I have a small confession. Months ago, when I agreed to take over Nats coverage for DCist, I was anticipating a historically bad season. The kind of season that I could tell my children about, and allow me to forever hold my head above future bandwagon fans. So imagine my surprise that on my inaugural post there are a staggering seven teams with worse records than the Nats, despite seven Washington losses in their last ten games. Hell, I think that if the Nats played in the NL Central, they would still be in the playoff race.
Pena Comes Out Swinging
Given Jim Bowden’s penchant for former Cincinnati Reds and home run hitters who strike out a lot, it is a wonder that it took this long for Wily Mo Pena to join the Nationals. The Nationals acquired Wily Mo from the Red Sox for the mysterious “player to be named later,” who turned out to be Chris Carter from the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks are rumored to be interested in some bullpen help, probably from the Nationals AAA team. Pena has announced his presence with authority in his first three games as a National, batting .455 with 2 home runs and 3 RBIs. Pena gives the Nationals a legitimate threat to go deep on every at bat, and the folks over at Baseball Prospectus seem to think he is a good fit.
Nats Ink McGeary
The other big news this week is that the Nationals signed their last draft pick, Jack McGeary, a left-handed high school pitcher from Newton, Mass. Many scouts believed that McGeary was a first round talent, but his firm commitment to Stanford this year caused him to slip until the Nats drafted him in the sixth round. McGeary received a 1.8 million dollar signing bonus, and the Nats agreed to allow him to attend Stanford on the team’s dime (McGeary lost his college scholarship when he signed with the Nationals).
