Boz -- All is forgiven

Visiting the Washington Nationals - Grantland:

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Yes, Thomas Boswell, all is forgiven.  At least when I realize that we could have a pretentious blowhard like Charles Pierce scribbling for us instead.

Of course he's not here every day and can't be bothered with any minutia like oh understanding why the ball park was "ridiculously expensive" (hint for you CP -- it had to do with the District and the politicians who insisted on a municipally owned park.  If you can't figure out why, then I suggest you try building a parking garage in the District and see how quickly they politically-connected cement companies scurry out from the woodwork.)

Let's beat the old "they lost two teams, they don't deserve another one" horse to death again.  Yes, Havana IS a much better spot for an MLB team than the 7th largest media market in the country.  I'm sure all of us would be dying to hop in our Piper Cub's and meringue down to Havana to smoke cigars and complain about capitalism.  Hey CP, I'll bet those '36 Olympics were such a hoot -- bet you wish you were there too. They really knew how to celebrate human achievement with totalitarian style.

So, DC losing teams is just desserts but Montreal losing a team it didn't give a shit about, in a crummy stadium that was a health hazard is a crime of the century?

Nice for noticing that there are National's fans Mr. Pierce.  Did they just materialize in the past week?  Or were there 2 million + in 2005?  Surprise?  A Winning team means fans go to the park.  Losers mean they don't.  Amazing insight. I really must ensure the continued daily delivery of dead trees in order to savor your wisdom.

I will give him credit for the Whitey Ford reference in re:Gio.  Perhaps if he had stuck around and seen the other four members of the starting staff he might have laid off the doesn't look like an NBA 3 meme.  Pretty sure ZNN, Stras, Detweiler and EJ would all man the small forward position.

I do have to agree with at least one thing . . . the worst part of the pennant race baseball in DC will be the endless cameos of "important" people in the stands.  Hard as it will be to believe, their insipid BS when they get camera time will be even worse than that of ordinary LA or NY based celebrities who at least will be trying to move product rather than compete to get their snouts in the public trough the deepest.

On a small baseball note, kudos again to Davey.  Making the Werth hit leadoff is something only a guy like him could do.  In other words, despite the fact it makes far more sense than any other lineup configuration, Werth's stature would disqualify him in the eyes of most "baseball" men.  Davey, while being a "baseball" man is also smart enough to know what's going to help his team win.

It hard to imagine, when I started blogging here the goal I had in mind was 63 wins.  Now, it may be a .500 season before the end of August.

Shut down Stephen Strasburg, or just let him pitch? - ESPN

Shut down Stephen Strasburg, or just let him pitch? - ESPN:

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or beat a dead horse whichever you prefer.

The only sensible reaction comes from Ben Sheets, man to whom I would have given $10m to not pitch, who says whatever the decision, the team has to be 100% committed to it.

I agree.  Have a plan and stick to it.  Gather what info you can and make the choice that you believe serves the long term interest of the club.

Sure I'd like to see Stras pitch in meaningful games late in the season (avoiding the jinxing postseason verbiage) but if the Plan has been to limit innings and everyone's on board then just do it.  Don't listen to the tougher than thou might only have one chance at it crowd.  Those are the same people in the folding chairs at every Little League game who can't understand why the 12 year old ace can't pitch just one more game so their benchwarmer can play in the next playoff round.

Sure Strasburg's built like a workhorse and I'm sure its in his nature to want to pitch. But he's already broken once and he's still young, he's far from being beyond the reach of pitching injury from overuse.

And Orel and Carpenter's experience doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in the pitch em till their arms fall off crowd.  Does anyone have an example where a guy went too many innings and his team didn't win?  Then that guy was never the same and the team faded.  I'll bet that example exists but we'll never know.

No reason to believe that 2012 is some magical year that cannot be repeated.  The Phillies repeated from '08 to'11 without much problem.  Can anyone see a team with Stras, Gio and ZNN at the top of the rotation being anything other than a post season contender in 2013? With the two wild cards hell and yes.

Relax people, the Nats haven't won anything yet.  Are we really going to get all Atlanta-like complacent after one season if they don't win?  Settle in folks, we've got a few years of contention to enjoy.  We've suffered through what the Astros are now, now its time to enjoy it.

Credit where its due Omar

Bang! Zoom!: Believe me, I don't want to be positive but . . .: . . . I have to. It's my nature.  I always distrust popular opinion, generally I despise anything that everyone else loves.  There are excep...

Never let it be said that I don't give credit where credit is due.

TWGMIBB gets another pick to the Bigs!!1

So hoist a cold one Omar and have the last laugh at me all your many detractors. Only you saw the future of jim Henderson so clearly.

Oh ye Houston fans, I feel your pain

Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | WSH@HOU: Bernadina scores go-ahead run on two errors - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia:

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Nationals sign four international players - Nationals Journal - The Washington Post

Nationals sign four international players - Nationals Journal - The Washington Post:

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ABOUT FRIGGIN' TIME

Also, a sentence that should never be written again (from this article)

Nationals ownership has been hesitant to wade into the international market since the Smiley Gonzalez fiasco, when a Dominican player the Nationals signed for $1.4 million faked his name and identity.

Not only was this 2006?  six freaking years ago but IT WAS JUST 28% of a loDuca for god's sake.Years of potential international talent lost because of this.  Unbelievable.

Just a warning: There is now no $$$$ excuses

Nationals Acquire Kurt Suzuki: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com:

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Going off half cocked is as old and venerable tradition as there is on the Internet.  So, in the interest of serving tradition, allow me to to do just that.

If the Nats are paying even one penny of Kurt Suzuki's contract next year, then any off  season excuses about $$$$ are a complete joke.

$6 million plus in 2013 for Kurt freaking Suzuki!  Ouch.  A Loduca +$1m that hurts.

For what exactly?  He's not an offensive upgrade from anyone the Nats have now even given the depressive aspect of his formerly home field.

38% of baserunners thrown out.  Whoop de Doo.  You can't tell me there aren't a couple of members of the International Brotherhood of Backup Catchers waiting down at the union hall who couldn't do that while wielding a wet noodle at the dish?

And David Freitas?  A 23 year old with solid OBP skills.  No one will be able to convince me that the Nats couldn't have gotten Geovanny Soto from the Cubs for Freitas had it been offered.  Soto's line now might be worse but he has solid secondary skills and has the potential to be at least league average offensively.

If Billy Beane got rid of Suzuki's contract for the rest of this year and 2013 and still got a guy who could be a decent backup catcher in a few years then all I can say is please stop trading with Billy Beane.  Or at least don't let him take his pick of your minor leagues. Avert your eyes as he replaces Suzuki with former Nat farmhand Derek Norris.

My warning is this: I refuse to count Suzuki's 2013 commitment toward the salary budget.  You took this on with malace aforethought -- don't bitch later about spending restraints because you horribly overpaid for a bad catcher.  Not buying it, not one tiny little bit.

Nationals Baseball: The Phillies aren't dumb and the Marlins aren't the same old Marlins

Nationals Baseball: The Phillies aren't dumb and the Marlins aren't the same old Marlins:

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I wasn't to keen on either the Phillies or the Marlins going into this season.

Thought the Phillies were aging and not in a good way and that the Marlins has spent money but not very wisely.

Got those two things right.  Missed on the Nats being a .500 team though.

I disagree that either of these teams is really a threat going forward.  Yes the Pillies do have their core locked up through 2015 . . . but that core is all on the wrong side of 30.  Halladay, Lee, Utley, Howard, Rollins are getting worse not better.  Hamels is going to be a fine staff ace for the foreseeable future but who else is likely to maintain?  Can they afford to keep Hunter Pence?  They are already talking abut dealing him.  This is not Carlos Ruiz's true talent level -- he's having a career year and that won't continue.  Who is going to play 3rd for them going forward?  They have to replace Shane Victorino with ??????  They may have decided to retool rather than reload but from where I stand that is a terrible decision and will consign them to years of high payrolls and mediocre performace.

For the Marlins, they were always on the wrong track.  The Bell contract was a joke the moment it was signed and the Buhrle contract wasn't too far behind.  Who knew that Hanley Ramirez, their franchise cornerstone would disintegrate in front of our very eyes.  What's worse for them long term is their burst of activity and their new stadium did very little to increase revenue streams.  They will have a tough time putting together a winner using a spend spend spend formula so they will have to take the long road of prospect development.  And aside from Christian Yelich and Jose Fernandez, there isn't a lot in the cupboard.

Short and long term the Braves and the Mets cause much more concern.  The Braves just have a lot of young talent and have a knack of finding and developing young players.  For god sake Brandon Beachy was UNDRAFTED@!  That means he wasn't considered one of the best 600 amateur players in the country during his draft year.  That's hard to do.  And before his TJ, he was a top 5 pitcher in the NL.

The Mets seem to have found a clue.  We can all hope David Wright decides to move on. That would help.  Getting Zach Wheeler for a 2 month Carlos Beltran rental was big for them.They have some holes to fill but with the New York media market, they can be much bigger players and support a much higher payroll.

I have to say that this past week has made me a believer.  That Friday night collapse at home against he Braves followed by the shutout by Ben Freaking Sheets looked for all the world like the start of a young team feeling the pressure of a division lead for the first time.  Better and more veteran teams have folded (see Atlanta and Boston just last year) and this looked for all the world like a team wide failure.  A gutting of the winning "Natitude"tm that had propelled them beyond what I thought reasonable so far.

But as the old adage goes, you are only as good as your next day's starter.  Five wins later, with outstanding starts from every one in the rotation and even one who isn't (thanks John for one last moment!), and the ship is righted.  I'd also put a fair share of the credit for the turnaround squarely on the shoulders of one Davey Johnson.  Normally, you can't make much of a case for a manager making a difference but in this case I think Davey's response to Friday has a lot to do with the turnaround.

His post game press performance was a clinic in how a manager should handle this kind of situation.  He made it 100% clear using as harsh language as he could muster that it was HIS fault.  He let the team down. He mismanaged the bullpen and he was totally at fault.  That is a manager's job: When you win it's the players and when you lose it's you.  No wonder players love playing for Davey.  And no wonder they could go out and not carry that loss for too long.   This is such a simple lesson and the hallmark of so many successful managers in all sports that I am astounded when managers/coaches fail at this all the time.


Lastly, unless there is a deal where you get something for nothing like the HanRam to the Dodgers deal I see no need to make a move at the deadline at all.  There's been some talk about a starter to soak up innings after Stras is shut down but really how many starts would we be talking about?  And that guy would have to be better than John Lannan to make it worth while.  The Randy Wolf's and Kevin Millwood's of the world don;t meet that standard.  Besides, will there even be meaningful starts in September?  Is it possible that there won't be a "heat of the pennant" race in the NL East?  I do understand that it is reasonable from a cost/benefit analysis to go for the division crown over the wild card now but I'm not sure its worth much prospect wise to make that move.  I'd support a strict money move, if you feel like you need another middle infielder just go buy Jamey Carroll from the Twins. I don't see the need but if you do eh OK.