Washington Nationals

I was always raised to never blame a loss on the officials, and while the umpires weren’t the reason the Nationals lost, they certainly didn’t help.

In the top of the second inning David Wright reached second base on a pop-up just outside the infield that Cristian Guzman didn’t bother to make a play on. Left fielder Adam Dunn lumbered in to try and make a play but was not able to charge nearly 200 feet in to catch the blooper.

In Seacaucus, NJ, Matt Vasgersian highlights the big plays in last night's games. Harold Reynolds weighs in with his opinions on players in slumps or pitchers who are dominating. The tile on the floor shines with newness as Victor Rojas walks across to his office.

It's baseball heaven.

It's been a long road here, to Seacaucus, for some young players. It will be soon that they will participate in the beginning event of their budding Major League career, the Amateur Player Draft of 2009.

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Cheer up Nationals fans. A brighter future is just around the corner.

Think I'm kidding? I'm not. No this is real optimism, not some pie-in-thy-sky act.

The Washington Nationals, despite the fact of an MLB worst 13-33 record, a bullpen that couldn't get a little league team to go three-up, three-down, and a surprisingly porous defense, is looking very much like the Atlanta Braves circa 1990.

Randy Johnson was—and I stress was—one of the most dominant pitchers of his generation. He could become the last 300-game winner for a very, very long time in the very, very near future.

And when you consider the circumstances, he certainly appears to deserve a lot better. But when you look deeper, there’s perhaps no more perfect scenario for him to hit that milestone than his first chance.

According to Gordon Edes of Yahoo! Sports the Washington Nationals are scouting the Triple-A team in Buffalo, NY, and the Double-A team in Binghamton, NY.

You know that a baseball series is squat when a total novice to the sport believes that it will be a great series based on the premise that someone has to win.

That was my wife’s perspective on Friday night as we headed to the drive-in movie theater after abandoning all cares for the Baltimore Orioles-Washington Nationals weekend series.

But as it turns out, the “something’s gotta give theory” actually worked out to the Orioles’ advantage.

Peter Gammons of ESPN reported on Friday morning that the Nationals have offered to trade first baseman Nick Johnson to the Boston Red Sox for relief pitcher Manny Delcarmen, but Theo Epstein—for the moment, anyway—has said no.

Johnson, 31, is playing at his career best this year, batting .338, four home runs and 25 RBI, with a .436 on-base percentage. At this pace, he'll end the year .338-16-100, with a .906 OPS. Delcarmen is 0-0, has an 0.95 ERA with 15 strikeouts in 19 innings in 2009.

For his career, he is 4-3, with a 3.25 ERA.