Battling to Lose

The Washington Nationals are faced with an interesting, "only in baseball", conundrum: Team pride, a 100 loss season and last place (a dubious acheivement that everyone from the top brass to the batboy would like to avoid) vs. team pride, 100 loss season and first pick in the MLB draft, where highly-touted pitching prospect and Olympic bronze medalist Stephen Strasburg awaits.

With the ghosts of Washington's baseball past swirling through the gleaming corridors of Nationals Park (both incarnations of the Washington Senators shared the same less-than-complimentary slogan: "Washington: First in peace, first in war, last in the American League."), manager Manny Acta's goals for the team at this point are simple: don't finish last. The Nats barely managed to acheive that goal last year with a surprisingly strong finish in which they knocked the Mets out of the playoffs. This year, with the only possibility of playing the spoiler being beating out the Padres and Mariners in the race to the bottom, the Nats have to decide, without making it obvious of course, which direction they want to travel.

Grumbling fans (I don't know of any fans more fickle than those in Washington), mediocre attendence, and falling revenue have increased the pressure on the Nats to field a good team and do it soon. The city government, which ponied up 600 million tax-payer dollars to fund the new stadium, has been vociferous in its criticism of the Nats ownership and the lack of return on their investment. Washington is a win now or be damned kind of city and doesn't have the patience for the build from scratch plan currently under way by the Nats front office. However, patience is what is needed most.

Jim Bowden, the Nats GM, and Stan Kasten, the director of operations, both have proven baseball credentials. They are responsible for taking the Atlanta Braves from MLB doormat to perennial pennant contenders by starting at the bottom and rebuilding the Braves farm system.
In the process, they eventually saved the Braves millions of dollars that would have gone to signing superstar free-agents by grooming their own talent.

Given that they started in D.C. with a farm system virtually destroyed by an uncaring, inept Expos organization, I believe Kasten and Bowden are right on track. The pitching staff, drawn mostly from the minor leagues, is made up of young guys (the average age is around 23) who have shown flashes of brilliance but have lacked the consistency that experience brings. A mid-season trade brought youth and speed to the offense and re-energized the team. The bats have come alive since the all-star break and, while the Nats are still losing, they're losing 10-9 instead of 10-0. I think the pieces are starting to fall into place.

Could the Nats use a pitcher like the 20 year old Strasburg, who has been called "the most refined pitching prospect in a decade" and "an instant franchise anchor"? Absolutely! Can they afford to get him by dropping the last 7-8 games of the season? Probably not.