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The Nats are… well, they’re a fucking disaster is what they are. You’ve already read elsewhere that they are overhauling their pen after falling 9½ games back ten games into the season. They may have fallen further back by the time their series with the Mets started, but the Pirates did some fishing, and the Washington Nationals pulled to within 7½ — still enough to keep the Mets 2½ games from the cellar. Everybody thank the Nats.
But the problem isn’t just their field performance, but the dysfunctional management situation that has gotten them there.
<ol><li>The ownership group was given so many perks in order to take over the abused former Montreal franchise that they ended up making a paper profit before game one.
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<li>The baseball-hungry fans who came out and supported the team their first season at RFK as the team improbably contended, have since congealed into a hard angry brittle lot.
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<li>Scandal rocked the franchise this offseason when it was revealed their big international teenage recruit was in fact a distinguished middle-aged grandfather of six.
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<li>The fraud involved in the signing was so deep and broad that the team’s GM appeared to be implicated, either as taking a cut or being too ignorant to detect the shenanigans, and he resigned under a cloud.
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<li>That GM’s corporate raider signature strategy — to pick up troubled sluggers who run out of chances elsewhere and attempt to rehabilitate them enough to flip them — had its graces as far as building a team’s portfolio, but rarely led to results on the field, as assets were cashed in as soon as they matured.
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<li>With that GM gone, his successor is forced to live with the pieces of a game that he isn’t so inclined to play. Those pieces are a glut of talented unestablished anti-social outfielders.
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<li><img src="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/washingtonnatinals.jpg" align="right">For three seasons now, the team hasn’t pursued even marginal veteran pitching help — a Steve Trachsel here or there that you know can give you 30 starts, and so has rounded out the rotation with 3–5 guys comparable to the Nelson Figueroas that the Mets call up for emergency starts.
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<li>Talented pitchers have ended up in the pen, but get no leads to protect, and often get overused. Too often a reliever ends up as the team’s top winner.
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<li>As dis-spiriting as this is for the dwindling fan base, they’ve been recently outraged at reports that ownership has gone on the radio in Philadelphia to encourage the Phaithful to come on down to DC to watch their beloved Phils on the road. “Plenty of good seats left!” Fans here hate the Mets as a team, but they hate everything about the Phillie culture, and consider visiting Phil Phans to have been the worst sort of guests.
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<li>The stadium may well be Miami north this year, evidencing as many fans supporting the guest teams as the homeboys. That’s despite the franchise being in only the second year of a new stadium.
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<li>Nobody cares enough to sew their uniforms correctly.
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<li>Their beat reporter for the <i>Post</i> hates baseball.</ol>
<img src="http://api.ning.com/files/QpV*ayv*zLB6ex23z9SiRpIwqxeUC*GgF8QzXPRi*J-rFu-Z562pq1NtjQ3mf0usqxJLjcBGVJnpITut6ZyIXVPet2zp-M7g/CarolynwithRyanZimmerman.jpg" width="300" align="left">Good news is that Ryan Zimmerman, the David Wright of the franchise, has followed the David Wright path and signed a five-year $45 million contract, buying out his arbitration years and such. The bad news is that the David Wright of the Nationals is not David Wright. Zimmerman’s a good hitter but has gotten off to some bad starts. He’s a lesser hitter, fielder, and baserunner, and his chin isn’t as strong. He comes from the same region, shares the same style, the same bushy eyebrows, hair gel, and cool blandness, but they’ve got the lesser man, and they’re forced to pimp him more, lacking any other public identity save an underwhelming mascot and a presidential character race based on the Milwaukee sausage race. Teddy Roosevelt is the second most popular National, is what I’m saying.
Nationals opening day was cursed to the high heavens when broadcasting legend Harry Kalas was found dead in the broadcast area. Hoity-toity Keith Hernandez complained a lot last year that his broadcast booth was unconscionably high up, so let’s hope the climb and the vertigo isn’t what finished off poor Harry.
Anyhow, let’s meet your Nats.
C: Jose Flores, late and lamented of the Mets minor leagues, spent the spring trying to recover from elbow soreness, and has been looking less like the missing next step in a tradition of Met catching excellence than the ever-rehabbing John Stearns of the early eighties. His punchless statline — .268 / .317 / .340 // .657 — includes only two extra base hits (doubles) in his first 41 AB. He heated up a little in his last series, however
He is backed up by Wil Nieves, who looks kind of evil but has only briefly shown any kind of hitting ability in his career.
1B: After over a year off recovering from a gruesome broken leg suffered against the Mets, Nick Johnson is again trying to get his career on track. It seems amazing that, when they first came up, scouts and analysts would have playful arguments over whether Nick “The Stick” Johnson or Pat “The Bat” Burrell was the better bet, and now Burrell is entering the wind-down phase of his career while Johnson is still trying to find himself.
<img src="http://mlb.mlb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_276376.jpg" align="right">Anyhow, one may wonder if a guy whose OBP was his best asset, and that OBP was partially a product of a Ron Hunt-like willingness to take a pitch to the ribs, was a good bet to stay on the field . Still, the dude is doing what he’s paid to do, reaching at .380 clip. But a guy who looks like this at 30 suggests some hard times.
Backing up, pinch-hitting, and bitching about playing time is Josh Willingham. It is hoped by some that Lastings Milledge’s demotion means more PT for the baby-face whiner. It is hoped by me that more PT means more exposure.
Willingham recently found out just how hard Dukes can hit a ball.
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/new ... p&c_id=was
2B: Anderson Hernandez still looks too slender to fill out a major league uniform. His backup Ronnie Belliard (Bronx, NY) still looks too fat. Nothing about their stats suggests otherwise. Willie Harris was the original plan, but he’s hurt.
3B: Zimmerman’s gotten off to an uncharacteristically modest start, hitting .274 with two clouts, but he’s reaching at only .318. So not Wright.
SS: Venezuelan Alberto Gonzalez gave the Yankees nothing as a Derek Jeter backup the last two years, but slugged the shine off the ball after coming over in a trade for Jhonny Nuñez. (Somewhere, somebody is naming baseball players “Jhonny.”) He’s hitting well again this year (high power, low average), and I support anybody who plays well after forgetting to do so for the Yankees. Just don’t do it against my team, you hear? Gonzalez is filling in for Christian Guzman, who has been with the team since they arrived in D C, and played well since the fans turned on him in year one, for having a crap year coinciding with a first place summer that turned into a fourth place fall. Maybe Gonzalez can keep the job, and join the division’s batch of excellent shortstops.
Veteran switch hitter Alex Cintron backs up the infielders, along with Belliard. I’m predicting Belliard’s release when Guzman or Harris becomes healthy.
And, hey, let’s pause to talk about health. Seven guys on the DL for the Nats this young season, up from six since I started this essay, when LOOGy Joe Beimel went down with a hip flexor strain. Not a good situation.
LF: Well, the outfield situation opens with one Adam Dunn, who the Mets elected not to match an offer on. I think you need to sit down for this one. Dunn is reaching at a .476 clip and slugging .609 (and that’s after a poor series against Atlanta). Those numbers are, ahem, kinda good. Adam is pretty massive, and big guys tend to wilt in the Washington summer, but an MVP start is an MVP start.
<img src="http://mlb.mlb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_452668.jpg" align="right">CF: Making good on his baseball promise — as opposed to his promise to murder his ex, Elijah Dukes is also slugging hard at .311 / .380 / .533 // .913. Oddly enough, the GM that attempted to rehabilitate Dukes’ career, acquiring him when he was a baseball pariah, can’t puff his chest with pride, as he’s a pariah himself right now.
Anyhow, Dukes’ promo photo still says “I’m gonna cut your bitch ass up,” so let’s hope he stays on the straight and narrow, but goes into a mighty slump starting today. He also didn’t do much against the Braves.
RF: Not starting so well is Adam Dunn’s prototype, Austin Kearns, also a big strong white southern outfielder that Bowden originally brought along with the Reds. His days seemed numbered, and he destined to soon give way to Willingham or Milledge, but then a first-inning grand salami earlier in the week may have started him in the right direction. He’s hit the Mets well historically, so that should keep him in the lineup this series. He’s also still a steady reliable fielder with a heck of an arm.
So, you know, with Johnson, Dukes, and Dunn hitting so well, and Zimmerman doing OK, why, Edgy, do they suck so? If you’ve got to ask, well, then, maybe this baseball thing isn’t for you. The answer, of course is pitching, with the Nats giving up the second most runs per game in the National League (5.79), with the Phis first at 6.21. (They’ve flip-flopped over the last three games).
The new regime, however long they may last, may be growing impatient with the old school method of rolling out AAAA starters, because they cut free Shawn Hill mid March, but Hill got picked up by the Padres and has done pretty well.
Anyhow, starters:
Friday, 7:10 p.m.: LHP Scott Olsen (0-2, 9.00) vs. LHP Johan Santana (2-1, 0.46)
Olson is trending up, giving up eight earnies in three innings his first start, five in five his second, and two in seven his last time out against Florida.
Johan is Johan.
Saturday, 1:10 p.m.: RHP Daniel Cabrera (0-1, 4.50) vs. RHP Mike Pelfrey (1-0, 8.10)
Cabrera had been with the Orioles a long time, as long as they’ve been uninteresting. He has 48 career wins and a career ERA over five. Don’t be too fooled. He’s big big man with a fastball and a slider that both move and some days he’s really hard to hit.
Sunday, 1:10 p.m.: RHP Jordan Zimmerman (1-0, 3.00) vs. LHP Oliver Perez (1-1, 7.80)
Zimmerman is the pitching hope for this team, as his namesake is the batting hope. He had a pretty good (but not great) debut against Atlanta, and we could break hearts all over the mid-Atlantic region if we chase him by the second inning. He has a heavy sinking fastball and gets grounders along with K’s. Most independent scouts don’t see him better than a number-four-type starter, but they need to hope in something.
Nats who were Mets: Anderson Hernandez used to not hit for the Mets and now he’s doing the same for DC. Lastings Milledge used to not be able to stick with the Mets and now he’s unable to stick with DC. Jesus Flores wanted to be a Met once. Maybe he wants to be one again. I mean, come on.
For now, Manny Acta, former Mets third-base and infield coach, remains in the thankless job of skippering this leaky leaky ship.
Mets who were Nats: Livan Hernandez was on the last Montreal squad and the inaugural DC squad. Gave them about a million innings. We could have used a few dozen of those. Ryan Church gave them a few sorely underappreciated seasons. Fernando Tatis once hit 15 homers for the Expos.
Casey Fossum, future National.
The Nats, my friends, are coming off a 1-0 loss, with the lone run coming off of a ninth-inning error and three straight walks, so don’t feel sorry for yourselves. This team knows pain.
And their beat guy, I'll repeat, hates baseball.
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