Major League Baseball

Washington Post staff writer Dave Sheinin was online Tueday, April 25, at 2 p.m. ET to discuss the latest major league baseball news.

The transcript follows.

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Dave Sheinin: Greetings, baseball fans. Thanks for stopping by. I see many of you have pulled yourself away from Svrluga's book long enough to post some questions. So let's get to them...

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Washington, D.C.: If the Nats are not in post-season contention by the trading deadline, wouldn't they be well advised to trade both Soriano and Guillen for prospects?

Dave Sheinin: A good question to open with... I firmly believe the Nationals will trade Soriano by July 31 -- unless in the unlikely event they are in contention. He's making $10 million, prefers playing in the AL and still fancies himself a starting second baseman. I doubt he would re-sign with the Nats under any circumstances (at least any circumstance that does not involve wheelbarrows full of cash). However, Guillen is another story. He makes only $4 million -- a relative bargain if he's healthy -- and has indicated a willingness to re-sign here. I wouldn't trade him.

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Washington, D.C.: Dave,

This is probably one out of 150 questions regarding the recent low attendence figures, but do you think the immensely poor numbers in the last three games are indicative of waning interest? Of MLB's poor management of the franchise? Of a lousy team? The time of year? All of the above?

Dave Sheinin: Let's get this straight about attendance figures: Mid-week games in April are always the worst draws in any season. If the numbers are still this low in June and July -- when kids are out of the school and the weather is better -- then we might have a problem. But trust me, that won't happen. Remember also that a year ago, this baseball thing was brand new in Washington, and it's unfair to compare last year's numbers to this year's. There was bound to be a drop-off. Obviously, the team's performance on the field will effect walk-up sales, but I don't think there is any need to worry at this point.

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Glen Echo, Md.: NATIONALS FIRST NAME LOTTERY: We got two Jose's. That's easy. We got two Ryan's. Not that easy, but not hard. Then we got two Marlon's. That's got to be way off the board. Is Marlon as rare a baseball name as Harold used to be, when the O's had Harold Baines and there was only one other in the league? Wouldn't surprise me if the Nats have the only two major league Marlon's there are...

Dave Sheinin: A quick check of baseball-reference.com (an favorite Website of all baseball writers) shows you are correct that the Nats' two Marlons are the only Marlons in baseball history.

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Arlington, Va.: Dave, thank you for your excellent piece last week on the 25th anniversary of the 33 inning game between Rochester and Pawtucket.

I'm a Rochester native and like most at the time, I didn't find out about the Saturday night game until Monday morning. It was suspended too late for any of the Sunday morning papers, and with the lack of sports television or radio, and with many people celebrating Easter, few were aware of the history our home-town team participated in the night, and morning, before.

Hearing those names brought back many memories, and the best quote, by Red Wing rookie Cal Ripken "A lot of people had a bad week that day," is classic. Thanks again for the wonderful piece.

Dave Sheinin: Hi Arlington... Thanks for the kind words. Actually, there is another great quote from Cal that I dug up in my research. In about the 24th inning, the Rochester pitcher (I think it was Jim Umbarger) looked over at Cal at third base and said, "Watch for the bunt." Cal replied: "I've been watching for the bunt for 23 innings." The only reason I didn't use that anecdote in my story was that Cal didn't remember saying it.

Anyway, I had a blast working on that story. And I'm glad it stirred up some memories for you.

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Washington, D.C.: Do you think there's a possibility that some managers might be pitching around Bonds right not to make sure he doesn't have a chance to break Hank's record? I've watched him at the plate several times this season, and I haven't seen any indication that he's near as menacing right now as he has been in the last several years--reminds me of Giambi early last season. I would think that you would go after him with the way he's swinging right now and go back to walking him when and if he proves he can hit. Teams aren't getting beat by Barry per se, but He'll still have the last laugh if Moises Alou keeps driving him in...

I would hate to think that people would think like that, but with what I've seen, I have a hard time thinking that there aren't at least a few people in the sport with that 'strategy' in the back of their minds...

Dave Sheinin: Good question. I ran an item in the most recent Sunday notebook about a scout who told me Bonds is not nearly the player he used to be -- mostly because of his bothersome knee. That said, I think it will take longer than a few weeks for teams to adjust to Bonds's lessening skills. In other words, teams are still treating him like the Bonds of old for now -- which is to say, walking him most of the time. I don't think it is out of any malice towards him, or any concerted effort to deny him the all-time record. I just think things are slow to change. Eventually, if Bonds continues to struggle and if Alou continues to make teams pay, they will adjust.

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Kensington, Md.: What do you think: Trade Zimmerman for the Dontrelle Willis

Dave Sheinin: No way.

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Rosslyn, Va.: The Nationals think they needed an emergency catcher when they already have one ... Matt LeCroy. When are they going to give up on the designated hitter as a backup catcher and just bring Wiki Gonzalez or Alberto Castillo up from New Orleans? Is LeCroy really that valuable a RH off of the bench?

Dave Sheinin: In a nutshell, yes. For his career, LeCroy is a .291 hitter (with an OPS of nearly .900) against lefties (compared to .244 and about .700 against right-handers). The guy can flat-out rake against lefties.

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Alexandria, Va.: I have not heard anything about the breaking of ground for the new stadium. It seems that the Nats will not have a new home to at least 2009. What do you hear?

Dave Sheinin: Most people in baseball seem to be in agreement that it is unlikely the Nationals' new stadium can open before the 2009 season.

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8th Inning Blues: Dave,

It looks like losing Ayala was more of a blow than it seemed at the time. At least 3 8th inning melt downs already in this young season, that does portend well. Frank has tried Stanton, F Rodriguez, and Majewsky. All have showed the inability to hold 8th inning leads. Now what???

Dave Sheinin: Excellent post. You're spot-on here. The loss of Ayala is definitely hurting the team. Last year, any time the Nationals took a lead into the seventh inning, they felt pretty confident about getting a win. This year, not so much. I think Majewski will be fine. But that still leaves them an arm short, when measured against what they had last year.

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Arlington, Va.: Funny, isn't it Dave that during pre-season that Nats fans, myself included, obsessed over Soriano. He seems to be one of the few Nats playing and hitting well. I like him in the leadoff position though I know Frank would like him further down in the lineup. He's a great leadoff guy. I say leave him there.

Dave Sheinin: So true, so true. Of course, we in the media obsessed about him just as much as fans did -- if not more. But that's only because all the signs were pointing to a monumental management/labor battle. But everyone who knew Soriano kept saying that he is actually a very pleasant, polite, happy guy who loves nothing more than playing baseball. I think now, with all the intrigue behing us, we are seeing that claim proven correct. You can knock his lack of plate patience, or his defense, but it's hard to disagree on one point: The guy is fun to watch.

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Arlington, Va.: It seems that Soriano stills throws side arm from the outfield as if he were a second baseman and as a result his throws are looping and short causing the infielders to make up the difference on the throws to the plate. I think teams are running more on him as a result. Have the coaches or managers observed this and is there an effort underway to have him convert to a more conventional overhand throwing motion from the outfield.

Dave Sheinin: You are correct, Arlington, and yes, the coaching staff is working with Soriano on this. However, it is difficult to un-learn an infielder's throwing motion when that is all you have ever done.

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Section 213, Row 12: Cannot trade Zimmerman... I didn't say shouldn't. I said can't.

MLB Rules prohibit trading players within 1 year of being drafted. This eliminates teams trading draft picks by trading the players themselves.

Dave Sheinin: They can trade him two months from now. I'm saying they shouldn't.

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Salisbury, Md.: When is the real Livan going to show up and give us those automatics wins we're so accustomed to? Is there any more bullpen help on the way when we get an owner or are we sticking it out? Although the owner may not come til next year at this rate.

Dave Sheinin: It is certainly strange the way Livan has struggled in the first inning or two. So far this year, according to Stats Inc., opposing hitters are batting .436 off him during his first 45 pitches, and .261 off him thereafter. I've known pitchers who struggled in the first inning to throw one simulated inning (complete with a stationary batter and everything) in the bullpen before coming in to pitch the real first inning. Perhaps that's something for Livan and Randy St. Claire to consider.

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Section 406: RE: Soriano - if he's as good as he looks, why not see if we can sign him to an extension during the season? He could be, with Guillen, a pretty useful, above average hitting, fixture in the outfield. We'll be able to afford him and that's one less spot we'll have to fill.

Dave Sheinin: I suspect there has already been an attempt on the part of the Nationals to test the waters regarding an extension for Soriano. However, I also suspect Soriano and his agents had no interest whatsoever in pursuing one. They seem fairly intent on testing free agency after the season.

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Arlington, Va.: Why trade Soriano ? Why not encourage him to work with one of the best managers in baseball ? Is it just because of free agency ?

Dave Sheinin: Only because, if the Nationals are out of contention in July, it is highly likely that some contending team will want Soriano so badly that they will be willing to overpay for him -- and perhaps the Nats could get a couple of solid pitching prospects for him. To me, that's better than paying him $10 million for a full season in which the team is going nowhere, then watching him walk away and getting back only a draft pick.

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Rosslyn, Va.: Follow up on LeCroy ...

I understand the thinking in keeping a RH on the bench who can rake LHP but why is it a guy with no position? It is obvious that Frank has no desire to use LeCroy as a catcher and Schneider playing every day is going to wear him out too soon. Since the Nationals have little apparent use for Brendan Harris (he's practicing as emergency catcher to give Frank some reason to use him), get Castillo or Gonzalez up in his place.

Dave Sheinin: I don't disagree with any of this. LeCroy is clearly better suited for the AL, and I was puzzled from the very start as to why the team signed him this winter.

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Denver, Colo.: Getting back to Soriano, do you think that there are times when situations with Latin American players get blown out of proportion due to cultural differences. In listening to him talk, it seems to me that he was even more worried about being embarrassed in the field by a position shift than a lot of other players, and that while it was easy for many of us to criticize him as beligerant, we may have been lacking a cultural sensitivity to truly understand the situation.

Dave Sheinin: Excellent post, Denver. I do think that tends to happen, and it's unfortunate.

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Crofton, Md.: Can you link to your story about Rochester v. Pawtucket?

washingtonpost.com: washingtonpost.com:Long Memories From a Baseball Classic (Post, April 18)

Dave Sheinin: Here you go, with an assist from Katie, our top-notch producer for these chats.

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Takoma Park, Md.: Bonds finally hit his first homerun. Has he figured out his swing yet, or was that just a product of Coors Field?

Dave Sheinin: I saw the reply, and it looked more like the latter.

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Greenbelt, Md.: Are the attendance figures at RFK for the Braves' series raising red flags among the MLB bean counters? Are they afraid this may be a downward spiral for Nats' attendance without taking into account the fans' disenchantment about the fight over the new ballpark and (STILL) no owner selected?

Dave Sheinin: I'm not seeing any red flags whatsoever -- certainly not from the many groups who are still willing to put up $450 million for the franchise. I think everyone (even MLB) understands the drop-off in attendance is a perfectly natural phenomenon for a second-year franchise playing in an old stadium.

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Section 406: Well then, since we probably won't get much in return for a guy in his walk year, might as well hang on to him and use the draft picks. We'll get a couple extras for him, since he's surely a TypeA player...

Dave Sheinin: Trading him for younger, established players is a safer bet than letting him walk away for draft picks, in my opinion.

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Silver Spring, Md.: So when are -you- going to write a book? (Or are you the David Sheinin that writes the history books?)

Dave Sheinin: Have you been googling me, Silver Spring?

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Fairfax, Va.: Speaking of Zimmerman, Dave, there is no question about his defensive abilities - that catch the other night could be one of the web gems of the year - is anyone with the Nats concerned about his BA?

Dave Sheinin: I think the team is more concerned with his high number of strikeouts than with his batting average.

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Alexandria, Va.: Relative to Sunday's Braves game on ESPN, would you concur that it caused a serious drop in attendance by moving to 8 PM? Does a team have a right to refuse to play such a change in time, or are they at the mercy of MLB & TV in this regard? The original tickets stated a 1:05 start time.

Dave Sheinin: They're at the mercy of TV, unfortunately.

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Washington, D.C: Mr. Sheinin,

Your prediction of the new owner please? This could be your last chance to say 'you heard it here first.' By next chat we probably won't need to ask about predictions anymore.

BTW, do you have an office pool going on the ownership thingy between you sports writers?

Thanks!

Dave Sheinin: No office pool... although that is a very interesting idea. My prediction: Lerner/Kasten, an announcement next week.

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Section 212: Why are managers choosing to walk Barry Bonds (.222, 1 HR in 36 AB) and pitch to Albert Pujols (.344, 12 HR in 64 AB)?

Dave Sheinin: Great question. But as I said earlier, things are slow to change in baseball. I suspect it won't be long until Pujols starts getting the full-on Bonds treatment.

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Rckville, Md.: Dave --- Thanks for being available to us.

What's your take on this season's home runs? Do you see a possible trend toward generally bigger numbers? With some surprising totals from a few hitherto overlooked players, might HGH be an issue in the absence of steroids?

Dave Sheinin: I actually wrote about this in Sunday's paper. Steroids experts say there should be no confidence whatsoever that baseball players have stopped using performance-enhancing drugs -- there are plenty of loopholes for sophisticated users to get around. (And yes, one of them is the fact baseball does not test for HGH.) But I also think there are other reasons for the surge in offense -- including warmer-than-usual weather in the east and midwest this month. I also pointed out that pitchers used steroids almost as much (or some think, more so) than hitters. So it stands to reason that if pitchers are coming off steroids now, hitters will benefit.

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Arlington, Va.: Dave:

I don't think the attendance issue should be disregarded, even this early in the season. The truth is that attendance at Nationals games has never been as good as it should be for a city that was supposed to be "starved" for baseball. Baseball fans in this town should be making sellouts or near sellouts a regular occurrence, even if it means buying tickets for teams like the Marlins and Rockies and buying the cheap tickets from time to time if those are the only tickets available. I don't think poor marketing and TV coverage is a good excuse. Everyone knows we have a team and everyone knows how to find a game schedule and get to RFK Stadium. A new stadium will definitely juice things up for a little while after it opens, but there will be "nosebleed" seats in that stadium, too, and games against the Marlins, Rockies, Padres and Diamondbacks. The measure of Washington as a baseball town will eventually boil down to whether there are enough fans in this area willing to sit in the cheap seats for every game like the "Bleacher Bums" at Wrigley Field do on a regular basis.

Why am I wrong to think attendance should be a better than it has been in Washington so far? Is it unrealistic to expect Washington to have better than the 10th best attendance in Major League Baseball?

Dave Sheinin: I hear what you are saying, but all I can tell you is that no one I have spoken to about this issue in baseball has shown any concern about the attendance here. Most baseball people thought 2.7 million last year was a very good performance at the gate.

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Manassas, Va.: I'm a Barry Bond's hater, so I'm thrilled with his season thus far. Given his inability to move, should he even be in the Giant's lineup? While he walks a lot, he can only go one base at a time and he has to be dreadful in the field. Do Giant's pitchers have to pitch differently to protect left field? That would make him a game changing player, but not the way he used to be.

Dave Sheinin: You're right about his baserunning and his defense, Manassas. But as long as teams continue to put him on base, and as long as Moises Alou continues to crush the ball behind him, Bonds is helping the Giants win.

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Attendance, Problems: Does the April weekday low attendance reasoning apply to the Orioles as well (especially considering they were playing the Devil Rays), going against Boswell's insistence that it is solely anger against Angelos that is casuing the problems? He really needs to find a new axe to grind . . .

Dave Sheinin: I think the Orioles' attendance woes are a little bit different. This is a healthy franchise with a long tradition, playing in a beautiful stadium. They were drawing 3 million fans per year for lousy teams in the late 1990s and early '00s. Orioles fans have stopped coming for one simple reason: the team, ownership in particular, has not given fans any reason to attend. In the case of the Orioles, if they put a great product on the field, people are going to show up.

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Gimme An O: Surprised at all at the Oriole's start? They've stumbled against NY and Boston, but more than held their own against playoff contenders LAA and Cleveland. Can it continue?

Dave Sheinin: Yes, I think it can continue, but no, I don't see them as a serious playoff contender -- at least not in this division. This week's series at Toronto could be an excellent gauge at how good the Orioles really are.

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Washington: I wouldn't trade for any pitcher until he passed an MRI and then would sign him for the minimum years practical with few exceptions such as for a Patterson. Seems like MLB pitchers will inevitably have a surgery or be on the DL. As a result, concentrate on the young arms and go for the vet position players. I say hire a GM with this philosophy and we will be better off. Agree or disagree?

Dave Sheinin: I agree, but it's easier said than done. If you hold firm to a minimum number of years for pitchers, inevitably someone else is going to come along and offer more than you are. Example: The Blue Jays and A.J. Burnett. But with Burnett now on the DL for the second time this season, it looks like the Nationals' unwillingness to go higher was a good move.

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San Diego, Calif.: Re attendance: you are absolutely correct, Dave.

San Diego has had a coolish spring so far, and a mediocre ball club. Add that to the dominant factor of what time of year this is and last night they had their lowest attendance since they've been at the new park---19,000 something. So even a club in the best facility (for now) in baseball can fall short of expectations at the gate.

Dave Sheinin: Good point. Thanks for chiming in, San Diego.

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Dave Sheinin: OK, everyone. I'm out of time. Thanks for the great questions and comments. See you next time.

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