After spending the entire 2009 without an official GM, the Nationals finally decided to make the right move and named acting GM Mike Rizzo the full time General Manager today.  In my opinion it’s a great move as Rizzo has made some solid moves towards making the Nationals a much better team.  In his six months as the acting GM he managed to fix the mess in the bullpen, acquire dynamic centerfielder Nyjer Morgan, and seemingly pull off the impossible by getting Stephen Strasburg to sign for less than 20 million dollars.  That right there should get him the National [...]

Before I get into this, I’d like to apologize for the recent inactivity.  I’m an active duty United States Marine and the past week or so has been fairly hectic with training but I’ll ignore much needed sleep and rest to let you all know how happy I am about Strasburg signing.  I went to bed around 9 PM on Monday night, nervous about the deadline because frankly, I didn’t think a deal would be met.  Thankfully, when I woke up in the morning, I immediately turned on Sportscenter and managed to wake up my wife with an excited yell [...]

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past few days but really, nothing worthwhile has happened.  I try to avoid simply rehashing box scores and game recaps because honestly, you can get that from ESPN.  It’s a waste of my time and yours.  Especially when the team has been playing as badly as they have been this week.  After being labeled the hottest team in baseball for winning eight games in a row in part to hot hitting and strong bullpen performances, the Nationals got the day off and seemingly forgot how to play baseball.  They went into Atlanta [...]

While baseball fans everywhere are watching to see if Washington’s first overall pick Stephen Strasburg is going to sign before the August 17th deadline, it’s their other 2009 first round pick that might reach the majors this year.  Drew Storen, a right handed pitcher from Stanford, was selected by the Nationals with the 10th overall pick that they got from failing to sign Aaron Crow last year.  Widely considered to be a cost effective selection to offset the ransom demands of Scott Boras and Strasburg, Storen is proving that it was not a mistake to draft him so high.  He [...]

I nearly vomited on my keyboard when I wrote the title to this entry.  The country is in economic turmoil with unemployment rates soaring and the value of the dollar sinking and I have the nerve to call a 50 million dollar payout to a 21 year old a bargain?  It’s ridiculous.  At least until you start to look into it a bit further.  Before I go into explaining myself, let’s take a look at Stephen Strasburg and what he’s done.
Stephen Strasburg is widely considered to be the greatest college baseball pitcher of all time.  That’s a pretty lofty assessment [...]

Before you all furiously contact the webmaster for the Washington Nationals, I just want to let you know that the blank spot on the calendar today is not an omission.  I repeat, the blank date on the schedule is not a mistake.  I figured I’d let you all know to avoid you from going out and getting your eyes checked because for the first time since the All Star break, the Washington Nationals will not be listed in the nightly scores.  25 days.  25 games.  Ridiculous isn’t it?  How many of you would quit your job if you were forced [...]

Sunday afternoon’s win was a big one.  Not because it marked the sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Not because it was the eighth in a row for the surging Nationals.  No, Sunday’s win was a big one because it was a day of firsts for some of the Nats’ “young” rookies.  J.D. Martin earned his first career win by going five strong innings, allowing only one run, coincidentally to the first(there’s that theme again) batter he faced via a leadoff home run to Trent Oeltjen.  It was his best outing of the year.  Just to keep making this post read like [...]

Last week I made a point of mentioning that promising rookie starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann was going to make some rehab starts starting last Tuesday with Advanced A Potomac.  Well, that seemed very short lived as Zimmermann continues to feel tightness in his right elbow.  So much tightness, in fact, that he was forced to miss a scheduled bullpen session and is now slated to see Dr. James Andrews.  Yes, that Dr. James Andrews.  Besides Doc  Gooden and Dr. Pepper, there is probably not a better known doctor in all of sports.  Dr. Andrews expertise and revolutionary work in sports medicine, especially [...]

Tonight I went to the Potomac Nationals game for the second week in a row.  They faced off against the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a Kansas City Royals Advanced A affiliate, in a clash for first place.  This Wilmington team was on fire, having won 11 in a row coming into tonight’s game and they had no problem making it an even dozen after an 8-1 win.  This game was pretty one sided right from the start as the Nationals’ bats never got started.  In fact, they only managed to get two hits on the day, one of them being a monstrous [...]

From Nationals.com
WASHINGTON — The office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced on Thursday that two Minor League players from the Nationals — outfielder Edgardo Baez and shortstop Ofilio Castro — have received 50-game suspensions after each tested positive for an amphetamine, a performance-enhancing substance, in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
The suspensions of Baez and Castro, both of whom are with Double-A Harrisburg, are effective immediately.
Baez, 24, was hitting .254 with nine home runs and 28 RBIs in 101 games, while Castro, 25, had a .296 batting average with four home runs and 36 RBIs in [...]