2011 Washington Nationals delusions of grandeur thread

in which an improvement from 59 wins to 69 wins means it's time to start up the win-now moves

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/3b/fullj.e4fee0e38a339af8c601ace4390a6e99/e4fee0e38a339af8c601ace4390a6e99-getty-107560413ml17_washington_nationals_introduce_-_jayson_werth.jpg

http://www.toppsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Bryce-Harper.jpg

harro

daring to toe the line between "eye black" and "blackface"

never really noticed the chin on this fool

reminds me of a chin i've seen before.

I don't care about inside-out pockets, dangling jewelry, pinetar-on-helmet bilge, or Phiten dookie ropes. Ban the flat-bill hat and smudged eye black, please.

http://espn.go.com/i/page2/photos/060725/cards_jefferies.jpg

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2011/3/15/2052411/and-did-he-get-lasik-surgery-because-those-eyes-oh-those-eyes

One baseball source outside the Nationals’ organization tells Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post that he believes the Nationals will start Rick Ankiel in center field.
In turn, the source believes the Nationals will use Roger Bernadina as the backup in center field and option Nyjer Morgan to Triple-A Syracuse. Meanwhile, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman says the competition between the trio is "wide open." There's no easy platoon here since, Morgan, Ankiel and Bernadina all bat left-handed. Morgan probably has the most potential from a fantasy perspective, though he's coming off a very disappointing season.

barf

nats sign (l)ollie perez to a minor league deal

very minor

nats play-by-play guy just said 'it wouldn't be opening day without livan hernandez on the mound' lol

Well, he did pitch pretty well today for a 63-yo man.

must really put things into perspective for you, morbs

http://playstationlifestyle.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/25ad8-slow_clap.gif

right down Broadway

(J0rd, I like you but your soul is a charred pile of embers)

:D

Lannan vs Braves gettin gstarted after rain delay

Ankiel & Werth leading the miracle-year charge

glad to have you on board this season morbs

Hailstones mixed into the sideways rain.

its just saving us from seeing a hail of ankiel homers

http://mlb.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pMLB2-8892719dt.jpg

http://www.grandstandsox.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/s/o/sox_1990_logo_hat_10.jpg

but the new base unis are SO much better than the EXPANSION TEAM unis.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5144/5601631494_2eb8b2743c_o.jpg

never forget!

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRy6KK6gH0EzcpkHAW_ByUw1dRiI513B67DbMoThTB8OIwgrZmUjg

Seeing nats brew crew next weekend

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/04/09/we-have-a-war-of-words-between-stan-kasten-and-rob-dibble

FP Santangelo replaced Dibble as the color guy... he really grew on me, take a listen.

This is the Nationals line-up for Tuesday night’s game against the Phillies. Print it out, frame it and hang it in a special place. Beauty such as this only comes along once in a generation:

Nationals

1. Ian Desmond, SS
2. Rick Ankiel, CF
3. Jayson Werth, RF
4. Matt Stairs, 1B
5. Wilson Ramos, C
6. Laynce Nix, LF
7. Danny Espinosa, 2B
8. Jerry Hairston, 3B
9. Livan Hernandez, SP

We have to write this down just to believe it’s actually happening: MATT STAIRS IS PLAYING FIRST BASE AND BATTING CLEAN-UP. MATT STAIRS IS 43 YEARS-OLD.

He also doesn't have a hit this year.

i couldn't figure this out last night. why is he hitting cleanup?

Is Jerry Manuel managing the Nats?

the offense is so terrible even with the 'normal' lineup

apparently the majority of the crowd is phillies

Jon (DC)

JFK ran with the Presidents at Nats Town yesterday... too soon? Seriously, they are asking.

Klaw (2:31 PM)

Seriously? They should run JFK, McKinley, Garfield, and Lincoln, just to thumb their noses at the whiners.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/04/14/video-jfk-is-added-to-the-nats-presidents-race-and-hes-the-bad-guy/

yowch, surgery for Zimm

yeah they're getting to 2008 levels of unwatchable again. i dont want to see rick ankiel, jerry hairston, and the corpse of pudge hit for a whole season, but there's absolutely no one in the upper half of their farm system

i understand there's a young man fond of eyeblack who is available

dude has yet to face AA-level competition let alone MLB-level. he'll be up at the end of next year maybe if he's really a generational enough talent to blast through the minors

o i hear u cluckin

Jerry Hairston Jr., ladies and gentlemen.

Bryce Harper is raping a-ball right now.

.396/.472/.712

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/bryce-harper-best-prospect-ever/#more-50106

bernadina just had an absolute insane catch to save the nats 2 runs

bryce brentz is similarly destroying the south atlantic league -- but harper is four years younger and weighed down by eyeblack, so

jordan otm heres that roger b catch

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=14762271

that first fan reaction shot is great.

The Kent 'stache is a nice touch.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/07/bryce-harper-is-going-to-get-himself-hurt

I could see that guy getting a Full Metal Jacket-style blanket party someday.

in sunday's game (against the same team) he was drilled on the first pitch of his first at bat and left the game, which might have had something to do with it. but still.

btw, he has a teammate apply his eyeblack (no word on how this teammate is chosen or if it rotates) in the dugout before games and does not appreciate having photos taken of this ritual loool

I want Harper to go full on heel when be gets called up.

guys i think the nats drafted cankles

Jim Riggleman has resigned from Nationals, according to his agent, Burton Rocks.

I personally would quit too if I was the manager of a team that had won 11 of its last 12 games, oh wait

Rob Dibble is tanned, rested, and ready.

Mike Rizzo, you can improve Sunday Night Baseball with one quick phone call!

They could trump the Marlins by hiring Les Moss.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/nationals-journal/post/riggleman-quits-at-nationals-manager/2011/06/23/AGPDlnhH_blog.html

Riggleman met with General Manager Mike Rizzo and requested to have a conversation about his contract status when the team landed in Chicago on Friday, where they will begin a three-game series with the White Sox. Rizzo said the time was not appropriate. Riggleman told him if he would not at least discuss his contract – which expires at the end of the season – then he would not board the team bus to the airport and resign following the game.

“When is the right time, you know?” Riggleman said. “August? No. Last October is the right time. It’s been festering for me since last October, and I told Mike that when I spoke to him before.”

“I’m 58,” Riggleman added. “I’m too old to be disrespected."

In October they had just completed a 69-93, last-place season.

The Natinals have not been right since Loria bought the Expos.

DC has the worst set of sports owners in the universe, which considering some of the idiots out there is saying something.

riggleman was making 20% of the average major league ballplayer's salary. in an industry in which washed-up left-handers are cut with $14m owed them.

yeah, he's not a great manager or anything, but he was never going to have more leverage at any point in the three months before they let him go. so good for him

I guess. Olney says he may never get another AA or AAA coaching job again, let alone MLB.

Jayson Werth tried to make it sound as if it didn’t matter.

“It’s not going to change anything in here,” Werth said. “We’re the ones that have been making the pitches and hitting the balls and winning the ballgames, so we’re going to keep going.”

Maybe I'm reading too much into this comment, but it sounds like Werth is throwing Riggleman under the bus, as if he was just a warm body in the dugout and anyone could have been managing the team.

worth is just trying to steady everyone

i don't think that was bus-throwing-under, but riggleman *did* quit and probably shouldn't expect his players to publicly pine for him

replacement-level manager

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/jim-riggleman-unloads-on-thomas-boswell/2011/06/24/AGmPYHjH_blog.html

BOOM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_296w/WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/dc-sports-bog/StandingArt/rigglescaddies0611.jpg?uuid=udw52p5wEeCDhM94su9Eqw

“Yeah, well, I was solving the world’s problems last night at Caddies,” Riggleman told the Junkies to much laughter. “I’ll tell you what, I had to get down there and let those girls get a look at me. There’s some beautiful young ladies in that place. Unbelievable. Chris and Dave I believe it is, the owners there, I went in there a while back and I was in there at a time when it was just pretty much me in there, visited with them. And I popped in there last night, they had a great crowd. Hey, I was big in there. My face is up on the screen and everything.”

Between Riggleman losing his marbles, the interim manager getting ejected in his first game, and talk of Davey Johnson coming back to manage, the Nats have suddenly become the most interesting team in the NL!

TheDaveSimsShow
No! RT @NatsFansided: @TheDaveSimsShow You think Riggleman has a future in TV? That probably might be his best route for his career.

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/662006/Morse1.gif.opt.gif

That was just the first three of the game, right? They're up to five at the stretch...

Washington’s second five-error game of the season

Davey's starting to look exactly like my (paternal) grandfather. Eerie.

Gorzelanny's on some other planet today.

http://dcist.com/attachments/Aaron%20Morrissey/2011_0718_werthdress.jpg

werth, always a bridesmaid

Duffy’s Irish Pub has found a way to make that first-half bust pay off now. During the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, you can order PBR tallboys, Buds and High Lifes for whatever Werth’s batting average is at the time. For example, if the promotion started right now, at the time of publication, Werth’s .211 batting average would mean $2.11 brewskies.

Want another dime knocked off the price? Then root for Werth to sink deeper into his slump this week. He’s averaged 3.7 at-bats per game this season, so if he starts all four games leading up to Sunday’s and continues at that pace without getting a hit, beers would be $2.02 at game time (4:10 p.m.). And if he were to follow that by going hitless again Sunday, beers would be an even $2 after his last at-bat.

That would make him ever-so-slightly closer to being worth his $126 million contract.

“For the record we're very happy to have Werth on our team and know he'll turn it around very soon, we're just having a little fun,” reads the invite on Duffy’s Facebook page.

As a little bonus for Nats fans, those donning Nats apparel will be treated to free shots of Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey each time Werth gets a hit Sunday, softening the blow of the increasing price of beer.

chien-ming wang pitching tomorrow

kei igawa, furrows brow in mild confusion and disgust, prepares to run stadium steps four times

Wang looks kind of shaky, eh?

he was not too good in his minor league outings

*tugs collar*

HITS FROM THE WANG

That was one hell of a throw Ankiel did in the 9th today against the Reds. Maybe Ankiel should just pitch out there, he hasn't lost anything on his arm. As the game went on into the 13th, the Reds commentators were wondering if you had to go to a position player as the Nats had pitched pretty much everyone, do you go there and use Ankiel in that situation?

http://twitter.com/#!/dcsportsbog/status/109279299042947072

Radio ad: "The thrill of Nationals baseball, and the excitement of Lifehouse, live!"

speaking of thread title delusions of grandeur, this article has a brief nationals sloberfest: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6910166/father-time-philadelphia-phillies

Meanwhile, the rest of the division isn't standing still. Thanks to a spectacularly timed pair of 100-loss seasons, the Washington Nationals signed two of the most hyped prospects of all time in Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. This year, they drafted Anthony Rendon, the best college hitter in America. Add those three to a core of Ryan Zimmerman, Danny Espinosa, Wilson Ramos, Jordan Zimmermann, Drew Storen, and Tyler Clippard — all 26 or younger — and something interesting is brewing in the nation's capital.

Strasburg's back this week. I don't get the mini-"controversy" over him coming back to pitch this year. The surgery was a success, he's been getting in shape to pitch all year, he's destroying the minors again ... where's the problem? Is there somehow a greater risk of him getting hurt this September instead of next April?

SLIGHTLY smaller crowd tonight compared to the one at SS' debut.

breaking news: he was filthy tonight

Woops -- I forgot that his debut was in Philadelphia.

kind of hope the weather fouls the rotation enough so I can go see him in Queens Monday.

I read that the Nats were planning to only start him at home until the end of the season, I'm not sure if that's still the case though.

kind of frustrating that they keep pulling him after 6 innings when he's on pace to finish the game with 90 pitches

i'm worried that they're unwittingly conditioning him into a long reliever instead of a starter by using innings limits, because he's so efficient pitchcount-wise

they are being careful w/ a guy who had TOMMY JOHN!!!

Best day of the season yesterday.

"i'm worried that they're unwittingly conditioning him into a long reliever instead of a starter by using innings limits, because he's so efficient pitchcount-wise"

This is the garbage time of the season. They are being careful right now. He'll be a starter next year.