There has been a lack of updates on The Nats Blog for this weekend series against our neighbor to the north the Baltimore Orioles. Some have speculated that as a childhood Orioles fan I couldn’t bring myself to write against the team that I grew up rooting for on those faithful October nights in the late 1990’s. Others have asked if it was a result of the inability to write about the same loss over and over, a situation many may argue the Nats are currently in.

No, as exciting and dramatic as those circumstances would be, the plain truth is that after four years of being Mono-free in college, I catch the notorious kissing curse merely a week after I graduate.  

The site will be back up soon, and I apologize. 

The ping-pong balls bounced the wrong way.

Shortly following the Clippers climbing the lottery to snag the number one overall selection in June’s NBA Draft. Instead of the Wizards moving up just one spot to win the number one pick, and with it the cities second top pick in a major sport draft this summer, they slipped to fifth and likely out of relevancy. Blake Griffen doesn’t know what he’s missing.

As the ‘National elect’ with the number one overall pick this coming June, Steven Strasburg will soon find out how sweet it is to be a sports star in Washington. The District is a city built around hero’s. People from all across the country, and world, that have done one thing extraordinary in their life at some point. It’s a city that appreciates character, wit, humor, and supposed playmaking ability.

This is why Washington is drawn to its sports stars, and to making them into our hero’s. What other city has three superstars already established in their city? Los Angeles has Kobe, and Vlad Guerrero, but no football team. Chicago has all the sports but who really stands out as a superstar? Not Derek Rose yet, not Derek Lee anymore, and Jay Cutler has only just arrived. D.C on the other hand boasts Gilbert Arenas, who when healthy is the epitome of a star, Clinton Portis, and Alexander Ovechkin.

This trio rules D.C as we fall in love with their individual accolades, their style on and off the court, and often their plain ridiculousness. And maybe it’s our jaded view of our towns political leaders that allow us to look past our stars flaws more than any other city that allows them to be so popular in D.C. Maybe we’ve learned to appreciate individual accolades and ignore group shortcomings. We see politicians come into this town as great representatives from other places,  and as long as there is no scandal their success is relatively ignored and their support still maintained.

Such is our view towards the Wizards, Redskins, Capitals, and Nationals. Let’s be honest, we struggle a bit when they put up last place seasons, but for the most part Washingtonians don’t start to care about a team until The Washington Post tells us to.

So this is what we have to offer you Steven Strasburg. If you chose to be sign-able, and you do come to Washington, we can give you undying love.

You can:

Be in an Eastern Motors Commercial!

I have recently come down with a bad case of Mono and I haven’t been able to watch all the Nats games in full, at least not lucidly.

So every morning when I get up I look at the box score first thing to see first; the score, and second; how many runs the Nationals let up in the 8^th and 9^th innings.  It’s usually pretty predictable.

It was no surprise to me this morning to see the final score to a game that when I fell asleep watching it was tied 1-1, to have the Nationals lose 1-2. Guess when that losing run crossed the plate? That’s right the ninth. On a wild pitch no less....jeesh

John Lannan pitched a beauty of a game.  His accuracy dead-on, and his breaking pitches freezing. Through seven innings pitched Lannan allowed seven hits, one earned run, struck out five, and walked two. He finally pitched like the ace we had hoped for going into 2009, dropping his season ERA to 3.63, despite not earning the victory.

Ron Villone came on to pitch a perfect inning in the eighth, setting up the potential loss perfectly for Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan surrendered three hits, one walk, and one earned run, just enough to earn his second loss of the year, and the Nationals’ 28^th.

What’s most scary about Hanrahan’s performance is that he didn’t have control problems. 23 out of his 35 pitches were strikes. This means he just plain got rocked, and that his stuff just is not very good.

David Ortiz is a unique player who has followed a unique career path. While Big Papi broke into the majors with Minnesota at only age 21, he didn’t have his first 20 homer season until 2002 when he was 26.

That makes five years of a large first basemen in a bandbox ballpark not hitting for great power. The doubles were there, Ortiz recorded 30, twice before reaching the 20 homer plateau, but Ortiz never put it all together.

Following 2002 Ortiz was shipped to Boston where his career would really take off. From 2003-2007 he was arguably the best hitter in baseball, posting career highs of .332/54/148 in various seasons. Papi and Manny Ramirez combined for one of the best one-two punches since Ruth/Gehrig, and Redsox nation loved it.

However in 2008 the wheels started to fall off, as Ortiz’s injuries appeared to catch up to him. His power total dropped to only 23 homers, he batted only .264 and drove in less than one hundred runs for the first time he has been in Boston.

This year it has gotten out of hand. Through 161 plate appearances Ortiz has no homers, and is struggling to bat above .200.

So what’s wrong?

The easy answer is the removal of Manny Ramirez. Without the hitter of a generation hitting behind him, maybe Ortiz isn’t as scary? But he still does have Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkalis, Jason Bay, and JD Drew hitting around him….so plate protection is still there.

Maybe the problem is that Papi, who is now 33, is over the hill. Yes, 33 is not that old for most ball players, especially ones who didn’t start to play every day until the age of 27/28.  However, if you look at other ‘big bodied’ players like Ortiz, such as Mo Vaughn, or Cecil Fielder, both of their careers ended in their early to mid 30’s. Perhaps Big Papi is just worn out?

If the Redsox decide he is. They may look to Washington and target Nick Johnson as their new DH. He’d fit in well in the Sox line-up, as he is an on base conscious, line drive hitting professional hitter.

Johnson is also in his last year under contract with Washington, and for the first time in a long while he is healthy. The Nats should dump him for some pitching help as soon as possible, and clear the way for Morrero.

I think we all knew it as soon as we saw Adam Dunn call of Elijah dukes on the fly to right-center this weekend. The grimace in the former linebacker’s face was enough for us to know, that hamstring got re-aggravated.

After the game yesterday the Nationals placed the young centerfielder on the disabled list – retroactive to May 18 – as a result the Nats recalled outfielder Justin Maxwell to fill his spot.

Maxwell will probably split time with utility man Willie Harris in centerfield. Maxwell is only batting .242 with 4 homers and 10 RBI for AAA Syracuse this season. 

While everybody has accepted that the Nationals will take Steven Strasburg with the number one overall pick June 9^th, often overlooked has been the Nationals next pick. For failing to sign Aaron Crow in 2008, the Nats received a compensatory pick at the 10 spot in this years draft. So essentially the Nats have two ‘lottery’ picks in 2009. Over the next several days I will go over a few possibilities of who they may draft.

Today: Grant Green.

Green is a California boy to say the least. Growing up in Anaheim Hills, CA, Green was a three-year starter for Canyon High School. The shortstop hit over .400 his entire varsity career at Canyon high, earning many accolades ranging from 2004 Century League ROY to being named to the 2005 US Junior National Team.

It was this success that landed him a scholarship and an immediate impact role on the USC Trojans baseball team. Green started every game as a freshman, batting .316 with 28 extra base hits, 24 RBI and six stolen bases en route to earning the Pac-10 Conference Co-Freshman of the Year award. He was also named to the Rivals.com and Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American second teams.

His sophomore year he came back for more, batting .390 with 29 extra base hits, 10 stolen bases and 46 RBI. This earned Green All-Pac 10 first team honors as well as third team All-American from Baseball-America. Through 50 games into his junior year he is now batting .374 with 29 extra base hits, 14 stolen bases, and 30 RBI.

Scouts project green to be a very solid fielder with the athleticism of Bobby Crosby, but probably the arm of Edgar Renteria (not bad just not special).  His range right now is not Major League ready, particularly to the left according to scouts who say that while he has the athleticism to improve, right now he doesn’t have MLB range.

What has scouts particularly excited about Green however aren’t his stellar college batting numbers, but the numbers he has put up in the Cape Cod wood bat league, a traditional proving field for future MLB success. In the summer of 2008 Green batted .348 with six homers and 21 RBI for the Chatham A’s, while reaching base at a .451 mark. He was also 10-13 in stolen base attempts. His success in Cape Cod earned him the Robert A. McNeece Outstanding Pro Prospect Award as the league’s top prospect.

That’s a big deal. Former winners include: Ron Darling, Robin Ventura, Billy Wagner, and Mark Teixeira.

The truth is Green could go anywhere form number two to 15 overall. His potential projects him to be a mix between Troy Tuluwitzki and Evan Longoria, but he is still not there yet. He could be a valuable pick for the Nationals who have Cristian Guzman under contract through 2010 and then rely on either Ian Desmond or the player formerly known as Esmailyn Gonzalez to fill in at shortstop. 

(He wasn't happy about it)

Well the good news is, after 122 at bats, Cristian Guzman finally drew a walk. That’s about where the good news ends.

Four errors, a lousy bullpen performance, and a really bad sixth inning led to the Nationals 26^th loss of the season. Once again for the club it didn’t matter that they had 11 hits or raked in seven runs…or even that they were playing the Pirates, none of it mattered as the Nats once again beat themselves Monday night.

Nationals batters reached base 17 times, while striking out only four times. They had eight extra base hits, out of eleven total. Even Josh Bard had a multi-hit game. The offense cant get much better, however, the bullpen can’t get much worse. Last night they gave up nine earned runs in four innings pitched. In the Phillies series they gave up 14 earned. If the Mets from 2008 could not make up for such a gap in their bullpen, certainly the Nationals of 2009 cannot either.

The Nats have lost five in a row.

Ross Detwiler

The young lefty finally made his big league debut. Long touted as the most talented pitcher in the clubs system, Detwiler had struggled finding his accuracy and then his confidence. He stunk it up in spring training and his first several starts in Harrisburg were just as bad.

Then something clicked. It’s not clear what. Detwiler started throwing pitches and batters started missing again. He combines a great running fastball with a power curve and a growing change. Scouts have long said the key to him being a great pitcher at the next level is his ability to throw the change as a strike. For the most part, it seemed to be dead on last night.

In five innings pitched Detwiler allowed four hits, two earned runs, struck out six, and walked none. How long he will stay in the rotation isn’t clear, its probably directly related to Olsen’s tendentious and Detwiler’s own success. However if he continues to progress in the bigs, keeping him and Zimmermann on the club could prove valuable come next year; a rotation that could boast Lannan, Zimmermann, Detwiler, and Strasburg.

Young but potent.