The Nationals Report

For anyone paying attention last night. Rick Ankiel made his return to the bigs last night. Instead of hitting the net behind home plate a few more times, he came back as a field player. And quite an impact he made. For those of you who thought he was dead, he switched to playing OF after having asploded his mind in the playoffs throwing wild pitch after wild pitch, going back to the minors, fixing his mechanics, coming back to the bigs, and throwing even more wild pitches. I personally laughed a few years ago when I heard the news that he was leaving the mound behind. Well look who's laughing now. I posted a few weeks back lauding his power from the outfield. And after last nights debut, dropping a 3-spot bomb, it appears that his power could transfer to the majors nicely. Now if I only knew a team that was looking for an OFer with power this off-season...Bowden, seriously, get on it. I think he's the perfect fit for our club. He's not going to be terribly expensive, as he hasn't really made a name for himself in the bigs as an OFer. He's not a player 2 years out of high school who has never seen big league pitching (he hit as a pitcher for the cards). And his story is locker room gold. When someone is in a prolonged slump, Rick can always say "you think your slump is bad, I threw 5 wild pitches in a single inning...in the playoffs...and then I threw two more in an inning later in the series" And for him to battle all the way back to the majors at a new position is just phenomenal. With him and meat hook in the locker room, the Nats would have no problem keeping the right climate in the atmosphere. I know it won't happen, but he is at the top of my wish list this winter. Perhaps if I was Nats320 he would listen...probably not.

Anyways, I was just catching up on my Nats news as I've been out of town and have only been reading game summaries on my cell phone. I ran across the latest Nats notes article on Nats.com and they presented the fact that the Nationals starting staff has the lowest ERA in the bigs over the past 36 games. While us Nats fans have been paying attention and know that our staff is doing a great job under the circumstances, watch any national show where they mention the Nats, and all they say is how young and untalented our team is. They pay no regard to reality in that the Yankees (sorry Jon) have paid huge dollars for supposedly talented starters and yet their ERA is almost identical to the Nats. I bet if you have any national pundit a choice between Kei Igawa and any starter on the Nats, they wouldn't even think twice...Kei Igawa and his 6.79 ERA. Seriously, we get no love, except for Acta. People do give us the backhanded compliment that he's doing so much with this bunch of losers. Its wedding time...peace