Last night while watching the HR Derby, Mrs. Relevant, bless her heart, asked which Nationals were in it. Little did she know that the Derby is so exclusive that only the biggest stars decline an invitation. But what if a Nat did swing? Their token All-Star, Christian Guzman, has five homers, and no one on the team has so many as 10. Their leader this season will probably be in the 15-20 range, and that’s if Mr. Walk-Off comes back soon. (He’s on his way!)
As depressing as that is, the spiraling sadness that is the Nationals has no rock bottom. Rather, it’s a soft floor that gets depressed further into the heart of darkness. Read all about it in Thomas Boswell’s latest column, which somehow ends on a positive note. Sunny disposition, that guy.
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And things could be headed this way well past 2008, because, even though this year’s crop is a good one, Mark Lerner sounds like he wants no part of the top free agents:
You don’t want to be in the situation where you wake up one morning and Johan Santana has won eight games all season and you owe him $150 million. That’s the thing. You see a lot of guys for $150 million, but we’re going to stick with what we’re doing. We’re going to take a lot of heat from you and everybody else, but I think you’re starting to see it.
Whew, boy. Where to start. OK, first things first, you have to spend money to be competitive, and you have to field a winner to fill seats. Second, there are not “a lot of guys for $150 million.” According to Wikipedia, there have been five ever. Finally, using Santana to illustrate this point is absurd. The guy is 4th in the NL in ERA and is on pace for 14 wins, a total no Nats pitcher has reached since ‘05.
Lesson for Lerner: The team, and the entire organization, really, is bad enough right now. No need to fuel the fire. Take your lumps, keep building and gimme hope, flickering though it may be.
(Tip of the pen to Capitol Punishment, who came out of retirement for this.)
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