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Friday, May 16, 2008; 3:00 PM
Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell was online Friday, May 16 at 3 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the Washington Nationals and the rest of Major League Baseball.
The transcript follows.
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Fairfax, Va.:
Are today's major league players less prepared on fundamentals than they were in the fifties? It seems I see more errors on elementary issues that are taught in little league, like not covering a base, throwing past the cutoff man, not backing up a base, dropping routine flies (why one hand?), and base-running errors.
But maybe my memory is just faulty.
Now about the lack of complete games pitched--for another time!
Tom Boswell: Twenty years ago, Whitey Herzog nailed it. He said that players worked harder now than they did in his time __maybe quite a bit harder. But the distribution of effort was on different things. Now, they have major year-round weight conditioning __so they are, in general, better stronger athletes. Also, there is VASTLY more teaching of hitting and pitching techniques as well as 100's of hours of ilm study a year on opposing pitchers and hitters. So, today's player is still a Student of the Game. BUT there are only 24 hours in the day. What gets studied less is situations, nuances. What gets practiced less is team-first stuff __hit the cutoff man, Guzman's head's up play yesterday to get Reyes at third base. If you spend X hours on weights, technical study and film work __all of which shows up in your stats and therefore in your contract__ what are you most likely to neglect? Old-fashioned team fundamentals, perhaps.
Whitey, who was drafted ahead of Mickey Mantle (he said, I can't prove it), said that he never learned to hit a slow curve. Nobody was available at any level to teach him. No film study. Etc. So, in his case, he was helluva fundamental player. But who cares? His career was ruined by the sluw curve. "That would never happen now," he said. And that was in the '80's.
Since I started covering in '75 __pre-free agency__ players now work, if anything, harder. But they are not as good on fundamentals. As a result, any team that IS good at them, which emphaiszes them __like Acta and the Nat's last year or Trembley and the O's this year__ can pick up 5+ wins a year over other (richer) teams where a manger doesn't have the authority to say, "In addition to everything else you guys do, you are ALSO going to take extra bunting practice, extra infield, extra pitcher's defense. Etc. And mental errors won't be tolerated."
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From Here: Hi Mr. Boswell,
Why the continuing infatuation with the Baltimore Orioles? Admittedly I read your
Tom Boswell: So far this season, I've written 16 columns on the Nationals and three on the Orioles. That's about normal for me. And about right, imo. Oh, and I'm in Baltimore right now __writing about the Nationals.
The O's, by the way, are playing very entertaining smart ball this season and there's no reason not to prefer fine teams in both cities. And that's probably how it's goling to be over the next few years as Kasten and MacPhail __see Barry's nice piece on both this a.m.__ are likely to create winning, contending teams in both towns. (I didn't say W.S. teams. That's another quantum leap.)
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Penn Quarter: Which is more significant/telling: That the Nats have twice as many wins (18) to go with 24 losses than they did at this point last year, or that despite that fact they are still on pace to merely match last year's win total?
Thanks...
Tom Boswell: You never have a clear sense of a team until it has been both very hot and very cold. Almost every team in every season has at least one +10 and one -10 streak. Very bad and very good teams may have THREE such long streaks. The Nats have had a 2-15 skid already, including 0-9 __a huge collapse. They'll also have a 13-2 streak somewhere this season. Not because they are good, but because EVERYBODY does. Patience, patience....Nothing has happened yet that precludes a .500 season. In fact, I never imagined the Nats would have a five-man rotation that looked as decent (for now) as Hill, Redding, Lannan, Perez and Bergmann. It's rare to have five, plus Chico and Balester (in AAA) probably ready by mid-season if needed. We may have seen a career saved by Bergmann yesterday. He definitely has the stuff __especially the breaking pitches__ to be a solid big-league starter.
Kasten said last week, "Once you have four good starting pitchers, all things are possible." That was before Bergmann resurfaced.
On the other hand, the O's had a quick start (5-1) and haven't had a bad streak. They will. If anything, I'd say the Nats and O's both look roughly equivalent right now. Poor offenses __they've scored an identical number of runs, which means the O's are even worse since they get the DH. Both have better rotations than they expected. The difference is that the Orioles offense is bad because it probably really is bad (without Tejada). Is the Nats offense really bad? We don't know yet. But I doubt it. Probably closer to middle-of-the-pack. Which means a reversion to the mean helps the Nats more than the O's.
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Silver Spring, Md.: In his almost two years as a National, Austin Kearns has done nothing. It is time for the Nats to cut their losses with him?
Tom Boswell: The Kearns bashing is just nonsense. He's currently the Nats best outfiedler, combining offense and defense __easily. Oh, Milledge, Dukes or Pena is better, right now?Just two years ago, Kearns had 24 homers, 86 RBI. Last year's 16-74 with a .266 wasn't awful with way above average defense. He has a career OPS slightly over .800.
Now, if the Nats had some GOOD outfielders at the big-league level, then Kearns might be in jeapordy. Yesterday might have been is bottom. I remember Palmeiro making 3 errors in one game. Afterward, I said to him (paraphrase), "Great. Now that nonsense is over." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "You can't play worse than that. If that doesn't piss you off and get you going, nothing will. So, that means you're going to play better."
Kearns even hit the pitcher in the butt yesterday with a linedrive in the 8th that would have given Nats a 2-0 lead. Instead, it fell at the pitchers feet and he was out.
Kearns is NOT what Bowden hoped. A 30-homer, 95-RBI guy. But, as yet, it still looks like a lopsided trade for Nats. You can win a lot of games with Kerarns in RF, hitting 20 HR with 75-80 RBI__ and BATTING SEVENTH. But can you find the 3-4-5-6 hitters ahead of him. If not, THEN you give up on him because you need more power at a corner power position. But the Nats are many MILES from having better options. This is the time a franchise should show support for a model player. If the Nats trade him to a contender __and plenty would want him__ he'd turn into a better Ryan Church by the All-Star break.
That doesn't mean that I'M not going to makie jokes about how bad Kearns is going. He's living a nightmare and must have huge doubts.
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DC: How long before Brian Cashman throws up his hands walks out of New York front office because Baby Boss tries to act too much like his dad?
Tom Boswell: The NY Daily News and NY Post have to be on every fan's "favorites" list online just to read the latest chapter of: "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss." But the old boss was pretty smart. Not about baseball, but in general. The new boss? Is he smart about anything? We'll see.
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Silver Spring, Md.: Is Jim Bowden's hubris adversely affecting the Nationals as "his guys" like Kearns and Pena continue to get regular at-bats despite being offensive black holes?
Tom Boswell: You have to love a sport that tortures you like baseball. Last year, Pena slugged .504 with the Nats, had a .352 OBP and his 8 homers in 133 at bats looked like the prelude to a 30-homer break out season. And the whole offense awoke, scoring a full run-a-game more after he arrived. He changed the whole look of the lineup. This spring, he gets injured, tries to come back too soon, goes 3-for-30, breaks down in tears in the clubhouse, still hasn't hit a homer, still hasn't found his timing, is a below-average outfielder and sees Harris __about 100 pounds smaller__ making one of the btter outfiled plays I've ever seen yesterday.
Pena should be somebody's DH. He has 75 homers in less than 1500 career at bats. In the post-steroid era, you can't give up on players with 265-pound "natural power." But he's killing the Nats right now.
So many players, including outfielders in the minors, have Bowden's stamp on them that Kearns and Pena could disappear and be replaced by Bowden products Maxwell ('05 draft), Milledge (Bowden trade), Dukes (Bowden-Kasten gamble) or eventually Michael Burgess ('07 draft).
Remember, Pena was acquired for a Player To Be Named; Dukes for nothing. This is the year when the Nats kind out, in the case of 508 pounds of outfielder, "What did we get for nothing?"
Lets hope the answer isn't: Nothing.
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Washington, D.C.: I have enjoyed your writing over the years and credit you in part for helping me become a baseball and a Nationals fan, but I think your editors are killing the sports page. The Nats played a great defensive game yesterday, but today we are treated to pictures of ponies and jockeys. The Nats are relegated to a small corner below the fold. I had no idea we were a big horse racing town. Maybe I'm picking up the wrong paper at the Metro in the morning.
Tom Boswell: Yesterday was one of the better baseball games you'll ever see. But it's tough to build a sports section __read in the morning of the 16th__ that is built on plays and pictures of a game that ended before 4 p.m. on the 15th. That's the world of the 1950's. Giving big play to "enterprise stories" __like Desormeaux__ is part of what daily newspapers still offer that other's don't.
You're still picking up the correct paper at the Metro!
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Burke, Va.: A torn tendon sheath? Seriously? Why does Nick always have to come up with some ridiculous injury that never happens to anyone else? Broken femurs? Heel strains? Why can't he just have a normal athletic injury like a pulled hammy or a sprained ankle, so we can make a reasonable guess at how long he'll be out?
Tom Boswell: I still want to ask Johnson if he got hurt when his foul ball bounced up and hit the bat again at the back of his backswing. It hit the bat a second time at exactly the split second his left hand was in a vulnerable spot.
If that's how it happened, it may be the quintessential Nick injury. What a black cloud. How come Cal was never out 4-to-6 weeks after a normal swing and a foul tip?
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from the $10 seats: Hello Tom: I really liked your column on identifing the core players. Does that also apply to your bench players also? And what do you think of the bench players for the Nationals?
Tom Boswell: The Nats have as good a bench as I have ever seen on a losing team! It's weird. That's why I think more players should be "rotated" __a more pleasant word than platooned.
I still want to know how on earth Manny didn't start Belliard this week against a Mets pitcher against whom he was 9-for-13 in his career with a homer and no strikeouts. (I think it was Maine.) Unless Belliard is still less than 100%, somebody slipped up on that.
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Washington, D.C.: I'm a long time avid subscriber-reader of The Post and will continue to be such. However, I am increasingly disappointed at the paltry coverage the Nats are getting. The Harris catch led off the local sports TV news last night and was a featured play on national sports news as well. But it didn't even show up in the Post. To see it, one had to go to the NY Times. That is unfortunately symptomatic of the type of coverage (or absence thereof) we are seeing even as attendance and interest in baseball is growing. Although I get it, the Post, I just don't get it, the poor coverage. Is there any hope for improvement?
Tom Boswell: We give tons of space to baseball in general (including Sheinin's wonderful national stuff) and the Nats in particular with Barry's 3+ years of 24/7 staturation multi-media material as complete as it gets.
What's nice to hear is local TV sports showing a Nats highlight at the top. The local stations __after decades without a baseball team__ have needed a "period of adjustment" (imo) to recognize that the team isn't going back to Montreal and maybe they should learn how to cover it. With the new park, I think that's inevitable.
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Odenton, MD: Have enjoyed your work for years.
I'm going to the game at CY tonight with my son. If I wave to you in the press box, will you point back at me and mouth "Hi", like Sen. Clinton does, so my son will think I'm big-time? Many thanks.
Tom Boswell: OK, I'm laughin'. "Hi," to a stranger, doesn't sound too hard. But it'll be a first. Should I hold up a sign that says "Odenton?"
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Nick Markakis (Charm City): With all these young stars getting big deals well before free agency where's mine?
Tom Boswell: You don't want to sign when you're hitting .258. Talked to Nick the other day. "How's Ryan doing?" he asked. "Seeing nothing but breaking balls," I said. "Me, too," he answered.
It's tough being young, targeted for junk and hitting third for a weak offensive club. Hope they both bust out and get signed for years.
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Fairfax: The Yankees are getting old. Only Cano and Cabrera are under 30 in the lineup. Hughes, Joba, and Kennedy will one day form the heart of a formidable rotation, but they need to bridge the gap between today and that day. The farm is pretty bare for the near future. Is this offseason going to mark a splurge in the free agent market? This could be fun to watch!
Tom Boswell: Haven't you heard, the Yankees already had their century.
The Yanks are old, a mess, with a manager/GM/owner mix that's toxic. They don't make the playoffs this year.
(I predict this __in some form__ every year and always enjoy typing the words. The last several years it's been "won't go to the Series." Now, I'm upgrading to "Won't make October. This is a big step for me!)
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Capitol Hill: Do you think Ryan Zimmerman has improved offensively since his first full year in 2006? It seems to me he's learned nothing over the past two seasons, and it makes me wonder not only whether he'll ever be the perennial all-star some predict, but whether the Lerners will decide to offer him a long-term contract at a market-level salary. And speaking of young third basemen, have you seen Blake DeWitt of the Dodgers? Wow.
Tom Boswell: Zimmerman has been in what will probably turn out to be his major slump of the season __end he's still on pace for 27 homers (a career) high and 84 RBI aftert two homers in Shea.
What he's trying to learn is to be a power hitter, not an average hitter. So, he's not bunting for 10 hits a year and hitting to right field as much. But this desire to be a "run producer" has hurt him. He had 110 RBI as a rookie when he was trying to hit line drives back past the pitcher's ear. No, he has not progressed as much yet as some, including me, expected. At the moment, he's pulling his head out much too often. It's years to early to have concerns about Zimmerman. Just enjoy his play at third, his homer off the facing of the third deck in Shea this week. Didn't he have a pretty big hit on Opening Night after a torrid spring triaining? How soon we forget. He'll be fine.
Gotta go a little early. Both teams are here. Need to chat with some foilks and write a column. See you all in two weeks.
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