Nationals Daily Evolutions 9/23/10

by David Huzzard on Sep 23, 2010 11:00 AM EDT

Let's start off with the big news of the day. Stan Kasten might be fed up with the Lerners' cheap ways* and be ready to bolt. --Thomas Boswell in The Washington Post

*I really have no idea what the Lerners' ways are. It all seems to be hearsay and rumor as to if they are willing to spend money or not.

The real important issue is that there was a game last night and the Nationals won with a little help from rookie Danny Espinosa. --Dave Nichols from natsnewsnetwork.com

Espinosa knew he was in a slump, but he also never worried that he wouldn't come out of it. --Mark Zuckerman at natsinsider.com

Drew Storen wasn't available to pitch yesterday, but the Nationals bullpen depth came through and perserved a win. --Ben Goessling from masnsports.com

After taking a pitch off the hand Adam Dunn had to leave the game, but still might play today. --Adam Kilgore from washingtonpost.com

A losing baseball season is like a long boring car ride home from a good vacation. I finally write down the first draft of the introduction to the book I am going to write next season. --Me from 'Til Death do us Part

More on the Nationals and baseball after the jump.

Nationals expected to announce Riggleman staying on as manager for 2011 later this week. --Bill Ladson from nationals.com

Bryce Harper lists a few of his favorite things, and many of them are not popular. --Dan Steinberg in The DC Sports Bog

Some in the Nats organization don't believe still don't believe Morse is an everyday player, but he has done pretty well since the Willingham injury forced him into the everyday line-up. --Adam Kilgore at washingtonpost.com

All of the Nationals affiliates are set after they renewed their contract with Hagerstown. --Adam Kilgore at washingtonpost.com

Remember when Nyjer Morgan's nickname for the Nationals was the Track Nats. Well, they have continued to run and the numbers might look even better next year if Nyjer improves or doesn't return. --Ben Goessling from masnsports.com

Peaches has had a pretty good season and the other night he capped it off by pulling off the rare 100K/10W feat. --Mark Zuckerman from natsinsider.com

Around the NL East

The Mets should hire a manager that is exciting and cares, but they won't, and will instead settle for Bob Melvin. --Jeff Pearlman at si.com

General Baseball

Jose Bautista has had quite the season. At this point it isn't certain whether he is a late bloomer or Brady Anderson. --Joe Posnanski from si.com

That is all for today. As always I hope you enjoyed, and hopefully the Nationals can win this series today and get some momentum for the Braves series.

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Comments

There sure are a lot of jerks around this town

The way they bash Harper for saying who his favorite teams are is, well, really childish and petulant. Why doesn’t he root for his hometown football and baseball teams? Uh… because he grew up in Las Vegas, perhaps? How selfish and annoying can a kid be than to follow a team (the Cowboys) that his father liked? Why would anyone in their youth pick a favorite team because they won a lot??

Maybe I’m over-reacting. Maybe, the fact that I latched on to the Cincinnati Reds back when I was 8 years old and just learning to like baseball, and when — not at all coincidentally — they happened to be one of the best teams around (if not the very best team around), despite the fact that I lived in Texas well over 1000 miles away makes me a very bad person.

Rob

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." -- Rogers Hornsby

by RobBobS on Sep 23, 2010 12:22 PM EDT reply actions

As a fan from a state without their own teams when I was a kid....

I just wish my 5-6-year-old self was more critical in his selections. Luckily the Pens and Saints eventually paid off on 30+ years of fandom, now the Expos/Nats just have to come through.

Vivian Jaffe: "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
Albert Markovski: "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space... No, I don't know what you're talking about."

by Patrick Reddington on Sep 23, 2010 12:33 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

I've been oddly fortunate in my fandom

As a DC native I’ve always rooted for the Redskins, and as y’all know I came into baseball after the Senators left and adopted the Yankees in the early ’70’s because of their history, not because they were any good. I do get ribbed for liking the Yankees, which I understand because bandwagon fans annoy me as much as the next person.

I say oddly fortunate because of this twist: the fortunes of the Yankees and the Redskins have had a strong inverse correlation. In the early 70’s the Redskins under Allen were consistently good, and the Yankees were consistently bad (the Orioles were much better). The Yankees rose up late in the 70’s, going to the WS in 1976-78 and 1981 as the Redskins tailed off. In 1981 the Redskins hired Joe Gibbs and proceeded to go to 4 SB (winning 3) in ten years while the Yankees fell off of a cliff. Then recently the Yankees have been on their run of 14 playoff appearances in 15 years with 7 WS appearances (winning 5) while the Redskins have 3 playoff appearances, 2 wins and no SB appearances in that stretch.

Not only is one or the other (rarely both) almost always in the playoffs, the six year stretch from 2003 to 2009 was the longest stretch between championship game appearances by one of the two teams that I’ve ever experienced in my nearly 40 years of sports fandom.

So far the Nationals haven’t added a championship game appearance to the mix, but hope springs eternal!

by d_c_guy on Sep 23, 2010 12:53 PM EDT reply actions