The following is the first in a two part point/counterpart series by DCist Sports regarding Alfsonso Soriano and his future with the Washington Nationals. Today Matthew Bourque argues for trading him. Jeff Beam will provide the case for keeping Soriano tomorrow. When Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals landed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained oblique muscle, baseball lost its most prolific hitter. On Monday, an inconclusive MRI had experts believing that…

With a disastrous April in the books, is the honeymoon over for the Nationals and their fans? Over the weekend, the Nats dropped two out of three to Albert Pujols and the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals. The team has now lost seven out of its last eight, the lone victory coming Friday. For Nats fan who could actually watch the games on TV, the biggest story was Albert Pujols’ 14th home run of the month….

Yesterday, it finally came to a head. The issue everyone kept putting on the backburner finally rushed to the forefront of the Washington Nationals’ spring training season. Alfonso Soriano, the highest paid player of the club, refused to take the field in his assigned role of left fielder against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Fla. Brandon Watson eventually took the field in Soriano’s place, playing centerfield while moving Ryan Church…

The summer of 2005 will go down in history as the summer D.C. became a baseball town, again. But it’s important to remember that, even without a long-standing hometown team, the District has always been home to baseball’s most important fans: the justices of the Supreme Court. No matter the batting order, the nine Justices of the Court have consistenttly ruled in favor of professional baseball, as a business, often at the expense of…

Thanks to another win last night, the Washington Nationals improved their first-place lead over the Braves and Mets by a full game. Not only that, but they extended their win streak to 5 games — that’s the record. Of course the Nats are ranked third overall in the NL behind the Padres and the smokin’ St. Louis Cardinals, but when you see them ranked in order, the Nats look all the more impressive: Philadelphia…

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. It’s been a tough week for the Nationals, traveling to Cincinnati to face general manager Jim Bowden’s former team. On Monday they lost by a not-deplorable score of 5-3. A day later, they improved substantially, taking the Reds to 14 innings before letting that one slip away 4-3. But if yesterday seemed destined to be the Nats’ 23-inning 3-2 squeaker victory, well, it wasn’t so. Cincinnati swept the series with a persuasive…