A Collector's Item

Deivi Cruz for Ben Cox? Sure, why not. I can stomach $136,000 for a utility infielder. But lest J.B. get any praise for this move, some stats:

Cruz's July batting average and OPS: .228 & .587 respectively. Positively Guzman-like. Now he's done better in August, but let's not go thinking this guy is the key to our offense. Before his benching Goooz was outhitting two other Nationals over the last month. Guess who? Brad Wilkerson and Nick Johnson. Maybe Deivi will help, I hope so. Goooz will certainly be a solid defensive replacement off the bench. And hopefully this will put an end to the "Let's make Ryan Zimmerman a shortstop" foolishness.

All I know for sure is my Guzman jersey is going to skyrocket in value, possibly becoming the only one of its kind in all the land. Unless Modell's dumps the leftovers in the 75% off bargain bin.

P.S. Goooz and his 4-year, $16 million contract are still going to be here next year. Watch this space for the "ReUse the Goooz" campaign to reinstall Cristian as the starting shortstop. Coming Spring 2006.

Goooz... I mean Cruuuuuz

Well, apparently we don't need to learn much of a new chant.

The Nats have traded for Deivi Cruz, a shortstop coming from the Giants. Trader Jim at work again, it seems. Cruz was batting .268 with five homers and 19 RBI in 81 games with San Francisco this year, as opposed to Gooz's .196 with three homers and 19 RBI in 114 games.

The radio announcers tonight seem to think Cruz can be in place for the nightcap to tomorrow's double header.

Bowie Baysox

I had the chance to catch a Bowie Baysox game tonight. We arrived late (work and traffic) so we were there for the 4th inning to the end. Ah, the hoopla at a minor league game... it included kids running the bases (between innings), on field sumo wrestling, the Diamond Disco Dancers, and the "Five Guys" chant when the Baysox had the chance to score 5 in one inning.

Sharon was highly amused.

HELL YEAH

3-2 win over Atlanta with Cordero closing the door on the Braves. Even the announcers were complaining about the strike zone. It was, as Mel put it, "the size of a postage stamp". Great win by the boys.

Another of Mel's gems: "The one run wonders are back." I really hope so.

Not fair

So I'm catching up on a few details in my office, and I happen to notice the division standings. With all the focus on the wild-card spot, I hadn't been actually watching our division standings.

There is just something wrong about being 67-63, a .515 average, and "only" being 7 games behind, and thus being last in the division.

That's just wrong.

Let's look at the NL Central -- St. Louis leads, and Houston -- our big competition for the wild-card -- IS 15 GAMES BEHIND. 15 games -- and that's second place. But wait, there is more. Milwaukee, third place, hasn't broken .500 at .489, and is 19.5 games behind. Last, Pittsburg, is 29.5 games behind.

Moving to the NL West, the leader, San Diego, has a .492 percentage. And Colorado, with their sad 52-79 record, is 12.5 games behind.

This really, really is wrong.

Blues Monday

Like Dave said, since the team was in Atlanta suffering the aftershocks of the wrath of God (new Nats slogan: We Can't Lose If We Don't Play), we took in the 25th anniversary screening of The Blues Brothers at Regal Gallery Place Cinemas. Here's a verbatim transcript of my conversation with the concession stand guy(CSG):

Nate: A large Cherry Coke, please.
CSG: Would you like anything else?
Nate: No thanks.
CSG: Anything to drink with that?
Nate: A large Cherry Coke.

My first thought, "Maybe outsourcing customer service jobs to Bangladesh isn't such a bad thing." My second thought, the whole thing was reminiscent of the following exchange from the movie:

Mrs. Murphy: Help you two?
Elwood: Do you have any white bread ma'am?
Mrs. Murphy: Yeah.
Elwood: I'll have some toasted white bread please.
Mrs. Murphy: You want butter or jam on that, honey?
Elwood: No ma'am, dry.
Jake: Do you have any fried chicken ma'am?
Mrs. Murphy: Best damned chicken in the state.
Jake: Bring me four fried chickens and a Coke.
Mrs. Murphy: You want chicken wings or chicken legs?
Jake: Four fried chickens and a Coke.
Elwood: And some dry white toast please.
Mrs. Murphy: Ya'all want anything to drink with that?
Elwood: No ma'am.
Jake: A Coke.

So maybe concession stand guy was just staying in character.

Thanks, Bos

Yesterday's rain postponement didn't change the Triple Play crew's plans -- we had already scheduled to see the Blues Brothers DVD release downtown at Gallery Place.

So this morning, I caught up on my Nats reading, and caught this morning's Thomas Boswell column.

I will admit, I was going into the week thinking much like the Nats were. This week would decide it. That the series against Atlanta was the complete key to success.

Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong -- Bos's September sounds a lot more exciting than mine.

"We All Stink"

In therapy, this might be described as a breakthrough. As a fan, it was nice to see a player admit to what the fans have known for awhile now. So a thank you from me to Guillen for not hiding behind the "We've just got to get things going, we're still in this thing, tomorrow could be the turnaround" school of cliche. But what the hell were you thinking with that bunt?

I am considerably less satisfied with Jim Bowden's tirade. Said the G.M.:

"You know what? Be a man. Wake up, and do some damage. Or guess what? After that, Frank's going to do whatever he can do. . . . If they're not hitting, he might as well put other people in there. There are a lot of guys who can score no runs a game."

Yes J.B., there certainly are a lot of guys who can score no runs a game. And most of them seem to be Nationals. How do you suppose that happened? You built this team, why are you yelling at them? We should be yelling at you.

A Farewell to Arms

Ryan Drese looks to be done for the season, with surgery on his right shoulder probable. Ex-Nat Claudio Vargas picked up his 8th win for the D-backs last night. No commentary, just facts.