Some lighthearted baseball talk (NL East edition)

The following is not a preview, but a lighthearted conversation about the NL East, baseball and other things: 

Freeman: Was it always this lonely? Chipper: Nah man, it was beautiful and busy and full of life. 

Atlanta Braves

The number of the day is:

100, for the Washington Nationals lost their 100th game last night. The first time the franchise has lost that many games since the Montreal Expos were 55-107 in 1976. Ryan Howard hit his major league-leading 48th homer, Joe Blanton pitched six effective innings, and as the Nationals reached a terrible milestone the Phillies moved closer to clinching the NL East title with an 8-4 victory. The Phillies' magic number for winning their second straight division championship was reduced to one after the New York Mets lost 6-1 to the Florida Marlins.

Also of note, Jimmy Rollins set a career-high with his 47th stolen base. He's been caught just three times. Ryan Howard's 32 RBIs this month are a team record for SeptembeR, he also leads all first basemen with 10 errors.

The number of the day is:

5, as in the number of games the Nationals, Padres, and Mariners have to lose to reach a 100 loss season. Joining the dubious 100 loss club is quite the anti-achievement but out of the three clubs on pace to do it, who is the most disappointing? Well its not the Nationals, nothing much was expected of this club, they have a low payroll and are building for the future. Even though they won the NL West last season, its not the Padres. The brass in San Diego shouldn't have expected much out of this club. They can't hit, they play in a pitcher's park, yet their defense is average and their outfield is very slow. The team will be big sellers and start its rebuilding this off-season. In my mind, it is definitely the Mariners. With all the money and moves they had made in the off-season they were expected to be playoff contenders, not 100 game losers. Their payroll is roughly $117 million. Previously the worst team to ever spend $100 million or more was the 2003 New York Mets, who wound up losing 95. The Mariners have already matched New Yorks dreadful 2003 season. They will have to go 10-0 just to finish with the same record as the Mets of 2003, and 6-4 to finish without 100 losses. The Mariners are a relatively young team and should learn from this tough season, or you would at least hope so. They have started their youth movement in the last month of the season and look towards 2009 to be the season they make their playoff run.

The number of the day is:

10, for the Nationals who lost 10-13 to the Mets last night. I bet your asking, how is that 10 relevant? Well the Nationals have only 10 more games to lose before they reach that magical abyss that is a 100 loss season. The Nationals currently have a record of 56-90, and are tied with the San Diego Padres for the worst record in baseball. Both teams could possibly finish with less than 100 losses, but what would be the point? If your going to be bad, why not be historically bad? The Nationals road to 100, includes series with the aforementioned Padres, Phillies, Mets, and Marlins.

The Detroit Tigers were the last team to reach this accomplishment of retrogression, they did it with a record of 43-119 in 2003. If the Nationals do reach 100 losses, they would be the third Washington baseball team to do so. The original Senators pulled off the feat twice, in 1904 and 1909.

The number of the day is:

7, for the winning streak of the Nationals that came to an end Tuesday night against the Phillies. The Phillies won the game 4-0, but I think Nationals fans will agree with me when I say that they are just happy the Nationals are finally playing competitive ball in the Nations Capitol. The 7 game streak was the longest winning streak for the club since a 10 game run in 2005. The streak included two series sweeps over the Braves and the Dodgers, it also gave the Nationals the season series over the Braves. The streak is a sign of progress in DC and shows that the youth movement is definitely a step in the right direction, which gives Nationals fans optimism for the future. I think we all know baseball belongs in the Capitol and thankfully this youth filled team is playing the game the way it is meant to be played; with joy, hustle, and pride.

Field Trip: Its just Teddy being Teddy

Me and the LCG attended last nights Nats/Dodgers game, where the Nationals won 2-1. Derek Lowe pitched 8 fantastic innings, but got no help from the slumping Dodger offense. The Nationals prevailed in front of a crowd which probably was one third Nat fans, one third Dodger fans, and one third Red Sox fans. Manny was booed and heckled throughout the night by the Red Sox and Nationals fans, as me and my fellow Dodger faithful cheered him to a 3-4 performance. The racing Presidents even took a couple jabs at Manny, as Teddy had a Manny doo rag with dreads for the race (Sorry about the camera work):

It must be a tough job thinking of 81 ways for Teddy to lose each year, but this may have been the best all season. Lastings Milledge was the star of the game with a home run and a beautiful diving catch that saved a couple runs. I enjoyed the trip to Nats park and I am hoping that the Dodgers sweep the rest of the series.

The number of the day is: (Field Trip Edition)

10, as in 10 runs given up by Nationals pitcher Jason Bergmann before he was taken out by manager Manny Acta. Included in those runs was a home run to left field in the top of the second by Fernando Tatis and a shot from Daniel Murphy in the top of the third. As Bergmann was getting lit up, there was no one warming up in the bullpen. The only reliever who got up during the inning was right-hander Garrett Mock, but he did it just to stretch. Besides, he is not available to pitch until Thursday. On the other hand, John Maine made it look easy pitching against the Nationals. Making his first start since July 28; he allowed one hit in five innings, struck out six and walked four. Brian Stokes pitched the final four innings to complete the four-hitter and get his first save. The final score Mets twelve to the Nationals zero.

Myself, Ms. LCG, Teach, Stan Yuengling, Bill, and Nancy were in attendance for the gem that Bergmann pitched. It was the biggest blowout I had ever attended and I still had a fantastic time. But who could have a bad time with good friends, a cold beer, a delicious ben's half smoke, and baseball?

Nationals release Lo Duca, Estrada, and Lopez

Jim Bowden and Manny Acta had been showcasing Lo Duca and Lopez for the last month, in hopes of getting a deal done. But Lo Duca was only hitting .230 and Lopez .234, not nearly high enough to garner a trade for a prospect or even a vat of fat. But F-Lop and Lo Duca left with some good things to say, and came out of this looking classy. Lo Duca wanted to apologize to the fans for his play.

"I apologize to the organization and the fans....I'm a better baseball player than I played."

and Lopez left without saying anything bad about the organization.

"This is definitely not the end of me. I'm still young. I'm healthy. It didn't go well for me here, but it's not the end of the world. I wish everybody the best. I've got nothing bad to say about the Nationals."

The Nationals will put the future on display for the last two months of the season, including recent acquisitions Emilio Bonaficio and Alberto Gonzalez. Finally the Nationals are actually going young, the Nationals fans were promised this last year. Since trader Jim realizes old ball players on last place teams are not good trade pieces he starts the youth movement. It should have happened a long time ago. Here is what he had to say:

"We're going to turn the page, and we're going to get younger for the last
two months," Bowden said. "We're going to continue to develop young players. We
want players here that are going to hustle, that are going to play the game hard
and play the game right."

Oh and Elijah "Your Dead Dawg" Dukes returns less than four weeks after suffering damage to both the meniscus and patellar tendon in his right knee which he suffered during a game in Cincinnati. He went 5-for-15 in three rehab games at Columbus.

The Nationals will need to make another move prior to Friday's game to clear one more spot on the 25-man roster.

Jon Rauch traded to the Diamondbacks

The tallest pitcher in baseball, 6'11 Jon Rauch and his massive mitts are headed to Arizona, he goes from one of the worst teams in baseball to one of the most promising. Here are the details of the trade from Yahoo!:

The Arizona Diamondbacks made a major move to shore up their ailing bullpen on Tuesday by acquiring reliever Jon Rauch from the Washington Nationals for infield prospect Emilio Bonifacio.

More on the trade after the jump

Rauch was 4-2 with 17 saves in 22 chances and a 2.98 ERA for the Nationals. He has struck out 44 and walked seven. Rauch, 29, has been filling in at closer for most of the season for injured Chad Cordero.

Bonifacio entered the season as Arizona’s No. 6 prospect, according to Baseball America. The speedy 23-year-old second baseman from the Dominican Republic was recalled by the Diamondbacks on July 4, and was 2-for-12 in eight games. He hit .302 in 85 games for Triple-A Tucson, with 18 doubles, five triples, a home run, 29 RBIs and 17 stolen bases.

Bonifacio, the fastest base runner in the Diamondbacks’ system and one of the fastest in all of baseball, played for the World team in the Futures game during the All-Star break.

The Diamondbacks are tied right now with the Dodgers for the division lead and this trade does a lot to try and keep up with one of the best bullpens in baseball. The Dodgers’ bullpen has a 2.93 ERA which is second best in the majors. Subtract Scott Proctors numbers and Dodgers relievers would sport a 2.50 ERA, nearly a quarter run better than the big leagues’ best, Philadelphia.

In other MLB news

The Nationals signed Christian Guzman to a 2 year extension, keeping him in Washington until 2010.

The Houston Astros, believing their season can still be saved, acquired pitcher Randy Wolf from San Diego on Tuesday in exchange for minor leaguer Chad Reineke.

The Nats should sign Barry Bonds

The first year of life in the new ballpark for the Nationals could not be going any worse; their "big" off season signing Paul Lo Duca was caught in the middle of the steroid scandal, half the team has been injured at one point, the attendance has not gone up much since the opening of Nationals Park (currently 16th in the league) , their record is the worst in baseball, and the TV ratings are the worst in the bigs. So you can say the Nationals are not really having that break-out year the Lerners expected. It does take time to build a winner and a fan base. But last in the bigs is a huge step in the wrong direction.

Barry Bonds, has been chilling in California trying to get a deal all season. His agent Jeff Borris recently said :

“I am not talking to any club about Barry Bonds, because they all made it very
clear to me they are not interested in him. Every club.”

His salary requests are out of this world and he probably wants to play for a contender. The media frenzy that would follow Bonds and all his steroid connections that go with it, are too much for a team to bare. He is a liability in the outfield and not reliable enough to only be a designated hitter. But what I aim to give, are reasons why both the Nationals and Bonds would be helped greatly by the situation.

More after the jump

First up the Nationals:

They would get a legitimate power threat to knock runners in, having Christian Guzman batting .313 with 126 hits and only 54 runs scored is disgusting. The Nationals biggest HR threat may get 20 HRs this season, Bonds would be a major addition in the category.

Opposing fans love to go to the game and boo Barry, getting more fans in the nice new ballpark is the idea, right? Maybe the fans that come to boo Barry would realize the park is worth coming to and keep coming back.

Barry Bonds works hard, he may have cheated but you don't become one of the best players of all-time through roids and a good gene pool. If the younger guys see what it takes to be a HOF caliber player, maybe they will work that much harder and pick up some of his good habits.

Bonds gets national attention, the more Bonds is on TV the higher the ratings.

It would only be a half season thing, if he doesn't play well or is a distraction your not burning cash farther down the line

Those are a couple reasons that the Nationals would benefit from the signing of Barry Bonds.

And Barry's

Barrys benefits are more short-term but could help him in the long run

He could show that's it not all about the money, by taking a pay cut to play in the nation's capitol

He could work on his relationship with reporters and maybe get a better shot at getting in the HOF. DC is known for its spin doctors.

Barry could pull farther away from Hank Aaron's mark, making him a must vote for the HOF

He could hang out with Meat Hook, who wouldn't want to hang with this guy?

The Nationals are probably the worst team assembled in the last 20 years, and Barry Bonds would not help much. But what else can the team do, Lerner wont spend money and doesn't plan on it in the future. It takes a minimum of 10 years to build a fan base, so somethings got to give to make it that long. Either the scouts and the players have to get better or the Lerners need to start spending some dough. Well other then the half-billion they spent buying the team. Hopefully the Nationals front office will start taking chances on people that are good and not just filled with potential. Let me remind you, I am a Dodgers fan, so I am in no way a Bonds fan. But I am a baseball fan and I would like to see the Nationals do something out of the ordinary to build the franchise.

Our visit to Nats Park

This past Sunday myself, B-Brody, Mark, and Laura ventured out of the burg to catch the Nationals Cubs game. This would be my first trip to the new ballpark. We started off stopping by to meet up with Pat and Sarah(his friend from Law school, who would later make sure I did not look like a 5 y/o with mustard all over my face) We met up with this twosome in Clarendon at Pats little bros place(free parking)We took the metro from there to the Navy Yard. Exiting the metro station I got my first view of the ballpark. This is what my first glance of Nats Park looked like We then proceeded to the ticket counter to find the cheapest tickets for six, luckily not a sell out. Yet no dice on the $5-10 tickets, we ended up with seats in section 242 right for 29$each in front of the scoreboard in right field. We made our walk through the gates, where they checked the girls purses but nothing but a metal detector for the fellas. I made a mental note of this, reminding myself (if I decide to) I can bring plastic liquor bottles next time I come. My first view once in the stadium was of the beautiful scoreboard. Which would be the last time I could see it until the end. We walked up the steps where we were greeted with this beautiful billboard.
We proceeded to our seats, which gave us a perfect view of the field. I have to believe that there is not a bad seat in the house at this ballpark(All the seats are angled towards homeplate). Here is what our view looked like. One of the first things we noticed, was there was no staple or truly identifying factors to this ballpark to distinguish it from others. Brody also pointed out how impossible it is to see the out-of-town scoreboard. Other than those factors, I love this ballpark, it is a complete 180 from old RFK. My main goal of this afternoon was to try a bens half smoke(all the way). It was one of the three reasons(reason 2-brodys cub fan-dom,reason 3-what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon) for this visit on a cold and rainy afternoon. Now to the food, just in the area of the stadium that we were in there was; cantina marina, multiple beer and hotdog stands, a deli (which offers kosher selections), five guys, slice down the line(pizza),pretzel stands (according to mark and laura, stay away, worst pretzel they have ever had) and more beer stands. The choices are a plenty and very accessible. All in all the experience was great, I got my half-smoke (best thing in the ballpark) and got mustard everywhere, Nats won 2-0, and we were lucky enough to avoid the mess after the game by walking a couple blocks right or north from the stadium to the next navy yard stop. If if you have not had a chance to partake in a game at Nats stadium, you should and I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Ill leave you with a photo of 4/6 that went to the game(notice Brody trying to copy Nick Johnsons photo). Next up is Bruce Springsteen in Charlottesville this Wed.

Narcoleptics, dippers, and felons

I don't know how many of you play fantasy baseball on Yahoo!, but I do and throughout this season I have noticed a couple of terrible photos. Here a few that I have noticed while rummaging for hr's, rbi, and saves. First of all, is none other than Adam Jones. Is he narcoleptic, sleepy, stoned, or just blinded by the light.
Then there is Johnny Gomes, who looks as if once the game ended he left the stadium without changing out of his uni and pulled a furcal and got arrested driving drunk.
Next up is George Sherrill, I think he should give Kevin Mench his hat size back.

Last but not least, is Nick Johnson, who was unaware that half horseshoe dips dont help make the best shot. The last thing, i dont know if any of you know, but do they give them more than chance for the photo. Or is it one and done.