Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.
The Nationals bottomed out in 2009. Their season began with the ouster of general manager Jim Bowden in the beginning of March after he was implicated in a bonus-skimming scandal in the Dominican Republic that drew the attention of the FBI. And it ended with 103 losses, giving them 205 losses in the last two seasons.
In between, they fired manager Manny Acta and watched attendance fall by more than 6,000 fans a night in the second year of Nationals Park.
So no, it's not all sunshine and roses on the banks of the Anacostia River, but, then, it's not all doom and gloom either. After all, the Nats managed to lock up phenom Stephen Strasburg in August, and with a stable front office and a permanent manager now in place, they can get to the task of building around him.
WASHINGTON -- Five whole hours before the last-place Nationals opened a series with the reeling Milwaukee Brewers, hundreds of fans packed into the stands on the third base line at Nationals Park.
No. 1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg arrived in the nation's capital Friday afternoon four days after inking a record $15.1 million deal with one of baseball's most downtrodden franchises.
"It's been pretty wild," Strasburg said of the week-long process that began with down-to-the-wire negotiations and ended with an unofficial coronation in Washington. "It's a tremendous feeling. I'm excited to get my career started and hopefully I'll be playing up here with [the Nationals] soon."
Apparently the Naitonals were impressed by the way that Rizzo handled the Stephen Strasburg negotiations. The fact that the Nats got Strasburg signed for at least $6-7 million less than agent Scott Boras initial asking price bodes well for Rizzo.
Now Rizzo is really responsible for turning the fortunes of the worst team in baseball.
A major league source tells FanHouse "not so fast" on Jerry DiPoto becoming the Nationals' next general manager, as has been reported.
According to the source, acting GM Mike Rizzo -- who has been running the team since Jim Bowden resigned under fire during spring training -- did an impressive enough job in the negotiations to sign No. 1 overall draft pick Stephen Strasburg (who will be introduced Friday at a news conference) that Washington ownership is still considering giving him the job permanently.
The Lerner family and team president Stan Kasten are keeping their intentions very close to the vest. But the Washington Post reported there are signs Rizzo will get the job.
Mike Rizzo was given the Washington Nationals general manager job earlier this season after the team dumped Jim Bowden, but he got it with the interim tag. Well, after Rizzo negotiated to just about the last minute to sign Stephen Strasburg he got one heck of a thank you. Word broke last night from Yahoo!'s Gordon Edes that the Nationals were about to replace Rizzo with Arizona Diamondbacks vice president Jerry DiPoto.
Washington lost 5-0 to the Astros on Sunday to drop to 26-61 on the season, a mark that leaves it with an appalling .299 winning percentage, puts it on pace to finish the season 48-114 and all but assures that the club will wind up in last place in the NL East for the second straight season.
Acta -- in the middle of his third season at the helm of the Nationals and 157-252 as manager of the team -- has been the subject of speculation all season long, with FOXSports.com reporting that he had been fired back on June 13, a report that turned out to be premature.
WASHINGTON – To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Washington Nationals selected San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 MLB Draft.
"We are thrilled to select someone with the special talents Stephen possesses," acting Washington general manager Mike Rizzo said in a statement. "Those talents have long been on our radar, and Stephen's domination at San Diego State and vast experiences gained with Team USA last summer have done nothing to change our thougts about his abilities."
About an hour before the Nationals made their pick, heavy showers began to fall on Washington. Was it one last sign that one of the most downtrodden franchises in baseball is headed for a new dawn?
Cabrera's career 5.09 ERA was just barely good enough to cling to a big-league roster for five seasons, but evidently not good enough to hold on for any longer. His moments of brilliance -- and he had a few -- were easily muted by his failures. I'm referring to his career in the past tense because frankly, I'm not sure whether we'll ever see him in the major leagues again. The worst team in baseball doesn't want him, and he isn't interested in reporting to the minors. Where does a guy like Daniel Cabrera go? What becomes of him?
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That David Ortiz pulled within one homer of Yovanni Gallardo on the MLB leaderboard. Yes, Big Papi finally hit a home run. It took him 149 at-bats to get his first homer of the season, while 318 other players had hit at least one -- including two by Gallardo, a Brewers pitcher -- but Ortiz got on the board with a fifth-inning homer, helping the Sox to a victory over Toronto.
Ortiz had been slumping so badly that manager Terry Francona benched him for the whole series last weekend in Seattle. Ortiz joked after hitting the homer on Wednesday that he was so desperate he was "about to hit right-handed."
Now that we're inside of three weeks to the MLB Draft, the Stephen Strasburg Drama is reaching a fevered pitch. Today, there are two separate stories from Jeff Passan and the Washington Post about just when Strasburg will make his big-league debut. In both stories, Nats' acting GM Mike Rizzo indicates that Strasburg will spend time in the minors after he's drafted.
That's not surprising news; FanHouse's Ed Price reported something similar earlier this month. What is surprising is the amount of people that expect to see Strasburg pitching in any sort of professional capacity this season. Strasburg is a Scott Boras client. Historical precedence suggests pretty strongly that Scott Boras clients don't do much playing in the year they're drafted.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.
WASHINGTON -- Five whole hours before the last-place Nationals opened a series with the reeling 
If nothing else, the Nationals have been good for plenty of headlines over the past few days. Not all of them accurate, though.
Mike Rizzo was given the Washington Nationals general manager job earlier this season after the team dumped Jim Bowden, but he got it with the interim tag. Well, after Rizzo negotiated to just about the last minute to sign Stephen Strasburg he got one heck of a thank you. Word broke last night
WASHINGTON – To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Washington Nationals selected San Diego State pitcher 
As Ed Price reported Wednesday morning, 
Starting Five
Now that we're inside of three weeks to the MLB Draft, the 
