After failing to come through as the Nationals everyday leadoff hitter/center fielder, Lastings Milledge has been mired in the minor leagues. He's been living out of a hotel in Syracuse since the demotion, and he's only hitting .250 with a .602 OPS. He doesn't have a home run, but he does have 4 stolen bases. He's struck out 12 times and only walked 3.
It's true that Milledge does have loads of talent, and he's only 24 years old. He showed signs of that talent with a decent 2008 campaign -- when he hit .268 with 14 home runs, 24 doubles, and 24 steals. This is the selling point for the Washington Nationals, who need to just trade Milledge and move on.
From many other websites, you'll surely find lineup planners for Week 1 in fantasy baseball. I have no problem with that, but it's a week where each team is going to play six or seven games. Just as we do every year, we're entering a season where we really don't know how each player is going to fare. Sure, we have an idea, and we can speculate on all kinds of tendencies. But did anyone see Cliff Lee going 22-2 last season?
The basic premise for Week 1 in fantasy baseball is to just play your guys. You drafted the team and you know who you drafted as your starters. Play them. Doing anything otherwise is just getting too cute, and that's a good way to start off the season on the wrong foot.
From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.
Atlanta Braves Omar Infante and Matt Diaz are popular kids in camp as Spring Training winds down. They're popular not so much for their talent or spring numbers (although both have great spring stats) but for who they will be replacing in the starting lineup if mending time stretches into the regular season. Chipper Jones is nursing an oblique injury and Garrett Anderson a calf problem. Both are expected to return to action this week. If that doesn't happen or further set-backs occur, Infante and Diaz gain some NL-only value.
The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.
The Nationals made it official Thursday, inking slugger Adam Dunn to a two-year, $20 million deal and introducing him in Washington. Dunn fills a glaring need for the Nats -- left-handed power -- but he also creates a roster crunch that general manager Jim Bowden will have to clear up before the team heads north for the start of the season.
Of course, Washington isn't the only club with a bit of a logjam heading into Spring Training. Here are a look at five rosters that will need to be un-cluttered in the coming six weeks, and how they might be.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
You have to search pretty far and pretty wide these days to find a corner of Major League Baseball where there is virtually no hope. Parity is a reality. The Rays reign in the AL. There have been seven different champions in the last eight seasons and 23 different teams have qualified for the postseason since the beginning of the decade.
Enter the Washington Nationals, one of those few dark corners in the baseball world where it's hard to find anything to feel good about. They have a shiny new stadium in D.C., but it had one of the poorest first-year attendances of any ballpark in the post-Camden Yards era. The broadcast ratings haven't been much better either.
Of course, most of that trouble is related to the product on the field, and what an abysmal product it is. MLB's role as caretaker of the franchise during its last days in Montreal and its first days in Washington has buried it in a deep hole, and general manager Jim Bowden seems to have exacerbated the problem.
No matter what happens this winter, the Nationals have a long way to go.
Elijah Dukes is officially no longer Tampa Bay's problem: the oft-troubled outfielder was dealt today to the Washington Nationals for an unspecified minor leaguer. According to the Washington Post, the player the Rays are receiving isn't expected to have significant value, as the team was more interested in giving Dukes his much-needed change of scenery than anything else.
Are the Nats worried about Dukes' history of getting in trouble? Perhaps, but Jim Bowden has never shied away from giving players a second chance. In fact, he had one of his latest reclamation projects meet with Dukes soon after the trade was completed. From TampaBay.com:
After the teams agreed to the trade, Nationals officials met this morning with Dukes at a hotel neat the airport here in Nashville, site of the winter meetings. According to the Washington Post, Nats veteran Dmitri Young - the older brother of former Rays OF Delmon Young - was also at the meeting and he is expected to serve as a mentor to Dukes.
(How was Dukes able to make the meeting when he's supposed to be playing winter ball in the Dominican? He's apparently returned for good after missing his family.)
Here's to hoping that works out. While Dukes, 23, is going from one rebuilding club to another, he'll still have to earn his at-bats: the Nats have a suddenly crowded outfield that also features the likes of Austin Kearns (27 years old), Wily Mo Pena (25) and Lastings Milledge (22). That's an awfully intriguing mix of players -- they were all hailed as top prospects in their own time, but with the exception of Kearns, we've yet to discover what their true ceiling is. Considering how Bowden fleeced the Mets in getting Milledge and apparently picked up Dukes for nothing, the Nats fans have to be happy with the offseason so far.
As it turns out, Austin Kearns didn't have to fear the arrival of Wily Mo Pena after all -- he just has to learn a new position. On Sunday, in Pena's first game with the Nationals, skipper Manny Acta went with Pena in right field, Kearns in center and Ryan Church in left. Kearns has seen limited duty in center before, but it sounds like that will be his new permanent position. From MLB.com
"Instead of two out of three guys out of position, I'm just going to have one guy, but [Kearns] is probably the best suited guy to be there," Acta said. "Kearns has been tremendous. He is one of the best I've seen. When the ball meets the bat, Kearns is already moving. For his size and all that, he moves very well."
Kearns has been a disappointment as a corner outfielder this year, but his line (.263/.356/.447) doesn't look all that bad when you think of him as a center fielder. He's no Ichiro or Torii Hunter, sure, but he's better than Nook Logan and he's putting up roughly the same numbers as guys like Johnny Damon and Juan Pierre for much, much less money.
So says FOXSports.com writer Ken Rosenthal, as Gaslamp Ball points out. After mentioning that the Dodgers and Padres would both be interested in Jermaine Dye (who isn't interested in Dye these days?), Rosenthal says the Padres are eyeing a deal for Adam Dunn.
Acquiring Dunn would be a risk - he becomes a free agent at the end of the season if he is traded - but that doesn't bother the Padres.
The Reds' price tag, however, probably would.
Dunn is their biggest chip, and the Reds would be excoriated if they traded another offensive part for bullpen help after sending outfielder Austin Kearns and shortstop Felipe Lopez to the Nationals in such a deal last season.
The emergence of right-hander Justin Germano theoretically could make righty Clay Hensley available, but the Padres will need to be careful - they've got two 40-somethings in their rotation, righty Greg Maddux and lefty David Wells, plus oft-injured righty Jake Peavy.
Rosenthal makes a good point about the Padres having old guys in their rotation. And you can never have a surplus of good young pitching. But Dunn is an established power hitter, while Hensley is fresh off a rookie season, and currently in the minors. If the Padres are to attempt such a deal, they better make sure that they can sign Dunn after the year, and that they're certain Hensley won't become a star. I would hate to think that Clay Hensley could be the only thing keeping San Diego from acquiring Adam Dunn. One thing is for sure, if I'm Wayne Krivsky, I'm having buyers line up for Adam, offering the best pitchers they've got.
But, for what it's worth, today marked the first time that Alfonso Soriano played against the Washington Nationals after departing as a free agent. Soriano was emotional and misty eyed at the prospect of facing his former teammates and the organization he spent so much time with burned the team that he spent just one season with by going two for five and driving in the tying run in a 6-4 Nationals loss.
But yes, there was some reflection and reminiscing between Soriano and some of his former National teammates.
"I had a good time with those guys when I played for Washington," said Soriano, who got together with some of his ex-teammates. "We talked last night. I went to the hotel and we went to dinner. We had a good time."
Austin Kearns got the Nats off to a flying start by blasting a three run HR in the first off of the all of a sudden very hittable Carlos Zambrano to give the Nats a 4-0 lead. But for the team that used to struggle scoring early, that would be it for the game. It could have been enough as Jason Bergmann was hoping his fourth straight good start in a row (and his first that actually resulted in a notch in his "W" column). But Soriano burned them by beating out an infield single which gave Derrek Lee an extra at-bat. That resulted in a two run home run. Soriano then doubled in Cesar Izturis to tie the game, then came home on a Cliff Floyd single to give the Cubs the lead for good.
It's not often you'll hear a player up and admit that he lost a game completely on his own. Especially when that player didn't really lose the game on his own. But it's even far less frequently that you hear of a pitcher going to a windup with a runner on first. And that's what Jake Peavy did on Monday night.
With two out and an 0-2 count, Peavy hit Ryan Church with a breaking ball. Then with Church on first, Peavy went to the windup allowing Church to easily steal second. Austin Kearns then singled up the middle, giving the Nationals a 2-1 lead in a game they would eventually win 3-2. And Peavy took full responsibility for the loss and the dumb move.
"That was the game there," said Peavy about the mental error that allowed Church to score. "I'll take full responsibility for that. I just wasn't thinking. To be honest, I was thinking about Church, and I just couldn't believe he acted the way he did -- spiking his bat after getting hit with an 0-and-2 breaking ball. It kind of got me flustered. It cost us the game. I take full responsibility.
"We're not swinging the bats the best in the world. I can't give up runs, and I cost us the game."
Well, to be fair, the Padres only scored two runs -- you won't win many games that way. But certainly Peavy's "brain cramp" didn't help. I've seen a lot of dumb things in baseball this year, but I don't recall seeing something this dumb. Peavy knows better, and unfortunately he paid the price for his mistake. Now, if San Diego could give him some run support...
After failing to come through as the Nationals everyday leadoff hitter/center fielder, Lastings Milledge has been mired in the minor leagues. He's been living out of a hotel in Syracuse since the demotion, and he's only hitting .250 with a .602 OPS. He doesn't have a home run, but he does have 4 stolen bases. He's struck out 12 times and only walked 3. 
From many other websites, you'll surely find lineup planners for Week 1 in fantasy baseball. I have no problem with that, but it's a week where each team is going to play six or seven games. Just as we do every year, we're entering a season where we really don't know how each player is going to fare. Sure, we have an idea, and we can speculate on all kinds of tendencies. But did anyone see 
The 
Footprints in the Snow
As it turns out, 
So says FOXSports.com writer Ken Rosenthal, as 
But, for what it's worth, today marked the first time that Alfonso Soriano played against the Washington Nationals after departing as a free agent. Soriano 
It's not often you'll hear a player up and admit that he lost a game completely on his own. Especially when that player didn't really lose the game on his own. But it's even far less frequently that you hear of a pitcher going to a windup with a runner on first. And that's what Jake Peavy did on Monday night. 
