Just when you think the season couldn’t get much worse for the Washington Nationals, their fans (those left) will wake up today and realize there are only four weeks left to d-day. That’s right, the Nationals front office, which has apparently not even made contact with Stephen Strasburg’s high-profile agent Scott Boras, has only four weeks to complete a deal or risk failing to sign their number one draft pick for the second consecutive year. One creative blogger has even created a site where Nats fans can watch the countdown and torment themselves. One can argue that the Nationals would be crazy to give in to Strasburg’s unprecedented contract demands (he is reportedly demanding a $50 million guarantee), but the Nats knew his demands before drafting him. They also knew that he was linked up with the combative Boras before they chose him. In June, Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon made a convincing argument against picking Strasburg #1 and observed the numerous first round failures from the MLB draft. He claimed a Strasburg pick would be an insane gamble especially given the Nats had a laundry list of needs. Nonetheless, the time to debate whether or not the Nationals should have drafted Strasburg is over.
Right or wrong, the team has made the gamble and now needs to seal the deal. Failure to sign the 6′4 righty could be the end of the line for a fan-base short on patience. No one in DC expects the Nationals to be making a run at the playoffs any time soon but the squad seems to be heading in the wrong direction.
Washington is in the midst of one of the worst seasons in MLB history and their new post-All Star break Manager does not yet have a victory. Meanwhile, despite the talk that the front office is building a solid farm system, there are few indications their minor league system has made the great strides they claim to have made. Out of Baseball America’s top 100 Minor League prospects, the Nationals don’t have a single prospect in the top 20 and only 1 in the top 50 (RHP Jordan Zimmerman).
Maybe the gamble will pay off. While it was not the Bigs, a 1.57 ERA, 133 KOs in 97 innings, and a 100+ MPH fastball is impressive at any level of serious baseball. Strasburg will certainly get some fans out to the DC ballpark if he shows up some time next year (or even this fall) but more importantly, signing the prospect will show fans a real commitment to building a team that competes in the future. Right now, it just looks like empty promises. – James Morrison
Jim (no relation to the dead Door’s guy) is a self proclaimed rotisserie expert. Jim has been participating in an serious Ultra-Rotisserie league (you can protect some minor leaguers too) at $2,600 per team instead of $260 (similar to Ultimate Franchise Baseball ™) for the past 17 years and has finished in the money 14 times with 8 First place finishes and over $260,000 in total winnings over the 17 year period. While the world is full of institutions and people that come with disclaimers on how past performance is no guarantee of future results, Jim is brazen enough to claim that it will be in your best interest to follow his advice going forward. He’ll write it, we’ll publish it and we shall see………
No comments:
Post a Comment