IGT, vs. Washington, 4/3/2006

[DocTee]

Where's Preston Wilson??

[Elster88]

3) Wright
4) Delgado

[Guest Edgy DC]

Preston Wilson's a free agent, one to whom the Nats declined to offer arbitration yesterday.

I base the projected order on Willie Randolph's seeming preference for alternating lefties and righties through the middle of the batting order. We'll see.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The Nats still appear to have Christian Guzman penciled in at short. I'd be very surprised to see him open the season there.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

Uh, Soriano leading off in LF? Not if he has anything to say about that! Of course Frank would have something to say, or do, if Sucki (new nickname for Sori) actually pulls something like that

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

I agree with Elster that Wright should hit in the 3 hole and Delgado should hit clean up. However, I do understand Edgy's reasoning for ordering the line up as he did. Willie may have an aversion to putting left heanded bats consecutively in the order. Willie needs to get over that, because there is a huge difference between Floyd/Mientkiewicz and Delgado/Floyd. It's all about the quality of the hitters involved.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I disagree I think it's eaiser to stagger the lineup with a lot of good batters laying around, not harder.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

It is certainly easier to adjust a line up full of good hitters rather than to adjust one with offensively challenged hitters. My point was that if the two players in question (Delgado and Floyd) are good hitters, then it's fine to bat them consecutively in the order. I still believe Wright is best suited for the third slot in the order and Delgado is a more traditional clean up hitter. To flip them in the order simply so two left handed hitters are not back to back would be counter productive in my opinion.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Washington	Mets
1) Soriano, lf 2) Vidro, 2b 3) Johnson, 1b 4) Guillen, rf 5) Zimmerman, 3b 6) Church, cf 7) Schneider, c 8) Clayton, ss 9) Hernandez, p	1) Reyes, ss 2) Beltran, cf 3) Delgado, 1b 4) Wright, 3b 5) Floyd, lf 6) Nady, rf 7) Lo Duca, c 8) Matsui, 2b 9) Martinez, p

The Nats just signed Royce Clayton. He doesn't have so much left, I guess, and it was a minor league deal. but I've got to think he passed Christian Guzman on the depth chart before the ink was dry on his contract. I imagine Guzman and three quarters of his salary will be going to Texas or somewhere for a non-prospect shortly before camp begins.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Without looking it up, I suspect Royce Clayton is one of those Metkilling guys.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Nothing special.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Well good.

[Elster88]

Projecting Nady over Diaz these days? Not that I'm arguing against it, I just don't remember how that came about.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Only that Diaz played 89 games last year while Nady played 124. Obviously it could go either way, but I think Nady is being brought in to fill that role.

It'll be a battle of Swobodas.

[duan]

I'm REALLY not convinced that they'll have the cojones to bat Beltran in the two hole. I think they're going to have LoDuca in there even though it'd be a recipe for having a .310 obp out of the 1-2 slots.

The big problem is that unless Reyes takes a step forward we're going to be wasting a bucketload of abs.

[Elster88]

Reyes has diesel abs.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I want to like LoDuca. In fact, I do like him. I LoDo like him.

But that excellent rookie year of his came at 29, what would have been seen as a peak year had he come up at 25 or so, if a late start, somewhat slow development, and Todd Freakin' Hundley hadn't conspired to delay his launch. He may have left some of his best hitting in Albuquerque.

[Guest *62]

Elster88 wrote: Reyes has diesel abs.

And a ten-cent head.

[metirish]

Soriano Sets Arbitration Record With $10M

[Elster88]

I've got that rumbling feeling in the pit of my stomach. March Madness starting next week followed immediately by Opening Day. Best time of the year to watch sports. I am ridiculously excited. 32 days, baby.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Washington	Mets
1) Soriano, lf 2) Vidro, 2b 3) Johnson, 1b 4) Guillen, rf 5) Zimmerman, 3b 6) Church, cf 7) Schneider, c 8) Clayton, ss 9) Hernandez, p	1) Reyes, ss 2) Lo Duca, c 3) Beltran, cf 4) Delgado, 1b 5) Wright, 3b 6) Floyd, lf 7) Nady, rf 8) Keppinger, 2b 9) Glavine, p

Expected changes from last go-around are in bold. I also bumped up LoDuca based on the broad speculation, though that could change.now that the top Mets are back in camp.

Other Nat news: Alfonso Soriano is due in camp today or tomorrow. He claims to be excited to report but still hasn't indicated whether he's ready to report to left field. He had a crap WBC on offense and defense and Manny Acta ended up replacing him with Placido Polanco (who is a career .300 hitter, by the way).

Reliever Luis Ayala is George Steinbrenner's worst nightmare. He played in the World Baseball Classic for Mexico despite the Nationals asking him not to, as he was recovering from surgery to remove a bone spur. He came in, walked Alex Rodriguez, and now he's going to spend the season vacationing with Tommy John.

Christian Guzman has a SLAP tear in his shoulder. He and the team are weighing surgery, but considering the way his career is going, either way is going to be real tough for him. (In related news, I have no idea what a SLAP tear is.)

Frank Robinson is one unhappy guy:

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Manager Frank Robinson is planning to hold another team meeting on Monday before his team takes on the Dodgers at Space Coast Stadium. It will be Robinson's third meeting this spring, and it's pretty much being held for the same reason -- the Nationals are just not playing fundamentally sound baseball.

The first meeting took place on March 8, a day after the Nationals lost to the Marlins, 22-12. At that meeting, Robinson told his players that they didn't play with enough energy, and expressed his frustration that they couldn't catch the ball consistently and were making fundamental mistakes.

Eight days later, Robinson spent most of his second team meeting going over signs with the players. According to two sources, the players had been confused about the signals being given by third-base coach Tony Beasley.

On Monday, Robinson will talk about the team's defensive lapses. In 21 games, the Nationals have committed 35 errors. On Sunday, they committed three in a 9-1 loss to the Dodgers. Two of them came in the first inning.

Damian Jackson booted the ball at second base, which allowed Rafael Furcal to score the first run of the game. Two outs later, Sandy Alomar Jr. hit a routine grounder to Ryan Zimmerman, who threw away the ball for a two-base error that allowed two more runs to score.

Three innings later, Kenny Lofton hit a routine ground ball to first baseman Daryle Ward, who bobbled the ball and allowed Lofton to reach base safely.

There likely should have been a fourth error. In the second inning, Zimmerman made a decent throw to first base on a Jose Cruz Jr. grounder, but Ward couldn't handle the throw, and Cruz was given a base hit.

"I'm not going to sit back and do nothing," said Robinson. "I'll come up with something by [Monday] to try to get the team's attention. I'm going to start focusing and executing. This just can't go on, Spring Training or not. ... This is something you can't, all of a sudden, turn it on and say, 'The season has started. We'll start playing the right way.' "

Robinson said that in his 17 years of managing professional baseball teams, he has never seen a team play this kind of sloppy defense.

"We are not asking them to do anything that you wouldn't ask a T-ball player to do -- catch the ball and throw it," he said. "We are making errors on routine, simple plays. It's not going to keep me up tonight, but it will occupy my thoughts."

[nymr83]

]Christian Guzman has a SLAP tear in his shoulder. He and the team are weighing surgery, but considering the way his career is going, either way is going to be real tough for him. (In related news, I have no idea what a SLAP tear is.)

I don't know what it is either but it can only help his batting average.

[metirish]

Un-fucking-real.....

] Alfonso Soriano Refuses to Play Outfield By TIM WALTERS For The Associated Press March 20, 2006, 7:59 PM EST VIERA, Fla. -- Alfonso Soriano refused to play the outfield for the Washington Nationals in what was supposed to be his spring training debut Monday night, and general manager Jim Bowden said his biggest offseason acquisition will go on the disqualified list if he doesn't agree to switch positions this week. "The player refused to take the field, which we believe is a violation of his contract," Bowden said. Soriano, an All-Star second baseman, was listed as batting leadoff and playing left field on a lineup sheet posted in the Nationals' clubhouse before Monday night's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. But when the Nationals took the field in the top of the first, Soriano wasn't there. Brandon Watson replaced him in the lineup, playing center field, and Ryan Church shifted from center to left. The Nationals already have an All-Star second baseman in Jose Vidro, so they told Soriano they want him to move to the outfield, and he indicated he doesn't want to do that. But Monday provided his most concrete -- and visible -- objection. When Soriano first reported to camp last month, the question of whether he would accept the switch was left open until his return from the World Baseball Classic. Soriano played for the Dominican Republic, which was eliminated in the tournament semifinals Saturday. He joined the Nationals on Monday and worked out with teammates in the afternoon, but he wouldn't speak to reporters. The Nationals acquired Soriano, a four-time All-Star at second base, from Texas in a December trade that sent outfielders Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge and pitcher Armando Galarraga to the Rangers. After the deal, Washington made it clear that Vidro would keep his spot at second; Soriano made it clear that he wasn't happy. Soriano lost his arbitration case this winter and is due to be paid $10 million this season, still a record for the highest salary awarded in arbitration. The Nationals are off Tuesday, then travel to play the St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter on Wednesday. If Soriano refuses to play in that game and again at home against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, the Nationals will take action. "We told him if we get to Thursday, and he refuses to play left field, we told him at that point we will request that the commissioner's office place him on the disqualified list, at that time -- no pay, no service time," Bowden said. "If he refuses to play and goes home, and the commissioner's office accepts our request to place him on the disqualified list, then at that point, if he were to sit out this year, he would not be a free agent, he would stay our property because his service time would stay the same." Nationals manager Frank Robinson sat down privately with Soriano for 20 minutes before the game Monday to explain the team's position. "If he's going to play here, he's going to have to be out in left field," Robinson said. "He said he's ready to play, he needs to play, he's ready for the season, and I penciled him in the lineup in left field." Robinson said the meeting with Soriano was civil, but the player's position was clear. "He's very sensitive, and he has a mind-set," Robinson said. "He lets you know how he feels." Trading Soriano, already a possibility, becomes more likely now -- with less than two weeks remaining before opening day. "He's going to play left field. He needs to be out there now the next couple of weeks to play, and if he's not going to play for us, we need to know so we can go forward," Bowden said. "We obviously will field offers, but we're not going to give the player away. If we can make a deal that makes sense, we will."

[Willets Point]

Once a Yankee....

[Guest Rotblatt]

Wow. What a tool.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

This should be interesting.

The Soriano to the Mets rumors should be raging by tomorrow morning.

[Elster88]

metirish wrote: Un-fucking-real.....

You put it perfectly, though I would've gone with un-fucking-believable.

[metirish]

That works too Elster, what amazes me is that he had a 20 minute talk with Robinson before the game and still refused, I mean dude get out and play...

[Guest Edgy DC]

I suspect (pure speculation) that he made his position known, Bowden and Robinson made theirs known, and Robby called his bluff, perhaps fully knowing that he was going to go through with it, but put him in the position of pulling it off in order to force him to make himself look bad.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Washington	Mets
1) Soriano, lf 2) Vidro, 2b 3) Johnson, 1b 4) Guillen, rf 5) Zimmerman, 3b 6) Church, cf 7) Schneider, c 8) Clayton, ss 9) Hernandez, p	1) Reyes, ss 2) Lo Duca, c 3) Beltran, cf 4) Delgado, 1b 5) Wright, 3b 6) Floyd, lf 7) Nady, rf 8) Hernandez, 2b 9) Glavine, p