It is the week of the baseball draft, and in what looks like a yearly tradition, it is time to see what the Nationals organization does with the first pick. Everyone expects them to draft pitcher Steven Strasburg. Strasburg is a talent so great that only a team as incompetent as the Nationals would fail to draft and sign him. It should be an interesting Tuesday. Strasburg is represented by hated agent Scott Boras, so the team is a long way away from introducing the next Ben McDonald to the world.
The Nationals are only about a third of the way through this season. They are currently 15-40, and 2-4 in the last week. The story line is basically the same. They can hit but they can’t field or pitch. The team has gotten so boring that professional baseball writers have begun to write drivel like this.
Hanrahan
On Saturday, the Nationals demoted Joel Hanrahan from the closers role, and promoted former all-star Mike MacDougal to the role. This is the second time that Hanrahan has lost the job, after struggling to finish games all season, and he is not expected to return. Along with Randy St. Claire, Hanrahan joins the list of people fired before our career 135-202 manager.
Bowden
Last week, former GM and prime architect of the 2009 Nationals Jim Bowden sat down with Brett Haber of WUSA9 to “break his silence.” The main revelations are that he never went to the Dominican Republic, he claims he didn’t skim money from signing bonuses to Dominican prospects, and that he cried when he resigned from the Nationals. As a result of the interview, ESPN replaced Bowden as a color analyst for the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
Game of the Week: This week’s game of the week is on Tuesday, when the Nats play the Reds. The team is hyping something called the “Ultimate Draft Party,” which seems to mean free T-shirts to the first 10,000 fans and live draft updates on the scoreboard.
Briefly Noted: It is time to get excited about Nationals’ 2010 draft pick Bryce Harper… Follow Rob Dibble on twitter – highlight: “Got some cool new shades for the game tomorrow.”
Meaningless Statistic of the Week: Josh Bard’s .083 isolated power for a switch hitting catcher facing a left handed pitcher is last in the National League.
