The difference between Jim Bowden and Mike Rizzo is stark.  The leather pants wearing, segway driving Bowden was a man of words, oftentimes over-exaggerated and inflated.  For a baseball general manager he was flamboyant.  Who could forget him calling Ian Desmond "the next Derek Jeter" or his proclimation upon accquiring Emilio Bonifacio that the Nationals had "accquired their secondbaseman of the future."

He was the baseball equilivent of Jeffery Skilling, taking on toolsy outfielders that were high risk, high reward players at the expense of the Nationals future.  Pitching and defense meant little to him and the team's rosters during his reign reflected this.  He was a guy that was better at marketing the team than building it.

And then you have Mike Rizzo.  Rizzo is soft-spoken and much more grounded in the views of the team that is being fielded.  He does not wear flashy suits and has not made unrealistic player comparisons.  Toolsy outfielders that were accumulated under Bowden, like Milledge and Dukes, were shown the door and, as a former scout, he understands that pitching and defense are a key component of most successful teams.  It should come as no surprise that he is attempting to build the Nationals on this premise.

The past two seasons, the Nationals have been in the bottom third of the league in runs allowed.  Last seasons, the only team that finished with more runs allowed was the team with the second worst record, the Orioles.  How important is defense in the National League?  Each of the four teams that made the NL playoffs in 2009 were in the top half of the league in runs allowed.  In those two years,

Yesterday, Washington Nationals' manager Jim Riggleman announced that Willy Taveras would serve as the right-handed portion of the team's right field platoon, citing Taveras' defensive prowess as the deciding factor in earning the role opposite left-handed hitter Willie Harris. Mike Morse will likely fill the role of a versatile utility player and see time on the corners in both the outfield and infield.

The real surprise in all of this came during Thursday's game against the Mets. As the ninth inning began, Cristian Guzman was playing right field. Guzman, who has never played in the outfield, was compared to Willie Harris, who formerly played infield to exclusion. According to Riggleman, Guzman will first play the position in late game situations when one team has a secure lead, thus allowing him to become acclimated without risking wins and losses in the process.

In other news, the Nationals optioned right-handed pitcher Luis Atilano to Syracuse. Atilano, 24, posted a 6.14 ERA in 7.1 innings pitched this spring. The former first round pick of the Atlanta Braves went 9-8 with a 4.01 ERA in 22 starts last year between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Syracuse.

Analysis:

Believe it or not, this is no April Fools' prank. I actually think this is a savvy move by the Nationals. With the extremely tenuous situation in right field and the limited ceiling of this year's squad, it cannot hurt to try Guzman in right. Moreover, Guzman's bat is too good for this team to waste. While the team has a relative wealth of middle infielders including Ian Desmond, Adam Kennedy, Alberto Gonzalez, and Guzman, its right field prospects are comparatively sparse and limited. Harris can be a functional everyday player; however, he would be better served as a utility player and spot starter. In addition, though Taveras posted a UZR of 8.3 in 102 games for Cincinnati last year, he hit only .240/.275/.285 in 437 plate appearances. Although the Guzman experiment will certainly take its lumps, it projects to be a low risk, high reward situation. If Guzman can play a serviceable right field, the benefits of his bat outweigh the limitations of his outfield defense.

When we last left Bryce Harper, he was batting an astonishing .420/.514/.864 with eight homers and 32 runs scored on the season. To be honest, I thought for sure this would be the high point, that the league would finally catch up to the 17-year-old slugger playing junior college ball. Instead, Harper went out and had the best weekend of his young college career.

In back-to-back double-headers on Saturday and Sunday, both against the College of Eastern Utah, Harper went 7/14, hit four homers and scored seven runs. This brought his season totals to .431/.528/.931 with 12 home runs, 35 RBI, and 39 runs. His slash's combine for an outrageous 1.459 OPS.

Harper again showed his defensive versatility, and with it perhaps taunting scouts with his unique talent and draftability. Harper played two games at catcher and two in centerfield this weekend, and is quickly showing he's not the best catcher in the draft, but arguably the best position player.

HARPER VIDEO VS. COLLEGE OF EASTERN UTAH

With the end of Spring Training finally in sight, Chop N' Change profiles the several candidates for the Braves bullpen. With the four first bullpen spots being occupied by Billy Wagner, Takashi Saito, Peter Moylan, and Eric O'Flaherty, the list of players trying to make the team will have their work cut out for them.

Atlanta will miss relievers Rafael Soriano, and Mike Gonzalez as Soriano is now with the Rays and Gonzalez with Baltimore. Manny Acosta, Jesse Chavez, and Scott Proctor are just a few of the names out there trying to take their spots in the pen. As made evident by the article, each of the hopefuls has a significant amount of risk involved, whether it be control, consistency, or injury.

It looks like not much has changed with the Mets since we last saw them. Daniel Murphy, the teams starting first baseman will now start the season on the DL due to a sprained MCL on his knee he got in a rundown between third and home. Let the panic in Mets World begin.

It's a shame to see Murphy go down with an injury like this because he was already penciled in to the Opening Day lineup. With Murphy expected to be out the first two to six weeks of the season, all signs are pointing to Mike Jacobs to fill the void. Jacobs, who was fabulous in his first stint with the Mets in 2005, is lucky to be getting this opportunity due to the fact that we were not even sure if he was going to make the team out of camp a few weeks ago. We all know Jacobs can hit for power, but the question now becomes how will spacious Citi Field affect his power numbers?

This past Sunday, the Washington Nationals officially named four starters: John Lannan, Jason Marquis, Craig Stammen, and Livan Hernandez. This announcement left the fifth and final position in the rotation unaccounted for and a relatively underwhelming cast of competitors, all of which have had their struggles. Garrett Mock, apparently a shoo-in for one of the five spots as recently as March 15, has seen his stock tumble, allowing six runs on seven hits and five walks in 4.2 innings yesterday against the Marlins. J.D. Martin, he of the first round pedigree, has been sent to AAA Syracuse this morning. Finally, Scott Olsen, the lone remaining southpaw in a right-hand dominated rotation, has posted a 6.75 ERA to go along with a 1-2 win-loss record. However, Olsen has improved his position of late, surrendering just two runs (one earned) on seven hits in 5.1 innings in his most recent outing against the Atlanta Braves. In that start, Olsen threw 64 of his 85 pitches for strikes and struck out four batters while walking none.

Analysis:

While Olsen appeared dead in the water as little as a week ago, it now seems just as likely that he will secure the fifth spot in the Nationals' rotation (at least until top prospect Stephen Strasburg toils in the minors long enough to delay his arbitration clock). In what was his final audition, Olsen was impressive against what was admittedly a short-handed Braves team. That said, Olsen's probable ascension to the starting rotation seems an act of necessity rather than one based purely on merit. Mock has struggled mightily in the last two weeks, and Martin allowed seven runs in six innings over the span of his three Grapefruit League appearances. Thus, I believe that Olsen will begin the season as the Nationals' fifth starter; however, I would assume that he will soon be relegated to, at most, spot starts once Strasburg gets called up.

The Nationals did the inevitable this week and awarded the starting shortstop job to 25-year-old prospect Ian Desmond. In doing so the club stripped the starting job from veteran Cristian Guzman, and instead said that he will serve as a utility-player in 2010, the final year of his contract. But with all-stars at the corner infield positions, and a proven weak arm from Guzman, the only other position outside of shortstop he could possibly play is second base.

Guzman made his first-ever appearance at second in Tuesday's game against the Marlins, moving from shortstop after his repaired arm had a poor showing.  In Guzman's 10 year career he has only played shortstop and while the Nationals seem to think moving to second base will be a good thing for him and the club, I wonder if we are overestimating how easy it is to switch across to the right side of the infield.

While some consider the change from shortstop to second base seamless, there are some major differences.

Yes, you are responsible for covering less range, and the throw is vastly easier. In fact from a throwing standpoint, it's arguably the easiest position you can play aside from the double play pivot, which is good for Guzman at this point in his career. However, other things come into play. Fielding the shortstop position you have more time to react and read what a ground ball is going to do because you are the furthest infielder from the plate. Against right-handed batters, ground balls are much easier to field because they are hit squarely and are generally easy to read. When right-handers hit the ball to second base, it often comes off the bat completely differently and can take much more peculiar hops. At shortstop you are also fielding through the ball while at second you are reacting and often catching up to it, moving right and left.

Over at Talking Chop, the announcement of Jason Heyward being named the starting right fielder has sent Atlanta into a frenzy. The 20-year old is batting .347 in Spring Training which was enough to convince manager Bobby Cox that he was ready for the show.

Great news for Braves fans and baseball fans, as the new generation of Atlanta baseball is set to commence. Though he may have been overshadowed by the attention given to Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg, Heyward has drawn comparisons to Fred McGriff, Cliff Floyd, and even Hank Aaron. Whoever he becomes, it is nice to finally get some news about a young player from the NL East making the opening day roster as Strasburg and Mets pitcher Jenrry Mejia will likely start the year in the minors.

Lots of buzz coming from Marlins camp as FishStripes addresses a potential problem looming for Opening Day and the demotion of lefthander Andrew Miller. Josh Johnson, the obvious pick to be the Opening Day starter for the Fish's game against the Mets at Citi Field has recently come down with some flu like symptoms that could keep him out of the game set for April 5.

The Nationals announced today that Barack Obama will throw out the first pitch at Nats Park this season. This comes one year after Obama made news for publicly ditching the Nationals last season despite the open invitation to the president in his first year of office.

It has long been a grand tradition to have the president throw out the first pitch for Washington's home opener since William Taft first inaugurated the act in 1910 (100 years ago) for the Senators. In fact many believe this may have been the first - first pitch in baseball history. As lore has it the idea for the pitch came from Washington's own Clark Griffith who believed if he could get the president to throw out the first pitch, baseball would officially have the presidential seal of approval, thus making it without question the nation's pastime.

Obama's first pitch at Nationals stadium will not only mark the 100th anniversary of this tradition but will be a great historical step as he will be the first African American president take part in the act. The pitch will surly be a symbolic act in a Washington baseball history that has been scarred with losing baseball, a move, and unsettling race relations in the past.

It was in this history that Calvin Griffith, nephew and heir of legendary baseball figure Clark Griffith moved the Washington Senators, to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1961. Griffith didn't admit it at the time but was later quoted in the Minneapolis Tribune as saying, "I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota. It was when we found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don't go to ballgames, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it'll scare you to death. We came here because you've got good, hardworking white people here."

His comments had their own fallout as Griffith was ripped by the local media as well as by his players. In fact it even led to the eventual parting of the Twins with their then best player, Rod Carew, who refused to be another African American on Griffiths, "plantation."

With the season quickly approaching the Nationals announced yesterday that John Lannan, Jason Marquis, Craig Stammen, and Livan Hernandez will make up the first four spots of the clubs rotation, in that order. This leaves one spot remaining for three starting pitchers, Scott Olsen, J.D Martin, and Garret Mock.

The Nationals had all but awarded a spot in the rotation to Garret Mock earlier in the spring, but the stellar performance of Stammen and Hernandez in the recent weeks have helped them leapfrog the 26-year-old righty. In four games this spring Stammen has posted a 3.14 ERA with 10 strikeouts, and Hernandez showed the league that he can still get batters out when he shutdown the Yankees to one run last Wednesday.

Olsen made things harder last night when he had a stellar outing against the clubs National League East rival, the Atlanta Braves. Olsen allowed only one earned run in five and a third innings pitched, striking out four and walking none.

Analysis: Mock has all but pitched himself out of the rotation, allowing five runs in his last nine innings this spring. It had appeared that Olsen had done the same until last night

Washington Nationals' Manager Jim Riggleman today named Ian Desmond the team's opening day shortstop. In so doing, Riggleman uprooted Nationals' mainstay Cristian Guzman. Desmond earned the starting nod based on his outstanding performance this spring, in which he hit .278/.339/.463. Guzman, on the other hand, hit .284; however, with an on-base percentage of .284 as well, the veteran came up short. Riggleman maintained that this move was not necessarily permanent:

"I really think there's an opportunity there for two positions, for three guys [Desmond, Guzman, and free agent addition Adam Kennedy], where none of them get 600 at-bats but none of them  get less than 300...It's really not utility. It's more than that. Hopefully Desmond is able to hold the spot down. Based on September and spring training, it looks like that."

Desmond, 24, is looking to build on a September call-up last season in which he hit .280/.318/.561.

The combination of Desmond's success and rumors linking Guzman and the New York Mets, among others, has once again sparked speculation that Guzman would soon be moved. General Manager Mike Rizzo was quick to debunk such suggestions as mere