Nats Receive “Bad” News Re: Strasburg

I Hope This Guy Has Some Really Thick Skin

A couple pieces of news regarding Nationals #1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg came out today.

First was the news that Strasburg received a couple of awards at the inaugural College Baseball Foundation Awards. Strasburg earned the player of the year AND the pitcher of the year awards solidifying that he was the unquestioned best player available in this year’s first-year player’s draft.

It was noted that Strasburg seemed to be taking it all in and looking back over his year and his career at San Diego State University.

But like a good Scott Boras client, Strasburg offered this quote despite not even being close to signing with the Nationals, "There's always another day. Anything can happen. You've just got to take every new day as a blessing and go from there. It's been a great experience but at the same time I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of fun for many years to come playing baseball."

The question is: where will he be having “a lot of fun for many years to come playing baseball."

In an article in the Washington Post this morning, Dave Sheinen (with contributions from Chico Harlan) reports that Strasburg’s agent – Scott Boras – intends to use Strasburg much in the same way he used J.D. Drew back in the late 1990’s to break apart MLB’s drafting system.

Boras makes some good points in that American and Canadian born players are forced into the draft where players are inserted into the “slotting system” that MLB has used for keeping rookie salaries in check. Meanwhile, there seems to be no checks and balances on foreign born players. Clubs are free to open an academy anywhere in the world and sign players for whatever they want. With the wealth of academies in the Dominican Republic, teams often will overpay a young, unknown player just to get him to the academy while an American or Canadian kid must enter the draft and is at the mercy of the slotting system.

There does seem to be a genuine unfair advantage for the non-American/Canadian born players. Even worse, Puerto Rico is considered an American territory, so a Puerto Rican child is subject to the same rules as the American or Canadian kids despite the severe disadvantage of under-exposure.

The big loophole here is that Cuban defectors and Japanese players are also considered free-agents despite very well-developed professional teams and leagues in both countries. This is where Boras will hang his hat.

Should the Nationals fail to sign Strasburg for the asking price of somewhere in the neighborhood of FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS (despite the fact that no player has ever received more than 10.5 million) then he will take his prized commodity to Japan and let him play there for one year before becoming a free agent for MLB.
Sounds like a great plan – except that due to recent pirating of Japanese players by teams in MLB; Strasburg, surrounded by all this hype regarding what he’s doing, is not likely to be picked up by a Japanese team knowing that he fully intends on using them.

Nippon Professional Baseball’s marketing director Iratu Kobayashi explains:

"This will do more harm than good to the NPB club. [Strasburg] will not be welcomed, neither by the teammates or the media," Kobayashi said. "It is not easy to sympathize with a guy who comes to Japan just as [part of] a negotiation process to squeeze more millions out of [an MLB] club."

"We would not do what we do not want others to do to us," Kobayashi said, "unless we really have to do so."

Combine this with the legal battle plus the anti-trust exemption for MLB and this could get messy – REALLY messy. Not signing with the Nationals could be the least of Strasburg’s worries.

Thing is, Boras tried this with J.D. Drew using the independent leagues which, since they pay their players, is considered “professional” baseball. Boras argued that since Drew was then a professional baseball player he was no longer eligible for the “amateur” draft. MLB’s response was to change the name (without consult of the union) to the “first year player’s” draft.
The union argued on behalf of Drew but ultimately was shot down since the union represents the MLB players and Drew was not a union member.

If you can recall the career of J.D. Drew, he never really turned out to be the superstar Boras was hoping for and he never really seemed to be able to handle all of the grief he received for trying to be the guy to break the system – and it’s not like we’re talking about Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier here, this is just a guy who didn’t like the drafting system. J.D. Drew is a decent player, but he’s nothing special. Perhaps his legacy would’ve paved the way for Strasburg had he been a superstar player.

As it stands now, Strasburg is willing to be pawn #2 for Scott Boras. Perhaps he should talk to J.D. drew and ask him how to better handle the situation. Drew never recovered from the turmoil and baseball as a sport will suffer if Strasburg fails to live up to what everyone thinks he should be just because his renegade agent wants has a vendetta against MLB.

Better yet, maybe he should talk to J.D. Drew and find out if it’s even worth the trouble.

So Long Lastings and “Way Back” Hanrahan

Welcome to Washington, Mr. Morgan. We Hope You Enjoy Your Stay.

Hello Nyjer Morgan and your world class stirrups. The Nats traded for you and your teammate Sean Burnett and gave up two players who have given us fits over the past six months.

"We are open for business," said a happy Mike Rizzo, the Nationals' acting general manager. "We improved two of our greatest needs. We have a great character guy in Morgan. We have our center fielder. Even though he will be 29 in two days, he plays better than most younger men."

In return the Pirates received the volatile Lastings Milledge who created a whole host of problems, not the least of which was not playing CF very well – the reason the Nats acquired him in the first place.

The Pirates also got Joel Hanrahan who has been the Nats closer twice and demoted from the role twice. The most recent outing for Hanrahan was a disaster in Baltimore which probably sealed his fate as trade-bait.

Morgan appears to be no more than one of those “tweeners” that vascillate between AAA and the major leagues. He’s 29, so it’s not like the Nats got younger. Morgan appears to be the CF of remainder of the 2009 season which could help solidify the outfield defense. He’s instantaneously better than anyone on the roster to play CF.

Sean Burnett will certainly take Hanrahan’s spot in the bullpen and probably help to improve an anemic relief corps. Even if Burnett is less than advertised, he cannot be worse tha Hanrahan.

With the acquisition of Mike Morse from Seattle earlier, I have to think the end is near for Ronnie Belliard as well. Morse is a serviceable backup and makes less money than Belliard (not to mention can’t play any worse defense). Also, the acquisition of Morgan might free up some room in the outfield for a trade of either Josh Willingham or Adam Dunn. Of course, rumors still swirl around a possible trade involving Nick Johnson who was pursued by the A’s in the off-season and lately there are whispers that the Mets are asking about Johnson. Should that happen, I’d imagine that Dunn moves to 1B (which, in my opinion, is an awful mistake) and we are left with a very serviceable outfiled of Willingham, Morgan and Elijah Dukes.

No matter what the scenario, I think this is not the last we hear of the Nationals on the trade front in 2009.

Upcoming Schedule: Favorable?

Well with exactly two weeks to go until the assumed half-way point to the regular season, the Nats have FINALLY started playing a bit better winning seven of their last 12 games including a three game sweep against the Yankees in New York and taking two-of-three from a very good Toronto team.

What they need now though is to keep on playing that way. Unfortunately they take on the team that just seems to have their number: The Florida Marlins – and they play them in Miami.

After that they’re looking at a three game set at home against the Braves then they wrap up their first half with three in Colorado and “five” in Houston (a scheduled four game series plus the rain-suspended game from earlier in which the Nats will be the “home” team despite the game being played in Houston).

After dropping their first three in Houston to start the month of June, the Rockies have gone on a tear winning 20 out of their last 23 games to pull five games over .500 and only five games back of the NL West leading LA Dodgers (I can’t help but notice this streak coincides with the firing of their manager Clint Hurlde).

The Astros are currently only 3 games under .500 and only four games behind the NL Central co-leaders Milwaukee and St. Louis. A five game set against the worst team in the majors could really help boost their confidence going into the All-Star break.

And despite being five games under .500, the Braves are only five games behind the NL East leading Phillies.

So while the Nats play some teams that are historically beatable, they do face opponents in desperate need of some wins to stay in contention and probably licking their collective chops seeing the Nats on their schedules.

The Fish just got swept by Tampa Bay and need the games to keep pace with the Phillies, the Braves have a really tough schedule: three with the Phillies, then three with the Nats, three at Chicago to play the Cubs and then a four game set in Colorado to face the previously noted streaking Rockies.

The Rockies have a tough series with the Dodgers starting tonight then they get the Diamondbacks, Nats and Atlanta to finish up. They could literally be in first place by the All-Star break and, as such, are not likely to take the Nats lightly.

The Astros have a relatively easy schedule leading up to the break as well which could help vault them to the top of their division: they start tonight with a four-game set against San Diego, then they play a tough three game set at San Francisco before wrapping up with eight games in Houston against the Pirates and Nationals.

Despite the fact that the Nats play their remaining games against teams who are either under .500 or teams less than six games over .500, they all have a sense of purpose in every game they play. In this economy, at this time of year, a losing streak to a team like the Nats can drastically alter plans and turn buyers into sellers in the trade market. Since none of these teams want to give up on their seasons, they are probably looking to take advantage of the Nats as they continue slugging through a forgettable season.

However, as I opened with: the Nats are playing better lately and have played the tough American League eastern division and played them well. Perhaps they too can take advantage of their upcoming schedule and spoil some seasons early in July? Who knows?

But despite the relative ease of schedule, I’m guessing the Nats are going to have to bring their “A-game” every night against these teams hungry for wins anywhere they can find them.

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.