Bottoming Out in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor

They should bottle Showalter’s elixir and sell it outside Camden Yarks.  The Baltimore Orioles are showing signs of life in response to their new manager’s tonic after flat-lining for more than half of the 2010 season.
The Orioles’ record since Showalter stepped into the dugout is 17 – 10.  That is a .630 winning percentage and [...]

Fastball, Fastball, Fastball

On the web there are numerous video clips of Nolan Ryan throwing fastballs and they loop over and over, fastball after fastball ad infinitum, Ryan’s seemingly effortless delivery going on forever in some parallel universe where he will throw forever.  That was my mental picture of where Stephen Strasburg should be as he neared the [...]

In the Best Interests of Baseball?

What exactly does the leaking of financial information about six teams by Deadspin.com seek to change at the end of the day?  In 2006–in the name of competitive balance–Major League Baseball, Inc. set in place a system to share revenues from the richest teams–those whose markets will always remain demographically enhanced–with the poorest [...]

Touring the Bases With…Dick Bosman

Dick Bosman is the minor league pitching coordinator for the Tampa Bay Rays, rated the best young organization in the game.  Much of that is derived from the unbelievable pitching talent Dick has the pleasure to work with.  Here are his thoughts on his pupils.
TL.  The Rays have the lowest runs per game allowed in [...]

Taking the Challenge, Both Harper and the Nationals

Bryce Harper’s new teammates challenged the young man to fish or cut bait in the days before the August 16 signing deadline.  Stephen Strasburg said, “If he doesn’t want to play here, we don’t want him here.”   Ryan Zimmerman was almost as skeptical, saying in effect that he saw more maturity and character in [...]

The Bud Selig Statue

The Milwaukee Brewers were brought back to life by Bud Selig and no one has done more for baseball in the second half of the 20th century–in Milwaukee that is–than Selig.  So having a statue to Selig outside Miller Park in Milwaukee–alongside Robin Yount and Hank Aaron??–what the heck, why not.  He tried to contract [...]

Touring the Bases With…Dave Baldwin

The confrontation between batter and hitter defines baseball.  No one understands the scientific dynamic of those opposing forces better than Dave Baldwin, late sixties bullpen stalwart for the Washington Senators, a geneticist and engineer who studies batters and pitchers as mechanical and neurological entities.  His insights are fascinating and offer some important instructive insight into [...]

Something Rotten in the State of Maryland

Mike Rizzo traded Matt Capps and Cristian Guzman for prospects and kept Adam Dunn.  His team and his fans are both happy and the team is playing hungry again.  Andy MacPhail failed to move Luke Scott or Ty Wiggington but hired Buck Showalter to make sense of it all.  Still, something in Baltimore just doesn’t [...]

Lower the Mound or Raise the Players

The score was 1 – 0 heading into the seventh inning in last night’s All Star Game before the NL broke through for three runs.  The low score became an issue this morning after the TV ratings were released.  They were lower than any since 1972.  What does it say?  It is reminiscent of the [...]

Opportunity Costs Will Dictate Modest Harper Bonus

Nationals fans, management and players are all seeing just what a great and phenomenal talent can do to transform a team.  Strasburg left everyone breathless for more, but although some see Bryce Harper as Strasburg, Part Deux, few believe Harper will get as big a bonus for signing in Washington.  Opportunity cost analysis says the [...]

Is There Really Gator Baseball?

Coming out of Nationals Park several weeks ago I spied someone decked out in University of Florida garb and I quickly offered up the “Gator Nation” salute–an obscene affair–then jumped up and asked whether he knew how our Gators were doing in the SEC championship game against South Carolina.  After a quick browse through the [...]

Washington Is a Baseball Town (Again)

At the top of the seventh inning the crowd began the chant, “Let’s Go Stras-burg” to the same cadence that fans in DC have grown tired of listening to from Philly, Dodger, Red Sox and just about anywhere fans.  But this chant was all DC and it grew and built.  ”Let’s Go Stras-burg” the entire [...]

Another Brick in the Wall

Is Strasburg’s looming debut next Tuesday more important for the future of the Nationals, or Roy Oswalt’s admission on Tuesday of this week, that he would accept a trade to Washington? The two are inextricably linked.  Oswalt’s view that there are good things going on in Washington redounds to the excitement Strasburg is generating, but [...]

Cuban Relaxation

Cuba and Puerto Rico are never as close as when Pudge and Livan Hernandez are Nationals battery mates.  Rockies’ manager Jim Tracy said watching the two seasoned pros, “It’s like they are playing catch in the park.”  They are two of the most senior players in the game and still two of the most fun [...]

These Are the Good Ole Days

Washington baseball fans are wracked by what Carly Simon once called “Anticip-pay-yay-shun.  They are waiting for the Amazing Mr. Strasburg who has stirred more excitement than anything since 1933–the last year fans had to wait for the sale of World Series tickets in early October.  Today’s rumor in the Washington Post set Strasburg’s first [...]

Spring Ups and Downs

The NL West-leading Padres and the NL East’s second place Nationals are two surprises that belong in this spring’s “Up” category.  Are they showing spring growth that is starting to take hold or will it whither in the summer heat? Conversely, the Mariners and Braves are “Down.”  Were expectations over blown or just yet to [...]

Write-In Campaign Adds Pressure on Selig?

Latino advocacy organization Presente.org is ramping up the pressure on Bud Selig with a write-in campaign to take the All-Star Game out of Phoenix in response to the Arizona Hispanic profiling bill.  After huge protest marches several weeks ago, the write in campaign provides a time-honored, American tradition to keep the pressure on Commissioner Selig. [...]

A Capps-i-tal Idea

The Washington Nationals have a negative run differential of minus fourteen, yet a winning record at 12-10.  When they have been bad they have been horrid, but give their bullpen a lead into the late innings and they have been extra-ordinary. Tyler Clippard and Matt Capps have done it by allowing a scant three runs–two [...]

Goldstein Sounds Alarm in Harper’s House of Charm

Kevin Goldstein took aim at Bryce Harper’s imposing rep this week in an article at Baseball Prospectus.com about his “makeup.”   The amateur draft is counting down and Harper is more and more the only viable first choice. Will the alarm bells spook the Nationals?  Is character as defining a factor for the rebuilding Washington [...]

It Could Have Been So Much Worse

Joe Posnanski wrote this week about the release of full economic data on the business of baseball by Forbes Magazine.  I can barely balance a check book and maybe gate receipts, market valuations and operating revenues confuse me more than I know, but they look to be telling a fascinating story.  It’s about how major league [...]

Been Down So Long

A scant year ago, Jim Bowden departed Washington, DC with the Nationals baseball team as ruined as his reputation.  Just as we tend to forget the desert at the first oasis, so the barren geography of hopeless losing was washed away this weekend as Matt Capps converted his first five save opportunities and up and [...]

The Best Pitcher Not in Washington

The press in Altoona, PA were so thick they were sticking to the grill of your car, as Stephen Strasburg–who Keith Law calls Washington’s best pitcher–debuted in the Allegheny foothills.  The real best pitcher in Washington was in New York tossing a seven inning shutout against the Mets as Livan Hernandez crafted a masterpiece that [...]

Money Talks

USA Today released the 2010 Major League Baseball Salaries in an easy-to-use database.  There is no better predictive model than what the money says.  Put any statistical package up against it and the money flow stacks up pretty well.  

Bring the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn

The season opener last night recalled the great come-from-behind win by the Red Sox over the Yankees late in 2004.  It was too exciting for so early in the season, a 9-7 win by Boston that had it all.  Neil Diamond in his “Bring the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn” jacket–doing a live rendition of “Sweet [...]

Closing Arguments in Washington

The Nationals have played their last 2010 spring game in Viera, FL and are headed north.  The jury is still out.  They have won a few more spring games, but benching Cristian Guzman for Ian Desmond will make speed and athleticism a big factor for the 2010 Nationals.  The move is exhibit A in a [...]

NL East Preview

Who can beat the Phillies?  The Braves have some of the best young talent in the game, but no one will catch them.  The arrival in 2010 of young phenoms Stephen Strasburg and Jason Heyward will be highlights in the NL East.  The ultimate story will be Roy Halladay as he carries the Phillies back [...]

Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Five days in the Florida sun watching baseball without commuting on Metro, conference calls from hell, or stereo political rhetoric.  How can the crowds be so small down here when the grass is so green?

Home Cooking

Chemical additives have played havoc with athletics and our food.  Cooking at home is a good place to start to combat both concerns.  Some teams, notably the Braves, emphasize drafting amateurs from close to home in Georgia, then slow cook them into quality professionals in their minor leagues.  The Nationals could use a little of [...]

Weighing Bryce Harper

Bryce Harper had no where to go but down after being hyped as Lebron James last June.  Questions arose after uneven moments in his play last summer, then again at the start of the college season.  Nationals GM, Mike Rizzo, who will pick first in the amateur draft in three months, must decide whether the [...]

A Proper Frame for Stephen Strasburg

Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson left southern California in 1907 a shy young man who was uncertain why the Washington Senators thought he was going to be a star. Manager Cantillon had heard from scouts the kid was a unique talent-77 straight scoreless innings, 166 strikeouts in eleven games. Now, a century later, another [...]

Washington Snowmen Add Wang

The almost three feet of snow in front of the house is melting, but during the white out conditions last week the Nationals fought through it all to sign Chien-Ming Wang.  Were the Nationals snow-blinded to the big risks of signing Wang?  There is little chance they are getting the pitcher who won nineteen games [...]

Hot Stove Report Card Warms DC Snow

If there were a report card for front office moves by the Nationals in the off-season, it would be upbeat, but still a mixed bag.  In an economic climate where almost every team–even the Yankees–is cutting back, the Nationals will end up spending more than last year.  They will have a better team in 2010, [...]

Early Returns in DC–Before the Polls Close

In 2009 the Nationals scored 4.4 runs per game and allowed 5.4.  Nationals GM Mike Rizzo has said his team will narrow that gap in 2010 and no where can the progress be seen more sharply than in the Washington bullpen that is emerging this off-season.

Nationals Sing New Song for 2010

Washington baseball has been a Leonard Cohen song, a suicide dirge with dark, seductive overtones.  With free agent signings like Jason Marquis, Matt Capps and Pudge Rodriguez, and the trade for Brian Bruney, the search for textural complexity in 100-loss seasons may be over.  We are switching to Bruce for 2010, ”praying for a savior to rise from these streets.”  Hit a big strong guitar [...]

Changing Baseball on the Field

Being a Nationals fan is all about dealing with the stiff headwind of reality.  Bud Selig’s new commission to address changes in the game on the field faces such a headwind–one of cynicism and distrust by the average fan.  We in Washington have as balm an eloquent columnist like Tom Boswell to explain things and coax us [...]

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