Closing Day, or You Can't Lose if You Don't Play

The NTP crew reunited for one last inaugural season bash at Nats Park under a light mist that occasionally swelled to a steady downpour over the course of two and a half hours. Matt, Dave and I were gung-ho for a 10 pm start time and a game played before dozens of soaked fans into the wee hours of Friday morning, but it was not to be.

Instead, half-priced inaugural season merchandise was purchased, ($5 is still too much to pay for a Felipe Lopez t-shirt!), Clint was menaced (Hey, Nationals Fans! Have a crippling beating!), and Curly W helmet sundaes were consumed. Best of all, the Nats didn't lose. Second best of all, no lines for Ben's Chili Bowl. Do I value personal convenience over good weather and a competitive baseball team? Yes, yes I do.

Fan Appreciation Night went on as scheduled, and I'm sure the several hundred fans still hanging around at 9:30 felt extra-appreciated when the players popped out of the dugout into the steady drizzle and, after a few words from Manny Acta began unburdening themselves of dozens of PNC Bank t-shirts that they'd apparently been hording all season. After that BP balls went flying into the crowd assembled behind the home dugout. (I would swear one Tim Redding toss was deposited back into the left field corner for what would have been an easy double, but my mind may have wandered.) MissChatter got the whole thing on camera, but her devotion cost her a coveted Wil Nieves bat.

The players certainly seemed appreciative, but few really embraced the moment. They should take lessons from Willie Harris, who engaged in a little impromptu showboating as his highlights were replayed in HD glory, and whipped up a fine call-and-response from the thinning crowd before skimming his cap deep into the lower bowl. With that one gesture, Willie vaulted way up the list of potential free agent Nats I'd like to see back in 2009.

If the night at the stadium was drama-free, the Nats Express trip back to RFK was anything but. Trusting in his internal compass and the infinite mercy of an omnipotent God, our driver saw no need to defog the bus windows, and our ride passed in a hazy blur of streetlights, indistinct road signs and quick-reflexed fellow motorists. Damp and unnerved but unbowed, thus ended NTP's inaugural season at Nationals Park.

The home season may be over, but Nats Triple Play rolls on. Stay tuned for some scintillating insights on economic development in the ballpark district, and news on why NTP will be severing its ties to Section 223 for the 2009 season.

NTP's Big 500th - The Shadow GM

Our 500th entry at Nats Triple Play should be the time for sober reflection. Unfortunately we don't do so good at reflection, particularly when sober, so we'll just say, "Holy feck we've wasted a lot of time on this over the last 3+ years!" and move on.

The recent spate of winning baseball has been a welcome respite from what seemed to be an inevitable march toward the franchise's first 100 loss season. But some fans have been quick to note the downside; a hot September could mean no major changes in the team's management structure. In other words, GM Jim Bowden might salvage his job.

The general Natospheric response to this scenario can be loosely characterized as:

Jim Bowden is teh Devil! The team will never amount to anything with him at the helm. He all big splash and no long-term plan. The Anacostia River will rise up and swallow Nationals Park like a modern Atlantis! He has a terrible draft record. He's obnoxious and has strained relationships with a host of fellow executives, agents, players and media. He wears leather pants and rides a segway!?!

Many of the folks who profess that Bowden is a terrible GM also kind of like a lot of the young Nationals in the dugout and down on the farm. On the face of it that's a problem. You can't discredit a general manager by lauding his acquisitions. The obvious solution, as any half decent DC political hack could tell you, is to re-frame the question. For the Anti-Bowden Brigades, JimBo's body of work in Washington is easily bifurcated. The failures are 100% Bowden. The successes? The unappreciated work of a shadowy composite figure. For ease of reference, let's call him Stan Rizzo.

• Bowden wasted millions of payroll dollars on Paul LoDuca, Felipe Lopez, Rob Mackowiak and Johnny Estrada. Stan Rizzo shed deadweight salary by trading Jose Vidro, Brian Schneider and Vinny Castilla.
  


• Bowden signed Dmitri Young to an albatross of a 2-year $10M extension. Extending Ronnie Belliard for 2 years/ $3.5M? Stan Rizzo.
  


• Jim Bowden traded for Jose Guillen, Preston Wilson, Junior Spivey, Brian Lawrence and Austin Kearns. Stan Rizzo traded for Lastings Milledge, Elijah Dukes, Emilio Bonifacio, Alberto Gonzalez and Anderson Hernandez.
  


• Stan Rizzo built the DSL Champion Nationals and the playoff squads from Potomac and the GCL. Jim Bowden is solely responsible for Hagerstown, Harrisburg and Columbus.
  


• Bowden's minor league free agents? Jerome Williams and Mike Bacsik. Stan Rizzo got Joel Hanrahan and Steven Shell.
  


• Bowden jettisoned Jamey Carroll, Rick Short and Brendan Harris. Stan Rizzo... well, Stan hasn't been so hot in the "scrappy white infielder" department either. But he probably called up Pete Orr.

You see my point. If Bowden gets marked down for Vinny Castilla and Pedro Astacio, he also gets credit for Ryan Zimmerman and John Lannan. If he missed on the trade for Kearns and Lopez, he turned Glenn Gibson into Elijah Dukes, which may turn out to be one of those Doyle Alexander - John Smoltz deals (even if I didn't think so at the time.)

There's a case to be made for canning Jim Bowden, and a fairly strong one at that. But it should be made without cherry-picking the man's record. You like Bonifacio's speed, Gonzalez's defense, Flores's arm? Marvel at Zimm's glove, John Lannan's poise, Elijah's scary combination of power and plate disciple? Then you should acknowledge that the First Great Nationals Team will, at least in part, be erected on the foundation laid by Jim Bowden's first three years in Washington.

We Wuz Robbed!!1!

He batted .552, rung up an .828 slugging percentage, scored four runs, collected three doubles, a triple, a home run and six RBI and hit for the cycle, but he's only the co-Player of the Week. Injustice, thy name is Bronson Wilberforce Arroyo.

GUZMANIA! delayed (or unjustly shared with a Scott Stapp wannabe) is GUZMANIA! denied.

Congratulations are also due to Joel Hanrahan for being a humanitarian, which despite the linguistic similarities is nothing at all like being a vegetarian. So that's alright.

Vladimir Nunez Hates Moneyball

In the midst of unprecedented back-to-back sweeps of the Dodgers and Braves, I could have let this slide. It's really such a minor story that it smacks of gossip-mongering even to mention it. But hell, if it's good enough for Rocket Bill Ladson, it's good enough for me.

As we all know, the Nats beat the Braves 9-8 Saturday night on a 10th inning walk-off walk by Elijah Dukes. Dukes came up with two outs and worked the count full before Atlanta reliever Valdimir Nunez sailed what looked to be a slider low and outside to walk in the winning run. You can see video of that last pitch here.

Unremarkable up to this point, right? Every team loses on a walk-off walk now and then. It might be the least dramatic way to win a game in all of baseball, but it counts just the same. Apparently Vladimir Nunez disagrees. Quoth the pitcher:

I think it was disrespectful. If it's a double, triple or grand slam, he can do whatever he wants to celebrate. But after a walk, with a good pitch, and you make a jump like you hit a grand slam, that's unprofessional. I did not agree with what happened. He took the pitch, and I take my hat off to him if I have to. But at that moment, the guy is not even swinging. He jumped as if he hit a grand slam.

Perhaps Vladimir is unfamiliar with the expression "A walk's as good as a hit." Though to be fair, he did specify that not even a single would have been grounds for celebration, notwithstanding that it would have been every bit as much the game-winning play as a grand slam, or a walk. Personally, I like my relievers to have a better grasp of situational baseball. I could also quibble with his characterization of that ball as a "good pitch." But why kick a guy when his team's just been swept by the Nationals?

This is why:

Photo by Nick Roberson/AP

The caption on this photo is, I kid you not: "Rockies reliever Vladimir Nunez reacts after retiring Ramon Martinez to end the eighth." So yeah, our boy Vlad here is all about decorum and a sense of proportion.

GUZMANIA! Re-Cycled

Nationals.com

The Washington Post - does the punctuation of your last name change after you hit for the cycle?

Nationals Journal

The Nationals Enquirer

Oleanders and Morning Glories - managed to get away with precisely one word about the blessed event.

We've Got Heart

Last Days of Lenny?

The Nats are starting the September call ups a little early this year, but instead of adding a 3rd catcher and a few spare bullpen arms, the team has added an extra coach. AAA hitting instructor Rick Eckstein, older brother of the quintessential scrappy white infielder, will be joining the big club "to become an extra hitting coach and do anything else manager Manny Acta wants him to do."

Like helping Lenny Harris clean out his office and pack up his car?

As the article notes, this is the third time in the last five years that the team has added an extra coach for the closing weeks of the season. This may be a month-long tryout for Eckstein, or just a chance to get an extra set of eyes and hands on our struggling hitters, but it can't be seen as anything other than an indictment of the work done by Harris, who has coached one of the worst offenses in MLB history.

We know Rick Eckstein has ample experience working with young hitters, from his time in the Nats farm system, to his just-completed Olympic stint with Team USA. So Godspeed, Rick. Feel free to start with Bonifacio and work your way down the lineup.

When You're Smiley, The Whole World Smiles With You

Photo by Jesse Sanchez/MLB.com

Meet the 2008 Gulf Coast League Batting Champion. SS Esmailyn "Smiley" Gonzalez led the GCL Nats into the playoffs with a .350 average in 50 games (177 ABs). The 19 year old compiled a .436 OBP, 17 extra base hits and stole 9 of 11 bases on the season.

Gonzalez was the Nationals first major amateur signing out of the Dominican Republic back in 2006, when the team was committed to making a splash on the international scene. More recently, he was linked to the investigation of bonus-skimming from amatuer players abroad, albeit without apparent cause.

The GCL Nats will be joined in the minor league playoffs by the defending champion Dominican Summer League Nationals and our neighbors to the south, the Hi-A Potomac Nationals. So if anyone gives you grief about the product on the field at Nats Park, you can say "Hey, the Nats have already clinched a playoff berth. Thrice!"