All you hear out of Washington these days is indecision, confusion, and bickering. This side can't agree with that side; those guys can't agree with these guys; and so forth and so on. I have good news, though. Someone in Washington has finally implemented a plan that seems to have their people headed in the right direction. No no, it's not who you think.
It's the Washington Nationals.
I know, I know, it's hard to believe. I still have trouble believing that I'm actually writing something complimentary about a franchise that has had problems getting out of its own way ever since the move to our nation's capital from Montreal back in 2005. Whether it's not signing a first round pick, botching the age of a Latin prospect, or simply losing more games than everyone else, the Nationals haven't exactly been a model organization as of late.
The winds of change seem to be upon us, though.
With this week's signing of pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg, the Nats took a step in the right direction, locking down a player whom many GMs are calling the best pitcher to come along in a decade. Sure, we've heard that about players before, but it's not wise to let those types of guys go unsigned. Another building block occurred today, when the Nationals removed the interim tag from general manager Mike Rizzo's title. Rizzo took over in March for Jim Bowden, the incompetent GM who oversaw the prospect age fiasco and the mounting losses. Since then, he's put together a fine roster of young players whose talent could add up to something in the coming years.
Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Dunn, Nyjer Morgan, and Josh Willingham are guys who could be the core of a vastly improved team next season. Since Manny Acta was fired as manager, Jim Riggleman has gotten the Nationals back to respectability, even winning 11 of 14 games in recent weeks. That's not to say that a division crown is in the near future; it's just to say that the crown isn't as far off as it once was. As long as the Nationals continue to build slowly but surely under Rizzo, there can be genuine hope for this franchise.
Hey, hope in Washington is what got the first biracial President of the United States elected. Imagine what it can do for a lowly baseball franchise looking to build a winner.
~~ Lank
1 comment:
The Natties are a nice little story. Mr. Lombardi, Vince not Michael, once said, "The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling; the greatest accomplishment is rising up after a fall." Certainly the Natties have been groveling at floor level for a l-o-n-g time so they met the falling qualification. In addition, the country is always cheered by anything positive coming out of Dee Cee since it happens so infrequently.
But what I would like to read is some in depth analysis of those clowns from the north side of chicago. (Caps intentionally omitted; that town doesn't deserve a capital letter.) They have become more irrelevant this summer than Sarah Palin.
Since Bowden is gone is there a bigger buffoon impersonating a major league general manager than Jim Hendry? They supposedly were unbalanced from a left - right hitting perspective so Hendry, in effect, trades Mark DeRosa, a PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER in the mode of Paul Oneill or David Eckstein or Mike Lowell, for a certified lunatic in Milton Bradley. Forgetting his well-documented bizarro behavior over the past several years, and its many repetitions this summer, simply check out his numbers from the left side. Added to those other paragons of professionalism, "Fonzie" Soriano (Brenley's term, not mine; I wouldn't so besmirch the reputation of the one and only "Fonz" by using that nickname in the same book let alone the same paragraph) and "Always Hurt" Ramirez, this was a train wreck Ray Charles could have seen coming.
And then there is Sweet Lou Piniella. Look up clueless in the dictionary and see whose picture you see. Latest illustration: when playing the Fathers Tuesday night Lou did his impersonation of an escapee from an old folk's home by leaving the dugout, crossing the third base line ostensibly on his way to the bump to make a pitching change, and then abruptly turning around and going back to the dugout. Was it a trip to the mound or not? Sabremetricians wanted to know! The boys in blue just kind of ignored it, the families have been ignoring mentally unbalanced (read crazy as a bedbug) aunts for generations. God knows it had no impact on the outcome of the game, another cub loss.
So, I repeat, where's the analysis of the cubs and their classy fans? Their losing strategy of throwing incomprehensible sums of money to supposed ball players in January rather than making strategic moves in July when it might actually help? Their fine coaching that allows Fukudome to play so deep in center field that Barney Frank could go from first to third? The fact that it is late August and they don't have a clue who their closer is? (Of course the cynic might point out that no more games than they are winning, they don't need a closer.)
I digress. One stat says it all. 101 years without winning the World Series. 101 freaking years. And with the way things are going nobody in baseball will have to worry about them for the next 101 years either.
Post a Comment