the Mets, and not getting swept in any of the others so that gives us at least 7 road wins.

For a final total of - ta da! - 19 wins to close out the season, and a very satisfying 81 and 81 mark for 2011.  

Waiting for . . .

As some of you know, Evan has a blog called Waiting for 2012.  But recently the August 8th SweetSpot blog by David Schoenfield looked at a possible Nationals line up in 2013: 

2B Anthony Rendon
RF Jayson Werth
3B Ryan Zimmerman
1B Prince Fielder
LF Mike Morse
CF Bryce Harper
SS Danny Espinosa
C Wilson Ramos
 

Of course, the big news here is Fielder, news since everyone knows we are signing Pujols this winter (of course, Mike Rizzo will in reality sign whoever Scott Boras tells us to).  Espinosa to short stop is not news; he's historically been a short stop and assumes Rendon develops as expected and therefore pushes Desmond off the field.

The semi-big news is Harper in center field.  We know Werth has to stay in one of the corner outfield spots for the next 6 seasons, and Morse's emergence means he gets a corner too, so Harper gets center.  That issue will actually get settled this winter as the Nats are expected to sign a center fielder, with Morse moving to 1B in 2013 after LaRoche's contract expires.  So a more likely 2013 line up is:

CF Free agent 
2B Rendon
3B Zimmerman
1B Morse
RF Werth
LF Harper
SS Espinosa
C Ramos


I'd take either one, frankly.

In terms of pitching, it's exciting to think about Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, John Lannan, Detwiler, and someone like Brad Peacock (who'll get a call up soon; nice bit on him from Baseball America here) in 2012 or 2013. Add Tyler Clippard, Colin Balester, Ryan Matheus, Henry Rodriguez and Drew Storen and you have a legit, big-league staff.

So 81wins this year, between 85 and 90 in 2012, and who knows the limit in 2013!  Go Nats!

He's a baby

I couldn't tell what to title this blog, but the more I thought about Jim Riggleman's surprising and selfish resignation, I kept returning to the B word.

Riggleman practically said as much, saying at one point "It's about me. It's about looking in the mirror and feeling like I've got to answer to myself." To me, when an adult says 'It's about me" that equals to "I am a baby."

I imagine it's stressful working under a series of one year contracts - though Walter Alston did it for 30 years - but does Riggleman think he will ever be offered ANY kind of contract after leaving his team mid-season and mid-hot streak?  I can't imagine he will EVER work in baseball again.  Who would trust him?

Isn't a one year deal to be one of the 30 big league managers on the planet, for your hometown team, better than nothing? Or better than burning every single bridge you've ever crossed in baseball?  It would be different if this were Joe Torre or Tony LaRussa, guys who've won a few title, walking away.  Those kinds of guys could walk out on a team and still hope to be rehired in the future.  But not Riggles.

The resignation takes some of the bloom off the Nationals rose. This team is young and fun to watch.  The funnest thing about this team, besides the winning, is that you never know who is going to step up for our hometown team. One night it's Morse, another it's Espinosa - or Ramos or Clippard or Marquis or ZImmermann or ZImmerman or Nix or Bernadina or Pudge or Storen or Livo.  

[One guy who is NOT is Jayson Werth, doing his best to prove that he is not a star without Ryan Howard and the rest of Phillies to protect him.]

One of the great things about that list is the pitching.  Jordan ZImmermann has looked like a potential number 2 starter, with John Lannan the same as a solid number 3.  There is some there there on the mound.  And our bullpen, with Tyler Clippard, Sean Burnett, and Drew Storen is solid, too.

But best of best of all, outside of Pudge, Livo and Marquis, that list of players is young. I don't want to get too excited - all that gets this franchise is Tommy John surgery and managers resigning - about the base of talent in Washington, a base that will grow larger once Stephen Strasburg returns and Bryce Harper is ready for the big leagues - but it's hard not to. 

Excited good, being a baby bad.

The Silver Lining

•  Lost among the Riggleman hubbub was another win, 1-0 today against the Mariners.  The win put the Nats - the Washington Nationals - above .500 at 38-37 in June.  The last time that happened was in 2005.  In addition to creeping above the 500 mark, the Nats are only 4 and half games out of the wild card race.
• The other silver lining today was a very, very good NBA draft for the Wizards.  With their 3 picks Washington drafted: Jan Vesely, a high-flying athlete from the Czech Republic who should thrive running and rolling with John Wall; the very versatile and smart Chris Singleton from FSU to play some D and be the glue guy; and Shelvin Mack from Butler, a tough guy to back up Wall.  Throw Jordan Crawford and JaVale McGee in there and that's a talented rotation of young players. If we could trade Andray Blatche tonight it would be perfect! 
• One final draft note.  Jordan Williams and Kyle Singler were both drafted in the 2nd round.  A first round pick gets a guaranteed, 3-year contract, so slipping a round has some consequences.  Those two players illustrate the need to be smart, not sentimental or emotional, in deciding to go pro or stay in school.  After leading his team to a championship as a junior Singler was a lock to go in the first round.  But he stayed in Durham, had a so-so season, and slipped to the second round.  Williams was just as dumb.  Gary Williams and others told him he needed another year of polish, but Williams told the Post his gut told him he was ready.  Leaving school early only to go in the second round is foolishness.  Singler should have left early, Williams should have stayed.

Nats Fever?

As Evan and I prepare to leave for tonight's Nats game versus the Rockies, it's hard not to get a little excited. It may not be full on 'Nats Fever' but at least we're a little warm. The recent winning streak and improved play, coupled with the Straburg signing, finally gives this franchise an actual pulse.

More importantly for Kasten and the Lerners, it's proof that their plan is actually a plan. The young talent - Zimmerman, Flores, Lannan, Dukes? - combined with the potential talent - Strasburg, Zimmermann, Detwiler, Marrero - could actually lead to a decent team.

Here's hoping the current cast of starters continue to improve next year on our way to a 75 win season. And that Strasburg pans out so that in two or three years we actually have a contending team.