Waif Wins Waif Wins!! and other news

He did it again, Ramon beat Smoltz last night to win his 5th in a row. In the process he moved above 500, the team took the series from Atlanta and ended up with a 6-3 road record. All-in-all a very good road trip. As discussed yesterday a big contributor is the re-order and proper use of the bullpen. Last night Majewski and Cordero combined 2 1/3 shutout innings, that's the way it should be. It also should be noted that this comes on the heels of a strong outing by Shawn, whi pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 earned runs.

In other news Jaohn Patterson pitched a re-hab assignment in Potomac last night and reported that everything was fine healt wise.

Nepotism on the rise: In another one of Bowden's old boys club moves, Davey Johnson was hired as an advisor yesterday. Yes that Davey Johnson who hasn't managed in six years. He does have a track record of success but I can only see this move as a pre-cursor to Frank Robinson being asked to step aside. What I don't like is the chronisim (sp??). Here is a link from baseball-reference.com detailing his managerial record with the Dodgers, Orioles, Reds and Mets.

4 in a row

After sweeping the Brewers the Nats take the first game from Atlanta (in Atlanta). What is impressive about the win is that they scored 5 in the 5th to take the lead which the did not relinquish. Livan pitched 6 innings and gave up 4 runs. Not great but enough to get the win and to continue his recent up swing. With his recovery O'Connor's steady yet unspectacular outings, and the wizardry of the waif (I don't know how he is doing it) and Armas' rebound the Nats all of the sudden have a pitching staff. Tonight Shawn Hill is on the aww ... hill and will be interesting to see how he performs. To go along with this the bullpen is starting to get it done, Majewski and Cordero the Felix Rodriguez experiment is over and Eischen finally admitted something was wrong. The team now Bill Bray as a power left-hander out of the pen, as well as Saul Rivera (need more to see what he can do) and Stanton is back to the role he should be as a situational lefty. Although Robinson is still keeping him in there way too long.

Although I don't want to see Vidro or Hernandez go I do realize that it may be necessary in order to build a long term winner. The signs above are encouraging because they are no longer pluggin the holes with mediocre veterans ie: Preston Wilson. The farm needs to know they will be called upon to help out so that breeds a sense of urgency and opportunity. Now the other parts of the equation and that unfortunately means the release of Robinson, who is just not a manager for a team moving forward. He is best suited for a veteran team that needs leadership. The other part is Bowden oh man does this guy need to go. I won't go on about him because it's just too easy.

Today is also the first round of the amateur draft, it will be interesting to see who is selected considering that the last three 1st round picks are now in the bigs (Cordero, Zimmerman & Bray). However it seems that there may not be that type of talent available when the Nats pick comes round.

Stay tuned I'll post a link once I know who is picked.

Christopher Marrero Nats 1st pick

He is a right handed hitting outfielder out of Monsignor Edward Place High School in Florida. He's 6' 3" 210 lbs and was born in 1988. Here's a snippet from MLB about Marrero:
...Marrero was once considered to be the top position player from the high school ranks but hasn't separated himself as hoped this season. Still, he's got power and knowledge of the strike zone and the ability to stay at third.... here is the link to the full report.

Also here is a link to scout.com's assesment, which bodes well.

There are some other links but it is a mixed bag, essentially it looks like he is a solid player with overall solid foundation but who is not sexy. However there is a chance he will be a major leaguer as opposed to some other sexier picks.

The Nats 2nd pick in the 1st round @ # 22 is pitcher Colten Willems of John Carroll High School in Florida. He apparantly has three plus pitches fastball, curve & slider.

Will the horror of the Jim Bowden regime never end?? the 91st pick by the Nats is Stephen King. I mean come on. No seriously he a SS with great offensive and defensive tools but has had some leg injuries and has more potential than production to date.

I obviously will reserve judgment until we see some of these kids make it to the show and you can give Dana Brown the benefit of the doubt but I was hoping for more college players who were closer to the show as opposed to high school kids who are 4-7 years away.

The battle of Adam and Eve

Cheap title isn't it? I stretched this one as the pitchers for the Nats Brewers game are Ramon Ortiz (everybody's favortie waif) and Dana EVEland. Now you understand the Eve part but the Adam part is not very solid.

Anyway back to baseball Ortiz will go for his fourth win in a row and even if he just pitches ok he should have a good shot. Eveland is not exactly fooling anyone. Look for th Nats to try and score early and for Soriano to try and steal a base ie: let's rattle this guy early.

Waif wins three in a row

Well took a week off there got a little swamped with work and wouldn't you know it the Nats go and win three series in a row. Anchored by everybody's favorite super model Ramon Ortiz, well at least that was the good news. The bad news is that Zach Day who was turning in some good performances himself is on the shelf and is scheduled for surgery, and Guillen is on the 15 day DL.

The above injuries and other circumstances have caused the call-up of three minor leaguers (although some are seasoned minor-leaguers) Saul Rivera, Santiago Ramirez and Mike Vento. This is good to see, no really it is. What this means is that the organization is serious about the farm system and even if it is barren you need to show the players that there is an opportunity to get to the show. Trader Jim has been handcuffed! If JimBo had his way I am sure that we would have 1 or 2 fizzling veterans by now.

Just a plug here, Ryan Zimmerman for rookie of the year. What is encouraging about Zimm is that his average is creeping up to the .275 mark and we are headed into June. It is fine to start off hot before anybody has a chance to see you but Zimm is starting to raise his average the second time through the league which is critical because that is when the teams start too make adjustments. He has also chipped in with 32 RBI a 16 a month average which works out to a 96 RBI season. I know it's still early but these are nice numbers to see after 200 at bats. Let's see if the trend continues.

Bowden executes best move ever as a Nats GM!

In what some are calling a revelation, a stroke of genius and pure baseball, JimBo called a up .... a real catcher. With Schneider on the 15 day DL and have not played regularly for about a week the GM decided to call up Wiki Gonzalez. Now this comes after LeCroy had done an admirable job (according to Robinson) catching before Schneider went on the DL. In fact he was so good that the opposition stole 13 consecutive bases, this may have contributed to the 4 game losing streak and 4-6 record in their last ten, but we will need to wait for Elias sports bureau to confirm.

Bowden was so excited about the move that he decided to bring in another catcher, moving Robert Fick from the DL to the active roster. In the process he moved Guzman (he of the $16 million 4 year contract) to the 60 day disabled list. Unfortunately Fick, who was originally meant to be the backup catcher is not ready to catch and Robinson has already stated that Fick is not ready. So the Nats now have 3 "catchers" on the roster and only 1 who has actually been a catcher for most of his career.

JimBo is on a roll!!

In a related story the Nats won 8-1 against Atlanta this afternoon with Gonzalez catching. He actually threw a runner out and called a good game as Armas pitched 7 shutout innings. However Robinson is playing with fire as Armas threw 119 pitches, which is real good considering he has a history of arm problems and was out for most of last year. Yeah let's throw him back out there for another inning when we have an 8-0 lead. I don't care if the bullpen has already blown a 5 run lead this week you don't tax a pitcher with shoulder problems that way it is just not smart ball.

TBS blacks out the stinking Nats

Well it seems we are headed for a very long summer. Yesterday the team couldn't bounce back after a frustrating loss on Thursday with a very lackluster performance against John Smoltz. Your favorite waif was rocked again and one can only wonder how long the franchise is going to stay with him. The O'Connor experiment is going good (still the first time through the league) so why not give somebody else a shot. I do think that we could see something similar to what the Braves did when Glavine and Smotz broke ie: let them learn at the major league level.

Now tonight they get a an ok start from O'Connor (who is stringing some starts together) with the help of the pen they got it to Cordero with a 2 run lead. Cordero gives up 5 runs and they lose. Now any manager would still take this scenario any time as Cordero will normally put it away. But the guy is growing roots in the pen, they are bringing him at times just so he can pitch. Frustrating to watch this club fumble this way.

Note: Zimmerman had 3 hits and his average is now up to .261. This is good to see as he has been steadily raising his average over the past few weeks.

Note: Teams are starting to knock on the door looking for bargains, among others the Mets are inquiring about Hernandez and Vidro

Whatta ya know Joe???

The Nats loose in extra innings tonight and it was a very discouraging loss as they were leading by 3. The final blow came on a Ken Griffey's (just activated off the DL tonight) three run homer. Unfortunately it was Joey Eischen who gave it up. Now people who know, know that Joey is the epitome of tough, I remember following this guy when he was trying to make it with Expos (the first time round) in 1994. This guy was out of the majors for three years 1998-2000 and had been only getting spotty work before that. When he made the Expos in 2001 he made himself a valuable tool out of the pen for 5 years (with an injury in there as well). However this year he has not been unable to do anything and I regret to say this, but I think he is done. It's too bad because he fought so hard to make the majors. Fortunately he got one decent major league contract which he hopefully saved a bunch.

Lost in all this was a brilliant performance by Zach Day who pitched 7 innings and only gave up one run. You can't ask for much more than that from your starter. This was Day's 3rd quality start in a row.

Right now everything seems to be 1 step forward 2 steps back.

Nats Ace spotted working in hardware store

Ok maybe that title is a little harsh but Livan is not getting it done so far this year. He pitched 5 1/3 innings tonight and gave up 5 runs, not exactly ace like. The sad part is the team scored 5 runs and when that happens you should win. The Reds were hittin' and runnin', Lopez had 4 stolen bases and Freel 2 while Hatteberg, Phillips, Kearns and Dunn each had 2 rbi's. For the Nats the big bat was Johnson who had 4 hits including a home run and 2 rbi's. Next up is Zach Day against Bronson (I use heat activated Loreal for my beautiful locks) Arroyo for Cincy.

This team is not looking good and another bad road trip could put them in a serious hole which will hasten the re-building process. If the team is in last or very close to last place come June 1 look for changes by June 15th. You read it here first folks!!

New Day rising on the farm?

Zach Day pitched 7 shutout innings for the Nats tonight, one day after Frank chewed out the team for playing bad ball yesterday. The final score was 6-0. Johnson went deep twice and Vidro had three hits which combined accounted for five of the six Nats hits.

On a another positive note Kasten stated that there would major investment in the farm system. That is good to hear since Minaya used the system to forward his own career. Imagine Sizemore and Bay in the outfield, Phillips chipping in a 2nd or SS and Cliff Lee on the mound. Don't get me wrong Minaya did it on the up and up but it was just another example of how crooked this whole situation was. Minaya was trading like there was no tomorrow, which was very unlikely since the owners knew there were cities willing to give them a sweetheart deal and owners who would pay far more than they would ever spend running the franchise. In the end it worked out great for MLB and it screwed over the fans. Hopefully now that Selig/Dupuy are no longer involved the franchise will be able to get the ship moving in the right direction.

BTW: Guzman decided to shut himself down and opt for surgery, nice job Jimmy B. Guzman was signed to 4yr $16.8 million contract, the payback so far... 1st season a .219 average only because he batted .300+ in September, 2nd season whipped out. In the Nats release Guzman is quoted as saying that the shoulder was hurting last year, what the hell? Was this another case of not checking the medical records before acquiring a player? How does JB keep his job? I hope Kasten is reviewing this as we speak and looking for someone who actually knows what they are doing and not just cowboy flying by the seat of his wranglers.

Lerner's to buy Nats

Well like I said earlier the Lerners' are going to be the owners of the Expos. I am glad this is finally settled however I am disappointed that Colin Powell will not be associated with the Nats but having Stan Kasten could be good news, if for nothing more than his vast experience. He was part of the management team that helped build the Braves into a powerhouse for 12 years before he left in 2003. He should provide the vision, stability and direction for the franchise that has been missing that for the past several years. Given his track record look for more investment into scouting as well as a GM change and most likely the end of the Robinson era although I am not so sure that Frank will just fade away. I think he will be offered a job within the organization.

According to MLB there will be a vote during the owners meeting May 17-19, this really should be a formality since I am sure all the teams will be happy that this is over. Especially somebody like the Yankees who could care less about the game and wouldn't be bothered if there was only 6 teams, just as long as they won.

On another note: O'Connor won his first game by pitching seven solid innings, with six k's and one ER. It is good to see someone else pitching well for the franchise. Byrd lead-off again and had three hits, apparently Church had the flu and will sit out at least one more game. The flu, are you serious??? You just got back from the minors, some in the organization question your heart and willingness to play at less than 100% and then you go and prove them right in less than three weeks back in the bigs. Man what I wouldn't give to play, I used to play little league with stitches, scrapped elbows / knees and thumbs so sore I had difficulty holding onto the bat. Talent does not equal heart!!

Busy day off the field, quiet on the field

Off the field the front office was buzzing with the following:
Traber has been optioned to the Zephyrs

Jason Bergmann has been recalled to help the pen, this is his 2nd stint this year

Wiki Gonzalez has been designated for assignment, because we have way too many qaulity catchers in the organization

Zach Day has been picked up off of waivers from Colorado, hold it, this is the same guy we dumped last year in the Preston Wilson trade? management questioned him and he was having troubles with Frank. well I guess since we got him back for nothing that means we traded J.J. Davis and Doc Brooks for Wilson. Their's some twisted logic for ya

Michael O'connor who was the organizations' pitcher of the year last year (10-11 with a 3.54 ERA for Class A Potomac. In 2006, he was in Triple-A New Orleans, pitching for games with a 2.41 ERA) has also been called up to pitch in Patterson's spot. Baseball Prospectus calls him a mini Livan as he lead the Carolina league in IP.

There was also a rumour that the team was being sold to the Lerner group, this was quickly denied by Selig and Tavares, so you know that it is pretty much a done deal. I honestly thought that the Malek group had the inside track but hey what makes sense is not in the MLB vocabulary.

BTW: Cincy and Arroyo held the Nats Bats to 1 hit, needless to day this extended the losing streak to 4. Our friendly neighbourhood waif gave up 5 runs 4 earned in 6 2/3 innings, Stanton, Rauch & Bergmann shut them down the rest of the way. The lone hit came from Zimmerman who is now hitting .241.

Nats wiff against waif?

Yes there is another waif, Ramirez from the Reds is listed by the baseball prospectus as being 6' and 140lbs. I mean really isn't there a minimum age limit for MLB? I haven't been a 140lbs since grade 6, and no I am not a fat sports geek.

What concerns me is that this is the second game that Hernandez has faced bottom-tiered pitcher and has not come away with the win, and the bats. After cranking line drives all over the place in Philly they are suddenly cold. I have always said what separates a professional from a prospect is consistency. Right now the team is up and down and Frank needs to get things going in the right direction. This is the fifth year for Frank at the helm, is time for a change? does he still have the players attention or do they play when they feel like it?

Traber tanks

Well I guess the honeymoon is over, Traber pitched 1 1/3 innings gave up 4 runs, 4 hits and 2 base on balls. However let's put an asterisk on this one since Matt LeCroy is the catcher which in itself is a very intersting since the guy has not caught in years and by his own admission is not a good catcher. The one thing that may be good out of this game is getting Majewski in early so he can get some work and potentially turn around his season.

Update:
Well normally giving up 2 runs in 8 innings would be a good performance except when you lose by 1. Rodriguez gave up 2 runs and the Nats lost 6-5.

LeCroy was starting because Schneider is in a 11-61 slump, now I agree that there needs to be a bit of a shake-up but I seriously don't think anyone in the organization had the intention of ever seeing LeCroy catch. To compound this Fick is experiencing tendinitis, BTW who thought Fick would be a good backup? He has not caught with any regularity for years, another uncertain off-season weighing heavy on the teams ability to compete.

Hey MLB, hurry the hell up with the sale! This is, and has been a mockery and one the most crooked business dealings ever. But thats what you get with baseball, they will turn a very nice profit after everything is said and done, I would estimate somewhere around $150 million. All at the expense of 2 cities, thousands of die-hard fans and numerous employees. I can't wait to see the spin job on this.

Waif miffed

Ramon and his 7+ ERA are whining because they won't get the chance to pitch the game after a rainout. At least the waif's competitive streak is strong, even if his fastball isn't.

1000 and counting

Just so we don't misss it here is Frank's all time managerial record:

Yr League Team Age G W L WP Finish
-------------------------------|------|-----|-----|--------|-----------------------
1975 AL East Clvlnd 39 | 159 | 79 | 80 | .497 | 4 Player/Manager
1976 AL East Clvlnd 40 | 159 | 81 | 78 | .509 | 4 Player/Manager
1977 AL East Clvlnd 41 | 57 | 26 | 31 | .456 | 5

1981 NL West SanFranc 45 | 59 | 27 | 32 | .458 | 5 1st half
1981 NL West SanFranc 45 | 52 | 29 | 23 | .558 | 3 2nd half
1982 NL West SanFranc 46 | 162 | 87 | 75 | .537 | 3
1983 NL West SanFranc 47 | 162 | 79 | 83 | .488 | 5
1984 NL West SanFranc 48 | 106 | 42 | 64 | .396 | 6

1988 AL East Bltmore 52 | 155 | 54 | 101 | .348 | 7
1989 AL East Bltmore 53 | 162 | 87 | 75 | .537 | 2
1990 AL East Bltmore 54 | 162 | 76 | 85 | .472 | 5
1991 AL East Bltmore 55 | 37 | 13 | 24 | .351 | 6

2002 NL East Montreal 66 | 162 | 83 | 79 | .512 | 2
2003 NL East Montreal 67 | 162 | 83 | 79 | .512 | 4
2004 NL East Montreal 68 | 162 | 67 | 95 | .414 | 5
2005 NL East Washngtn 69 | 162 | 81 | 81 | .500 | 5
-------------------------------|------|-----|-----|--------|------------------------
Baltimore 516 230 285 .447
Cleveland 375 186 189 .496
San Francisco 541 264 277 .488
Washington 648 314 334 .485
--------------------------------------|-----|-------|-------------------------------
TOTALS 2080 994 1085 .478

Don't get me wrong I like Frank and I think there is definitely a time and place for his style of management. His credibility and integrity were definitely needed in the franchise during this transition period. However in the long run the numbers show that he his not going to win the big one. His gut feel style of management is like buying a lottery ticket you might get lucky every once in a while but it is luck. The franchise needs to be run like a 21st century team, and that is going to have to start from the top and hopefully the new owner realizes this and gives the franchise a direction. I would love to see it run like the New England Patriots, an owner that gives the tools to the management, and a management team that is operating with a definite plan.

We can only hope.

Philly cheesesteaks all around

So much for home cooking, what the Nats needed was some taste of sweet liberty Philly style. Eventhough they didn't sweep the bats certainly came alive at Citizens Bank park. Traber pitched 5 2/3 giving up 3 earned runs, which is nice because a left-hander in the rotation would really help break it up. The hero of the day is Johnson who smacked a couple of homeruns while collecting 4 hits. If Soriano, Vidro, Johnson and Guillen are for real it would be a real fun lineup to watch.

Bowden gets bitch slapped

More news out of the Bowden influence case. According to reports Bowden and his girlfriend Joy Browning (any relation to Tom?) got into an argument ..blah,blah,blah... police see altercation in the car... blah,blah,blah... Bowden has scratches on his face and the police proceed to arrest Miss Browning. She resists and takes a couple of swings at the officer after they take away her cell phone (she's a fighting hellcat this one). She has been charged with resisting arrest with violence, resisting arrest without violence and simple battery.

Now that's one pissed off Nats fan.

Preview:
Livan goes up against Gavin Floyd tonight, gotta believe we have a decent shot at winning this one, especially if we hit like we did last night, the balls were just screaming of the Nats bats.

On another note it seems that the ownership debate is about to be solved as Bob Dupuy has stated it should be complete within a matter of weeks. My guess is the Fred Malek group, he used to be a partner with Bush when they owned the Rangers and apparently MLB wants someone with good political ties. It also doesn’t hurt that Colin Powell is involved, that definitely gives credibility that far outweighs the association with George.

Bowden under the influence off….voodoo??

As reported on ESPN and posted on the nationals site, apparently JimBow was arrested for DUI during the Nationals road trip in Florida. Was it voodoo? Jim is going to contest the arrest so we’ll see.

Well well, that’s very interesting isn’t it! Some might be moaning right now, saying, what else could happen to this team but I for one am taking a positive approach. With new ownership imminent the timing couldn’t be better, so long JimBow.

No real VooDoo here except the triple AAA team is in New Orleans (insert the evil laughter from the bad guy in Live and Let Die).

Oh btw Ryan Drese, you know the guy they wanted to make sure was available before trading the very consistent and mostly healthy starter Tomo Ohka, is back on the DL.

Daryl Ward batting clean-up and playing short

No not really but he did bat clean-up tonight, and hit a homerun and a double with an RBI and a run scored. I guess the shake-up worked as the Nats pounded Phillly 10-3. The big hero for the 2nd game in a row was the Church of latter day Ryans as Church hit a grand slam and Zimmerman had three Rbi’s. Vidro also chipped in with 3 hits 2 of which were hard line drives over 3rd (while hitting left-handed against Cory Lidle) they were textbook. It sure would be nice to see him back to his all-star form.

As far as the pitching goes Armas was not spectacular as his control was a little off, but his ball lively, he pitched 6 quality innings and was aided by 3 double-plays. The bullpen then took over and shut them down. Rodriguez, Stanton & Majewski combined to pitch 3 shutout innings. Rodriguez and Majewski looked particularly good.

Also with regards to Ward, it seems that Guillen it still feeling sore after taking batting practice tonight so that will be something to keep an eye on.

Nationals

So the Nationals completed and actually won a series this weekend thanks to two, two-run homeruns from Bowden’s prodigal son (Ryan Church). I don’t know what to say here, I am always looking for a new rookie to come onto the scene and Church really caught me by surprise last year. Like many Nat fans it worries me that Bowden likes him, in fact it worries me a lot. I was initially happy about having Bowden but once I refreshed my memory from his days in Cincy I was like what the hell…. It really seems like last season he was kind of coasting, then he made a couple of moves and reality sunk in like a tick on a hound, in a word he sucks!

I mean the whole Brian Lawrence thing is a debacle, and Astacio and Ortiz. How old is Ortiz anyway? The guy should be part of the all-waif team (still working on the other eight) but in the meantime here is a comparison of Ramon and Kate Moss.


Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell writes a good article about the relationships of upper management it gives you perspective as to what some of these people have gone through especially Tavares / Siegle / Robinson and Vidro. I am not including Bowden because he was not in Montreal and he is frankly just trying to use this to get another position somewhere else. Here’s hoping that the new owner has a clue and gets someone like Billy Beane.