Fouled-Off Bunts: Sue Me, Sue Me, What Can You Do Me? Edition

As the kids say, the new park is on time and on budget. (depending on your definition of "on budget."

These quotes by Ryan Zimmerman about how excited he is to be batting behind Felipe Lopez and Cristian Guzman (with subtle commentary by Barry) demonstrate again that listening to players talk isn't worth the effort 99% of the time.

Leave it to children to cut to the heart of the matter. From one of the caravan stops: "Will this be worth anything one day?" the kid asked. "Like if you get into the Hall of Fame?"

Manny Acta continues to demonstrate that patience is a virtue, plus more indications that LF is Church's job to lose. Wither Snelling?

Thom Loverro lobbed more stink balloons at the caravan.

Jacobson pins down Mike O'Connor. We re-confirm that he was injured long before he let on, and that he's unlikely to crack the rotation til Memorial Day (assuming he doesn't get smacked around in Triple-A)

Yet another reason for soccer fans to hate baseball.

The Mariners had a fanfest, and the natives were restless. There were lots of tough questions about the big trade. Apparently, they've isolated the problem with Vidro as his legs (oh, really?), and they're confident they can fix it. Good luck!

What do the Colts have in common with the Nats?

WaPo's Style Invitational recently (OK, it was two months ago; sue me) asked for its readers to transport Comic Strip characters to different eras and situations. One of the honorable mentions:

"Peanuts": The Washington Nationals hire Charlie Brown, 65, as general manager, stating: "He's worked with teams composed of nothing more than a bunch of no-talent kids, a dog and a whining girl -- which makes him perfect for us."

HOT BLOGGER ACTION!!!!

--Caps Nut looks at the funny player selections for the Washington Nationals 2007 calendar. As he notes, at least they had the good sense not to put FRobby on the cover.
--A rigorous statistical analysis proves that the Nats pitchers suck. (How does one rigorously analyze the unknown; I can't name any sure bets for the pitching staff!)
--Distinguished Senators is glad that Cap'n Leatherpants has thick skin.
--Federal Baseball says that Joel Hanrahan (one of the Gang of 13) is going to have a hard time succeeding because of poor control.
--NFA interviews the Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations for the Harrisburg Senators. He hasn't yet noticed any major changes in how the team is being run day-to-day.
--OMG looks into what objectivity means and how perceptions of such come about.
--Banks takes a few hacks at the Boz column from last week that I liked so much.
--Eucalyptus found an even more objectionable line than Uncle Ted's own in the recent coverage of his talk at TW.
--What's more fun than sportswriters in hard hats? (Comment three wins the award for most obscure, but appropriate, snark)
--Steinberg shows what happens when you take a good and insightful reporter who doesn't take things too seriously and give them a blog. His account of a construction worker meeting Mike O'Connor wouldn't ever make the print paper, but it's something worth reading.

And finally... Nats 320 gets an audience with his excellency, Master James Q. Bowden. Part 1; Part 2 -- I like the anecdote in the comments to the first part from Tom about Manny Acta and the hecklers. I wish SBF had taken a picture of the magical white board. For those of you who've been around since the beginning, you'll recall that they have amazing powers of prognostication.

I'll echo the comment I made there, too. Bowden defends the decision to not offer arbitration to Ramon Ortiz. At the time they declined, I though it was foolish and that their $7 millionish figure was crazy. Given how well they did with the other arbitration cases, it's safe to give them the benefit of the doubt on that one!