Nats Enquirer

Free Michael Morse!

(Michael Morse is missing from the Nationals starting lineup Friday night in Philly. Photo via Picapp.)

With Nyjer Morgan suspended for the next 8 games starting tonight, Jim Riggleman can now safely field a Bernadina-Maxwell-Morse for the next 8 games straight without ruffling Tony Plush's feathers. But not so fast: Jim Riggleman's dart-board apparently had other plans. Something went terribly wrong with Friday night's lineup:

1. Espinosa, 2B
2. Desmond, SS
3. Zimmerman, 3B
4. Dunn, 1B
5. Bernadina, LF
6. Rodriguez, C
7. Harris, RF
8. Maxwell, CF
9. Marquis, P

Why Willie? Where the @%*# is Michael Morse?

And with that, Willie Harris will now hit for the cycle Friday night, just to make us look bad. But that's not the point -- it doesn't matter what Willie Harris does, because we know perfectly well who Willie Harris is as a player. The verdict is still out on Michael Morse. Please, Jim, let's try to find out!

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Nyjer Morgan unlikely to watch this weekend's series in Philly with his fans in the cheap seats

(Nyjer Morgan's suspensions: reduced from 15 to 8 games by MLB. UPI/Kevin Dietsch Photo via Newscom)

And so news broke earlier today that Nyjer Morgan's suspension(s) were reduced by MLB -- from 15 to 8 games.  He's reportedly off the hook for the ball-throwing incident in Philadelphia; but punishment for all the dumb stuff he did after that holds up.

Adam Kilgore has some good quotes from Morgan over at Nationals Journal, like:

"Mainly, what I'm really happy about is that. I'm a fan player. When anybody says something about the fans, I get a little disappointed on that one. I'm fans first. I'm just glad to get all this [stuff] over. Now I can focus on doing what I do."
(Nyjer Morgan, via Nationals Journal, 9/16/2010) 

If fans are first, does that make team second? Or is Nyjer Morgan second? Is Tony Plush third?

More from Kilgore, who notes that Morgan will be around this weekend in Philly, just not in the dugout or clubhouse during games:

Morgan will continue to travel with the Nationals and participate in pregame drills, such as batting practice. He must watch games from somewhere other than the dugout or the clubhouse.

So the only question remaining now is: Where will Nyjer Morgan watch the games from in Philadelphia this weekend? Will he go the Jim Riggleman route and watch the action from a suite high above Citizens Bank Park, or will Mr. Fans First sit in the cheap seats in right center field at Citizen's Bank Park to meet and greet his fans?

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Schadenfreude!

 

(Omar Infante in an empty dugout after the Nationals won on Wednesday to take two of three from the Braves, who are still holding on for their lives to a playoff spot. Getty Images Photo.)

Time to embrace the spoiler role...

"That's all we've got right now over the last month, trying to spoil other people's seasons."
(Sean Burnett, via Nats Insider, 9/15/2010)

Justin Maxwell 4, Braves 2: It got a little dicey there in the 7th, but Justin Maxwell's grand slam, Lannan, and the 'pen hold up.

Nats take 2 of 3 from Braves, onward to Philly to exact a little revenge for Opening Day.

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There Will Be No Phillies Fan Invasion at Nationals Park on Opening Day 2011

 

(Home cookin' at Opening Day 2010 at Nationals Park April 5, 2010. Photo by Nationals Enquirer staff.)

The Nationals released their 2011 schedule last night, and Nats fans can rest a little easier knowing that Stan Kasten's favorite paying customers won't have the red carpet rolled out for them on Opening Day this time around.

Instead, the Nationals will open the 2011 season at home on Thursday, March 31 against the Braves. That means no Stan Kasten Express Party Bus from Philly on Opening Day, folks. No busloads of 20,000+ drunken goons from Philly. No booing and heckling the home team during Opening Day ceremonies. No "Let's Go Phillies!" chants. With all those tickets available now, shame on NatsTown if the game is anything short of a sellout.

Phillies fans will have to wait until April 12-14 to turn Nationals Park into Citizens Bank Park South for the first time in 2011. Stan Kasten will be waiting with open arms.

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Bravo Livo!

 

(Livan Hernandez did it all for the Nationals on Tuesday night. AP Photo by John Bazemore.)

"I like to hit, and I like to help the team win. Next year I think I'll come back better. I think I've got to lower my bat. I use a 35 (ounce). I've got to start using a 34."
(Livan Hernandez, via Nats Insider, 9/14/2010)

A 118 Pitch Junk Ball Masterpiece

Livan Hernandez 6, Braves 0: Ho hum, just another day at the office for Good Ol' Livan. Eight shutout innings, home run, double, two RBI.

Livo's line: 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, good for his 10th win of the season.

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Where Adam Dunn's Moonshot Landed

(Adam Dunn's 2nd inning bomb landed somewhere out there in the center field plaza at Turner Field. Photo of TV/MASN by Nationals Enquirer staff.)

"Rickey Henderson steals bags. Nolan Ryan strikes people out. I try to hit home runs. That's kind of what I do. If I didn't hit home runs, I wouldn't be in this league right now."
(Adam Dunn, via Washington Post, 9/15/2010)

Adam Dunn absolutely destroyed a Jair Jurrgens fastball in the second inning Tuesday night for his 35th home run of the season. MLB.com reports that the ball traveled an estimated 455 feet, apparently good for only 6th longest in Turner Field history. But we swear it bounced well beyond that 460 ft. sign seen over on the right in the screengrab above. MASN's Ben Goessling agrees.

Watch the video here and decide for yourself.

470?

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Lowe Blow

 

(Mayan Ruins: Yunesky Maya's second balk in the 2nd inning led to the first of four runs. Screengrab of TV/MASN by Nationals Enquirer staff.)

"I wish we were the ones competing for the playoffs."
(Jim Riggleman, via Nationals.com, 9/13/2010)

15 K Nats Drop Another

Braves 4, Nationals 0. Yunesky Maya's nightmare second inningwent like this: Walk, Walk, Balk, Balk, Riggleman, Double, Fly out, Triple, K, 1B, HBP, K. 4 ER. Yet Maya lasted six?

Whiffle Ball: Derek Lowe strikes out 12, finally beats Nationals. Billy Wagner adds another 3 Ks in 9th.

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Nationals to now require non-questionable regular season ticket holders to wear at least 37 pieces of flair to enter Nationals Park

(Headline lovingly inspired by commentor "CM_Wang" over at NBC.com's Hardball Talk.)

SBF's post today over at Nats320 about "questionable non-season ticket holder fans" getting free stuff at Nationals Park during Fan Appreciation Month is really the weirdest post we've ever read on any Nationals blog. Still not sure what to make of it.

Indeed, the Nats haven't done much to stop their hemorrhaging season ticket holder base, and Buy 2, Get 2 Free might be just like applying a tourniquet at this point. But damn if that's not a weird post. We'll probably head back over and read it again just in case we missed the point: so if you're not a seaon ticket holder, and /or you're not decked out in Nationals gear at Nationals Park, you don't deserve free stuff?

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Here's Your Ghost

 

(Spooky. Bud Selig.)

We'd be remiss if we didn't name at least one of the real ghosts haunting the Nationals franchise after reading that silly Op Ed piece in today's Baltimore Sun claiming the Nationals are cursed because of the ghosts of John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators:

While the Nationals' woes can be traced to a legacy of administrative incompetence and player failures, the team's location at the Washington Navy Yard should also be considered as a source of their ineptitude. Nationals Park sits directly on an infamous stretch of the Anacostia River where authorities conducted the autopsy of John Wilkes Booth on the ironclad U.S.S. Montauk anchored at the Navy Yard. Next door at Fort McNair, Booth's co-conspirators were held and tried at the country's first federal penitentiary, and four of them were hanged there in July 1865. Booth himself was buried there until his remains were later moved.
(via Baltimore Sun, 9/13/2010)

Forget the location of Nationals Park. Forget Booth. Let's talk about Mr. Bud Selig, who is not only old enough to be the father of John Wilkes Booth, but whose scorched earth policies delivered the burnt out shell of the Montreal Expos franchise to Washington D.C. in 2005. That's your starting point for this phony curse talk.

And we've complained enough about Jim Bowden, the Lerner Family, Stan Kasten, The Plan, Ray King, etc. etc. since then to know that there is no curse. Just bad management.

But the Washington Nationals have turned the corner. Right? Right?

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Too soon to start the Jim Riggleman Axe Watch?

(Jim Riggleman ripped his team's effort after the Nationals fifth straight loss on Sunday. Photo by UPI/Alexis C. Glenn via Newscom)

Jim Riggleman's postgame comments after Sunday's 6-5 loss to the Marlins were...interesting, to say the least. Sounds like all the losing is starting to get to ol' Riggs, but mostly because he doesn't like the effort. Watch the video here.

"I think the losing wears on you, but it's a 162-game schedule, it's a nine-inning ballgame. That's what you sign up for, that's what you give. You get 25 guys up until Sept. 1, and whatever we have -- 32 after that. Until we get everybody on the same page, it takes a great effort everyday to get out of where we are. ...You cannot be in the same class as the Padres, Giants, Yankees and Tampa Bay until you have everybody on board pulling the same way, putting personal statistics and all that nonsense behind them. Until everyone is pulled in the same direction and getting after it every day, it's not going to show up in the win column."
(Jim Riggleman, via Nationals.com, 9/12/2010)

Kinda makes you wish Riggleman would name names, huh? Just who are these phantom players putting personal stats and milestones and "all that nonsense" ahead of the team?

Anyway, Riggleman addressed his team in a closed-door postgame meeting on Sunday, but apparently he let his coaching staff have their say, to rip away at the effort, too. Just so everyone knows it's not just him.

Hate to say it, but the fact that Riggleman felt the need to change the messenger for a postgame team scolding does not bode well for the manager. Yes, it's understandable that a 60-win team with 16 19 games to go might tune out any manager; but you've gotta wonder if Jim Riggleman has lost the clubhouse. Wonder how his handling of the Nyjer Morgan fiasco plays into it.

Does a bad start in 2011 cost Jim Riggleman his job?

Is it too soon to start the Jim Riggleman Axe Watch?

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