Washington Nationals Progress Report

the season is, unbelievably, more than a quarter gone...

major league baseball is playing with fire... dc has never been a good baseball town (when you have lost two teams you are not a good baseball town) so to have a new team arrive and have most games not be on tv for the majority of dc area residents is dangerous.. i'm not sure why but to watch nationals games you pretty much need direct tv.. even hard core fans willing to traipse to a bar regularly find their bar does not have direct tv.... until the end of the season the only games nats fans will be able to watch are on weekends.... for example, the current nats series against the reds is not on the tube (it is on direct tv but who has that?).... i think to really get into a team you have to have the possibility of watching the games on a daily basis.. otherwise you don't really develop much of a relationship.. when the nats take off on a road game series to toronto and cincinatti and you can't see any of the games on tv and are limited to little coverage in the papers it makes it that much more difficult to get into the team once they get back home....

overall the general manager terry bowden made some good decisions in the off season and one very bad one... bowden by all accounts likes to gamble on players that have fallen out of favor elsewhere... he sees this as the only way to make things happen given the limited budget he has to work with.... this off season he got vinny castilla , jose guillen, esteban loaiza and christian guzman.... the first three have so far done quite well..there is some concern about castilla's health.... meanwhile shortstop guzman signed to a long term multi million contratct is batting 197 and in my opinion needs a stint in the minors to figure out how to hit again.... i'm very worried about him as the nationals are stuck with him and owe him i believe about 20 million dollars! he just seems like a really weak hitter...

the nats are really suffering from injuries which make the 24-21 record all the more impressive... currently jose vidro- perhaps their best player is out...wilkerson is out.. castilla is out... guillen just got back from an injury.. their best pitcher livan the rock hernandez has been having some injury issues.. its amazing the team is doing as well as it is! on the flipside first baseman nick johnson who has a history of underachieving due to injuries has remained healthy and is putting up some real nice numbers... the upshot is that due to injuries but perhaps even were this not so the nationals need one more bat with some clout in the lineup.. they need more pop.... against the toronto they got shutout two games in a row.....

currently the nats are in third place or so in the nl east... the florida marlins and atlanta braves are trying to pull away and definetly look like the more solid teams... the phillies look the weakest i'm happy to say... meanwhile the mets are playing 500 ball.. win one lose one.. for the nats to challenge for a wildcard they need one more bat in the lineup....i don't know that they have anybody they can trade to make this happen...they don't have money to spend either.. money will only come when a new owner is selected and the rapacious major league baseball suits that control the fate of the nats are in no hurry to sell the team.. their goal is to take as long as they need to in order to secure the best sale price... if nats fans in the meanwhile can't see games on tv or if the team can't really make the necessary decisions to remain competitive is of little interest to them.... major league baseball, lets face it, is a mafia and congress needs to take away their special excemption on taxes...

overall, however, despite my gripes about major league baseball and the tv fiasco, i have to say i've been very happy with the nationals..they are a gutsy team and have been performing well.. some might say overachieving even....given the limitations to be a few games out of first in the most competitive division in baseball at this point in the season is quite an achievement.. on the other hand, and not to bore you, the nats could take this division with a little more firepower and i think major league baseball is shortsighted not to loosen the purse strings a bit.. after all a winning team would get the town behind it far easier and attendance would increase... this would all serve to entice potential investors to perhaps bit on the higher end...