O's Series A Disaster - Olsen Off DL - I Need More Willie Harris

Seriously? What Does This Guy Have To Do To Get The Starting CF Job?

So the weekend didn’t go according to Hoyle, but at least the boys salvaged a game from the Orioles. More importantly, John Lannan continued his comeback after a disastrous start to 2009.

Lannan has gone five straight games pitching at least 6 innings (9 IP, 6 IP, 8 1/3 IP, 6 1/3 IP and 7 1/3 IP yesterday) and has gone 3-0 with two no decisions over those five games.

While Lannan has certainly picked up his game after his tough start, Shairon Martis has slumped. Martis was optioned to AAA Syracuse after the Nationals win over the Orioles on Sunday. The move does come as a bit of a surprise since Nationals field reporter Debbie Taylor announced that Craig Stammen would be moved to the bullpen to make room for Scott Olsen coming off of the disabled list. The reaction around Natstown was that one of the struggling bullpen guys would get the axe (DFA-style) and it would either be Joel Hanrahan or Jesus Colome. But Acting G.M. Mike Rizzo optioned the young Martis to AAA saying, “Shairon has to go down and do what got him to the big leagues -- pound the strike zone, execute his pitches and get ahead of the hitters.”

The bigger news though is that Olsen makes his comeback start against his old mates tomorrow night at 7:10. Olsen has lost a lot of velocity since late last season and the Nats are really hoping he can regain what was lost and lead this group of young starters.

"I need to see more consistency out of him," Nats manager Manny Acta said. "I want to see the guy that pitched 200 innings for the Marlins. He is supposed to lead these kids. He is the oldest one out of all of them."

With Olsen said to be ready to go 100 pitches against the Marlins, it’s imperative he gets ahead and stays ahead of Marlin hitters. Olsen will be on a very strict pitch count (more than likely anyway) since it’s his first start back from the DL.

Now that we got the facts out of the way; in my opinion, the Nationals really need to change their philosophy about how to use their pitchers. In the announcement of Martis’s demotion, Mike Rizzo said, "it's about taking care of the young pitchers.”

That can be taken a few different ways. How is pulling your young pitchers after an artificially derived pitch count only to have them sit and watch this bullpen cough up their leads night after night after night “taking care of them?” Seems to me they’d be doing them a better service leaving them out there to fight their own fight a few times. Let these kids go 7 innings – routinely – and see what they’re made of. Stop handing their leads over to the likes of Colome and Hanrahan and Julian Tavarez.

The real problem the Nationals have is that the Front Office has bred a culture of acceptable losing. The path they took asked us to be patient while the young kids develop. That’s all well and good, but their development is being stunted by pulling them after five or six innings. Or in the case of position players, they aren’t allowing the kids who can or should be here long term to stay in the lineup with any consistency. They sent Lastings Milledge to the minors after asking him to play a position he was clearly uncomfortable playing, Elijah Dukes is often benched in favor of Josh Willingham or Austin Kearns. When Dukes does play, he’s also asked to play CF when he’s probably more of a corner outfielder.

And while I’m complaining about position players, can’t we get Willie Harris some more playing time please? He’s easily the best defensive outfielder we have and he’s proven time and time again that he produces when called upon. Take care of your young pitchers and put the best defensive unit on the field that you can while maximizing your offensive production.