Go West, Young Team

Random thoughts in advance of late night, left coast baseball.

These are the Times that Try Mens' Souls

There's a difference between a bad baseball team and a baseball team performing badly. The 2007 Washington Nationals were a bad baseball team. The late-2005 Washington Nationals were a baseball team performing badly. The problem with the 2008 squad is that it's impossible to say for certain that they are in one camp or the other. Based on recent results, you'd have to say "bad team", right? But these are the same guys who have taken series from the Cubs, Mets, Phillies and pretty much every team not named after fish, and earned a split with the talented if underperforming Brew Crew. What to make of that?

Are you not entertained? Are You Not Entertained?!

Isn't this more or less the team we wanted on the field? Flores behind the dish, Felipe at second, Pena-Milledge-Dukes across the outfield? Youth, notwithstanding the ocassional shoulder impingement, is being served up and down the lineup. And the result is team that's counting on DaMeat Hook to leg out a triple. Folks, that's entertainment.

Buy One, Get One at Regular Price

Among the "Special Season Ticket Holder Benefits" trumpeted in a recent email from Nationals.com: a tour of Nationals Park, at the regularly scheduled time, for the regular price! Act now, before the hoi polloi snap up this not particularly special, not remotely limited, offer.

Faith is the Evidence of Things Unseen

Like Ryan Langerhans's ability to handle a major league breaking pitch. Nonetheless, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of central Ohio, Langerhascendentalism has returned to Washington, DC. That's right, where's your God now, Loganites?

Deep Thoughts

What if Cristian Guzman is the best free agent shortstop on the market next season? You can bet he'll get more, at age 30, than $4M per year.