My Conversation With Phil Wood Part Two

This is The 1000th Post in The History Of The Nats320 Blog. How fitting the subject matter is an interview.
They may well be just a "Third Year" Expansion Team, as Phil Wood stated in yesterday's post, but they are still Our Washington Nationals. And they have a Fan Base always curious about the next move, or moves, Our General Manager Jim Bowden may make over the course of this upcoming off season--in rebuilding Our Franchise. Staying on the same subject line of possible roster moves as we ended Part One, Phil and I continue our chat discussing what trades might be possible this winter.

With that, here we go with Part Two of My Conversation With Phil Wood.

What can people reasonably expect Jim Bowden to do over the next few months leading up to The Winter Meetings and Spring Training? Recently he said The Nationals were going to be active. (SBF)

“Well, I am sure he is talking trades, but in terms of what people want and what people reasonably want to give up—you are not going to want to give up Jesus Flores or (Ryan) Zimmerman or (Cristian) Guzman.”

Jim said something last night that was sort of scary. He said to get a one or two starter you have to be willing to say that no one on your roster is untouchable. (SBF)

“I can tell you this. I don’t think Mark Lerner would ever sign off on a deal to trade Zimmerman. If you were offered a deal that would bring you a number one or number two starter and a good catcher prospect, then you might think about moving Jesus Flores. There were offers on the table down the stretch for Guzman that would have brought in some prospects just to rent him, basically (before re-signing). Then, he ended up getting hurt again and that killed that. Are you solid enough with middle infielders that you can afford to swap him (Guzman)? He signed for basically cheap money (Two Years-$16 Million).”

“They are loaded now with guys that can play middle infield, but in terms of having an everyday player? Not really.”

Alberto Gonzalez is a great fielder, but probably not much of a hitter, I would think. (SBF)

“He certainly has played better for Washington than he played for (The Yankees—SBF)—No The Justice Department. (Laughing about former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales--some fans call Our Number 12 The Attorney General)

“In terms of outfielders, a lot of the scouts love (Roger) Bernadina. They think that Bernadina can be a leadoff hitter for a lot of clubs in The Major Leagues. He’s a good fielder. No power, but the kind of guy who can get on base and steal a few. He might be of interest to some clubs and I think he might be someone you are willing to part with.”

“But top of the rotation guys are few and far between in terms of being available. Would they trade John Lannan? I hope not. It would be almost like trading away a guy and only getting his replacement back. (Especially since they control him for 5 or 6 more years—SBF) Exactly.”

From everything I've heard, Jordan Zimmermann is going to be a big part of Spring Training next year, whether he makes the team, I don’t know. (SBF)

“I think he has to make the team. I really think he has to. I think that Jordan Zimmermann has to be on this club next year because, again from my perspective, why would you not have Zimmermann on this club if you were willing to bring up (Collin) Balester?”

How do you see their bullpen now? It’s so much in disarray now after being the strong point for the first three years in Washington. (SBF)

“It’s unfortunate. I know they are going to non-tender (Chad) Cordero. But will there be people lined up to sign him? I don’t thing so. I think he might have to come back and sign a minor league contract and hope it works out. Coming off his type of surgery, who is going to risk a million dollars on him? I don’t see it.”

Do you see Joel Hanrahan as a real successor in the closer role? (SBF)

“Absolutely, sure. (Bowden raves about him—SBF) I like him too. I said last spring that if they trade Jon Rauch, because there was talk of trading Rauch early last season. If they trade Rauch, I think this guy (Hanrahan) has the makeup and pitch selection to close. He loves doing it. He really kind of thrives on it.”

“The other guy who I would not give up on is (Jason) Bergmann. Bergmann had a stretch last season where he was really good and then he got really bad again. He’s got a big league fastball. He’s got a big league curveball. He lost a little command, but he’s just 26 years old.”

I live in the fish bowl of The Nationals. I hear or read about everything good or bad with the team and the negative can sometimes overshadow the positive here. Outside of DC, what do others think of The Nationals? (SBF)

“There is a tendency that negative stuff gets spread out far and wide. And there are a lot of people who believe there is something in the water here. That a baseball team in Washington will never win. That, well, it’s Washington, they’ve always been terrible, The Senators were terrible and The Nationals will always be terrible. Again, I think that’s the same mindset that existed about Tampa Bay. There’s a surprise factor in a few years with The Nationals. People will say: ‘Gee, I didn’t know they had that guy? That other guy is pretty good too.’ It’s one of those things, that nationally, where the perception is they seem to always be destined for the 102-loss season. People look at that Won-Loss Record and that is all they see. They don’t really look behind it and see how that happens. Well, it happened because they used a couple AAA Guys and Career Backup Guys and they did not play with a Big League Roster this season.”

“Then, ‘it must have been because they were too cheap!!’ Cheap didn’t have anything to do with it. It’s one of those things where perception is reality and people perceive them to be bad because they perceive Washington to be bad. The whole issue of ‘nobody went to the games!’ I don’t know about that, nearly 2.4 Million people seems fairly decent to me. And a big part of that was the horrible marketing job that the club did. All we heard last off-season was there was not going to be any parking. You will not be able to park there, so you will have to take the subway or not go. A lot of people who make their season’s plans based upon that are going to say: 'We are not going to those things because there is no place to park.' That killed them."

"I think the local media has killed them to a large extent as well. It really ticks me off, here is The Washington Post, which when I was growing up had the greatest baseball writers out there. And while Tom Boswell certainly ranks in that category, you have a guy as the beat writer (Chico Harlan) on The Nationals who did an online chat and was asked about why the first base coach has a stopwatch—and had no idea why. Well, that is inexcusable. Sorry, that is just inexcusable.”

“But this is again typical of all the people (who cover the team). They understand the object of the game and they think that is all they have to know. I live in the Baltimore Market, the radio show I do is on a Baltimore Radio Station, but it’s also on MASN. We get some decent calls from people in Baltimore and we get some good calls from people in the Washington Area, but the big part of it over there is that many don’t know it’s on. I did the show on 980 (WTEM) for about a year and a half. Then, when Dan Snyder (Owner of The Washington Redskins) bought the radio station (to promote his team), the guy he brought in as Program Director tells me: ‘We just can’t see moving forward with this show that is just about one sport.’ I felt like saying--What if the sport was football? Would you change your mind on that? It’s certainly not because I was making too much money. I did it as cheaply as I possible could, because I did the show basically from my house. So, I didn’t have to drive down there (to Rockville). I cut them a deal on the price, but that show was great fun and it was Baseball and Rock & Roll. And I don’t think there was anything like it on the air or around the country. I could do that show there (on WTEM), but I can’t do that show where I am right now (1300AM WJFK) because I am doing it with two other people. That show (on WTEM) consistently got great calls and they would comment how there was nothing quite like it on the air. And how nobody else in town really seemed to have the passion for baseball—which is absolutely true (when it comes to local broadcasters).”

“Sportscasters in the DC Market are in love with The NFL--which pulled off the greatest con job in the history of man. My epiphany about The NFL: I was out this summer listening to a Baltimore Sport Talk Show and the host for the show was saying he had been out to Ravens Training Camp. He saw Demetrius Williams make two great catches down the right sidelines. The ball must have traveled 50 yards in the air. Now, there was no one playing defense (chuckling). So basically, all by himself, he ran down the right sideline and caught these balls. Well, if I went on the air and I said: I went to Batting Practice and saw Anderson Hernandez hit two bombs into the seats—people would laugh in my face. But yet football has convinced people that anything they do is important. Whatever shoe they are lacing up, that is worthy of a sidebar story.”

“Years ago, (Former NFL Great Coach for The Washington Redskins) George Allen took hundreds of old NFL Broadcasts and was asked how much real action was in an NFL Game, it’s a three hour broadcast. The average was slightly under 12 minutes. You are sitting in the stadium for three hours, or watching on television for three hours and you are getting 12 minutes of action. Yet, The NFL has convinced people that it’s end-to-end action. It’s the greatest game out there.”

“Baseball is the hardest game to play. Football players don’t play in The Minor Leagues. They go to college and play and they go right to The NFL when they are 21 or 22 Years old. You don’t do that in baseball. Baseball is too hard. And I think it’s the difficulty, the degree of difficulty baseball represents, is part of the reason why you have fewer kids playing baseball now because kids these days don’t want to do hard things. Kids these days want to sit at home with their controller in their hands and that is the extent of their athletic participation and it’s really unfortunate.”

Getting back baseball in Washington. (SBF)

“The core is here, but the one thing that people always want to do is mention The Senators in conjunction with The Nationals. Well, you know what, 33 years passed between the end of one team and the start of another. It was like there was never baseball here to start with. So pointing to The Senators as meaning anything at all now is pointless. Their failure to thrive on the field and at the box office has nothing to do with The Nationals. As I have said before, if you don’t win, people don’t show up. It’s that way throughout the game. One need only look at Baltimore to see a team that use to draw huge crowds, sell out all the time, and now struggle. They didn’t draw 2 Million Fans this season. And why? Because they have been losers for 11 seasons.”

Yet a lot of people will say that is The Washington Effect? (SBF)

“Well, you know what, there was no Washington Effect in 2005. Both teams drew very well and The Orioles Attendance stayed the same from the previous year. So something that was brand new (DC Baseball) and it didn’t have any impact on The Orioles. There was a new stadium in Washington this season, but that did not get people from Baltimore to drive down to see it. The people in Baltimore kind of just threw up their hands and said ‘Let me know when they (The Orioles) start winning.’

Does The MASN Deal help or hurt The Nationals? (SBF)

"I'd say it's been a financial benefit to the Nationals, but still too many people seem to have a problem finding the game when it's on MASN 2. I think the ratings have been terribly skewed because of that. It simply doesn't make sense that you could have 29,000 people in the park and only 9,000 watching on TV."

How about Manny Acta, is he on the hot seat? (SBF)

“I tend to think not. I don’t think anyone blames him for what happened last season. People thought he was a genius when he won 73 Games the previous season with a club most people thought wouldn’t win 50. I don’t think he got stupid in the off-season. He was not playing with 52 cards (A Full Roster). He was forced to do some things he didn’t want to do. But I don’t think he is on the hot seat at all. I will say this: If Jim Bowden would leave the club, a new GM might say he wants his own guy in here. You never say he is going to be here forever and ever, but if Manny were suddenly available, he would have an offer in 24 hours. I think there are clubs who have managers who would bring in Manny over their own guy.”

The New York Media has been saying The Mets, The Mets, The Mets. (SBF)

“Yes, that true. If he were available, I think Manny would have been their choice over Jerry Manuel.”

Finally, last question: I see possibilities and always say things are half full, yet so many others say things are half empty and getting worse with The Nationals. (SBF)

“Its certainly better to have a club than not have a club. If the average fan could talk to the people I talk to on a weekly basis, I think their opinion of this club would be different. It’s very difficult to do what The Rays did--to go from the worst record to The World Series in one season. It could be argued that Tampa Bay is a year ahead of schedule. The Nationals have a plan. Why people believe you need to deviate from that plan and simply throw money at a free agent you might be stuck with is beyond me. It’s not their money, I guess, but it’s not really how the game works anymore.”

With that final answer, My Conversation With Phil Wood about Our Washington Nationals concluded. Yet, we are not done--not by a long shot. Talking about the current state of Major League Baseball in Washington, DC was just half our chat. As I mentioned yesterday, Phil Wood is considered one of the foremost authorities on The History Of Washington Baseball. He grew up in D.C. during the waning years of The Original Senators--before they moved to Minnesota and became The Twins. And he lived and died, as only a young fan could, through all 11 Seasons of The Expansion Senators--now The Texas Rangers. For a good 45 minutes we had a wonderful conversation about Our Beloved Lost Ball Clubs. That Two Parter coming this weekend to The Nats320 Blog.