The Nationals Report

First, Wily Mo Pena hurt himself in the cage, by I can only imagine swinging so violently, his muscles exploded. He'll be out for 4 weeks. At least. That article states that Pena's injury comes as good news to Elijah Dukes, who will be the starting left fielder.

OH NOZ. Elijah Dukes strained his hamstring running to second today, and is "day to day". Know what takes a long time to heal? The hamstring.

Come on down, next left fielder. Be careful, if Manny gives you the job, your body may break down without warning. If he names Escobar the starting left fielder, he might just literally explode.

Edit: Also, we tried to sneak Josh Whitesell through wavers. FAIL. Arizona took him. That means "Little Papi" Luis Jiminez and Larry "I'm never going to play in the majors" Broadway in AAA with Marrero into AA at some point.

Seriously, how many stories are we going to have to endure from the national media about the Nationals signing so-called reclamation projects.

Here's another one...

Oh and if I hear that high-fiving fans after a home run is a baseball sin one more time, I'm going to rip someone's head off. Glad to hear our team thinks it was awesome and a great thing to do. New York sucks.

Update (Jon): I was going to post something about this article, but Kyle beat me to it. I take umbrage with two things from this article. One Kyle has already addressed. There is nothing wrong at all with high fiving fans. Nothing.
The second thing is the thing I find more troubling, and maybe more of a society wide issue. Are the only people that can talk to Dukes and have it sink in, black people? That's the conclusion I reach when I read Young's quote about him, Ray King and Willie Harris being able to tell him the ropes.
Dukes needs all the council he can get, and skin color shouldn't factor into it. Unless he won't listen to a white person for some reason. In which case, ?.

It seems the only interest the national press has in the Nats Spring Training this year concerns two people, Nick Johnson and Dmitri Young. We knew going in that this would be the key position battle this March. With Nick playing well, Dmitri injured and not making playing time demands, it seems more and more likely that Nick Johnson will be the opening day starter at first base. What's becoming a little more unsettled is the other position on that side of the infield.

Coming into this season, Jim Bowden pretty much ended any debate as to who would be starting against the Braves at shortstop, it would be The Guz. That left Felipe Lopez and Ronnie Belliard to play for the spot this spring. Word from the front office was that it was Belliard's position and Flop was going to have to take it away. Then, a few weeks before the season kicked off, the Nats made a signing that perplexed some and was ridiculed by many. They signed 38 year-old (soon to be 39) Brett Boone to a minor league deal.

Many around the league figured we were just signing a player to fill out Spring Training rosters and basically paying some has been to field BP. Meanwhile, Brett himself swore up and down that he left the Mets in the spring of 2006 because he was battling alcohol and that he was now clean, hungry, and still has plenty left in the tank. I, like many others dismissed his quotes as someone who had lost touch with reality and was in denial that he is past his prime. Heck at this point most players are past their usefulness at all. Despite this, Boone showed up to Nationals accelerated minor league camps ready to play.

It wasn't long before Bowden made the decision to move Boone over to the big league camp and allow him to prove that he's still got a little juice left in the bat. Shortly thereafter Boone showed everyone that he was not a liar and that he could still hack. Boone's swing has been as sweet as it ever was, showing decent power to go along with a keen eye.

As of today Boone's batting line is .462 .636 .364. He's got the fourth highest slugging percentage on the team (min. 10 AB) and has yet to strike out. Compare his line to Elijah Dukes, .476 .778 .389 and their pretty similar. That is until you take into account that Dukes has struck out in just short of half of his at bats. (See crazy Elijah Dukes stat at the end)

Personally my vote for opening day second baseman has to go to Brett "The" Boone. I haven't even begun to get into his defense but both Flop and Belliard have obvious holes in their defensive games (Flop's penchant for errors, Belliard's range). It also couldn't hurt to have another veteran to show the youngsters the right way to approach the game day in, day out. I know we're paying Flop/Belliard significantly more money but I've never been one to play who you pay. You play the players who give you the best chance to win the game and from what I've seen so far this spring, that player is Brett Boone.

That being said there's still plenty of time this spring for Boone to fall off and for Flop and/or Belliard (btw Belliard is raking) to really lay claim to the spot, so I'm keeping an open mind. And to be honest I'm biased because I dig the fact the Brett wears a helmet instead of a cap. I think there's no question Boone should be on the bench, but I think this is one position that the front office and Manny should take a closer look at before penciling in the opening day starter.


RANDOM ELIJAH DUKES STAT: So far this year Elijah Dukes has had 18 AB and has not been put out once. 7 hits, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts...wow

Evidently Elijah knows how to spoil a good walk. To be honest, his swing doesn't look too bad. He goes a little past parallel on the backswing but he looks flexible enough to pull it off, though it will lead to inconsistently. He also needs to bend the knees a little more as his stiff stance is causing his feet to wander. He is staying down through the ball well and finishes with a nice follow through. Its a little rough around the edges but nothing a little practice can't fix. I'm liking Mr. Dukes more every day. This is a side of him I didn't think I'd ever see.

This weekend...nothing happened.

It's been a slow weekend for Nats news and I was out of town for the weekend. Thus...no posts.

Last week was a week of highs and highs (we think). I think I speak for Jon in that I don't think we made one bad move. Ryan Church and Brian Schneider never figured in to our long term plans as a team so their departure isn't a huge blow. Were Church and Schneider really going to produce that many runs this year...I don't think so. The only player leaving for which I had any affinity is Jonathan Ablalalalaladingdong. He showed some sick stuff in his short stint with the big club and he could've been a major piece of our pen for years to come. But there can only be so many spaces for a spot lefty and Ray King takes up two and ate the third.

So the outfield has transformed from Pena, Church/Logan, Kearns into Pena, Milledge/Kearns, Dukes/Kearns. Which would you rather pitch to? Exactly. Pitchers don't care who you inseminated, beat, and or disrespected. They only care if you can hit. And the second group I mentioned hits better than the first. Case closed!

Okay I think I've beat this dead horse enough. The Nationals Report thinks Trader Jim is a genius and might be leading us to the promised land.

Your 2008 Washington Nationals...

NL Wild Card Winners!

We've got the stones to believe, DO YOU?

Disclaimer: I, Jon, share Kyle's enthusiasm, and depending on the way the rest of the offseason shakes out (signing some arms), I will be right behind him. If not...we'll see.

Just a quick rundown of the "Winter Meetings Checklist" posted on Nats.com last week and what can be checked off:

More starting pitching:

Half Check! Tyler Clippard from the Yankees. Youth talent but nothing proven yet. More importantly no innings eater yet. I'm still holding out for Livo.

Leadoff Hitter:

Nothing! There aren't many true leadoff hitters out there on the market but anything is better than what we've got. Problem is that the defensive lineup seems set, so who would squeezed out for a leadoff hitter...I predict 2B. Its going to be a tough find though.

Center Fielder:

Check! The Nats have acquired both Lastings Milledge and Elijah Dukes through trades. Both come in with some questions about character and none about talent. Hopefully a change of scenery will provide both with new life.

Power Hitter:

Check! Both Milledge and Dukes have above average power so it seems as if we're trying to kill two birds with two stones here. Neither have played full major league seasons though so the breath is still being held on this. Smart money is on at least one or both working out.

Everyone else is talking about the Elijah Dukes trade so peer pressure mandates that I chime in with an opinion on it. The way I see it is this: I'd be pissed too if I had to play for the Rays. Look, how angry would you be if you toiled years in the minors only to be brought up to a major league team who has never even sniffed third place in their division. Now I'm not advocating killing your kids unless they really piss you off, but I'm ready to give the man a chance. We're batting 100% in restoration projects so far so why not.

Message to all you Dukes haters out there (this means you, every blog in the Natosphere Update: Except Banks of the Anacostia):

Let he who has not sinned, cast the first stone. We all have done, or know someone who has done some really stupid things. Maybe you got your girlfriend pregnant in high school, maybe you drove drunk and crashed your car. I don't know. All I know is that you weren't poor (allegedly), given millions of dollars and then told to never do anything wrong...ever...or else. Short leash...fine, but you don't know the man. So I'm giving him a clean slate, as should you all!

Elijah Dukes, he of the gun-picture message, of the chest bumping in the Dominican League, is a Washington National in exchange for a PTBNL.

Keep yourself informed here for now, Kyle will be on here later with the run down.

UPDATE: PTBNL is Glenn Gibson a la ESPN

Some quick stats:

Drafted in 2006, 4-3 record in 12 starts, with a 3.10 ERA. This is guy is young talent, and part of the Vermont Lake Monsters pitching staff that performed extraordinarily well the first half of their season.

Baseball America:

Background: The son of former major league lefthander Paul Gibson, Glenn showed off his superior feel for pitching at short-season Vermont. He might have been the New-York Penn League's best pitcher until his final two starts, when he tried to pitch while sick and saw his ERA balloon from 1.74 to 3.10. It was later discovered he had mononucleosis, causing him to drop about 20 pounds and reversing his solid progress in the weight room.

Strengths: Gibson's savvy makes his stuff play up. He pores over hitting and pitching charts before every start so he can exploit weaknesses, and he mixes speeds and locations very well. He can throw his plus changeup in any count for strikes, his slow downer curveball can be above-average at times and his fastball can touch 91 mph and has late movement.

Weaknesses: Gibson's fastball sits in the high 80s and isn't overpowering, which limits his upside and margin for error. He still needs to add strength to his frame, particularly his lower half, to improve his durability and velocity.

The Future: Gibson is ready for a full-season league and should begin 2008 in low Class A. He looks like a safe bet to reach the big leagues as a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Snap judgement: This isn't exactly Dukes fornothing as it was rumored to be. Gibson isn't one of the high profile names, but he was number 8 prospect and this guy did say he was going to kill his wife, and it could be assumed he meant it. This is the classic "troubled player with loads of talent for talented youngster who won't develop for years" trade, and sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't. This does bring up a quandary of too many outfielders in the mix, as all of the players we picked up need playing time to be effective. The smart thing to do would be to send the odd man out to Columbus for seasoning (my vote for Dukes), and let the remaining players start almost every game. The likely thing is that AK, as well as Cordero or Rauch are on their way out of town. I hope not, because AK's home-away splits last season were night and day, and this guy needs a chance to hit in a non-death valley.