For the second consecutive season, the Washington Nationals will finish the season with at least 100 losses. The Nats hit the milestone after losing last night to the Dodgers, 7-6.
“I’m just so proud of these guys,” Riggleman said. “With exception of a ballgame or two — from the All-Star break on — we have been outstanding in terms of effort and attitude. Our fans responded to the energy on the field.
“It has the potential to be a beautiful situation because the players want it, the fans want it. I think we are getting closer. The Dodgers are going to popping champagne any day and we [are going to be right there soon].” via.
That’ll only happen if they flood their bullpen and force everyone currently sitting in there to evacuate. Because the pitching, especially the bullpen, has been the Achilles’ heel of this team since they came to DC. In their 5 years in Washington, the Nats have never had a winning record. It’s nice to see a team in the nation’s capital building a tradition of their own. And there’s still a week left in the season. Get a move on, fellas. You’re only 36 games back! also.
UPDATE: Strasburg signed: 4 years, $15.67 million. That’s a bargain, and ultimately why MLB has a draft.
It’s not everyday that No. 1 picks in the baseball draft become big news two months after the fact, yet here we are: If Stephen StrasbUrg doesn’t sign with the Washington Nationals at midnight tonight, the team loses his rights, but then will also be ineligible to draft him again in 2010. And it’s getting pretty GD tense.
If I were the Nationals, who have already put a record-setting deal on the table for Stephen Strasburg, I wouldn’t offer more than $16 million. That’s 50 percent more than any pitcher in the baseball draft has ever gotten — Mark Prior’s $10.5 million deal in 2001. A 21-year-old who has never faced a professional hitter isn’t worth more than that. The top contract in 2008 was only $6 million. –Tom Boswell.
StrasbUrg’s deal obviously has big ramifications for No. 2 pick Dustin Ackley, but also for subsequent players in future drafts. Some people are pointing the finger at Strasburg’s agent, Scott Boras.
If I were Scott Boras, Strasburg’s agent, I wouldn’t accept less than $22 million. That would double the biggest contract in the history of the draft ($10.8 million for Mark Teixeira). When the Rangers paid Teixeira in 2001, baseball’s total revenues were $3.7 billion. Now they are $6.5 billion, dead even with the NFL. Prices go up. Proportionally, Teixiera’s number now would be $19 million. And, as a power pitcher, Strasburg could someday become more of an October game-changer than any hitter. In fact, Boras might justifiably want even more. He believes deeply, not just as a ploy but also on principle, that American amateur-draft players, with no union behind them, have been shafted for decades. This is his chance, maybe the best ever, to redefine a market full of fixed prices. –Boswell.
Works for me. Teams like their players shiny and new, and if they also like them cheap, then the Nats will have to take a stand and basically toss their No. 1 pick back into the pond, and wave goodbye. Personally, I hate the baseball draft; it doesn’t include international players and it’s too damn long for any reasonable fan to follow. But this matchup of zealous superagent vs. stodgy big-market franchise fascinates me. It’s like watching a robot trying to engage in carnal relations with a whale. But, you know, more baseball-y than that.
The world is coming to an end. Up is down, vegans are eating bacon, and plastic bags are raising your children better than you ever could. And the Washington Nationals can’t stop winning baseball games.
Powered by back-to-back home runs from Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn, the Nats hung on to win against the Florida Marlins last night, 5-4. It’s the fourth straight win for the Nats, and their eighth win in their last 12 games. Seriously, guys. This isn’t funny anymore. How am I supposed to get excited about a team that’s actually winning?
“I think, from the very beginning, their offensive weapons are up there with everybody in the league, with Josh Willingham, Dunn, Guzman and Zimmerman — and all those guys,” said Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez. “They are a very dangerous offensive team, but I thought they made an improvement pitching-wise.” via.
I’ve said for some time that the middle of Washington’s lineup is as good as any in baseball, but it’s their horrible bullpen that puts them in so many close games, games that they now seem to be winning, and not just against scrubs; Florida’s in a freaking pennant race in the East, but they’re looking at getting swept this afternoon in DC. And you thought the Nats were swimming upstream, or maybe you weren’t because you just don’t care. Fine, then.
As for tonight: John Smoltz fans can get ready for another disappointing outing. The 42-year-old righthander faces Joba Chamberlain tonight in what will almost certainly have the Lubriderm and Kleenex flowing in ample supply in Bristol tonight. And I’ve about had it with Joba the Hutt anyway; sure, he’s having a good season, but would anybody be talking about this guy if he wasn’t playing for the Yankees?
It’s official: after a month of speculation, Manna Acta has been relieved from duty has manager of Major League Baseball’s most exciting team, which is also coincidentally its most bad. It should be noted that Acta had to fire his entire coaching staff to ensure his return for 2009, but with a 26-61 record heading into the All-Star Break, the writing was on the wall. From SI.com:
“I thank the Nationals for giving me this opportunity and I’m sorry that things didn’t work out as expected. It’s normal for the manager to pay the price when the team is not doing well,” Acta said.
A 5-0 loss at Houston on Sunday was Washington’s seventh in 10 games. The Nationals rank last in the NL with a 5.21 ERA and they have committed the most errors in the majors (82).
I’ve said before that, with horrendous pitching and a 3-4-5 lineup that rivals any other team on paper, that one couldn’t find a better team to watch than the Nationals. It’s only fair to fire Acta if you’ve also fired the team’s baserunning guru, grounds crew, uniform manufacturer, charity liason, director of bobbleheads and meteorologist. Because this franchise is a colossal clusterfugg from the top down. But you don’t have to start winning games for me, Nationals. I love you just the way you are, losing games by scores of 10-8, 9-7, and the occasional 5-0. I can only hope the second half is better. I mean worse. Okay, I’ll settle for “as bad.” I’m not picky.
Damn it, Nationals. You’re just making me fall more in love with you every day. This latest debacle from America’s Team involves outfielder Austin Kearns sliding safely into “first and a half base.” And then he goes quasi-fetal after getting caught in the pickle and just waits to be tagged. It’s too bad this happened on the road. If he would have done this in Nationals Park, they would have scored it as a home run. Because Washington’s corrupt, see.
|From The Bog, via Maj, for being my favorite chosen person in all the land|
The Washington Nationals are quickly becoming the “other team” in major league baseball for me. Sure, I have the team I grew up with, and I’ll always love that team. But then I look across the room and I see the Nationals doing all these debaucherous things and think to myself, I gotta get with THAT team. It’s been no secret that the Nationals, with their impressive array of power hitting and equally impressive dearth of suitable pitching, are becoming a sports darling on this site. I would help it if I could.
Anyway, the Nats are chock full of rejects, closet cases, and baseball miscreants, but for my money, no one personifies this band of fuggups better than ex-Red Adam Dunn, aka The White Manny Ramirez. And that means exactly what it sounds like it means. With one significant exception: Adam Dunn either hits a home run or strikes out, generally speaking. More often striking out:
ASYLUM POLL: How many strikeouts is excusable for a slugger?
In 2004, [Dunn, playing for the Cincinnati Reds,] walked 108 times, but struck out 195 times. Of those, 72 were called third strikes, which means he struck out more times looking that season than Williams struck out — looking or swinging — in any season.
Dunn’s strikeouts–or rather, his teams’ tolerance of them–are indicative of a growing trend in baseball. ESPN points out that 90 players struck out 100 times last year, almost triple the number that did so in 1990.
“[In today's game,] you’ll see three pitchers in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning — and most of them are throwing 95 mph,” Dunn said. “For every crucial at-bat I’ll take late in a game, I’ll always be facing the toughest lefty on the other team. That’s why the strikeout rate is up.”
Or it might be because you have the most nauseating at-bat music in the history of the game. Phil Collins? Really? Why not something more upbeat? Like Pachebel’s Canon? Or the sound of puppies sleeping? Whatever gets you in the zone, Adam. You only have 82 strikeouts on the year so far. Better pick up the pace.
