Distinguished Senators, the Washington Nationals Blog That Is Great

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Cazatalentos

So Jose Guillen is hitting .419 against Pedro Martinez, and Pedro plunks him twice, huh? There hasn't been any retaliation as I write this (unless Nick Johnson's homer counts), but we'll see the Mets plenty this year. I wouldn't be sorry to see one aimed at Pedro's earhole the next time we see him. This ain't the American League.

UPDATE: And Felix Rodriguez and Frank get tossed. I guess the umps granted Pedro the Cy Young Exemption, which allows him to throw at whomever he damn well feels like throwing at.

I got nothing, and the Nats aren't exactly inspiring me right now. I was thinking about Soriano getting benched on Wednesday, and my thoughts were so positive that I actually surprised myself. Here's what you have to ask yourself with Frank: is he disciplining a player because he thinks it'll help or because he's mad? The Tomo Ohka situation was clearly the latter, and look where that got us. But everything we've heard since Soriano got sat down has been positive. The vital thing here is that Soriano knows he screwed up and deserved some kind of reprimand.
"He said in a meeting, when we don't run, he would get us out of the game, so I'm not surprised," Soriano said. "He not only talked to me, but to everybody."
Certainly a better attitude than, say, Jose Guillen displayed after the Angels told him to go home. It's too soon to tell if this will have a helpful effect on how Soriano plays, or even if it won't have an unhelpful effect, but thus far it seems that Frank handled it right.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As someone who had to live through a decade-plus of Jim Bowden in Cincinnati, I'd like to add my quick two cents on the subject...

Every single complaint about Bowden I've read here, I've either said it or heard it before. Most, in fact, for his entire tenure in Cincinnati. In my book, he's the worst GM ever. And he hasn't learned from his past mistakes.

Here's my favorite stupid things he did in Cincinnati (in no particular order):

1) sign reject pitchers out the wazoo and blame the budget...instead of using the money spent on all the rejects to sign one good pitcher

2) sign/trade for "five-tool player" who are in fact missing several tools...

3) cut/trade good ballplayers for said "five-tool players"

4) complain about the budget

5) make the big trade that makes no sense

6) dramaticly overpay average players (Sean Casey for $8 million a year?)

7) rush a prospect to the majors in an attempt to save his job (Ryan Wagner pitched only 9 innings in the minors before Bowden promoted him the majors in an attempt to save his job. Wagner's ERA has risen every year since - over 6.00 last year)

8) make embarrassing statements that he is later forced to apologize for

I could go on, but it might be easier for you to just re-read what you've written. It's pretty much the same story...Bowden hasn't changed one bit