Sunday, March 14, 2010

The Best News You'll Read All Day

(Note: About the Nats, so by definition, it's uninteresting/unimportant)

"I've said it the whole time: We're going to play the best 25 guys that give us the best chance to win," Rizzo said. "[They] are going to go north with us. I continue to say that. If [Desmond is] one of the best eight guys that we can put out there to win games, he's certainly to be. He's in the running to be an everyday guy.

"The money is out of the equation. Money has nothing to do with who's going to play and who's not going to play."

Awesome.

Of course, Rizzo's lied to us before, but we'll happily slurp up the Flavor-Aid here.

Can't wait for opening day then! Guzzie on the bench, Strasburg starting, and Storen nailing down the win, right? {crickets}

posted by Chris Needham at 12:07 PM

14 Comments:

  • It's not the real season yet, but when do all the red flags on Tony Plush start going up?

    By Blogger test, at 3/14/2010 3:01 PM  

  • Memorial Day.

    And last year, really. Dude's not a .350 hitter.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 3/14/2010 3:02 PM  

  • Tony Plush - He's there for the defense. He's one of the best defensive outfielders available and will soak up a lot of runs in center field. Very necessary when you have Willingham in left. Any offense he gives is bonus. Whenever he's not hitting well, just check out his UZR. He's not one of those guys where people complement their defense cause their offense sucks. He's the real deal out there.

    Mike Rizzo - Very poor choice of words. He's contradicted himself twice today. He should have said "I'll do what's best for the players", in which case he could make arguments that Strasburg and Desmond need time to develop. But everyone knows that Strasburg, Storen, and Desmond are among the top 25 players on the team, so that was a very silly thing to say.

    By Anonymous cass, at 3/14/2010 4:57 PM  

  • Best solution to relieve ourselves of this Desmond-Guzzie overcrowding situation at shortstop:

    Guzzie to the Mets. Reyes is out, and could be out indefinitely. Mets panic, decide our $8 million man is their $4.5 million man. We pick up the remainder.

    Memo to the Lerners: This is called eating a salary. Look it up. Happens all the time. It's how teams get better, by chopping off some deadwood.

    You are familiar with deadwood, right?

    By Anonymous Sunshine_Bobby_Carpenter_is_Too_Pessimistic_for_Me, at 3/14/2010 5:17 PM  

  • You are familiar with deadwood, right?

    The last time the Lerners divested themselves of dead wood he resigned in pseudo-shame, thus solving the problem for them.

    Paying somebody to go away doesn't sound like something that's in their DNA.

    By Blogger Bote Man, at 3/14/2010 7:00 PM  

  • Guzman as a 10 and 5 guy has veto power over any trade. Doesn't matter if the Mets want him, he has to want the Mets. Why do you think he would? If you think the Nationals are a dysfunctional organization, well then you should meet the Mets, meet the Mets, come out and greet the Mets. Guzman gets his $8M no matter who pays it, but he's not gonna want to play for the Mets - and that's all that matters.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/14/2010 10:21 PM  

  • Bote Man - Perhaps we can start a rumor that the Gooz was seen shipping packages "Priority Overnight" instead of the cheaper "Standard Overnight." That should spur the Lerners' into action. (I'm only half kidding.)

    And I agree with Cass. It's becoming obvious that Stras and Storen are the two best pitchers in camp, but I don't mind waiting until June to call them up. Rizzo just set himself up for some undeserved criticism when the team heads north without them. (But I will hold Rizzo to putting Desmond at short over Guzman.)

    By Anonymous Natty Fan, at 3/14/2010 10:24 PM  

  • I get the feeling that both Bote Man and Natty Fan re being a little bit Anti-Semetic, and that has no place on this blog. Comments like Paying somebody to go away doesn't sound like something that's in their DNA.
    stink, and I'd expect Chris to delete them when he sees them

    By Anonymous Gus, at 3/14/2010 10:51 PM  

  • I get the feeling that Gus is reading into things too much.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 3/14/2010 10:52 PM  

  • I don't think I am. It's subtle, but it's there. I have no problem with saying they are tight owners. I have a problem saying it's in their DNA.

    By Anonymous Gus, at 3/15/2010 12:24 AM  

  • If that weren't a cliched phrase, you might be right. But it is, so you're probably wrong. ;)

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 3/15/2010 12:25 AM  

  • The elephant in the room about Strasburg is clearly the service time issue, and when to start his clock. It would be general manager MALPRACTICE to start Strasburg in April, especially when the +20% innings-pitched rule would cap Strasburg at 168 innings in 2010 anyway.

    Now I can understand why Rizzo doesn't just come clean and say "I know we're not going to contend this year, so there's no point in starting Strasburg's clock in April."

    What galls me is that Rizzo felt he had to lie, and come out saying the opposite, that financial considerations will have NOTHING to do with it. C'mon.

    As to the Lerner DNA. I swear, most of this nation must just lie about waiting to be offended by something....

    By Blogger Snivius, at 3/15/2010 12:04 PM  

  • It is very much in vogue these days to be offended by something, almost like it's in our DNA.

    Look, the Lerners have proven themselves through their actions to be overly concerned with the mere velocity of dollars and cents, rather than the overall effectiveness of any given transaction, whether it be a player transaction or a decision to ship via FedEx versus first class U.S. Mail.

    Mr. Needham hit the nail squarely on the head, as he usually does, like it or not.

    By Blogger Bote Man, at 3/15/2010 6:15 PM  

  • Wasn't that fedex thing a real story that actually happened?

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3/15/2010 10:58 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home