Yesterday, Nationals manager Manny Acta called a team meeting to remind his players that they are not "independent league players." The point was that, despite being younger and not as talented as some other clubs, they are expected to be able to complete routine plays like hitting the cutoff man and fielding the baseball. It is clear that Manny will live with a team that is last in the National League in every offensive category,......

The Nationals went 3-4 in the last week. The three wins came against the Seattle Mariners, the only team with a worse record than the Nats. Jose Vidro is their designated hitter, and they no longer have their manager. This is actually a good way to measure managers this year. If your team gets swept by the Nationals, then you deserve to be fired. The Nats still have the worst record in the NL, and......

Jim Bowden has been a busy man this offseason. Since we last left the Nationals, they have acquired outfielder Elijah Dukes, infielder Aaron Boone, pitcher Tyler Clippard, and catcher Paul Lo Duca. They have also signed outfielder Wily Mo Pena to a one year deal. Betting that he can't possibly have two horrible years in a row, the Nats have also signed outfielder Ryan "more strikeouts than total bases" Langerhans to a one year deal.......

73-89. Anyone who would have predicted that record at the start of the season would have been seen as either an optimist, an idiot, or both. After starting the season 9-25, the prognosticators who saw 100 losses seemed generous, but somehow the Nationals managed to play .500 ball (64-64) for the rest of the season, finish out of last place in the NL East for the first time since 2003, and win 2 more games......

These are exciting times in Nationals land. The Nats are currently in control of the NL East! We realize that someone without any imagination, or joy in their life, might say that the team has been eliminated from the postseason, and is currently 15 games under .500. To them we would point out that all of the remaining games for the Nationals are against either the Mets or the Phillies, two teams separated by 1.5......

Bonjour! This Nats update is coming to you straight from Paris -- that is the level of our devotion to this team. How has the team repaid us? Well, they've gone 7-3 over their last 10 games, own a better record than 6 teams in baseball, and have all but guaranteed that they will not finish last in the NL East. They are currently 6 wins away from tying last year's record, a feat that......

The Nationals have left their fans in quite a quandary this year. What criteria do you use to judge this team? One perspective says that this team has already exceeded expectations and found some quality pitchers in their system, so the season is a success. And yet, this team is currently the fourth worst team in baseball and has lost 10 of their last 14 games, and are in the midst of a 4-game losing......

Damn Barry Bonds. Damn Cream’n’Clear takin’, media-manipulatin’, fan-hatin’ Barry Bonds. With apologies to sister site SFist, who has stepped up their excitement in anticipation of Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s home run record, my recognition of his record-breaking achievement has gone from tepid acknowledgement to thinly-veiled animosity. It was bad enough that the Nats best baseball of the year – two straight series sweeps and a six-game win streak – was overshadowed this weekend by Balco......

News and notes surrounding Washington's loveable cellar-dwellers: Belliard Signs Extension: Though he was widely considered the Nats most moveable commodity, he and the team agreed to a 2-year, $3.5 million extension to keep big Ron in D.C. Belliard’s versatility makes Manny Acta’s job much easier for the next few years with his ability to play multiple infield positions, his willingness to be a bench player when needed, and his veteran leadership. In the meantime, his......

On Sunday, with their 7-2 win over the Brewers, the Nats reached the All Star break and the season’s traditional halfway point. With the team on a not-quite-as-bad-as-expected 66-win pace, those of us who write about them are stuck somewhere between the building euphoria in Boston and the pitchfork and torches crowd in Cincinnati. One of the beautiful things about baseball, though, is that the long season generates plenty of moments, both incredible and pathetic,......

Well, we may have been reluctant at first due to his, um, colorful past (as were many others). We also doubted his All Star chances. Now, though, we’re now firmly aboard the Dmitri Young Chuckwagon. In the same week he was named to the NL team for next week’s All Star Game in San Francisco, Young went 3-4 yesterday. His day was highlighted by a grand slam, cementing the Nats 6-0 win in front of......

If we told you that Orioles starting pitcher Erik Bedard struck out 12 Nationals batters in a thoroughly dominating performance on Sunday, you’d have expected the O’s to cruise to their third win in a sweep of their Beltway rivals. Likewise, if we told you that both Ryan Zimmerman and Austin Kearns homered and the Nats opened with a 6-0 lead on the road in Cincinnati last night, you’d have expected a first road win......

The talk about the Nationals being the worst team in major league history seems to have been slightly exaggerated. That being said, they've been pretty awful in losing 5 in a row, including being swept by the Cubs this weekend. The Nats are 9-22, 10.5 games out of first place in the National League East and 5.5 behind the fourth place Phillies. And they face the surprising Brewers, who have the best record in baseball,......

Maybe it was the indignity of the Marlins spoiling the last Opening Game ever in RFK. Maybe it was the insufferable Aramark concessionaires, who insist that it's perfectly acceptable to run out of buns in the fifth inning of the first damn game. Maybe it's the humiliation of the long winless streak to the other presidents. There's no telling. Something, though, was terribly amiss in that giant head of Teddy Roosevelt's during the Nat's 9-2......

[Editor's Note: With the Nationals readying to begin their third season in D.C., change is constant and questions abound. Today, like last year, we take a look at the 2007 roster and all the new contributors. Next week, we’ll discuss this year’s most pressing questions with some of the Nats' best bloggers.] With the Nats preparing to head north from spring training in Viera for their third season on the Anacostia, it’s time to take......

We're still a couple of weeks away from putting together a comprehensive Nats season preview like last year's, but we just wanted to pass along this sunny bit of optimism from the Sports Bog: Vegas gives our motley bunch 1:300 odds to bring home a World Series trophy this year - the longest odds in baseball. This year's roster, plus a heap of injury-riddled regurgitation known as "non-roster invitees" begin assembling in Viera this week......

So it's fortunate for us that WETA Radio's local news call-in show The Intersection keeps inviting our esteemed Sports Editor, Matthew Bourque, back on the air to drop his mad knowledge of all things sporting like it's gonna cause 3rd degree burns. And that's hot, yo. So tune into WETA at 90.9FM (or listen live on the interwebs) at 11:50 a.m. to hear Matt discuss everything from new Nationals manager Manny Acta's managerial style, Soriano's......

Good morning, Washington. Excuse us if we're a little grumpy. It might just be this hard-hitting report from NBC 4 that increasing numbers of professionals are hiring personal assistants to get their "frazzled lives" under control. Why can't we get us a personal assistant to give us some Morning Roundup love, hmm? Then we could lounge around in our robe and sip our coffee at our leisure. Someday, someday. When bloggers rule the earth. But......

Now Ryan Zimmerman knows how George Allen feels. It was as close as they come, but when they counted the votes for NL Rookie of the Year, Zim narrowly lost to Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez. DCist Matt saw it coming as the year wound down, posting about Ramirez in September: "If anybody's going to beat out our boy Zim, we think it's going to be this guy." It's easy to make a convincing case for......