More rain on Mike Rizzo's Phase 2 Parade

 

(He tried. Screengrab of TV/MASN by Nationals Enquirer staff.)

Scratch another "top of the rotation" name off Mike Rizzo's list.

Matt Garza to the Cubs for prospects and a pound of flesh.

Pavano closing in on deal with the Twins, and apparently Rizzo was never really all that interested.

Greinke snubbed NatsTown, chose the Brewers. Cliff Lee was always just a pipe dream. Jorge De La Rosa picked the Rockies.  There were other, lesser, names, but they're all gone too. Odalis Perez is probably available.

So what's a guy gotta do to land a starting pitcher these days? 

Dave Nichols from Nationals News Network sums up Mike Rizzo's winter quite nicely.

And here's Tom Boswell's take on Rizzo's fruitless pursuit of that elusive starting pitching help from his Thursday chat on WashingtonPost.com:

That pitcher was Jorge de la Rosa AND Zack Greinke.

And there were moments when, in talking with (Rizzo), it felt like he thought he had them both. Apparently, he worked about 90 hours in a five day period just on Greinke. ...

Believe me, the Nats tried. For what that's worth. Also, besides a possible Garza trade, don't underestimate Rizzo's ability to surprise everybody. When we talk about the available options, he's usually several steps ahead of me. (As he should be.)
(Tom Boswell, via WashingtonPost.com, 1/6/2011)

Well, we all know how the Garza trade worked out. Is there anything else Rizzo can do?

Or does the Garza deal leave the Nats to just hope for the best out of Zimmermann, Lannan, Livo, Marquis, Maya, and a cast of thousands in 2011; and expect more of the same.

2012 is gonna be great though.

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Comments

[martine]

Hope for the best in the upcoming year, and dream about next year. That's been the standard operating procedure for Nats fans since the team arrived in Washington.

Major bummer that the Nats couldn't land any of these pitchers, but I still think the rotation won't be so bad this season. But it all hinges on J-Zimm.

[Steve M.]

The Cubs traded away 2 main pieces of their future on a pitcher who is upper 3's in ERA and has 3 years under team control which are all arbitration years.

What the Nats really need is for their Farm System to start producing some bumper crops of pitchers as that will be the key to the Nats long term success.

For the Rays, they have a surplus of good pitching now and Garza was expendable.