O he will fit perfectly on this team.

This move looks to me like it's a Japanese signing just for signing a Japanese player. His stats don't look impressive at all.

And then there's this hit and run business. Cue joke about Dukes, Dmitri, Lastings and Maekawa now.

I can't remember who Enrique Gonzales was. But we got him from the Diamondbacks, so, to stereotype their prospects, he must be good! Why did we bump him and keep Langerhans? Casto? Bernandina (who?)?

The roster questions seem very valid Barry...Not long ago team was talking about Gonzalas as a potential starter......could a pitcher be dropped in favor of all those career AAAA types they have?

What was wrong with Micah Bowie? Why the Japanese hit and run driver instead of a guy who actually pitched effectively last season.

Is it because Bowie doesn't have a criminal record?

Can you say "指の関節の頭部"?

Because people with criminal records are cheap and can be discarded more easily than nice guys who won't be anything special in a year or two. It's ugly, but it's probably smart.

Section 506 -- bull's eye! You are correct, sir!

For those of you who were discussing an April tailgate two threads ago, I would like to point out that it is looking more and more like I will in fact be in town for the Mets and Cubs series at the end of the month.

Micah Bowie actually signed a minor league deal with Colorado. Couldn't have been much more expensive.

Bowden and crew screwed up here: while the risk is relatively light that this will come back to bite them in the a**, it is ridiculous to keep Josh Whitesell, the two Rule 5 guys, Willie Harris, Ryan Langerhans, and Joel Hanrahan OVER E. Gonzalez. You always keep a young pitcher, with some upside, over a surplus type OF...

As good as Bowden typically is with the small seemingly insignificant manuevers, this one looks like a grave mistake-

* Maybe the new pitcher can drive Elijah Dukes to his girlfriend's school the next time he wants to go postal.

* Let's just hope the new pitch doesn't get on base -- and Manny calls a...hit and run play! He might take the Nats Pack car and run over someone.

* The new pitcher might bring new meaning to the speed gun.

Who knows maybe this new guy can pull a hit-and-run on clint...

Thanks, John - I was thinking that's what you'd indicated at one point.

---

For those of you who were discussing an April tailgate two threads ago, I would like to point out that it is looking more and more like I will in fact be in town for the Mets and Cubs series at the end of the month.

* At RFK Stadium at least, we could have hoped that his car would have been stolen from the players' lot...

Hey, Dan Steinberg has nothing on me...

Looks like the Nationals 2008 "Felons, Reprobrates, Cheaters, and Other Miscreants" Tour is still in full swing. Somehow I'm not thrilled at being the Cincinnati Bengals of baseball. They should go ahead now and sign Pacman Jones. If the Nats are getting blown out in the early innings he can "make it rain" before the game gets official so the team can take a mulligan.

If Pacman made it "rain" on the field, it would be the only time a Nats representative showered money on the players.

Maekawa, eh, for, Enrique...
I'm with everyone else about the glut at OF.

Oh well, Adios Enrique, via con dios! Hail!, oh great one ,oh Maekawa!
Hey Maekawa, we have these cool things called speed cameras. You should try to out gun 'em...

Urgh!@#$$# !!!

I firmly believe the opposite, lurker. as a 41 game plan holder, i share 2 tickets with 3 other people. there's no guarantee that i will get opening day. and there are a lot of "group" ticket holders who will have individuals who do not get to go to opening day, even if they want to. why penalize those people? it's not like people who bought 20-game packages didn't know they weren't getting opening day tickets as part of their package. and if they didn't, that's their fault.

==

Posted by: LurkerNowPoster | February 5, 2008 02:27 PM

I firmly believe (not that it will actually happen that way) that 20-game folks should get the very first crack at the tickets. Full season and 41-gamers already have tickets to that game, so they are likely buying for friends or eBay

agreed on the concept of dumping gonzales from the roster as opposed to someone like langerhans. there was a bigger chance someone would snag gonzales than langerhans, and there should be a better upside to gonzales making the team than langerhans, who is barely a disposable part as a, what, 7th or 8th OF? with no upside.

Swanni, don't forget...

*At least we don't have to worry about him driving illegally to Nats Park. There's nowhere to park.

506:

There's probably ample parking in Columbus...

Wigi, don't let details get in the way of bitter ranting.

So essentially, 231, you DON'T have a 41-game plan. If you're dividing it between three people you have less than a 20-game plan. You're telling me you didn't know all along that all three of you wouldn't get opening day tickets either?

I'm not supporting the idea, but your argument against it is flawed.

I'm trying to figure out how this doesn't eventually wind up with Jimbo signing Mike Tyson as a bat boy.

"I firmly believe the opposite, lurker. as a 41 game plan holder, i share 2 tickets with 3 other people. there's no guarantee that i will get opening day. and there are a lot of "group" ticket holders who will have individuals who do not get to go to opening day, even if they want to. why penalize those people? it's not like people who bought 20-game packages didn't know they weren't getting opening day tickets as part of their package. and if they didn't, that's their fault."

As a 20 game plan holder who's actually using all 20 of the tickets that I'm buying myself, I firmly believe that your plan partners who are too cheap to buy their own plan but instead are sub-letting 10 games off of your plan shouldn't have priority over me in getting an Opening Day ticket. It's not like they didn't know they weren't getting Opening Day tickets as part of their sub-letted piece of a 41-game package. And if they didn't, that's their fault. Looking at it another way, who's committing more money to the Nats already, me (20 games) or them (10 games)? I would think that my higher commitment should have priority over their lower commitment, wouldn't you?

As a no season-ticket holder, I don't exist.

so am i really reading that some assert that 20 gamers aren't split up but 41 gamers are so that 20 gamers should have opening day priority over full season ticket holders?

as part of a group that owns a full season, i say HA! our commitment to the nats is $55x4x81. and, yes, that means a lot more to them than a pair of seats in a 20 game plan. sorry but that's life. so, yes, we are entitled to these little extras by the total size of our check. you can't possibly expect the nats to parse their accounts by how many people they THINK are invested in each group, can you?

bottom line folks - the more tickets you (and your group) purchase, the more priority you have for xtras on opening day, single gamess and (hah!) playoffs. there is simply no logical argument against prioritizing by (1) full season, (2) half season and (3) the rest.

don't like it? some of you 20 gamers should pal up and get a full season. you won't have to have these arguments, you'll have better levels of seats available and you'll get much better pricing to boot.

fair enough, 419 (although as 1/4 of 82 tickets, i'm buying just as many as you are, since i'm still getting either 20 or 21 tickets).

but i think you're buttressing my argument. i wasn't arguing that people with 41/82 game plans should have priority over 20 game plans. i was saying each plan should have the *SAME* opportunity to buy tickets. just as i should have bought my own individual 41/82 plan ticket if i wanted to guarantee myself an opening day seat, owners of 20 game plans should done the same. the fact that you and other 20 game plan owners chose not to do so shouldn't give you priority over those in my situation any more than someone in my situation should have priority over you.

from what i've read, it looks like each STH will have an opportunity to buy X tix per season ticket seat. everyone will have an equal opportunity to get a single game ticket for opening day, dependent of course on availability of the tickets themselves.

I wish I could be a season ticket holder but the Metro doesn't come out this way.

Can you say "指の関節の頭部"?

Posted by: me neither | February 5, 2008 02:47 PM

--------------------

"Head of joint of finger"

Huh?

Nor do I... :)

---

As a no season-ticket holder, I don't exist.

I think back fondly on the days when Tom Paciorek would hyperbolically liken our beloved Nats to the "Murderer's Row" bunch. sigh

Well, natsfan1a, looks like you and I can pay four to five times face value on StubHub when all the season ticket holders buy extra tickets so they can sell them. Good thing they were rewarded for their loyalty to the team!

I dont really see what the problem with Maekawa is. Sure the hit and run and no license thing are issues, but most pro athletes have some issues and if you're looking for a role model for your kids you should almost always look elsewhere (maybe yourself). I don't really care what these guys do, not everyone can be the standup guy like cal ripken was, and you dont have to look too far to find an equally talented player who happened to have KILLED SOMEBODY!!! Granted Ray Lewis was never convicted but neither was OJ.

What i see here is a pickup of a possible quality lefty out of the bullpen. It never hurts to have an extra lefty especially when bowden has found a place to trade lefty specialists every year since we got the team (Stanton, Stanton, King) so maybe we get something for him at the end of the year anyways.

They need a lefty that can eat as many burgers as ray king.

nats.com is reporting that CHARLIE'S BACK!!!!!

Hooray!

Look for a new post from Barry in 3...2...1...

Re Charlie: Stan told you. I told you. Barry told you.

But it ain't official till you hear it from... Bill Ladson??

Well, the rest of us sure know where WE stand now. %^D

I thought it was *Bob* Ladson? :)

Dunno, Sect. 506. I don't expect to make it to the opener because of other commitments, but I'm planning to put together my own mini-package for the rest of the season by purchasing the individual tix directly from the team as I've done for the past three years.

---

Well, natsfan1a, looks like you and I can pay four to five times face value on StubHub when all the season ticket holders buy extra tickets so they can sell them. Good thing they were rewarded for their loyalty to the team!

They would have re-signed Charlie earlier but didn't feel comfortable until this week, when they received confirmation that he would indeed be indicted for tax evasion.

natsfan1a-

I like your posts more all the time, if you weren't being completely sarcastic. Tom Paciorek wasn't great, but I sure did love him as a player (looked like he loved every minute), and enjoyed him as a color guy, even though he was a big homer.

I loved Ray Knight as a player, too, but I think he is awful on MASN.

Here are statistics on Maekawa:

http://www.japaneseballplayers.com/en/player.php?id=kmaekawa

Thank goodness for scouts, I guess, because there is nothing in these stats that indicates he could even pitch in the Japanese Leagues if they let him.

Thanks, Positively, I was being a bit snarky but I also enjoyed him as a color guy.

---

natsfan1a-

I like your posts more all the time, if you weren't being completely sarcastic. Tom Paciorek wasn't great, but I sure did love him as a player (looked like he loved every minute), and enjoyed him as a color guy, even though he was a big homer.

While its not clear to me why they risked losing Gonzalez over some others, but it might have something to do with the fact that he has passed through waivers before. Another possibility is that they didn't see him winning a role on the MLB roster. He was going to have to pass through waivers eventually anyway.

Bisquit-

Good point. If he most likely had to go through waivers anyway, they might as well try now.

Is Dimitri going to babysit Maekawa also. I guess this means NJ will positively be back at first as Dimitri will be a full time sitter with these troubled Nats. Is DY getting his masters this offseason is psych?

Claudio Vargas, Darrell Rasner, now Enrique Gonzalez...if Jimbo really is all about pitching, why has he, every year, given up, for NOTHING, decent young arms who may be better than the guys we have on the back end of the rotation now and eat more innings than the guys at the front end who get injured so often.

This is Washington, is there a conspiracy?

joint of finger = knuckle
*******
"Head of joint of finger"
Huh?
Posted by: DE | February 5, 2008 04:21 PM

Any conspiracy that starts with Vargas, Rasner, and Gonzalez is doomed to failure. We're not talking Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz there. We're not even talking Ortiz, Armas, and Ohka.

Just a reminder folks. You need to fill up rosters in AAA, AA, high A, Low A, Rookie league. Sometimes you need to sacrifice an unlikely to be significant ML roster player for someone in a specific position just so that you can fill up a minor league roster.

Let's not forget that, as the future HOF Nats work their way through the minors, they need to have both teammates and opponents. If the Nats have 100 players under contract, in the minors, the likelihood is that no more than 20-25 will ever actually make it to the majors and no more than 10 - 12 will become long-term significant major league players. You have to fill out those 70 - 80 other slots. Someone has to be cannon fodder, even AAA cannon fodder.

A tale of two Washingtons:

Seattle Mariners: Every Game In HD
The team is carried by FSN Northwest.
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (February 6, 2008) -- The Seattle Mariners announced yesterday that every regular season game in 2008 will be broadcast in High-Definition TV.

FSN Northwest, the regional sports channel, said it will broadcast more than 150 Mariners baseball games in high-def while roughly 10 more games will be in HD on Fox or ESPN.

The Mariners will apparently be the fourth team that will offer complete high-def coverage of the 2008 season. The Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will also be in high-def in every game this season.

Every Major League Baseball team will be available locally in high-def for at least some contests this year -- except for The Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals, which are broadcast locally by MASN.

MASN says it's still working on securing high-def broadcasts for the 2008 season.

The Associated Press reports that FSN Northwest aired about 107 Mariners games in high-def during the 2007 season.

The Mariners, led by rightfielder Ichiro Suzuki, are expected to compete this year for the American League West division title.

Sigh, even Seattle has HD but the capital of the freakin' free world can't get its baseball team in HD?? I'm in New Jersey, so I can't get MASN anyway, but that really aggrevates me.

Also, agree with all the above about Gonzalez. Langerhans is a nice enough guy, but he's been through waivers more often than Dukes has been arrested. I think...

I know I am a broken record on this issue -- but why isn't the Post covering the MASN situation?

For the umpteenth time, if the Redskins was the last team NOT to broadcast in high-def, it would be covered like a blanket.

The Nats are such an afterthought in the Post newsroom that Barry is running for the hills to become a Redskin beat reporter.

Amen,

Why isn't the Post covering the MASN failures to offer broadcasts in HD?

And more fundamentally, why isn't MASN doing more to get it done. Is Angelos micro-managing that too? Is each camera, truck, and carrier employee reqiured to pass an exam before he'll sign off on it?

The guy only knows one way to make money. Sue someone. How about just putting a good product out there. And what about the promises he made to deliver a good television product. Can we sue him? Can you do a class action suit for incompetence?

MASN is an advertiser with the Post -- possible factor?

Some Nats fan needs to stuff his low def TV with asbestos, watch 162 games on MASN, develop cancer, and - following the lead of the TV commercials he's currently running on DC's low def stations - call the law firm of Peter Angelos and sue the rotten bastards that are keeping the Nats off HD TV. Then and only then will MASN go HD. But under the terms of the court agreement, it will be a two-stage process. The Orioles will go first.

"MASN is an advertiser with the Post -- possible factor?"

Doubtful. The Nationals are an advertiser with the Post, and look at how little good that has done them.

just thought I'd weigh in on the Maekawa signing. I like it. Sure he wasn't lighting up the Japanese League (when he wasn't suspended). But, he is a Japanese pitcher, which means that the Nats have started to make a presence in the Pacific Rim. If he sticks, great! If not, so what. The Nats have shown that they are willing to go elsewhere to try and find talent, and what's wrong with that?

As for letting Gonzalez go ... I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. The Nats have a pretty decent number of arms set to start the season in the minors (Lannan, Hanrahan, Balester, Mock, Detwiler, Stammen, Martis, Beltran Perez as well as some of the FA's they picked up like Jason Stanford, Dennis Tankersley and Bobby Brownlie).

Granted, most of these guys will never smell a major league locker room, but they do fill a need for the Nats in the minors. And as someone else noted earlier, it's not as if Gonzalez was Glavine or Smoltz. He was going to be filler for the minors until our prospects can move up in '09-'10 (Willems, Zimmermann, Alaniz, Kimball, Smoker, McGeary, Pena, Severino, Tanco).

That being said, I do wish they would just let Langerhans go already. Why they brought him back, I'll never know.

". . . I do wish they would just let Langerhans go already. Why they brought him back, I'll never know."

He hits left-handed, a rare talent on this roster. No, let me rephrase that: he faces the pitcher from the left-handed batter's box.

I guess I share e's mystification. I hope we're both wrong.

I need a diversion.

Jimbow, could you please sign Livo? I think that would cheer me up!

Thanks.

We can't sign Livo until he beats his wife or gets arrested for DUI.

for the life of me, i can't understand the livo obsession any more than i understand holding onto langerhans.

Finally. Something we agree on, 231.

231, Livo is a 245-pound righty, Ray King is a 242-pound southpaw. We need Livo to balance out Ray in the buffet line.

i thought that was the meathook's job...

Meat, as always, does double duty. He's a switch-hitting 245-pounder, so he can offset Wily Mo (also 245) from the right, and Nick J. (listed at 224 but we all know better) from the left.

RIBS in TORONTO???

---

any more than i understand holding onto langerhans.

I also like the Maekawa signing. I have a good feeling about it.

Is it spring training yet?

Check out the LF/CF view of the webcam. Stan giving another tour? When do I get my 3-hour tour with Stan?

Beware the 3-hour tour...

---

When do I get my 3-hour tour with Stan?

I think they were going for "boke" there.

*******
"Head of joint of finger"
Huh?
Posted by: DE | February 5, 2008 04:21 PM

I object. I am not obsessed by Livo (there is no man-crush). I simply enjoyed cheering for him, like his approach, and feel that we need someone. Loshe, Fogg, etc... also acceptable, but at least with Livo we get an extra righthanded pinch hitter.

I am much more obsessed by holding MASN accountable for delivering HD broadcasts.

The Livo obsession is a National Pastime nostalgia kind of thing, for one. He also is great fun to watch pitch and hit, even when he is mediocre. Add to that the fact that it would be fun to have both Livo and the two pitchers we traded him for, and the hope that we maybe could flip him one more time if he performs above expectations.

oh, i understand the "nostalgia" side of livo. i just try to avoid letting that color my concept of what should be used to rebuild the team.

while i wouldn't be upset if they signed him, i just don't think signing him really does much for the team, beyond nostalgia, for 08 or for the future. i'd rather see someone who might help this club beyond this year in that pitching slot. like clippard.

Hey, Livo can hit better than Langerhans. Sigh! If only he could pitch like he used to.

No one wants Livo to pitch. We want a right-hander off the bench.

I'm all for having the youth rise up and seize the starting roles on this team, pushing out all of the marginal veterans. But I think it's clear that Jimbo et al are not sure that's going to happen in 2008, hence the acquisition/retention of players that provide depth at almost every position. Langerhans, as weak as he was last year, has actually hit .279/.350/.411 against lefties over the past three years while playing an above-average outfield. That's the definition of a valuable bench guy for a lot of teams. If Langerhans was on another team right now, he'd be undervalued because of his poor 2007, and Bowden would probably trying to trade for him.

Also, new post.

Who the heck is Tanco?

I can see a couple people I'd rather have let go than EGonzalez. You really think someone would pick up Hanrahan (a 6-year free agent last season) or Casto (on the free fall from being our top prospect to just another AAA filler). To say nothing of Langerhans: why do people keep talking about the "5th" outfielder spot on this roster? You don't need 5 outfielders; we didn't carry a 5th outfielder last season until 9/1 callups.

There's 8 outfielders on the 40-man roster. Lets see where langerhans really ranks in terms of value and capabilities:

Kearns, Milledge, Pena, Dukes, Maxwell (who started over him in sept07), Bernadina (rising fast), GGuzman (rule-5 guy who we'd have to keep over Langerhans anyway else offer him back), and lastly Langerhans.

Disappointing.

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