Dedication

The Nationals are sending some pretty inadequate lineups out there lately. Ian Desmond batting third; Clint Robinson batting fourth; Matt den Dekker batting.

You can't argue with the results, but we've been lucky. Don't think it's anything more than that. When they inundate you with heart-warming stories about Emmanuel Burriss playing in his hometown, that's to distract you from the fact that Emmanuel Burris is in the lineup.

The Nats have problems. They're thin right now, brittle. Sending the International League All-Stars out there can work for a while, but not forever.

And this - den Dekker, Burriss, etc. - is it. This is what we got. The cavalry ain't coming.

The Nationals’ owners, despite being among the wealthiest in the sport, are reluctant to add payroll in the middle of a season, according to major-league sources. 

Never mind that the Nats committed $210 million to right-hander Max Scherzer last offseason; ownership’s stance also is influencing the team’s current trade discussions, sources say.

That's it, then. We have what we have, because improvement would cost money, and they spent all their money on Max Scherzer.

It's presumptuous to tell another man what to do with his money. So here I presume to tell the Lerners that this is not the time to get cheap. What we have now is a team good enough to win the division because the division is easy to win.

What we want - and we all want this, right? - is a team good enough to win a World Series before it falls apart over the winter.

It's easy for me - all I have to do to show how dedicated I am to that goal is talk about it. There are some people named Lerner out there on whom it is incumbent to spend some millions of dollars to show their dedication.