Time for New Scouts

The Nats dumped the bloated corpse of Eddie Guardado today, shoving him off Cocoa Beach before a marine mammal emergency could be declared. Fair enough. Teams dive in the dumpster, and sometimes they come up with a mouth foll of bananas with greasy, black peels. Minor league deals = no harm. Might as well see what the dude's got.

But this one struck me as kinda funny. For one, when the team signed him, they made a bit of a big deal out of it, going so far as to announce it in a press release. While the release is mostly a mindless regurgitation of statistics/record -- of the sort that Chuck Slowes loves to rattle off -- it's also somewhat indicative of where the team viewed him. After all, "senior vice president and general manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement."

Eddie was a bit of a courtship. There were a few articles leading up to his signing, and one of 'em includes this gem: "team scouts told general manager Mike Rizzo that Guardado would be a big help to the club."

Such a big help that they cut the guy about 4 days into spring training, eh? Good thing we beefed up that scouting department! Though, in fairness, this might've been Rizzo's dad. He probably played with Eddie back in Class-C ball in the '30s. And in fairness, too, it doesn't say HOW he'd be a big help to the club. Maybe he did some decorative scrimshaw to improve the clubhouse? Perhaps he was conscientious about making a new pot of coffee when Riggles drained the first one?

Another article says that Eddie "is expected to be a mentor as well as a setup man." The ol' passive voice hides the subjects, so maybe this is correct: the senile scouts and Eddie certainly thought that.

But at least it's just these faceless scouts who figured the first guy cut was going to be key to the Nats' resurgence this year, right?

Right?

Shit.

Hey, Riggles! What's improved this season? "I think Mike Rizzo has improved our roster a great deal since the end of last season ... Two areas that were targets, most importantly, were pitching and defense and we feel like those two areas have been addressed with the additions of Pudge Rodriguez and pitchers [Jason] Marquis, [Matt] Capps, [Brian] Bruney, [Eddie] Guardado and [Tyler] Walker."

Well, at least it's just the field staff. Eddie hasn't cast a spell over everyone, right?

Right?

Ugh.

Hey, Mark Lerner! What's worked this offseason? "The most important thing we did was stabilize our team leadership -- building the kind of brain trust that will position us to see more young talent others might not, and to develop the ones we sign... We also grabbed veteran reliever Matt Capps. He is a proven setup man and closer. We certainly needed bullpen help, and he will make a big difference. Other bullpen help could come from Brian Bruney and Eddie Guardado."

At least he said 'could'. I can cling to that, right?

Right?

Sigh.