{"id":1553,"date":"2009-08-21T04:43:39","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T11:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/21\/what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/"},"modified":"2009-08-21T04:43:39","modified_gmt":"2009-08-21T11:43:39","slug":"what-a-difference-a-day-makes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/21\/what-a-difference-a-day-makes\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Difference a Day Makes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sports Illustrated\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s John Heyman was among the naysayers who did not believe the Nationals would sign Stephen Strasburg, but within a day of reeling him in, Heyman was leading the charge for what he was calling the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nats Run to Respectability<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Perceptions are important, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get me wrong, and having the Washington Nationals perceived as a better organization is good, like waking from a very bad dream and realizing that’s what it was –a dream.\u00c2\u00a0 But….<\/em><\/p>\n

But unfortunately, there is still that nagging reality of wins and losses\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe latter of which we got beaucoup.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0On Thursday night the Nationals were swept by the Colorado Rockies at home, illustrating how very far in the hole this team really is.<\/p>\n

Addressing this deeper problem got a big boost on Thursday when Nationals president Stan Kasten announced the hiring of Mike Rizzo as the permanent GM.\u00c2\u00a0 In Tom Boswell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s column <\/a>Tuesday describing the signing of Strasburg, he gave Rizzo a big callout, saying that it was Rizzo going toe-to-toe with Boras that got the job done.\u00c2\u00a0 His column this morning <\/a>provides a deeper analysis of the man, Mike Rizzo.<\/p>\n

There were rumors on Wednesday that Jerry Dipoto was going to be named to the permanent GM job, but those were immediately knocked down by the Nationals leadership.\u00c2\u00a0 Dipoto is younger and less experienced as both a talent evaluator and front office manager.\u00c2\u00a0 Picking him over Rizzo would have been a slap in the face to Rizzo, especially after he landed the biggest talent of the past few decades and got him at a price no one thought realistic.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

More importantly, Rizzo has moved what was the Jim Bowden disaster back into calm waters.\u00c2\u00a0 His first task was jump-starting the Nationals Dominican Complex after Bowden was implicated in the Smiley Gonzalez fiasco.\u00c2\u00a0 And the team on the field in April was pure Bowden.\u00c2\u00a0 Five-tool attitude problems abounded and the pitching staff featured Daniel Cabrera as one of two big off-season additions.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rizzo has slowly crafted a team that has a winning record since the All-Star break.\u00c2\u00a0 Replacing Manny Acta with Jim Riggleman seems to have been the catalyst that made more sense of the existing pieces.\u00c2\u00a0 But getting rid of players like Lastings Milledge–just one who seemed challenged to gut it out on the field–has helped send a message about what kind of team Rizzo wants in Washington.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now the harder tasks await.\u00c2\u00a0 Although the fanatics want the Nationals to lose enough to qualify for Bryce Harper–the likely number one draft pick\u00c2\u00a0next June–the trade off hardly seems worth it.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The\u00c2\u00a0winning has to start somewhere and if the team can\u00c2\u00a0climb out of last place in MLB for 2009 or the National League, every one is likely to see it as a positive and be glad to have the third pick in the draft.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year at this time everyone knew that Bowden would land Adam Dunn either at the trade deadline or in the off season.\u00c2\u00a0 Many have been surprised at the positive contributor Dunn has been, but the level of confidence is much higher in Rizzo’s ability to bring quality players to DC this off-season.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The menu for 2009 will include Orlando Hudson who the Nationals went after in 2008 along with Teixeira.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The Nationals web site and other sources indicate that they will also seek a top tier starting pitcher and a quality reliever.\u00c2\u00a0 That is where the the new perceptions that Jon Heyman is talking about take on real significance.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Free agent players\u00c2\u00a0saw no evidence of\u00c2\u00a0a new day in Washington, but now they may.<\/p>\n

It needs to be more than\u00c2\u00a0just the fans who will\u00c2\u00a0sign up believing Stephen Strasburg is\u00c2\u00a0step one.\u00c2\u00a0 Making the rest of it happen will be\u00c2\u00a0Mike Rizzo’s job now and there is no one around DC that thinks there is anyone better to go after\u00c2\u00a0this year’s Mark Teixeira in the off-season, to keep the Nationals moving ahead one day at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sports Illustrated\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s John Heyman was among the naysayers who did not believe the Nationals would sign Stephen Strasburg, but within a day of reeling him in, Heyman was leading the charge for what he was calling the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nats Run to Respectability.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Perceptions are important, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get me wrong, and having the Washington Nationals perceived as […]<\/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-1553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553","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=1553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}