Like Old Times

He looked so right standing there, so natural, so correct. Livan Hernandez on the mound at Wrigley Field in Chicago wearing a Gray Washington Away Jersey and sporting Number 61. "It's almost as if he just went on sabbatical and now has returned," stated The African Queen.

Like Old Times.

And when Livo stood in the on deck circle in the top of the 2nd inning chatting with Arsenio Hall in the first row watching, his return was officially complete. He hadn't changed one bit.

Three Years and 20 days since pitching his final game as a member of Our Washington Nationals, Livo re-debuted this evening on the North Side of one of America's Greatest Cities and it seemed as if he had never left D.C. beforehand. For six innings, he threw that off-speed junk that keeps opposing batters ducking and twirling their bodies at the plate in vain. Hernandez had good enough speed on his fastball and just enough difference in his change up to strike out six. This was typical Livan--throw a lot of pitches, let runners get on base, then pitch for the big out when in trouble. And occasionally give up the big fly. A two run homer to Milton Bradley in the bottom of the third with two outs.

For 117 tosses, Ole' Number 61 battled like his old self. Unfortunately, his teammates couldn't provide enough offensive support to let him leave with the lead. Instead, a tie ball game heading to the 7th that became a train wreck when Our Bullpen couldn't keep the game close. Nobody worse than "Jesus Colome, Jr.", who was flat out awful. When Jorge Sosa was finally replaced in the bottom of the 8th after just 1/3rd official inning pitched, he had allowed five runs on four hits, two walks, two wild pitches and was left playing spectator on a fine defensive play by Adam Dunn. Chicago's Jeff Baker slicing a hard hit baseball down the first base line. Big Number 44 made a terrific effort to get his body in front of the fast moving baseball, juggled it, and still had enough time to throw out Baker at 1st. The only problem was Sosa decided to play witness, not participant to the out--and what should have been the 2nd out of the inning--turned into the turning point of The Cubbie's game distancing rally.

Down just one heading to the bottom of the 8th, Our Washington Nationals found themselves in a seven run deficit hole by the time Saul Rivera replaced Sosa and induced the inning ending double play. Far too late to save this affair from becoming loss number 82, but enjoyable enough to again watch the wizardry that continues to be Livan Hernandez.

Most likely, Livo will never pitch a no-hitter in his Major League career. Our Renewed Number 61 has never been overpowering. But he battles, fields his position and acts like every professional player should out there on the mound. Hernandez always gives an honest effort--win or lose. The all-important competitiveness which some of our young pitching staff members need to learn.

Far from the best in the game these days, Livan Hernandez showed tonight in Wrigley Field, he can still hold his own. Because The Big Cuban never gives up and is always willing to challenge every single opposing batter that steps to the plate to face him. Livo may not sport a winning record this year, but he plays the game the right way. Even at 34 Years Of Age there is still a young boy's look to his eyes. The amusement and delight that comes from playing a baseball game while confronting any threat and testing any provocation.

No, Livan Hernandez did not win this evening in Chicago, nor did he lose. But what he brought to Our Washington Nationals was a sense of relief. The good feelings remembered by Sohna and I over his 18 months spent as an Original National. And the hope he can take his Larger Than Life image to help improve and stabilize our now very young and relatively inexperienced pitching staff.

Final Score from Wrigley Field were Our Bullpen absolutely imploded tonight: The Chicago Cubs 9 and Our Washington Nationals 4. Hard to believe this was a one run game heading to the 8th. A possible Curly "W" to be put in the books. But evaporated, when Jorge Sosa--with assists from Jason Bergmann and Ron Villone--completely lost control to put any chance of victory away for Washington.

Yes, The African Queen was right, it was like old times tonight with Our Washington Nationals. Like as if Hernandez had never left. Livan helping us to recall so many good memories from 2005 & 2006 when Major League Baseball was again new to Washington, D.C. The very times when Old Section 320 at RFK was rocking like no place in baseball (and you can ask anybody about that fact) and Our Washington Nationals first called The Nation's Capital their very own home.

PS--Elijah Dukes needs to remember to control his temper. He muffed a fly ball that should have been an easy out hit by Derrek Lee in the 3rd, immediately after Bradley's two run homer off Livan. Then, when Aramis Ramirez skied a high fly down the right field line, moments later, that both Dukes & Alberto Gonzalez had a play own--Elijah called for the ball, as did Alberto. But Dukes just powered his way through Our Number 12 to catch the baseball because he wanted to catch the out and jaw away at 1st Base Umpire Bill Welke for not calling his muffed catch an out. Elijah, you have got to stop that stuff. It is not going to get you anywhere and only hurt you in the long run.

Tonight's InGame Photos--Charles Rex Arbogast (AP)

Ole' Friend Livan Hernandez

The has never been any player in uniform more larger in life than Livan Hernandez in the five years since baseball returned to the Nation's Capital. From 2005 through 2006, he was a fan favorite, an All-Star and the person who tossed the very first regular season pitch in team history in Washington, D.C. on April 14th, 2005. If performing baseball is a Broadway play--Livan Hernandez always acts on center stage. Many times his work is uplifting, sometimes comedic--with even some Greek tragedy thrown in. But no matter what play Livo performs on any night--he is always entertaining.

Which made last night's announcement that Ole' Number 61 will once again don a uniform for Our Washington Nationals beginning tonight overshadow Washington's biggest output of the season. A 15-6 romp over The Cubbies at Wrigley Field. Only Ole' Friend Livan Hernandez could do that. Collin Balester sent to AAA Syracuse to open up a Major League Roster Spot.

"I told you so!!" stated The African Queen when I read her the good news from the team press release. "He's the mentor they need." She has been asking for Livan since the very moment she learned The New York Mets had released him.

Like we've always discussed here, no one is more calm on the mound. No one seems less bothered by giving up a home run. Not one single player lets the pressure of any baseball game get to him less than Livan Hernandez. Nothing beats watching Livan chat in the on-deck circle with fans right in the middle of a game--joking, looking around, living in the moment--like he did so many times at RFK Stadium.

He is a character and a professional toeing that rubber.

"If I go to the mound in a pressure situation," former Nationals Pitching Coach Randy St.Claire once told The African Queen and I, "and put my hand on his heart, it will not be beating any harder than at any other point in the game. He doesn't let the moment get to him."

Just the type of veteran presence Our Washington Nationals need and Team President Stan Kasten and GM Mike Rizzo talked about just the other day at Nationals Park during Blogger Day 2. Livan helps solidify a starting rotation that has been struggling these past few weeks. Youngsters pitching a demand of innings never reached before in their professional careers. A possible tipping point between getting experience and getting hurt.

Not knowing how much Livan Hernandez has left in his tank, The African Queen and I are THRILLED he's back in Nation's Capital. When Livo played for The New York Mets this year--he certainly beat us handily. Unquestionably, he could help our burgeoning staff. But more importantly, Ole' Number 61 will now have the opportunity lost back in 2006 when he was traded to The Arizona Diamondbacks for Garrett Mock & Matt Chico to fully realize how much Washington, D.C. appreciated his efforts during the very first years of the then infant versions of Our Washington Nationals.

Ole' Friend Livan Hernandez is back. Time to break out our "61" jerseys for the very first game he pitches in the Red, White & Gold of Our Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. And you can bet we will be watching him closely tonight from Wrigley Field in Chicago.

PS--As for last night's game. Wow!! If Josh Willingham didn't display his value to Our Washington Nationals, I don't know if he ever will. Prodigious power, the consummate professional, Our Number 16 truly is a fine ballplayer that comes to the ballpark each and every day to compete. And makes it ever harder to believe Josh rode the pine earlier this season in our then crowded outfield situation. What a line score for Willingham last night--Four Official At-Bats, Five Runs Scored, 4 Hits (Two Home Runs), Six Runs Batted In and One Walk. 21 Home Runs and 56 RBI for the year. Now batting .301 for the season. Good numbers for playing 101 games, much of April & May as a pinch hitter only.

Depth now coming to light when Elijah Dukes knocked in five runs last night including a scorcher of a Grand Slam off Aaron Heilman. Our Number 34 is the most talented player on our team. This year, he's been too aggressive at the plate, getting himself out by swinging at too many pitcher's pitches. But since his recall on August 1st, Elijah Dukes--despite hitting an average of .221--has driven in 21 runs. 21 runs!! How good would his month of August be if he was more patient and used that batting eye he definitely possess. Elijah Dukes has the tools. He just needs to develop his plate discipline.

14 hits, 15 runs protected Garrett Mock and gave him a necessary cushion to continue learning the craft of pitching in The Major Leagues. Mock was far from perfect, but at least on this night, he could experiment more with what might work for him in the future--without the worry of racking up another loss. 5.2 innings pitched, four runs allowed including a home run given up to Chicago Pitcher Carlos Zambrano.

And finally, Charlie Slowes & Dave Jageler cracked us up listening to them on the radio last night. Having located Wil Nieves Batting Music Audio File played during each of his At-Bats at Nationals Park, The Boys Of Summer have now incorporated that Dancing Tune into the road game At-Bats of Nieves. Oddly enough, Our Number 23 was batting 1.000 when his music was played during the past few away games. Four for four after Wil Nieves singled home two runs in the top of the 7th last night. Remember--depending on the timing of the broadcast at any given moment--the batting music has not been aired for every one of Wil's Road At-Bats, and he recorded an out during each and every one of those plate appearances when the music was not aired.

But, just when this Baseball Only Oddity was reaching a mystical level, Wil Nieves grounded into a double play in the top of the 9th last night directly following the airing of his Batting Music on WFED. You could hear it in their voices, Charlie & Dave were crushed, disappointed, stunned over the sudden ending. They didn't know what to say. They were onto something good and fun--an unlikely occurrence. Now gone, with one swing of the bat. Sadly.

Last Night's InGame Photos--Nam Y. Huh (AP)

Marla Lerner Tanenbaum & The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation

No stranger to Nats320, Marla Lerner Tanenbaum, Principal Owner and Chair of The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation spoke at Nationals Park in The Media Room for Blogger Day 2 this past Sunday. Her goal, to help spread the word about The Dream Foundation's Three Cornerstone Projects. All of which have been covered EXTENSIVELY right here on Nats320.

With that here we go with Marla Lerner Tanenbaum and her thoughts on the continuing efforts of The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation:

“We have three cornerstone programs. Just by being in the park you are probably familiar with some of them. The one we get most asked about is probably the Youth Baseball Academy. Our plans are to build a baseball academy in Ward 7 in Ft. Dupont Park in conjunction with the city—who are our partners, financially and just about every way you can imagine.”

“The second is a Diabetes Care Complex at The Children’s National Medical Center. It is going to be The Nationals Diabetes Care Complex. And we have a certain financial number we must meet before we start building, but we expect to have a ground breaking in 2010. And the third initiative we call “The Neighborhood Initiative”—which consists of non-profits and other organizations in the area of the ballpark. The neighborhood of the ballpark we support with small grants. Sometimes they consist of “sweat equity” (NatsTown Green Up), but mostly with financial commitments. And that is a big umbrella for a lot of the work we do.”

“So, those are our three focuses right now. We are open to entertaining another one in the future, but my first goal when we started was to create these three initiatives so that we can have a focus and so the people can know what we are all about. These cover what The Nationals, as an organization, are concerned with. The community, of course; education; and recreation—so, that is our focus.”

Question: With the recession lasting so long and so deep, do you find that more people are looking to your foundation to make up the gap where non-profits used to fill in?

“We have definitely seen that, especially under the Neighborhood Initiatives. It is tough because we feel for a lot of these organizations. We have probably granted more gifts this year with Neighborhood Initiatives in the last 12 months, than we probably had combined over the previous two years. I am talking about just since we became owners because there is a lot of need out there. We recognize that. And we also started our program with “Rebuilding Together”; we are going to do a house per year with “Rebuilding Together”. There are just so many opportunities to help that the difficulty is to narrow it down. So, what we have tried to do is focus on what our missions is and really focus on the children’s aspect of everything—that helps a lot because we really can’t go outside too much of what our mission really is. Or else, we would just become so diffused it really would not mean anything.”

Question: Once the physical completion on The Baseball Academy is finished, are The Nationals going to help staff the program or will a different foundation be involved with that aspect of it? Or, will it be more of the city’s responsibility?

“Love the premise of the question. Once it is built, that is when The Nationals will really come into play, mostly. First of all, we have a 10-year commitment to fund it for $250,000 a year. So, we are going to be involved because if we are going to put our money there, we are going to make sure it is put to good use. As you can tell from our organization, we are hands on. And I have every intention of being involved. We are creating a non-profit to run this baseball academy. So, it will neither be the city nor The Nationals that will have responsibility. But, we plan on being on the board and having a big say over there on how it goes.”

“So many times we get a new player and I hear through the Community Relations Department and The Foundation this player really likes to work with kids. He would really like to be involved. I am dying for it (The Baseball Academy) to be open because these players really want to have that. It is a great opportunity for them. So, we will be involved.”

“(SBF) and I have talked a lot about The Baseball Academy and it’s difficult. I really want to put a little bit of that out there. We are really pushing The Powers That Be to help us get to the finish line with this. It’s difficult while you are trying to maintain a good relationship with The National Park Service. But at the same time, we are very frustrated that we are stuck over there by, pretty much, one bureaucrat, who has a lot of power and he is putting a lot of restraints on the city. And he is making it very difficult for this to get done. I am not afraid to put that out there. I really want to put a lot of pressure on the Park Service because there is really no reason for the city—(understand) they are party to this document, we (The Nationals) are not. So, I can’t really go up there and have a hissy fit because I am not on the dotted line. But, I want to push as much as I can. If I am given the opportunity, I just want to say The Nationals—from the moment I took on this position—the moment we became owners—we have been trying to push this. And I am not naive and I know this guy, the Park Service, are doing their jobs to protect Federal Lands—that are under the Park Service’s authority. But, this is Ward 7; it is not Yellowstone (National Park). We are going to put our money there and create something in a place where there is nothing. A beautiful Baseball Academy that is going to be used by the youth of this city. So, it is a shame that it is being stuck in this purgatory and I am trying to nudge just as much as I can to get some attention to this problem.”

Question: Tell me if I am wrong, but this is in the agreement to bring Major League Baseball to Washington, D.C. (Correct—Marla). So this is not a new initiative. This is one of the foundations in which The Nationals were brought here in 2004/2005?

“Yes, and so the city is 100% behind it. The city was signatory to that lease agreement. They wanted this, they asked for it. Unfortunately, The Park Service in the land that was identified by the city is under Federal control. So, The Park Service has to agree with this transfer of land and they have put a lot of restrictions on it.”

Follow up: Will there come a time when your foundation says enough? We are going to pull out?

“Yeah, I would have to say that would be the case because the intent here is to build a Baseball Academy. But in this agreement it clearly states the city will provide the land. So, it is not up to us to go out and buy a parcel of land. We have to respond to the city with this. I am hopeful. We are making some progress. We are working at it from all angles.”

That concluded Marla Lerner Tanenbaum's efforts to push forward and enlighten bloggers of The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation's Goals.

Collin Balester, Garrett Mock & Josh Willingham Availability

Continuing in this procession of transcripts--Pitchers Collin Balester & Garrett Mock were joined by Outfielder Josh Willingham in the Media Room at Nationals Park this past Sunday morning to meet with the assembled bloggers in attendance.

Here is that availability of the 12 Minute Session.

With that, here we go:

Question: Josh, this is your first year in Washington. How would you evaluate what the team has accomplished this year? In your mind, what is moving forward with the team?

Josh: “Well, I think when you look at where we’ve come since the start of spring training, I think a lot more pieces are in place now. You kind of know where your future is heading now. When you talk about getting a leadoff hitter, a guy that can get on base and steal bases—we got that in Nyjer (Morgan). Also, he is a guy that can roam around and cover a lot of ground in the outfield. So, I feel we were in the need of a centerfielder that could really play defense—pretty much the whole year. So you kind of killed two birds with one stone. Obviously, our starting pitching is talented but young. It is one of those things where you are going to have to kind of let them grow into the player they are going to be. And as far as our lineup, I think our lineup has been pretty steady all year. We’ve got some pieces in the middle of that lineup. When we get Flo’ (Jesus Flores) back next year we will have the chance to make some noise next year. But I think this year has been kind of a building process for us to get the pieces in place to get to where we need to go.”

Question: Josh, earlier this year you were not getting a lot of at –bats, how frustrating was that for you and how did maintain your focus?

Josh: “It was frustrating because I had always played every day. Not everyday, but I had always been an everyday player since I started playing in The Big Leagues. So, that was obviously frustrating as it is something I had never done before. It was also something that I couldn’t control. And once I realized I couldn’t control it, I stopped worrying about it. In this game there are so many things you can’t control, so you just have to focus on the one’s you can. So (shrugging his shoulders).”

Question: Collin, what do you think has been--can you describe the evolution--a shift in the philosophy in both the staff and the bullpen with the change in the pitching coaches from Randy St.Claire to Steve McCatty?

Collin: “With St. Claire, he was more about looking at video and looking at things more on the lines of—what these hitters can’t hit in this league. And what their weaknesses are. And not our strengths as a pitching staff. McCatty, one thing he stresses the most is pitching to our strengths instead of pitching to their weaknesses--that might not be our strengths. So, as a whole, it just been a better atmosphere as far as just throwing the pitches we want to these guys, instead of trying to pitch around these guys and throw stuff that we might not be comfortable throwing. I think it is a positive outlook. We are still a little young and I am still learning how to pitch up here. But he (McCatty) is helping us through it and I think, in the long run, it’s going to be a much better pitching staff in the next couple of years.”

Garrett: “Cat’s (McCatty’s) biggest thing is pitch to contact, trust the defense and, echoing what Bally said—being a little bit younger pitching staff and I am not necessarily young at 26—but as far as experience goes I am still pretty young in Major League Baseball—in my time here. But Cat’s biggest thing is to pitch to contact, trust the defense and you might go out (to the mound) and have the best stuff on the best day and perfect conditions and you might not be successful because you are trying to do too much. And then on a day when you don’t have your best stuff and you have to battle through it—you just have to grind it out and put the ball over the plate. Those are the days you end up having more success because you are trusting the defense and pitching to contact. What Bally says is right on and we just pitch to contact (now).”

Question: Garrett, you have been bounced back into and out of the rotation—to the bullpen and back to the rotation again. How have you dealt with that since it is different preparations and everything? Is that tough?

Garrett: “It has been an adjustment. Although I was fortunate to be here—it is a dream come true—to go to AAA—it is baseball—but it’s been a very good learning experience for me. I have seen the game from a couple of different points of view at different times and against different teams. So, it has been tough at some points adjusting my routine. But it is not anything that has been too tough to handle. I have made those adjustments and it has been a great learning experience.”

Question: With the signing deadline just past and the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) expiring shortly, there is a lot of chatter about how the draft should change or how the system is broken. Would you like to see the draft—how amateurs enter the league—would you like to see the system change? Would you like to see American players given more of an opportunity to cash in on the type of money that International Amateurs get?

Josh: “I really haven’t thought about that. I really don’t have a comment on that.”

Collin: “As far as the signing bonuses and everything is concerned, I think these amateurs in high school and college want to get their signing bonus and get all their money there and hold out. I think—just going through that whole process and doing that—it’s a little different now because I don’t have to go through it again. But, these players need to learn that it is not the signing bonuses that are going to get you all your money. It’s playing in The Big Leagues and making a name for yourself at that point. I guess that is one thing American players don’t understand is that you have to earn your way through it instead of trying to get $15 Million—not saying that because I think (Stephen) Strasburg is a great player. But…(lots of laughter) as a whole they are trying to get as much money as they can in their signing bonuses without working their way through the Minor Leagues and earning their keep in this league. And I think that is the only difference—the mindset of these guys year after year. I think something needs to change in that whole aspect of this.”

Question: Collin, you played down in the Minors with Clint Everts who got a big signing bonus and Chris Marrero who had a big signing bonus. Where those guys treated any different than you down there is terms of when they came in with these big dollars and higher expectations? Or, where they just another one of the guys?

Collin: “That all gets blown out of proportion. I think everyone gets treated the same. There is no difference. Some people just make more money in the beginning than others and once you get in everyone is treated the same. It’s then who is going to work harder to see who is going to get to the top.”

Question: Josh, Nyjer Morgan has transformed the outfield, when a ball goes into the gap, and he is playing there, do you tend not to run as hard—knowing he has it covered?

Josh: “I usually run as hard.”

Follow Up: But do you give way to him every time?

Josh: “Well, if he calls the ball then I am getting out of the way. I don’t want to catch it when he is calling it. I wouldn’t say you run any slower or any harder. You still go after the ball the same; he just gets to so much more stuff. The centerfielder and I were earlier in the year were going all out after everything in the gap. He is getting to those balls. He just makes a world of difference.”

Question: Recently, in the last week or two, the media has really been focused on the whole Strasburg signing and it is a big deal for all the fans around here. How wrapped up are you guys into it?

Josh: “I don’t get wrapped up into it at all. I think it is very important that we sign him because you want, as an organization, you need to sign your top picks. And the picks that are talented and are going to help you win down the road. But as far as me personally, or players in general, we don’t get wrapped up into it. We have enough to worry about with playing every day.”

Question: Just going into the last month, you guys have played a lot better since the All-Star Break. Are you kind of looking forward to spoiling some of your division rivals’ post season hopes?

Garrett: “From my standpoint, I am not going to hit a three run homer like Josh will, but I think there is a lot of stuff that goes into it. As far as spoiling someone’s playoff dreams, for me personally, I am not going to go out on the mound with that mindset. As a starting pitcher, either as a bullpen guy or defense or offensive player, you have a job to do just for that day. For today, this game, if I am starting, my job is to keep my teammates in the ball game and try to save the bullpen’s arms a little bit. And going back to what I said just a minute ago—pitch to contact and get the game going and try to give the team a chance to win. As far as the pressure of the playoffs, I think that is more on the other side. If I can do something and play a part to put a quality start up and play the spoiler, then that’s great. But as far as the mindset that we are going to ruin somebody’s day—we just want to go out and win.”

Josh: “I think having the chance to ruin The Mets the last couple of years (while with The Marlins)--it’s not like you want to go out and win any more (badly). But, the atmosphere there, especially when you are on the road, is a playoff atmosphere and that is fun to play in. That is why you want to play and win those games.”

With that final answer, Collin Balester, Garrett Mock and Josh Willingham had to head off and prepare for Sunday’s Game with The Milwaukee Brewers.

Stan Kasten/Mike Rizzo Availability

For nearly 30 minutes this past Sunday, Team President Stan Kasten and General Manager Mike Rizzo met with the assembled bloggers in The Press Box at Nationals Park. There is a lot of information to digest in this one, so here we go with Stan Kasten/Mike Rizzo Availability from Blogger Day 2 on South Capitol Street.

Question: The record is what it is this year. How do you evaluate your accomplishments today and where are you going to focus immediately going forward?

Mike: “I think we have to evaluate the improvement from Opening Day to the end of the season—that is the litmus test here—to see how far we have gone? Who has made strides? How big of a stride have they made and what is the next step?”

Question: Stan, you have been at this a long time. Media landscape, how has it changed? Is it better or worse? Do you pay attention to it?

Stan: “I do pay attention to it. It is both better and worse for the changes that have happened. There is obviously much more, things are much more pervasive since I was a GM in a former life. I was ahead of the curve by subscribing to five newspapers around the country, which I would read diligently when they came to me about a week late. Just so I could keep up on what was going on in other cities. That is such an ancient concept now because now we have every paper, every minute. And all of those papers are in a constant race to advance the story--whatever The Story is. We see it all the time. Inevitably, it leads to mistakes and mistakes get made and magnified. And that is the bad part. But the good part is—many more ways to reach customers. And when the reaching is done correctly, with good information, it is a really good thing. When you have mistakes and they are multiplied by all these things--that is a bad thing. But IT IS NOT GOING AWAY! It is why we are taking these baby steps. We don’t know how to deal with the blogosphere, yet. We still haven’t figured it out. I think we are ahead of where we were a year ago and understanding it. We will know more a year from now. But it’s things like this that we want to start doing until we do figure out the exact right way.”

Follow up: If I can follow up and it has nothing to do with the blogosphere. We have seen one, two, three National mainstream stories about your club that have been completely incorrect?

Stan: “It’s not just here. It happens everywhere. That is part of the problem with the expansion so fast. You know, everything is happening at Internet speed, and including developments in these areas. So, yeah, that is a downside. But, I don’t want to stress that and minimize also the upside or so many different outlets, many different opinions about our product or our business. I don’t subscribe to the theory that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Believe me, there is! (Laughter) I promise you there is!! But, in general, publicity and talk about our club is good in general. You just have to figure out a way to minimize the problems that still exist as we are still learning how to do all this.”

Question: Mike, you’ve talked about the importance of defense up the middle. Obviously, in centerfield, you have improved that tremendously. I am interested in hearing you talk about upgrading second base and shortstop. And related, is Cristian Guzman the second baseman of the future?

Mike: “We haven’t approached Cristian with any of that. Or, have we made a decision on that. Cristian, offensively, is one of the better middle infielders in the game. Defensively, pretty sure handed shortstop, although his range is not quite where you want it to be. I haven’t approached him about moving to second base. It is a possibility, but the probability is to get one of those two positions in a different way—be it free agency, trade or that type of thing. But we are very cognoscente of speed and defense up the middle. It is vital to a pitching oriented ball club which I think we are going to be, not only this year and next year—but all the way through the future.”

Question: You mention Cristian Guzman’s range, is that a function of the problem with his feet (bunions)? Is it a problem with his conditioning? Is it a problem with his age? Can you pinpoint why he is losing his range?

Mike: “I think as the aging process goes on you lose a step. But he has made great strides this year in positioning himself better. He is getting to balls in the second half of the season that he wasn’t getting to in the first half. And that is a by-product of knowing the league better, watching film more often and having a better preparation approach to the game during the second half of the year than the first half.”

Question: How has your week been? (Toward Mike Rizzo)

Mike: “It has been great. It has been a great week, very busy, very…”

Stan: “How was Wednesday?” (In reference to the Yahoo! Story Rizzo would be fired)

Mike: “It was not as good as Monday!! (Laughter) But the misinformation, and I agree with Stan, was unfortunate. It didn’t affect me nearly as much as the people who knew me and were rooting for me because I knew on Tuesday that I had the job. The Wednesday stories were, at first, a little comical. And then as the day drew on—it seemed to kind of snowball into more of a for sure thing that I wasn’t going to get the job. Family members and friends were a little bit more vocal in their displeasure than they were at the end of things.”

Stan: “I directed all my displeasure at the media. I was GOOD that day!!”

Question: Stan, how do you answer questions from the press then on that day?

Stan: “I have a policy of not responding to media reports. I think we have one more explanation as to why I have that policy this week. I am not going to chase my tail like some people feel they have to because that is their job. I tell writers that if you have a source and you are a reporter and you want me to comment—I will give you comment. But, don’t come to me with this outlet over here reported this. I don’t play that game. And now I think, I think through a mutual learning process, there might be a little more care in following up these reports. I certainly hope that is the way it should work. We should all learn how to do this better. And this week was maybe a lesson to help both sides do this kind of thing.”

Question: Mike, nothing has really changed, but everything has changed. Am I making sense that there is a little different mindset that, OK, that title is gone—let’s dig in. You were digging in anyway.

Mike: “I understand the question. And I can honestly say I haven’t approached the job one bit different than when I was officially given the title last week. I always thought I had ownership of the job and there is only one way you can do this job—you better dive into it with both feet and keep grinding away. So in that vain, it hasn’t changed one bit. The title, the official title and the official job and all that, that brings, is a nice by-product of it. But as far as getting to work, getting to the office and doing my job—it hasn’t changed that much.”

Question: Mike, there are about five to six weeks left in the season. September 1st is coming up. What changes might we expect to see from those in the system below coming up here to the Big League Club?

Mike: “As we have said before, we are certainly going to control the innings of our young starting pitching. There are a handful of guys whose innings are going to come quickly to a close. So, we have to address that issue. We are certainly going to bring up a couple of pitchers that have performed for us already—the Martis’ & the Detwilers’ and that type. We are also going to bring up some other players to possibly give auditions to see what we got going into the winter. But the pitching is the big priority in the September call-ups. We are going to have to control innings and I have always made that very clear and very important that we are going to control the innings of these young guys.”

Question: Talking about pitching, free agent acquisitions over the winter. Is that any type of priority considering some of the things that have happened this season?

Mike: “I think that we’ve said we have four rookies in the rotation right now and one second year guy. We’ve always felt, I have always felt, getting a veteran pitcher at the top of the rotation doesn’t have to be a number one quality starting pitcher, but it is going to have to be a guy that is a veteran type of guy that can mentor the younger pitchers and take on some innings. A guy that is a workhorse that works well with the younger players to get everyone down a slot in the rotation to get a little bit more comfortable with themselves.”

Question: You mentioned in your introductory new conference about being a hybrid in terms of eyeball scouting first and supplementing that with statistical analysis. Can you give me a particular way where statistical analysis has helped you shed light on players that you didn’t get from eyeball scouting?

Mike: “With the pitchers, I am a big groundball guy. I think groundballs are better than flyballs because with a groundball you have a chance of getting two outs with one pitch. That has always been a sabermetric measurement that I have always looked at. When we did the Nyjer Morgan trade, there were sabermetrics plugged into that. We didn’t have a lot of data of Nyjer in centerfield because he played mostly in leftfield. Although, we did get lucky and we scouted him seven or eight games in centerfield when (Nate) McLouth was injured. He had to play centerfield. But we looked at zone ratings a lot and that type of thing. So, we bring the statistical analysis into it, although I trust more what I see than what I read. But, it is always nice when what I read corresponds with what I see.”

Question: Next month, are you specifically going to be looking at Adam Dunn and how he plays first base? He is still young enough that you could offer him a contract extension. Are you comfortable that he could be your 1st baseman for your future? And, are the veterans auditioning for the future as well?

Mike: “I wouldn’t say the veterans are auditioning for the club. But we have to answer questions about where we are going to be this winter to set the stage for what we are going to do in the winter. Which as we have seen this year, is very difficult. Once the season starts, it’s difficult to radically change your ball club. And we were fortunate this year to bring in some different bullpen arms who seemed to stabilize us a little bit, but it is difficult to do that. So, the winter is such an important part and these last five weeks or so are important times for me and my staff to get an understanding of what we really have on the team (currently).”

Question: How much of the first great Nats Team do you think you have accumulated already?

Mike: “I think we have got a lot of building blocks in place. You can see the key position players we already have under control—and I have said the starting rotation is young and with a lot of upside. We think we have the majority of the core of the team—when we become good—are already on the team now. And we are always looking at what we got in the Minor Leagues System. We have discussed before—Stan & I—The Arizona Fall League is really going to give a glimpse of the future of The Nats.”

Stan: “This is, and I am sure you are going to see stories as we approach it. I don’t know if many teams have put a class in The Arizona Fall League as prestigious as---as close to The Major Leagues—as we will. We will be announcing all the names. I think you will be impressed with the quality of the prospects and how close they are to The Major Leagues.”

Question: You moved your Dominican operation this spring. Is there a plan to keep it where it is right now? And are their plans to expand internationally? Right now, your international focus is kind of narrow.

Mike: “I disagree with the narrow part of that. We do a really good job in The Dominican Republic. We do have to expand ourselves into Venezuela, specifically, and the other Latin American Countries. We’ve signed 11 solid guys out of The Dominican Republic this season, this year alone. But we always felt the Dominican Academy was a temporary fix for us—although it has served us quite, quite well this season. We are looking to go there in the future and make a more permanent accommodation for our players. And we are going to do that in the very near future. So, it is a priority for us.”

Question: Any chance of ramping up the Pacific Rim—Japan, Korea, Australia—down in that area?

Mike: “Definitely, the Pacific Rim will be a place of focus for us. The Pacific Rim is strictly to supplement your Major League Club. Bill Singer is our coordinator of the Pacific Rim—Ex Major League Pitcher. And he goes there at least once per season. Some seasons he has gone twice. He is currently getting ready to go to The World Games that are in Europe this year and he keeps his finger on the pulse pretty good in the Pacific Rim.”

Question: How hard is it going to be to keep Stephen Strasburg out of here next year with all the buzz and all the excitement--all he represents and you know what he can do?

Mike: “Stephen is going to arrive here when he deserves to pitch in The Major Leagues. When he is developed correctly and when we deem he is Major League ready and he is going to help the Major League Club long term—he will be here. It will be on his time. It will be on his pace.”

Question: How much are Potomac, Harrisburg and Syracuse beating you up to send him to their location?

Mike: “Wherever he lands is going to be a good place for that ball club—for sure.”

Question: How close is he based on what we have seen at the end of his college career?

Mike: “The stuff is easy to gauge. It is Major League quality and it is Major League ready. But as I have said before, the adjustment really comes in the mental and emotional part of it—specifically for Stephen. The everydayness of professional baseball is, what I have found, the biggest adjustment that a college or high school player has to make. As a student-athlete, you go to class all day, you go to practice a little bit, and you have three to four games per week. And although it is time consuming, it is not your full-time job. You eat, drink and sleep it—which is what you have to do in professional baseball. To get ready for playing from pitching one game per week to pitching every five days with a bullpen in-between, those are adjustments, physically that you have to make. So, to answer the question as to how close he is to the Major Leagues: Stuff wise he is very close, if not there right now. He’s got the total package to pitch in the Major Leagues. We just have to make sure we ramp him up and he is ready for the Major Leagues—physically, emotionally and mentally.”

Question: Stan, you have said many times that you would not go heavy into free agency until the team was ready to win. Mike is interested in a veteran pitcher at the top of this rotation. Are you seriously considering going into the free agent market in a big way?

Stan: “I know that Mike and I are exactly in sync but I don’t think we get a Number 1 starter. First of all, you can’t get those. We are not going after a (C.C.) Sabathia. But we are going after a veteran. Someone to help young kids find out what it is like to be a Major Leaguer. I will say this about when Stephen, to name one, gets here, but there are other players down there who are coming—it’s a real good environment for them because we have four rookies and a 24-Year Old in our rotation. They have camaraderie. They also have this great friendly competitiveness—which I have seen with teams that build with young pitching staffs. And it was really good to have Stephen here this weekend to get to know them, to bond with them. And it is clear that that camaraderie and competition among them is going to be a good thing for him and he is going to be really good for them. He is going to be a pretty good competitor in that right. So I think that is a really good environment. If he had a mentor, maybe it’s a coach, but maybe it’s a real pitcher. That’s, I think, is what Mike is talking about as to the element we are looking for. I don’t think that we are going to go out there and sign a Number 1 pitcher as a free agent. I don’t see that in our future.”

Question: How confidant were you throughout the Strasburg negotiations? Do you feel there was a turning point where you felt this was going the way you wanted it to go?

Mike: “I think there was a momentum, a confidence we felt toward the end that we could get a deal done. Stan and I were sitting there with minutes left in the negotiations still with a little bit of a question mark in our minds, but all along…”

Stan: “I like to tell people we were sure about 11:58:42!!!”

Mike: “What I believe happened. I do believe Stephen was driving the negotiations. I do believe he wanted to play and I really feel he wanted to play for The Washington Nationals. And with that said I was confident that we would get a deal done. But when stuff starts going that fast and the momentum is rolling, it certainly is an uneasy feeling until you really get it done.”

Question: Who has the official clock? How do you let MLB know?

Stan: “Major League Baseball has the official clock and we are all synced to it.”

Mike: “It has to be stamped.”

Stan: “We hit the button when we have terms finally. And then we can take a few minutes to read the terms. But we have to agree to terms and all terms—every single one of them—before we can say we have a deal.”

Mike: “And on the player’s side, they must send also.”

Question: Is that only with a Major League contract?

Stan: “With a Minor League contract we just have to talk to MLB.”

Question: Did you have his (Strasburg’s) physical done and out of the way?

Stan: “There is not much we can talk about that but we had what we felt was enough information to move forward. And there is a reason why I can’t talk about that. There are rules and all kinds of stuff, but that was important to us. We satisfied ourselves.”

Mike: “It was a vital part of the negotiations.”

Question: Do you feel like you are going to be back at that same place (1st Pick Overall) next year?

Stan: “God, I hope not! That is why I want to win every game. I DO NOT want the number one pick next year or EVER AGAIN! Having said that, I think whoever we are picking the negotiation may go down to the last minute—that is certainly possible—until we fix the system to a sensible way like the NBA did a decade ago. They had the same problem and the problem is that players don’t get out and start their careers—that is the Number 1 problem. And that is now resolved in the NBA and I am confident something akin to that will be the end result here in baseball.”

Question: Will the owners make that a priority in the next CBA?

Stan: “I think so.”

Question: Mike said earlier this week that Strasburg is not the savior of this franchise. But how important is he to the image of the team?

Stan: “For sure, he was important for sure. I can’t quantify it for you because among the things I always stress is, unlike other sports, baseball takes 25 guys here and 200 guys down below there to get the 25 guys up here. One person, one person has never transformed a franchise as a player—never has happened—except with the possible exception of Babe Ruth. And that is why we were not going to allow history to change for one player. But I think everyone understood that. If Stephen reaches the success we hope for him, he will be really, really important, but he won’t be able to do it entirely by himself. It just doesn’t happen that way in baseball.”

Last Question: What in the last month of this season would have to happen for you to say—that was good?

Mike: “Obviously, our record is disappointing. We don’t like where it is, but for the continuation of the club to play extremely hard (is important). Last night’s game was a point in fact. They battled back to tie the game against a pretty darn good team. I like the effort. I like the improvement on the fundamental part of the game. I really like the team concept and the camaraderie we have in the clubhouse. It has been great. I’d like for our starting pitchers to take the next step forward. We see glimpses of Garrett Mock being the guy we thought he would be when we traded for him. I would certainly like to answer some questions for us going into the winter so we can prepare for 2010.”

Stan: “And this week has re-enforced what we have said the day we got here—if you don’t understand now—the overriding importance of a starting pitching rotation—you never will. That is why everything we do is directed at getting a solid starting rotation, which is stable and mature. I wish there were shortcuts, but this takes a little bit more time. What is happening, I think, this week we’ve had a bad week (on the field) but young pitchers take bumps and bruises and after they get 20, 30 or 40 starts in the Major Leagues—they are better. We go through that, but that is Job 1—get a starting rotation that every night has a chance to go into the 7th inning. When that happens, all of a sudden, your whole ball club is different. And that is what we are trying to work on.”

With that final answer, The Stan Kasten/Mike Rizzo Availability with bloggers in the Press Box at Nationals Park concluded.

All Photos Copyrighted--Nats320--All Rights Reserved

Hernan Iribarren

When Our Racing Presidents officially called out and challenged The Milwaukee Racing Sausages for not posting up for official competition at Nationals Park again at the end of the mid-4th inning race, Our Washington Nationals held a slim 1-0 lead against The Brewers. Collin Balester was pitching well, having thrown shutout ball, allowing just two hits to that point.

Then, shortly after Our Racing Presidents finished posing for pictures at the end of the 5th frame with any fan desiring at The Exxon Kids Zone, Collin Balester was left wondering what exactly hit him, as did Jason Bergmann and finally--Ron Villone? No home game this season had gone from nail biter to romp so quickly--in the opposite direction.

Just like that, it was all over. Done.

Did The Brew Crew ever unload to get things started in the top of the 6th and whittle away before one single out was recorded by Washington. Six total runs plated by Milwaukee. A turnaround game winning rally that was started by--Ryan Braun. Yes, The Power Hitter, maybe looking for redemption after being ejected yesterday for arguing and throwing his helmet at the feet of Umpire Mike Muchlinski. Ryan absolutely BLASTED OFF a two run homer DEEP INTO SECTION 104--five rows from the Center Field Plaza Walkway. A tremendous tee shot (he does have the prettiest looping swing) off his powerful bat that scored Frank Catalonatto in front of Braun and set in motion one of the worst innings of the year for Our Washington Nationals.

Our Pitching just fell apart and no matter who Interim Manager Jim Riggleman brought to the mound, it didn't help. No Brewer this frame again crushed the baseball like Ryan Braun--but three singles, two walks (one intentionally) and a force out scored the distancing runs that made this one time entertaining game--just an quick afterthought. From then on out, this affair had the true feeling of a getaway game. Yeah, get it over with--pack the bags--get on the next flight. Because when Jorge Sosa allowed YET ANOTHER home run (his 5th in 17.1 innings pitched--pretty amazing actually), what was left of the 17,805 headed for the exits in droves.

All which left The African Queen and I just chatting, talking about things, and hoping for that miracle comeback. No, sorry, not to be, but became far more entertaining when The Brewers' Manager--Ken Macha--sent Hernan Iribarren to the plate. Now there is your household name. This Venezuelan had pinch hit in the previous three games of this four game set. And the lefty swinging batter was now being given a fourth chance late this afternoon.

Great for us because WE LOVE HIS NAME. Hernan Iribarren!! What a moniker. That Pen Name right up there with our other favorite baseball player name of ALL TIME--Jarrod Saltalamacchia. One time Atlanta Brave and now Texas Ranger. Famous in Our Hearts for showing up at RFK Stadium for The Brav-Os in 2007 with a jersey that displayed his last name from halfway down the leftside of the uniform back and looped above the numbers to halfway down the rightside of that very same jersey.

The longest last name in Major League History that was so big the small video board on East Capitol Street COULD NOT complete his entire given family name. The same which held true in 2008 at Nationals Park when Saltalamacchia played for The Texas Rangers.

Yes, this afternoon and early evening came down to the simple things. Enjoying a young man named Hernan Iribarren that now plays baseball for The Milwaukee Brewers. The very team that just defeated DC's team in three out of four games.

Love That Name!!

Final Score from Nationals Park after one the most exhausting weeks in franchise history--Strasburg, Rizzo, Introductory Press Conferences, Picnic In The Park, Blogger Day & Seven Home Games--The Milwaukee Brewers 7 and Our Washington Nationals 1. The 81st defeat of 2009 confirmed what so many had realized already. Yeah, we are not going to finish near .500 this season. But at least all was not lost this past week. Progress was made and Hernan Iribarren showed up on South Capitol Street helping to make a rather mundane loss far more entertaining.

Let's see now if Washington can re-group on the upcoming western swing to Chicago, St. Louis and Beautiful San Diego (Our Other Favorite City) and return home Labor Day weekend with some more Curly "W's" In The Book. What are the chances of avoiding 100 losses for a second straight year?

Game Notes & Highlights

Collin Balester really looked solid through five complete. He had faced just four above the minimum, but just as quickly as Catalonatto doubled leading off the 6th and Braun homered to left, our Number 40 just lost steam and command. The harbinger of things to come when neither Bergmann nor Villone could stop the Milwaukee rally before it was too late. The top of the 6th was the ball game and Our Washington Nationals let it get out of hand.

Jorge Sosa must throw one of the flatest fastballs in the game. How else can so many be teeing off on him?

Throwing in the low-90's, The Brewers Yovani Gallardo was all over the place. He walked four Nats Batters but gave up just four hits in five innings complete. But when a hard thrower tosses 108 pitches of which only 62 were strikes--it was a good sign that Our Washington Nationals were getting themselves out this day.

None probably did that more than Alberto Gonzalez.

Our Number 12, removed in a double switch during the pivotal 6th frame, did not help himself by striking out looking with the bases loaded to end the bottom of the 3rd (swinging at the very first two pitches thrown his way after Gallardo had just loaded the bases) and flying out to right to end the 5th--stranding Ryan Zimmerman at third base. Despite five free passes allowed by Milwaukee pitching and six base hits, not a lot of offense from Washington this day. In fact, DC's only run scored on a fielder's choice. A botched double play by The Brewers in the bottom of the second inning that plated Willie Harris. Wil Nieves hustling to first to break up the possible DP and getting his 18th RBI on the year.





The Fake Milwaukee Sausages came out running again early this evening but were eventually run down by Our Racing Presidents as all eight participants turned for the home stretch at the rightfield foul pole. Tom winning again going away before all four Rushmores displayed their challenge sign to The Real Milwaukee Sausages.

And finally, when Our Washington Nationals return in September for the final 15 Home Games of 2009, what in world should The African Queen and I do after the schedule is complete? It just all of sudden hit us today. The season is nearly over. We are not into The Washington Redskins or The Washington Wizards, although The Washington Capitals are usually entertaining for us two to three times per season.

Maybe, we will take a real vacation this fall? Something we haven't done since Our Washington Nationals arrived in Washington, D.C. in 2005. All our travel over these past years has been business or baseball related. In fact, the last time we really got away was Fall, 2004. And we were in Santa Barbara, California the very day Major League Baseball announced The Montreal Expos were moving to The Nation's Capital. The morning after in which I bought The USA Today & Washington Post Newspapers out west and paraded around the main streets of Santa Barbara--on the water there--and showed everybody that would listen to me that MY HOMETOWN WAS AGAIN A MAJOR LEAGUE TOWN!!

Californians thought I was crazy. Sohna knew better.

True story. Just ask The African Queen. We still have the newspapers with Mayor Anthony Williams and Council Chair Jack Evans sporting red Curly "W" Caps. One of the best Redemption Days Of My Life!!

Tonight's InGame Photos--Charles Dharapak (AP)
All Other Photos--Nats320--All Rights Reserved

More Time With Mark Scialabba

Mark Scialabba was the most enlightening availability this past June when Our Washington Nationals held their first Blogger Day at Nationals Park. Our Assistant Director--Player Development is well in tune with the hundreds of young players working their way through Our Farm System. The goal of each and every one--to reach The Major Leagues.

Yesterday, during Blogger Day 2 on South Capitol Street, Mark Scialabba again spoke to the gathering and didn't disappoint. He was just as informative as before. With that, here we go with More Time With Mark Scialabba, Assistant Director--Player Development.

Mark: “It’s nice to see all of you folks. I recognize some of the faces and it’s good to put new faces with names as I read a lot of your stuff. So, welcome. I am here to talk about the Minor Leagues. Some of you I have spoken to before. My role is that I report to Bobby Williams—The Farm Director, Bob Boone (VP of Player Development) and then up to Mike Rizzo (GM) and Brian Parker who runs the Baseball Operations office. We mainly work here out of D.C.. And I travel to affiliates when I can. And I also help out The Major League Club here as well. So, I get a little bit of both—the Major League side and the Minor League side.”

“Let’s just open it up to your questions and hopefully I can give you some idea about how our system is doing.”

Question: Have you made decisions on who is going to the Arizona Fall League yet?

Mark: “Sure, we have. For the position players, that will not be released today—unfortunately—very soon, very soon. But it is a very impressive group. We are really proud of the players we are going to send there. You will be happy with the group. It’s a notification thing and we just want to be sure they are notified.”

Follow up: Then I guess you are not going to tell me any of the Instructional League players either?

Mark: “No. I can’t tell you the rosters yet. They will be announced pretty shortly. I think in the next couple of weeks. Definitely, the fall league will be very, very soon.”

Question: Mike Rizzo has said he wants to see each of his young players master each level as they progress. You have Drew Storen who has only been around a little over two months—he’s moving much more quickly. Has he mastered those levels? Is he way ahead of everyone else?

Mark: “Drew Storen is a very unique case. We are really excited about Drew. Obviously, that is why we took him with our second pick in this year’s draft. He has outstanding command of pitches. He doesn’t walk anybody. He’s got three plus pitches with the ability to command each one, very excited about his development. His make up is off the charts. He is very mature, physically and mentally. We are excited about what he has done. From a level-to-level position, he has done great. His first outing, I was there in Hagerstown, he was woken up to professional baseball with a fastball 96 (MPH) on the outside corner (hit out of the park for a home run) and he realized—you know what? —I have got to locate pitches here. This is not college baseball. So, we are very, very excited about Drew’s progress so far.”

John Dever (Sr. Director—Baseball Communications) “And he doesn’t walk any guys and strikes out—literally, almost literally—one guy per inning.”

Question: I have read a little bit about Ian Desmond’s defensive skills. Can you talk about his bat and do you see him fitting into The Nationals plan in the coming month?

Mark: “Ian is a very exciting player. You look at him and you think—Big Leaguer. He is very exciting. He has plus range both ways. He has an outstanding arm and amongst all the managers throughout the leagues and Baseball America--they have rated his arm tops during the past few years--Carolina League, Eastern League. He’s a guy whose bat has taken some time to develop. He’s hit some rough patches. Earlier in his career, we promoted him too quickly and he struggled. For a young kid that was in Big League Camp and people are throwing out names like Derek Jeter—you get a lot of pressure put on you. And you have heard this before, but he has very good bat speed. He utilizes his lower half extremely well. His swing is in sequence—which is what we teach and praise our guys to do. Ralph Dickinson, our Hitting Coordinator, works our hitters to make sure they swing the proper way. The way to be successful up here in The Major Leagues. And Ian has done a phenomenal job this year. I think he is hitting .440. He is really hitting the ball real well right now. Two more hits last night. He is exciting, a lot of potential. As far as coming up here (to D.C.), I don’t think it would be fair to him to give you guys an idea before he knows. So, I am not going to get into that, but I think he has a lot of potential and we are really excited about the future with Ian Desmond.”

Question: I want to talk about Derek Norris a little bit. Obviously, he is having a great year with the bat. He still has room to grow, defensively, as a catcher. Is he a catcher or can he play another position—first base. I want to hear from the organization whether he is going to stick at catcher? Will he be able to play a defensive catcher in The Major Leagues?

Mark: “Yes. Our plan is to have Derek catch. Derek came to us in the draft a few years ago and he is a guy with amazing bat potential, a very advanced approach. You don’t see many hitters with his type of approach, very calm and strong—strokes the ball. He is a catcher. He started to catch his junior year in high school. So, he has a ways to go. We feel very confident within our staff that his make up, his ability to go out there and grind every day, to get better. It is going to take time. If you talk to any Farm Director, it is one of the hardest things to develop—a catcher. And you are going to have some failure along the way. Derek is not where he needs to be because he is still in Low-A (Hagerstown). We know that but his bat is progressing much more quickly than his defense. But he is going to come along. He is going to work hard this off-season on his skills and Bobby Henley—our Catching Coordinator—has worked with him a ton in spring training—and throughout the first half of this season—before he began managing the Gulf Coast League (Nationals). And Matt LeCroy (Hagerstown Manager) has given him a lot of good advice there so as we go up (in the system) we have some outstanding former catchers in our organization like Jon Stearns and obviously—Bob Boone is here. Bob gives him a lot of knowledge. Bob was one of the first people to work with him when he (Derek Norris) was here for a draft workout a few years ago.”

Follow up: Is his bat going to force the issue? If his bat is Major League ready, are you going to bring him up here, sort of like Jesus Flores—indoctrinate him to learn how to catch in The Big Leagues—is what I am trying to say?

Mark: “Jesus Flores was a Rule V Pick so that’s a little different, that is why we had to have him in The Major Leagues. Derek, I think, we can be a little more patient with because, hopefully, Jesus is healthy next year. We don’t need a catcher right this moment (on the Big League Roster). It would be nice to have Jesus healthy. Obviously, right now, we have Wil Nieves and Josh Bard, so there is not a desperate need to have Derek come up and catch right away. But we want to keep him as a catcher. His value is extremely high as a catcher and we want to continue to make sure we can develop him. We feel confident in his ability to develop as a catcher.”

Question: “When you bring guys up for September Call-Ups, do you have a plan to make sure they still get enough time in. For instance, if you bring up Ian Desmond, would you say we have to sit Cristian Guzman or play him at second base for a day just to get these guys the opportunity to get their at-bats?

Mark: “That is a great question. If we are going to bring up a prospect, like an Ian Desmond, we are going to have a plan. That will be discussed with Mike Rizzo and Jim Riggleman and Bob Boone. They will have a plan in place for a prospect. Some guys, we might be bringing up more as a reserve type player that can spell some guys some time. Obviously, we are not contending right now, so it is easier for us to do that. But, if you have a prospect and you bring him up—you surely want to have a plan in place, yeah.”

Question: Potomac (Nationals) is again in the pennant race. Is there a chance of stocking them with the best players, the useful players in Hagerstown to help them win The Carolina League Championship?

Mark: “Yeah, I think that is something we might do. It depends overall on how we feel what is best for the players. Winning is great, winning is very important because we feel as you grow as a baseball player—you want to learn how to win. It is very important. However, the (individual) development is the primary issue. You need to develop your players. You need to make sure each player is put in the right position to maximize his potential, to learn the most, to get the most out of his ability. Now, winning is definitely a secondary thing. However, if there is a guy that we feel can help. Last year, Michael Burgess and Stephen King were promoted (to Potomac—2008 Carolina League Champions) in early August and it was great. They added a lot. Michael Burgess ended up hitting six home runs and Stephen King played a steady 3rd base. Stephen is actually on a re-hab assignment but will be activated very soon. So that is like getting a new player back (King was activated today as I write this post). It’s like getting that healthy guy coming off the DL. So, that will add a lot. He is an outstanding 3rd Baseman, very athletic kid. His bat has not come along as quickly as possible, but you will see—if you look at The Carolina League stats that The Carolina League is pretty tough. There are only seven opponents. You are going to get advanced scouting reports as an A-Ball Player. So, when you are exposed, they are going to beat you. But what that does is teach those players like a Michael Burgess, who is a left handed hitter, who has had problems with lefties (pitchers)—Hey, you work on it here, develop yourself and really work hard at that. We don’t want to take him out whenever a lefty comes into the game and send up a pinch hitter. We would never do that. But, we would allow him to struggle here (at Potomac) because this is where you need to learn how to hit those lefties and do things right. So, The Carolina League is tough and we want to make sure the players are ready and they can contribute right away. For example, if you are thinking Derek Norris. We wouldn’t put Derek Norris up there (at Potomac) to sit the bench and play every other day. He would have to be the main guy. We have two guys that are playing real well, we believe, and the reason why the team is successful. I don’t know what is going to happen next. We shall see what happens.”

Question: Can you tell me anything about the Dominican Kids you signed? Jean Valdez, Cleto Brazobon. Those were the bigger names. Can you tell me anything about the other three as well?

Mark: “Sure. We signed five players recently in The Dominican Republic. Jean Valdez we are very confident of his bat. I have not seen them, so it is tough for me to give you a full scouting report on them. But, just based upon what I have heard. I have talked to Dana Brown (Director of Scouting). Jean Valdez (16 Years Old), a very good bat. We are talking about a guy with the potential to hit in the middle of the order. This is one of the best bats we feel we have signed in a long time in The Dominican. Cleto Brazobon (17 Years Old), a right handed pitcher, we feel very confident has an electric arm. And the other three guys—(Vidal) Paredes (18), (George) Rosa (19) and (Jose) Norberto (18) who is a centerfielder, and Rosa is a right-handed pitcher and so is Paredes. I can’t give you too much on that but once I see them I will be able to answer you more.”

Follow up: Norberto played toward the end of the year in The DSL (Dominican Summer League). Was it a plan to keep the other four out?

Mark: “Actually, we signed all of them for this year, except for Valdez. He signed for 2010 (when he is 17). And the other four are signed for this year. It was a matter of innings and it was late in the season. It was getting them worked up. As you will see, with Stephen Strasburg—which we are all excited about this week. You noticed how Mike Rizzo mentioned that it takes about four weeks to get to that game ready, professional game ready throwing program. So, they are going through that program (as well). Hopefully we will have an Instructional League there (in the D.R.) and they will be able to do that and get more involved there. And be ready, maybe, even for Instructional League here. We will be making those decisions very soon.”

Question: You have an interesting reliever in your system named Yunior Novoa—interesting off-speed stuff. How does he project? Do you have a knuckleballer in your system?

Mark: “Aaron Seuss (the knuckleballer). Yunior Novoa is a left-handed pitcher, tall/lean body—fastball, can locate it very well. He can throw strikes (86-88, 89 MPH). He’s got a very good breaking ball, good curve ball that he can get lefties and righties out with. He’s a guy I would consider a fringe prospect. We shall see what happens here the next few months. He will be Rule V eligible and he is a Minor League Free Agent next year, so we still have control of him (right now). But, an interesting guy, definitely.”

“And the knuckleballer, Aaron Seuss is an outfielder we drafted a few years back. He’s actually thrown the knuckle ball in the past year—on the side. He has had opportunities this year to throw some in a game. We will see what we do in the off-season. We will see if we can entice some former Major Leaguers to work with him.

Question: A couple of years ago The Nationals took a flyer on Jack McGeary taking him in the 5th round, when he was supposedly 1st round talent, paid him money to go to school at Stanford. Has he regressed by not being a full-time player?

Mark: “It’s tough to say regressed. I think this is his first full season. I think you have to be fair to him to give him a little bit more time. I think that if he came out and played professionally for a full year, right away, yes—I think he would have been developed more right now. However, we are confident in Jack and his ability. I don’t know if anybody has met him or seen him pitch, but he is a very, very special kid—extremely bright—and has three outstanding pitches. Unfortunately, he goes to school, and plays baseball at the same time (but not at Stanford—where he just trains). This year he is in Vermont. I saw him last week. He threw on the side and he looked good. He was throwing strikes, but when he gets into the game he can’t take that bullpen to the field yet. And I think that is where he is struggling right now. He still has a very good curveball, good change up and, hopefully, we can figure some things out. He is working with Spin Williams, our Pitching Coordinator, and we feel confident he will hopefully bounce back in Spring Training (in 2010) and show what he really is capable of.”

Follow up: Is he going to become a full-time player (leaving Stanford behind)?

Mark: “I can’t comment on that. I have to talk to Jack. I really don’t want to get into that. Sorry.”

Last Question: With Chris Marrero’s promotion to AA, if he hits well this fall, do you see him playing next year some time in D.C.?

Mark: “I hope that he progresses to the point where he can. I can’t say that he will. I don’t know if everybody knows, but he was promoted to Harrisburg and yesterday he was five for six in a doubleheader. He’s got to find the groove. You are going to have an adjustment period. Hopefully, he finishes up strong and seeing the ball and making consistent contact. He is a kid with a lot of power, an exciting batter. I think that if he progresses quickly, yes, he might have a shot. However, you really don’t want to push him up there unless we feel confident he is ready for it mentally and physically. As we talked about Ian Desmond, you don’t want to put a kid up there (in The Majors) to fail and have that burden on him—adding a lot of pressure. But physically, Chris has a way to go at 1st base and he is working on that. He is developing into a 1st baseman. When he started this year, he really didn’t know. He didn’t have the footwork. He wasn’t comfortable around the bag. Trent Jewett has work with him, our Manager at Potomac. And Jeff Garber, Infield Coordinator, has worked with him a lot this year. He (Marrero) is working hard at it, trying to become a 1st baseman, because he knows, he has to become a two way player when you get to The Big Leagues and The National League.”

With that final answer, More Time With Mark Scialabba concluded. He is really informative and excellent at sharing his knowledge about Our Washington Nationals Minor League Farm System.

Jim Riggleman Blogger Day Availability

Thoughtful, willing to expand on any question asked. Those were the first impressions The African Queen and I got from watching Interim Manager Jim Riggleman late yesterday morning. Sitting in front of about a dozen or so bloggers in the media interview room at Nationals Park, Mr. Riggleman pondered and fully explained anything asked of him. So much so, that the 17 minute session only resulted in seven questions asked.

Since taking over for Our Former Manager Manny Acta--Jim Riggleman has led Our Washington Nationals to an 18-19 Record in the 37 games he has managed.

Here is the complete transcript from yesterday's media availability with Jim Riggleman. He gave no introductory speech. We went right into the Q & A. He wanted to stay longer, but time and tight scheduling would not allow.

With that, here we go:

Question: The record is sort of what it is this year. I am curious, from your perspective, what do you think this team has accomplished so far. What is it that you want to focus on as the season winds down?

Jim: “I think what has been accomplished is that we have established that we have a good offensive ball club. We’ve been as high as second in the league and probably as low as 6th of 7th in the league in hitting which, if anyone just looks at that, will probably think we are having a pretty good year. So, I think there is a lot of build on there offensively.”

“And to the second part of the question, what do we want to accomplish? We just want to establish a more consistent pitching aspect of the ball club. We are last place in the league in pitching. And it’s amazing; you can probably go back to Abner Doubleday (the beginnings of baseball) and whoever pitched the best—won. It’s exciting to put teams together when you have a bunch of guys who can hit and score runs and hit home runs. As recently as last year, The Texas Rangers, I was in The American League and it was very hard to manage against them because they just hit, hit and hit. But, they didn’t even sniff the playoffs because they were almost last in pitching. And this year they have reversed that. They are pitching very well. They have dropped way down, offensively, but they have a good chance of getting into the playoffs.”

“So, we have got to establish, as Stan Kasten made very clear, it’s pitching, pitching, pitching. We have got to accumulate and develop a lot of pitching. And with the recent signings of our Number 1 and Number 2 draft picks that’s a great start to that. But what we have here already will be parts of our future—as well as—some of the guys that are in AA & AAA now. There are some pretty good pitchers there. That has to be cultivated, developed and hopefully not take a step backwards offensively. If we had this offense here that we have with a pitching staff that is in the middle of the pack, we would be playing some very interesting games in September.”

Question: Following up on the young pitching. How do you balance controlling the innings requirements and pitch counts on your younger arms with still managing to win games at The Major League Level?

Jim: “Well, that is a big concern because it is looked at very closely in today’s world. If somebody gets hurt, it seems to be—well, was he pitched too much? And—who pitched him too much? And—why didn’t they take him out of those games? You are in last place anyway? So, using Jordan Zimmermann as an example. Jordan was monitored very closely, very rarely got into the 100-pitch count range. Never pitching on less than four days rest. He sometimes had five days rest but his arm still had the injury. So we just have to, in good conscience, just try to take care of those starters first and manage the game around that a little bit. Sometimes, take him out a little earlier than you might like, but if your bullpen has got some veterans down there—like we had Joe Beimel. We have (Ron) Villone & (Jorge) Sosa, (Saul) Rivera. Some of these guys who are eating up some of those innings for us. We have to utilize what those guys can do for us down there to protect the young starters.”

Question: When you first took over for Manny Acta, you praised how he was always doing the right things and things were moving in the right direction. Yet, you have had significantly more success than he did with basically the same group of players. What is the difference?

Jim: “When I first started we lost five in a row. And now we have lost five in a row. Success is a very tentative line. It is very fragile. But I was there every day in Spring Training with Manny and I just appreciated his work, the things that came out of his mouth. I felt I was really glad to hear this (from him) because I am 56 years old and Manny is 39 or 40 Years old. I didn’t want to feel like I was not in touch with what needs to be done and said as a current manager because I know how the Leyland’s, LaRussa’s and everybody thinks. But, you have got to evolve. And to hear Manny say the things that he was saying and teaching. I thought, yeah, you know, I am right in tune with what needs to be done out there. And I personally agreed with what he was doing.”

“To answer your question, I don’t know. I don’t know why our players were not playing effectively during that period of time. I think they will tell you the same thing. Adam Dunn made the statement one day. He was very frustrated. We won those seven or eight games in a row and during that period in there—the five or six game mark—he said: ‘I don’t know we didn’t do this earlier. There is no reason why we shouldn’t have played like this earlier.’ We just didn’t. He didn’t have an answer for it. He certainly wasn’t putting that on Manny and he wasn’t putting that on me. He was saying we should have been doing this all along. And when you don’t do it, the manager is the one to get fired. I have been on the end of that.”

Question: How has the media landscape changed since you first started managing how many years ago?

Jim: “Tremendously. I started managing in The Big Leagues basically in ’93, that was my first full year. I talked to a couple of writers a day. One radio person a day, maybe do a TV shot for the local station. When I went to Chicago, even though it was a big market, it was again two or three beat writers and one radio station to deal with and no internet, no blogging, and not as much scrutiny on everything. And there was more then (in terms of coverage) than there was in the ‘70’s. But in the ‘90’s to now, we do a press conference at 4PM before the game. We do a press conference after the game with the MASN background—whereas everything was done in my office wherever I was at (before). There was no local network with a station that carried every team in baseball and doing it with this in the background (Logo Banners) of whatever team it is. And I like it. I like the idea that you can to talk to people, explain some things that people think you are not doing right. You get the opportunity to stand here and say this is why I did that. So, I personally like it, but I think it can wear on you. A lot of people get worn out by it and it is one of the reasons they don’t want to do this job (manage), because they don’t want to be answering those questions all the time.”

Question: I was living in Chicago when you were the manager there and followed The Cubs. You talked about Jordan Zimmermann and how he was handled in his pitch counts. If you look back it’s pretty different, he was used a lot more cautiously than Kerry Wood was. But I am interested in hearing you talk about what you have learned, what the game has learned, over the course of the last ten years on how young pitchers are handled and those two particular pitchers?

Jim: “Yeah, it’s ’09 and that took place in ’98 when I managed him. It’s been 11 years since then and I am still answering questions about Kerry Wood because he got hurt and he was Stephen Strasburg (young & dominant stud pitcher). He was that good. The thing about Kerry was we were in a pennant race. We were trying to get in the playoffs. So, if you were a part of the team in a pennant race, two things are going to happen. Your starters are going to pitch well, because you wouldn’t be in a pennant race if your starters weren’t pitching well. And if they are pitching well, you are trying to win the game.”

“As a manager I never said: ‘Come on, get Kerry Wood up. I need Kerry Wood!’ After a very short time, early in the year, they (Cubs Management) said: ‘Hey, Kerry Wood is coming up.’ OK, he is here--he is going to pitch. So, we basically treated him like we treated everyone else. If he was pitching effectively, he pitched. If he was pitching ineffectively, we took him out. Now, when you are a young power pitcher it takes you a lot of pitches to get it done because your stuff is so good the hitters are fouling pitches off. They are taking pitches. There are strikeouts. There are a lot of pitches. So, health wise, the best thing for Kerry Wood would have been if we weren’t in a pennant race because we would have just shut him down after 90 to 100 pitches every game and get him out. But my recollection of pitching him, he would have 115 pitches six or seven innings into it. And I would take him out and the fans were howling. ‘How could you take him out?’--because we would lose those games when I took him out. It was uplifting to the other team when I took him out. I didn’t have anybody to get me from him to (Rod) Beck. In between there, we would usually get beat. So it was always about you should have never taken him out. You took him out and he has 13 strikeouts in seven innings. Or, after six innings, why did you take him out?”

“And once he got operated on: ‘why did you pitch him so much? You left him out there too long!’ So l learned from it that if I had to do it over again—I would not have pitched him that much. I wouldn’t have known that he was going to get hurt, but if I had known he was going to get hurt, I would have said: ‘You know what? We are just going to have to lose these games.’ But, I didn’t know he was going to get hurt. And he didn’t really (’98). He pitched in the playoffs that year for us. When he came to spring training the next year, the wear and tear of that previous year, I am sure, was the reason his elbow blew out. You know, they (pitchers) just get hurt. When we (The Cubs) signed him, they said he had a ligament issue in his elbow—that was in high school. But he was so good, they signed him and we ran with it. So it was probably inevitable (Wood would get hurt).”

“Jordan Zimmermann was monitored a lot closer than we monitored Kerry Wood and he got hurt. It seems unavoidable, but your conscience is more clear if you take the cautious approach.”

Question: First half of the season, the team is last in the league in defensive proficiency. It has picked up some since the All-Star break. What do you attribute that too?

Jim: “It is almost hard for me to believe that we are last because I feel like we have really played pretty good defense and we just can’t get out of that last slot there. But, we have really worked hard at it. And this is where, sort of like the question earlier, what is the difference when Manny was here and now I am here? And I promise you; Manny was really pounding them on the defense. We are going to get out there and we are going to work early before batting practice. We are going to work, work, work and if you don’t like it, there is the door. And it rained every day and we couldn’t get on the field. The tarp was on the field. We just couldn’t get the consistent work. From the time I took over, we have almost never been rained off the field. All that work we wanted to do early, we were able to it. And I think it paid off. I think the players were genuinely embarrassed by our play defensively and started to take a little more pride in it and we got better results. Some of the other teams must have too—because we haven’t leapfrogged any of the other teams defensively—at least statistically.”

Last Question: For a guy that wasn’t really known for his glove, Adam Dunn seems very comfortable at first base. He seems to be doing a pretty good job. What is you assessment of what he has done?

Jim: “I think he has done pretty good. The first of several times he was there (playing 1st base) after Nick (Johnson) was traded—anytime we had the opportunity—we put (Ronnie) Belliard over there and took him (Adam) out of the game if we were winning. And when we went to only four extra men (on the bench) instead of five because we were carrying an extra pitcher—that made it harder to do that (replacement). So, the accommodation of being more comfortable there and not having the bench players to cover that move—we left him out there. And he has done OK. There are some balls that go into that hole between first and second—to his right—that we have got to find a way to read the ball off the bat a little better with left handed hitters and he has acknowledged that. He is not seeing that ball off the bat as quickly as he would like. So we have got to do a couple of things to improve that, but he is catching the ball fine. What I like about Adam is what is coming out of his mouth. He is communicating on the relays. The little subtle things between him and (Ryan) Zimmerman that he talks about--who is going to be the cut-off man, his communication on the bunt plays. He’s into it. He is energized by playing the position. He’s taken some pride to it and that is what is encouraging to me.”

With that final answer--the Blogger Day Media Availability with Interim Manager Jim Riggleman concluded.