Following a rumor-filled week which had many "reporting" that then-"Acting" DC GM Mike Rizzo was on the way out of his post with the Washington Nationals, Mr. Rizzo not only signed the Nationals' #1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg, but he was named to the full-time post, so you could have forgiven him if he might be reluctant to speak to a group of bloggers at the recent Nationals' Blogger's Day, but Mr. Rizzo did make himself available for all questions and responded thoughtfully to every query, what follows are some of the more interesting quotes:
Q: What to take from this season?
Mike Rizzo: "I think we have to evaluate the improvement from Opening Day to the end of the season. I think that's the litmus test here, is to see how far we've come, who's made strides, how big are the strides that they've made and what's the next step after this..."
Q: Upgrading second base and shortstop? Is Cristian Guzman a second baseman in the future?
Mike Rizzo: "We haven't approached Cristian with any of that, or have we made a decision on that, Cristian, offensively obviously is one of the better middle infielders in the game. Defensively, pretty sure-handed shortstop, although his range at this point is not quite where you want it to be, I haven't approached him about moving to second base, it's a possibility, but the probability is to get one of those two positions in a different way, via free agency, trade, or that type of thing, but we're very cognizant of speed and defense up the middle is vital to a pitching orientated ballclub, which I think we're going to be not only this year and next year..."
Continued After The JUMP...
Why the decreased range for Guzman?
Mike Rizzo: "No, i think he's, as the injury process goes on, you lose a step, but he has made great strides this year in positioning himself better, he's getting to balls in the second-half of the season that he didn't even get to in the first-half, and that's a byproduct of knowing the league better, watching film more often and having a better preparation approach to the game the second-half than he did in the first half..."
How's your week been?
Mike Rizzo: It's been great! It's been a great week! Very busy, very uh...
How was Wednesday? (The big rumor-filled day)...
Mike Rizzo: Wednesday was, uh, not as good as Monday...The information, the mis-information, I agree with Stan, was unfortunate, but, uh, it didn't effect me nearly as much as the people who knew me and were rooting for me, cause I knew on Tuesday that I had the job. The Wednesday stories were at first, it was a little comical, and then as the day drew on and it seem to kind of snowball into more of a for sure thing that I wasn't going to get the job, and uh, you know, family members and friends were a little more vocal in their displeasure..."
To be continued...