The NL East: Washington Nationals

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We all knew when Stephen Strasburg had to be pulled from a start last season, things were not going according to plan for the Washington Nationals. Their "money ticket" would have to go under the knife for Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of 2010 and most, if not all, of 2011. So where do you turn after that?

The answer isn't (and wasn't) 2010's #1 overall pick, Bruce Harper. He's already been sent to minor league camp and will begin 2011 in Hargarstown, a Single-A affiliaite. The answer isn't really megabuck right fielder Jayson Werth. The closest answer would have been (possibly) Ryan Zimmerman. Wait. He was just shut down for a period of time as well.

The Nats also lost first baseman and one of the club's veteran leaders in Adam Dunn. They also traded Josh Willingham to the Oakland A's. So what do the Nats have. Believe it or not, they still have talent. A lot of it is young and unproven, but there could be a couple future All-Stars already on the roster.

But the one person I now think of is behind the plate in catcher Ivan Rodriguez. The future Hall of Famer is the veteran spokesman of the team. He's earned that even though he's only donned a Nationals uni (when it's spelled correctly) for going on his second season. He does command that much respect. He should, too. Imagine being a pitcher and looking in for a sign from Pudge. Has to be a calming influence.

The infield won't look too different than last season except at first which was occupied by Dunn. Those duties now fall to free agent acquisition Adam LaRoche. A trade off? Maybe, maybe not. LaRoche may be a tick better with the leather, but Dunn held a tick more power.

Zimmerman will hold down third once he recovers. He is one of the faces of the organization.

The middle of the infield has two young and exciting players in second baseman Danny Espinosa and shortstop Ian Desmond.

Espinosa played at three levels last season including the Nats. Pretty quick movement. Espinosa did struggle with the stick in his 28 MLB games in regards to his average. He's usually around .263 in that regard. But the 23 year old has some nice pop in his bat. He did manage 6 HR during his stint in D.C. last year. His previous two minor league seasons, he's averaged more than 20 HR.

Nats-Marlins Takes Center Stage

The big news from last night in the sports world wasn't the first MLB win for Cincinnati Reds phenom Aroldis Chapman. It wasn't that American Andy Roddick dropped a four setter in the second round of the U.S. Open. It wasn't the the Big Ten announced its plans of splitting up Ohio State and Michigan into separate divisions.

Far from it. It was undoubtedly the brawl during the Nationals-Marlins game. All because of one player, Nats center fielder Nyjer Morgan.

What transpired last evening at SunLife Stadium should have never happened. When the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals brawled earlier this season, it was due to Brandon Phillips saying a few disparaging words about the Cardinals. No, Morgan didn't have choice words about the Marlins. He did it totally with his actions.

Before this series even started, Morgan was benched by Nationals skipper Jim Riggleman for unprofessional conduct. During a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Morgan was heading home on a play. Morgan purposely avoided the plate and chose to brush Cards catcher Bryan Anderson. A throw was never made to Anderson. Morgan was eventually called out (when he touched a teammate in an attempt to go back and touch home plate. Keep this is mind.

During Tuesday night's game, another situation involving Morgan and a play at the plate. Marlins catcher Brett Hayes had received a throw as Morgan was approaching home. Morgan did his best impersonation of Pete Rose and chose to plaster Hayes instead of sliding. The result was a separated shoulder for Hayes. Done for the year.

Last night arrives. In the 4th inning, the Marlins have a 14-3 lead. Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad plucks Morgan in retribution for the Hayes incident from the previous night. No big deal. It happens in baseball. You get one of us, we'll get you back. Instead of letting the situation go, Morgan exacerbated it.

Morgan, whose team was trailing by 11 runs, proceeded to steal 2nd and 3rd base. Morgan would score on a sacrifice fly by Ian Desmond to brings the Nationals within 10 runs.

I know there are those that scream that baseball's "unwritten rules" are ludicrous, inane, outdated and moronic (or throw whatever negative adjective you like in there), but they are there to avoid future feelings of "bad blood". Adhere to them and all is forgiven. That's not too much to ask. Instead, Morgan completely ignored them in order to pad his stats and show up the Marlins. Brawls start because things such as this.

The Marlins took notes. I guarantee you that was the talk of the dugout. Forward to the 6th with Morgan, once again, at the plate.

Volstad didn't pluck him again. He didn't drill him either. He didn't go head hunting. Volstad threw behind him with an obvious message pitch. Morgan dropped his bat and rushed toward Volstad and the brawl was on.

And it didn't get any better. After the smoke cleared, Morgan was led off the field by the bullpen coach, Morgan was displaying more defiance. He thrust both arms in the air as if he was at a concert. That's so classy, Nyjer. Remind me to send you tickets for Metallica later this month down in Australia. I know you'll be getting some time off soon.

Throw this in the mix. Morgan is in the process of appealing a 7-game suspension for throwing a ball into the stand in Philadelphia. Granted, the fan and Morgan have "repaired" their differences. The fan even stated all was cool. Still, that suspension still looms over Morgan and he does this.

MLB Network's Harold Reynolds with his dish:

"I know they're losing, but there are protocols within the game, so once he did [steal the bases] then it's open war again, he brought that back on himself and that's why I think this thing continued to escalate."

Notice the word "again". After Volstad hit Morgan in the 4th, as I stated, it should have been over.

And I was appalled at Riggleman's response:

"No, I think they were going hit him again anyway, and I'm glad Nyjer stole those bases to tell you the truth. They hit him, he went to first base, he took his medicine. I don't know that yesterday's play was right or wrong, but we were going to let it go. Nyjer went to first base, but if they hit you and you feel like you didn't do anything wrong, which that's the way Nyjer felt about it, he took those bases, that's his business. We'll decide when we run, we don't let anyone else decided when we run. So whatever their reason was for throwing at Nyjer again, I've got no problems with what took place after that."

I get the part about having your player's back. That's what Riggleman was doing here. Glad he stole the bases, Jim? Really? You played in the bigs. You know these "rules" and protocols. Yes, maybe they are "outdated", but the purpose is to ensure this type of development does not occur.

The decision to steal the bases is not totally on Morgan either. Riggleman:

"If [Morgan] felt that he had done something wrong than I would have put the hold on him, so I didn't put the hold on, he chose to run, I didn't know he was going to run, but I didn't care that he ran, because I know Nyjer felt that he didn't have a place to slide [the previous night], that's a decision he made. But right or wrong, they hit him and for him to steal the bases, I don't have a problem with it..."

Need more be said?

When Morgan was asked about being plucked the second time:

"That was garbage. That’s just bad baseball. It’s only the fourth inning. If they’re not going to hold me on, I’m going to roll out. The circumstances were kind of out of whack, but the game was too early. It was only the fourth inning. If it happened again, I’d do it again. It’s one of those things where I’m a hard-nosed player. I’m grimy. And I just wanted to go out there and try to protect myself. I didn’t want to get outside the box. There’s been a little bit of controversy surrounding the kid lately. But it’s just one of things. I’m a solid, hard-nosed player. When I’m out there between the lines, I’m out there to win and I’m out there to play hard, and play hard for this organization."

The kid? Did he just refer to himself as the kid? Time for an ego check!

And the best part was saying he's "grimy". According to http://reference.com/:

"(adj.) Covered or smudged with grime. See synonyms at dirty"

Grimy it is.

Morgan and Volstad will be suspended, no question. Morgan's may even be longer than Volstad's as it is former player Bob Watson that metes out the punishment.

I promise you he knows the "unwritten rules".

Update: Morgan received an additional eight game suspension on top of the seven he's currently appealing.

That's a Debut

We saw and heard about it all day. Every sports channel had some type of reference to it every half an hour. ESPN added to the hoopla by displaying a countdown to the long anticipated debut of Washington Nationals rookie pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And what a debut it was. 7 innings, 2 earned runs, 4 hits, 14 strikeouts (are you serious?), and 0 walks. Strasburg threw 94 pitches...65 were strikes. Did I forget to mention he struck out the last seven batters he faced? Sorry.

Strasburg only made one mistake all night, a changeup that Delwyn Young deposited into the right field seats. Someone had the souvenir, but launced it back onto the field of play. That guy's probably wanting the ball back. That was a college fund he tossed back onto the Nationals Park turf.

Even with all the hype and hysteria surrounding today's game, Strasburg still appeared low key in his presser after the game. He admitted to adrenaline started flowing at about 2:00 PM. How could he not have been a bit hyped up since his first outing was being hyped up? But Strasburg knew what this was all about. It was about his first start. And there will be others. He knows that, too. It's not about only one game. It's about a season and then some. But he took a chance to reflect on that "one time".

"[My teammates] just kept telling me to soak it all in -- good or bad, you only get one debut. I was just soaking it all in. It was a tremendous experience, especially in front of a packed house like this."

How about 40,315 in that packed house? About 200 media requests plus the radio and network crews that regularly carry Nationals and Pirates games. A lot of people in that joint tonight.

And Nationals manager Jim Riggleman was quick to heap praise on his prized right hander.

"When you see guys like this come along, it's really special. He's humble -- just really a guy that the Nationals are really proud of. Hopefully, we can keep him healthy and keep it going."

No, I'm not downplaying the effort the kid made tonight. It was as advertised. I'm curious as to how he reacts to adversity. How will the rookie be when he experiences a bad outing at this level? That's the big question to answer now.

That, or I'll keep asking myself if Curt Schilling really is right.

Chapman and Strasburg Shine in Debuts

Two of the most anticipated spring outings have come and gone...and left batters a bit baffled. Granted, it is only one outing, but...

On Monday, the Cincinnati Reds unwrapped Aroldis Chapman. Chapman proceeded to unveil that famous 100+ mph fastball...three times. That's not what makes Chapman so special in the eyes of the Reds organization, it's because he's a lefty. Comparisons to Randy Johnson are already being thrown around.

One of the concerns going into this outing was that Chapman has no other pitch. He clarified that on Monday showing a slider and an 84-86 mph changeup. Going from that triple digit fastball to that severe change of speed on a changeup can be devastating to a hitter. How do you time that?

Royals manager Trey Hillman had the quote of the day in regards to Chapman.

"It sounded like he was throwing real hard. I couldn't see it," Royals manager Trey Hillman said, laughing. "He gets it up there. I'm not sure I've ever seen a longer stride. It looked like he was going to run out of mound."

That bids well for Chapman. Throwing at that speed and not giving any indication of effort.

Chapman's line: 2 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 3 K's. Yeah, impressive.