http://planetnj.net/nats A fan's observations on the Washington Nationals, from across the virtual divide. Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:56:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I am not a GM, nor do I play one on television... so I don't have (an informed) opinion about how the Nationals did leading up to the trade deadline. Certainly the two trades the Nationals made make a lot of sense, and in terms of Matt Capps for Wilson ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=508 This isn't much fun for me. Back in 2006, when Jim Bowden was shopping around Alfonso Soriano, we watched and waited every day... waiting for news... waiting to hear about the trade that would send our reason to come to the ballpark off to a contender, in exchange for prospects. Soriano ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=501 It shouldn't. The Nationals of 2005 were a very different animal than the Nationals of 2010. In many ways, it feels the same, and Mark Zuckerman wrote today of the last time that the Nationals were four games above .500. But on September 18, 2005, the Nationals were riding the escalator ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=493 In disappointment, there is often opportunity. In this case, the disappointment is the Capitals premature exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Caps fans and Nationals fans have a lot in common, and I think that you can assume that the Natosphere and the Capsosphere have been of one mind as of ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=485 Lets have a little contest. Without doing the research I had to do to compile these stats, tell me which set of statistics belongs to which season - the first eleven games of 2009, or the first eleven games of 2010:   Year A Year B Runs Scored 54 53 Runs Allowed 75 66 Team Batting Average .268 .250 Team OPS .755 .770 Errors 13 9 Team ERA 6.38 5.91 They seem pretty comparable, ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=467 I have been in a daze since I got home from the ballpark on Monday evening. My family and friends all asked me how Opening Day was, and my universal answer was "horrible". I have been a Nationals fan (and a Senators fan before that) long enough to know that 11-1 losses ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=461 Damn you, Jim Bowden. Back in 2007, when Bowden traded for Elijah Dukes, the fans of the [Devil] Rays couldn't have been happier to get anything in trade (in this case, Glenn Gibson) for Dukes. Tampa Bay fans, and the Rays organization had given up on him. Nationals fans, while wary, ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=456 I make an effort not to put myself in the position to be an armchair General Manager. I figure that there are probably fifty people in the world who are qualified to be a Major League GM, and I am not one of them. For me to comment would be ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=453 If you're reading this blog, you're clearly an over-the-edge, hardcore Nats fan. You're probably reading this at work. Does your boss know? Do you have to use an alias when you post comments? I thought so... Well, here's an opportunity to feed your addiction. Mark Zuckerman, the former Nationals beat writer for the ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=448 There are some deals that you just feel bad about when they don't happen, but for me, the Orlando Hudson deal wasn't one of them. Not that I am the first to say this, but there are reasons that Hudson isn't with the Dodgers, and there are reasons that the Dodgers ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=441 I was a nineteen year-old kid back in 1980 when I took a job with WRC-TV in Washington. I worked in Local News for Bob Ryan, the meteorologist. Weather was all I thought about when I was a kid, and working in weather at a television station was my life ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=437 If it weren't for Paul LoDuca, we would all be thrilled about the signing of Ivan Rodriguez. Pudge isn't LoDuca. Pudge (presumably) knows what his role is... I'm not sure LoDuca did. This should be a no-brainer for Nats fans.  As much as we all love Wil Nieves, Pudge is in a ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=435 Attention all short-attention-span Nationals fans! Collin Balester will be available for questions on Planetary Nats Blog's first-ever Twitterview! Submit questions now, we'll get started at 7 PM Eastern, 4 PM Pacific, 3 PM Alaska time. You can submit your questions ONLY via Twitter. To do so, include the hashtag #ballytwitterview, like ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=419 When you're a season ticket holder - and it doesn't really matter what team you hold tickets for - you get to know your home stadium pretty well. You have your secret stairwells and exits, and parking spaces. The last out is made, the final buzzer sounds, and you're off ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=417 What are you doing Saturday afternoon? If you're reading this, there's a good chance you'll be watching the Desert Dogs - Javalinas game on television*. And for that, you have Stephen Strasburg to thank. The Nationals are pretty psyched about it too, I bet. After all, here it is just a week before ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=412 Nationals fans got some of their Christmas presents early this week, with the announcements that Ryan Zimmerman was honored with both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards for his amazing play in 2009. Add to that the announcement that Jim Riggleman has been chosen as the permanent manager for ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=408 [caption id="attachment_404" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Drew Storen pitches a scoreless ninth inning against the Surprise Rafters on November 2."][/caption] As the blazing November noon-day sun beat down on the fans and players at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Tuesday, Drew Storen came out of the Phoenix Desert Dogs dugout and signed autographs for ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=403 Beyond the left field fence at Surprise Stadium, the billboard-sized scoreboard displays the line-score of the game, balls, strikes and outs. And at the bottom of the sign, between the Budweiser and the Bud Lite advertisements is a collection of lights, with the caption "MPH". The casual fan could be ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=391 My love for baseball was formed when I was about eight or nine years old. I had a first baseman's mitt (any idea how hard it was to find a first baseman's mitt for your left hand in 1968?) and a bat, and baseball was pretty much all I did ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=387 I was reading Tom Boswell's piece in The Post today, and it got me thinking about the Nationals, and their first year in Washington. The return of baseball to Washington had captivated me - as a native Washingtonian and childhood fan of the Senators, I made the trip back to ... http://planetnj.net/nats/?p=381