Fouled-Off Bunts: Two Days And Counting Edition
The news is slow while we wait the last few days for Livan Hernandez to drive his Jaguar up I-95 to beautiful downtown Vierra.
Meanwhile.... Tony Williams thinks that MLB will sign off on the lease. It also has more details on the off-again-on-again-off-again-on-again VIP parking garage. To recap, MLB wants a VIP parking garage on site. Their $20 million payment was given to the city, essentially with the caveat that the city build the garage. The city's budgeted $21 million for it, but it only would pay for an above-ground garage. But developers, obviously, have other plans for the land -- besides, who wants to go to a below ground Applebees underneath a parking garage? The developers seem willing to front the remainder of the garage money, roughly $30 million, but of course they'll expect development rights on the land, and probably some other types of concessions. Bored yet?
Nationals Farm Authority recaps some more recent Nats signings, including the re-appearance of Joe Horgan, which triggers my PTSD.
The Distinguished Senator points to a Ken Rosenthal article which calls the Alfonso Soriano trade the worst move of the offseason.
Just A Nats Fan looks at Rocket Bill's recent article on the state o' the bench.
An emailer raised a good point... with the crackdown on amphetamines this season, the role of a bench player might be emphasized as some players will just need more time to recover from their *cough* off-the-field activities.
It's clear that the bench needed to be improved. JJ Davis and Tony Blanco, to name just two, were inexcusably bad. With the number of close games we played, a big hit here or there would've had more of an impact than on some offensive machine like the Yankees.
Where I think you're hearing criticism though, is that there didn't really seem to be a plan or a shape to the acquisitions, other than 'let's get some better bench guys'. Anderson, Fick, Jackson, etc are all valuable players, but the number of guaranteed contracts means that players like Brendan Harris or Jamey Carroll have zero chance of making the roster. If competition is good for Cristian Guzman (with Royce Clayton, who looks like he has zero room to make the roster, too), why isn't it good for Jackson or Anderson? They've got their guaranteed contracts, and barring something catastrophic, they're heading north with the team.
That's not a bad thing. But it is curious.
Meanwhile.... Tony Williams thinks that MLB will sign off on the lease. It also has more details on the off-again-on-again-off-again-on-again VIP parking garage. To recap, MLB wants a VIP parking garage on site. Their $20 million payment was given to the city, essentially with the caveat that the city build the garage. The city's budgeted $21 million for it, but it only would pay for an above-ground garage. But developers, obviously, have other plans for the land -- besides, who wants to go to a below ground Applebees underneath a parking garage? The developers seem willing to front the remainder of the garage money, roughly $30 million, but of course they'll expect development rights on the land, and probably some other types of concessions. Bored yet?
An emailer raised a good point... with the crackdown on amphetamines this season, the role of a bench player might be emphasized as some players will just need more time to recover from their *cough* off-the-field activities.
It's clear that the bench needed to be improved. JJ Davis and Tony Blanco, to name just two, were inexcusably bad. With the number of close games we played, a big hit here or there would've had more of an impact than on some offensive machine like the Yankees.
Where I think you're hearing criticism though, is that there didn't really seem to be a plan or a shape to the acquisitions, other than 'let's get some better bench guys'. Anderson, Fick, Jackson, etc are all valuable players, but the number of guaranteed contracts means that players like Brendan Harris or Jamey Carroll have zero chance of making the roster. If competition is good for Cristian Guzman (with Royce Clayton, who looks like he has zero room to make the roster, too), why isn't it good for Jackson or Anderson? They've got their guaranteed contracts, and barring something catastrophic, they're heading north with the team.
That's not a bad thing. But it is curious.
posted by Chris Needham at
9:27 AM
1 Comments:
I wonder how likely it is that Drese will be able to start the season. Torn Labrums are a pretty serious surgery. I imagine he'll need some rehab time, at least. If so, that opens up a spot for Rauch or one of the offensive players.
By
Chris Needham, at 2/16/2006 1:41 PM
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