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?

They should look different, these Nationals of 2010.  But after fifteen hours on the road, the Stones and Hank Williams still buzzing in my ears, they don’t look different enough.  Before I can get my first beer of the season to my seat, the score is 5-0 Tigers.  Jeremy Bonderman isn’t blowing anyone away, but there isn’t even a loud foul during his four and a third.

That IS Pudge Rodriguez behind the plate.  Sure he is beyond his prime, but he is one of the best catchers to put on the gear in the last few decades.  He still knows how this game is played and is likely to end his career in the HOF.  He throws out a runner at second base in inning number five and gets JD Martin back on track for four fine innings.  Is there hope yet?

The last few springs down here have been hung with overheated rhetoric about the future of a bunch of kids and no-names.  Last year Manny Acta was running morning drills like leading first graders in the pledge.  If they can make that work in Cleveland, more power to them.

With little more than a week before camp breaks, there aren’t many questions to answer except is this really the way it is going to be all season long?  The worst team in baseball has the worst spring record.  The offense looks like it could stand all the Jermaine Dye it can find.

The rotation has had solid auditions by Garrett Mock, Craig Stammen and Livan Hernandez.  But there are too many of the old disasters still hanging around.  Scott Olsen doesn’t look like he is healthy enough to get any one out.  Matt Capps looks too much like the guy who had an ERA over 5 last season and that could spell trouble.  The Nationals picked up Mike Macdougal off waivers this morning, so they may be concerned as well.

It is spring training and time is left to right the ship before opening day.  But for now I am making a note to draft Brian Bruney and listen to more upbeat stuff on the way home or this could get depressing.