Washington Posting

Brad Peacock continued his rise from obscure origins on Saturday afternoon–he was a 41st round draft choice in 2006–as he struck out ten over six innings, winning his sixth game. Peacock posted 14 Ks in his prior start and those eye-popping numbers have brought the Nationals 23-year old right hander a little extra attention. He […]

The Catch of the Young Season

Several years ago I went up to Harrisburg to interview Justin Maxwell, the promising young outfielder of the Harrisburg Senators at the time. He was a warm and sincere young man and I spoke to John Stearns about the Maryland native and came away impressed. Yet truthfully it was another player who caught my eye […]

Brad Peacock, Selig Man with Upside Heart

Brad Peacock was taken in the 41st round of the 2006 draft as a “draft and follow” pick by the Washington Nationals. For Washington the 2006 draft was a disaster. Conducted when the team was still under management by Bud Selig and MLB, Inc., it might serve as a tutorial on all of the things […]

Let’s Play Two

The Sunday doubleheader was a staple of baseball in the Golden Era of the game, you know, when the World Series was played in the first half of October and kids listened to Don Larsen’s perfect game on the radio in Ms. Hill’s sixth grade class.  The Nationals and Brewers played a Sunday doubleheader today. […]

Motivational Speakers

Not only was the Philadelphia radio station giving away tickets to the Nationals game last week, but the seats were in the first row, right field bleachers closest to Jayson Werth.  And Werth got an earful from the Philly faithful. Every time he touched the ball it set them off. Suze Orman couldn’t have provided […]

Centerfield in Washington Is Ankiel’s Now

When Rick Ankiel laid down the perfect squeeze bunt in the seventh inning yesterday all the thoughts of the Nationals nagging center field question disappeared like Brad Wilkerson going back into the dugout after waving to the crowd upon hitting for the cycle early in the 2005 season.  Nyjer who?  And what was that other […]

Quiet and Steady as She Goes

The Nationals traded Nyjer Morgan for Cutter Dykstra and during the wee hours. The move was no surprise to anyone, but some had opined that the Nationals would take almost anything to get rid of the distractions surrounding Morgan. Dystra is not “almost anything,” but he knows a little bit about distractions. Anyone who has […]

On Seeing Elvis in Florida

Bryce Harper’s appearance in right field at Osceola County Stadium Thursday night occasioned a rush of fans to the wall alongside that would have made Elvis blush.  A fan beside me said it, “The king is in the house again.”  The stadium is the Astros’ spring home, but the hero carrying the scarf of the […]

Ian Desmond, Linchpin to the Future

There was an interesting note in a post recently by Nationals beat writer, Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post.  He said that if manager Jim Riggleman could build the Nationals from scratch, he would start that team with one player–shortstop Ian Desmond.  Ryan Zimmerman is widely thought to be Washington’s franchise player, especially with Stephen […]

Touring the Bases With: Bob Luke, Negro Leagues Author

The first “Outta the Parkway” Podcast on Thursday, February 17 at 7:30 pm will feature Bob Luke, noted author of The Baltimore Elite Giants,  and Dwayne Sims, founder and CEO of the Negro League Legends Hall of Fame.  I had the pleasure of talking to Bob Luke this weekend and he was kind enough to […]

Pitchers and Catchers and Other Warm Thoughts

Pitchers and catchers report in a month. There will be a few more trades such as Vernon Wells going to Los Angeles, but rosters are pretty well set and it is time to start looking at the results. This early look at the NL East by Mark Zuckerman provides an early chance to disagree with someone, […]

Jim Riggleman, Still Light on His Feet

Baseball personalities rarely lead lives connected to their home communties, which is what makes Jim Riggleman’s tenure as manager of the Washington Nationals so unique.  This morning Jim was introduced to a breakfast crowd by a local Bethesda, Maryland woman who said “Jimmy” was the first boy to ask her to dance, back when they […]

Ripeness as a Baseball Concept

With the signing of Adam LaRoche, the Nationals ownership group is making a statement.  The Lerner family who own the Washington franchise are just beginning to introduce themselves, but for those who don’t know, they are real estate Mughuls. They have created an empire valued at somewhere between $3 billion and $4 billion by buying […]

A Cameo Appearance for Family Values in Sports

Jayson Werth said in his press conference in Washington, DC today that a big part of the deal for him was the stability that a seven-year contract gave him, further guaranteed by a no-trade clause. “You finally get to free agency, you have a chance to do something special for yourself and for your family. […]

A Big Step Forward

Mike Rizzo announced that the signing of highly prized free agent Jayson Werth was just the beginning of Phase II–competitive baseball for the Washington Nationals. It will hopefully mark the turning of the corner, where the Nationals can compete in the National League East on a daily basis. No one believes that a seven-year contract […]

Catch a Falling Star

Lastings Milledge was non-tendered by Pittsburgh yesterday. It is just another benchmark in the descent of a once promising talent that was briefly with the Washington Nationals. Jim Bowden traded Ryan Church and Brian Schneider to the Mets for Lastings Milledge during the off-season before the start of 2008.  The rumblings of his unpopularity in […]

Maximum Feasible Dunn

And all through the house not a creature was stirring, no baseball news from even a mouse.  Black Friday shoppers are out in force, but baseball has only the near silent whisperings of General Managers waiting to see which players accept arbitration before the Tuesday night deadline. One quiet household could be turned on its […]

Any Fish’ll Bite If You Got Good Bait

The Nationals continue to make notable progress in building their minor league organization.  Rated consistently in the bottom tier since the move from Montreal in 2005, the system is on the rise, but an acid test awaits. GM Mike Rizzo wants to trade for a starting pitcher. The rumor mill has the Nationals looking at […]

Ranking the Goliaths and Davids

The 2010 playoffs begin tomorrow and at first glance you would assume that the Tampa Bay Rays were carrying the banner of underdog once again. That would be wrong. The most under-privileged team teeing it up will be the Texas Rangers. Does their cheap price tag limit them? How far can we expect the light-weights […]

Nyjer Needs Some Love

After two whopping suspensions, dumping on Nyjer Morgan at this point should be half the distance to the goal for egregious piling on.  The guy needs some love big time.  So pardon me while I swim against the tide of the conventional wisdom–a concept born and raised here in Washington, DC. I will start at […]

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 ones.  Upsetting […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A Mike Rizzo Team We Could Remember

The Washington Nationals ended the 2009 season much as they began it, the worst team in baseball.  Yet here in DC dogged faith abounds in new GM Mike Rizzo.  After signing Stephen Strasburg and becoming GM, he has put together much of the personnel to build the organization.  But what of the major league team in the 2010 season?  It’s […]

Memo to Mike Rizzo on Tony LaRussa

There are growing rumors about a rift between Tony LaRussa and the Cardinals after the failure of the Cardinals to perform to expectations in the NL playoff series.  A recent column by Buster Olney is one of the more expansive to opine on the subject.  I hope Mike Rizzo of the Nationals has read it. 

Kasten’s Plan, for What Exactly?

Stan Kasten is a gentleman and an Ivy-league scholar.  When the Lerner family outbid their competitors for the rights to the relocated Montreal Expos, MLB, Inc. insisted the Lerners take on Kasten as a partner.  Fans were delighted to see someone affiliated with the Braves dynasty coming aboard.  But Kasten’s endless insistence that the laughing stock of baseball […]

Remaking “The Chosen One”

Hollywood script writers go back to the same well-worn ideas time and again because it requires intellectual rigor to create something genuine and new.  Baseball writers can fall into their own ruts.  Last year’s drum beat that Stephen Strasburg was a “once in a lifetime” talent had not reached its climax before Sports Illustrated trotted out […]

Bang, Zoom Go the Fireworks”

News that Stephen Strasburg had signed a contract with the Washington Nationals will be greeted with a sigh of relief as the news seeps into what has been called a sleepy southern town.  The sleep will disappear quickly as news spreads that the Nationals got their man–driving a hard bargain and keeping the $15.67 million price tag well below […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »