Fouled-Off Bunts: 7, 8, 3? Who Really Knows? Edition

The Broadway/Young/Lee kurfuffle wasn't the only lineup news yesterday. As he always does, Jim Bowden opened up his big, red-cheeked maw and yapped away at how wonderfully Chris Snelling is doing (legit compliments). But when the GM starts yammering, it makes news, especially when the player likely to be hurt by any increase in Snelling's playing is Ryan Church.

That all sorta came as news to Manny Acta, who continues to say that Church is his guy in left. But then Acta also said that he's not sure that Snelling is going to make the team, which is a statement that is so technically correct while leaving an impression opposite of the likely truth, it it'd make Stan Kasten envious.

The question then changed to, if Snelling beats out Church, could Church beat out Nook Logan, and Acta reaffirmed that Nook is his guy. Alrighty.

It's something to watch over the final two weeks. Not so much for the lineup decisions, but to see the battle of wills between a headstrong GM who his own lackeys have compared to Mozart and a neophyte GM who has some pretty strong ideas of his own. T(h)om Loverro helpfully synopsizes with an analogy to NASCAR.

Matt Chico appears to have locked down the fourth starter job, at least according to Acta. Interesting development considering how well Jerome Williams pitched. I guess the Nats feel they can risk losing Redding or some of the other stiffs to waivers when they get sent down to the minors. Of course, if they're not making the Nats' rotation, what other team is going to claim them? Paging Mr. Moore...

Alex Escobar is likely to start the season in his accustomed spot: The DL. What a waste. I still want to know why we're not hearing anonymous carping from sources about what a pussy the guy is like we have about certain other Nats over the years...

John Patterson struggled through three innings yesterday, in only his second start against an opposing team of the spring. He's pitched a bunch against the Nats minor leaguers in some intrasquad games.

With the caveat that I didn't see him pitch, I'm worried about him. He muddled through, and by his pitch count, it seems like his control really isn't there. He got some Ks, which is nice, but when I saw him at the beginning of the spring, he had no command of his breaking pitches. I wonder if he's completely healthy? Does he just not trust his arm?

Hey, look! It's a nifty chart of all the failed prospects on the Nats.

Peter Angelos is still ranting about the Nats.

The latest non-rumors about Cordero.

Here's a house built by blogging.

And finally...

Let's make a good showing on TangoTiger's community projection ballot. All you need to do is click here and make some estimates on your favorite Nats' OPS results for the season. Answer as many or as few players as you'd like. The Nats are typcially way under-represented, so you can make the damn team look good... for once!