{"id":1240,"date":"2009-06-30T15:56:27","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T22:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/30\/deconstucting-bowden\/"},"modified":"2009-06-30T19:26:48","modified_gmt":"2009-07-01T02:26:48","slug":"deconstucting-bowden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/30\/deconstucting-bowden\/","title":{"rendered":"Deconstucting Bowden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deconstructing Jim Bowden in Washington is starting to look like fun.\u00c2\u00a0 The trade of Lastings Milledge to Pittsburgh for Nyjer Morgan separates the Nationals from another of the troubled players that were drawn to Bowden like flies.\u00c2\u00a0 More importantly, it gives the team better up the middle defense and a legit lead-off hitter.\u00c2\u00a0 Three birds, one shot.\u00c2\u00a0 Nice work Mike Rizzo.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"More...\"The audacity of hope is more than a book by the President, but a mood for DC baseball fans watching the subtle changes being wrought by the Nationals front office.\u00c2\u00a0 The winning percentage is hovering below .300, but there is something afoot here in the nation’s capital.\u00c2\u00a0 The winds of change are blowing.<\/p>\n

Tom Boswell, in his column several weeks ago sent a shot across the bow of Stan Kasten and the Lerners.\u00c2\u00a0 He called not for new management, but for change “at the top.”\u00c2\u00a0 Boz was not interested in canning Manny Acta so much as a new attitude from Stan Kasten and the Lerners.\u00c2\u00a0 Boswell may not have seen Mike Rizzo as the answer, but the interim GM is acting like may have been reading Boswell’s mail.<\/p>\n

The firing of Randy St. Claire looked like an innocuous event when it happened three weeks ago–scapegoating, deck chairs being rearranged, but no real change.\u00c2\u00a0 Now with the inclusion of Joel Hanrahan in the trade with Pittsburgh it is as though another piece of a slow face lift has fallen into place for the Nationals.<\/p>\n

The bullpen St. Claire had put in place with Hanrahan as closer was a disaster.\u00c2\u00a0 Whoever thought that Mike MacDougal was the answer, whether it was Rizzo or new pitching coach McCatty, having someone come into the ninth inning and close out a ballgame–now that is change we can believe in.<\/p>\n

Hanrahan needed new scenery.\u00c2\u00a0 He has the stuff, but not the makeup, at least not for the moment.\u00c2\u00a0 McCatty has told MacDougal to throw nothing but 97 mph fast balls and it is working.\u00c2\u00a0 The reconstructed MacDougal has converted three of three save opportunities to a 1.32 ERA.\u00c2\u00a0 Beimel is back in the role he belongs in along with Tavarez and Villone.\u00c2\u00a0 Uncanny how it almost makes sense.<\/p>\n

Josh Bard is another castoff that has proven invaluable as he has stepped in behind the plate for Jesus Flores who is likely out for the year.\u00c2\u00a0 Bard does not have the defensive skills of Flores, but he can hit and is no slouch with the mitt.<\/p>\n

So Nyjer Morgan becomes a more important piece of the puzzle when you look at the rest of the emerging picture.\u00c2\u00a0 Bard catching, MacDougal closing, Morgan running down balls in center, it is almost as if someone had a strategy for how to put this team back together.<\/p>\n

And somebody has to take responsibility for Scott Olsen regaining a few notches back on the fast ball.\u00c2\u00a0 Olsen pitched well in his return from injury this week.\u00c2\u00a0 Jordan Zimmermann is starting to look like he belongs at the front end of a major league rotation and John Lannan is looking more and more like a poor man’s Tom Glavine.\u00c2\u00a0 With a little luck this rotation will come around.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a team that could surprise some folks in the second half.<\/p>\n

Karnac sees\u00c2\u00a0a man in charge.\u00c2\u00a0 His picture is emerging from the mist.\u00c2\u00a0 It is the President at Nationals Park.\u00c2\u00a0 No it is not team president Stan Kasten.\u00c2\u00a0 He is there but Mike Rizzo is the one with Obama.\u00c2\u00a0 He is explaining to the President–the real author of the Audacity of Hope–<\/em>how he engineered one of the most remarkable turnabouts in baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a book someone should be writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deconstructing Jim Bowden in Washington is starting to look like fun.\u00c2\u00a0 The trade of Lastings Milledge to Pittsburgh for Nyjer Morgan separates the Nationals from another of the troubled players that were drawn to Bowden like flies.\u00c2\u00a0 More importantly, it gives the team better up the middle defense and a legit lead-off hitter.\u00c2\u00a0 Three birds, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}