Washington Nationals Featured Media Clips – 2012

Washington Nationals
Featured Media Clips – 2012
Table of Contests
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Article #1 - Mike Rizzo, Davey Johnson shared vision for franchise, Washington Times (Comak), 4/11/12
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Article #2 – No Fear in the Nationals Club, Washington Examiner (Loverro), 6/6/12

Article #3 – Nationals’ clubhouse is a “good room”, Washington Post (Boswell), 6/7/12

Article #4 – Davey Johnson: One Top of His Game, Washingtonian Magazine (Jaffe), 4/12/12

Article #5 – Davey Johnson delivering on promise “or else they can fire me,” Washington Post (Reid), 5/30/12

Article #6 – Steve Lombardozzi brings the right approach to succeed, Washington Post (Kilgore), 5/31/12

Article #7 – Tyler Clippard stuck with what felt right and became an NL All-Star, Washington Post (Kilgore), 7/11/11

Article #8 – Jesus Flores makes most of opportunity at hand, Washington Post (Reid), 6/6/12

Article #9 – Harper still impressing teammates, Foxsports.com (Rosenthal), 6/8/12

Article #10 – The Great Bryce Hype, Grantland.com (Jazayerli), 6/12/12

Article #11 – Danny Espinosa, switch hitting and the confounding nature of having two different swings, Washington Times
(Comak), 6/9/12

Article #12 – Nationals' Harper, Strasburg are mature beyond their years, New York Newsday (Lennon) 6/17/12

Article #13 – Edwin Jackson proving to be Nationals No. 4 starter in name only, Washington Times (Comak), 6/23/12

Article #14 - Reliever Mike Gonzalez brings veteran presence to Nationals’ youthful staff, Washington Times (Comak), 6/25/12

Article #15 – Moore at ease second time around, Washington Times (Comak), 6/25/12

Article #16 – Davey Johnson living in the now – and loving every bit of it, Washington Times (Comak), 6/23/12

Article #17 – Bryce Harper loves Washington, and says he wants to play his entire career in the city, Washington Post (Kilgore),
6/29/12
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Article #18 – Youth is not a hinderance for Washington Nationals, Fox Sports, (Morosi), 7/5/12
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Article #19 – Minor-league lessons shaped Desmond’s All-Star season, Washington Times (Comak), 7/8/12

Article #20 – Nationals all-star pitchers Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez couldn’t be more different, Washington Post
(Kilgore), 7/9/12
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Article #21 – Stars on board with way Harper approaches game, Washington Times (Comak), 7/11/12

Article #22 – Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond is putting it all together, Washington Post (Kilgore), 7/13/12.
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Article #23 – Nationals’ Danny Espinosa at ease switching to short, Washington Times (Comak), 7/24/12
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Article # 24 – Harper, Strasburg recall Doc, Straw, ESPNNewYork.com, (Howard), 7/26/12

Article #25 – Michael Gonzalez provides experiences for young Nationals bullpen, Washington Post (Kilgore) 7/27/12

Article #26 – Tom Gorzelanny: the Nationals’ unheralded clean up man, Washington Post (Wagner), 8/5/12

Article #27 – New Nationals catcher Suzuki, family adjust to being relocated across the country, Washington Times (Comak),
8/13/12
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Article #28 – Vets help young Nats to keep focus on here and now, MLB.com (Berry), 8/16/12

Article #29 – Nationals 'Goon Squad' Crucial To Team's Success, WUSA9 (Jones), 8/22/12

Article #30 – Roger Bernadina: the Nationals’ muscle man in the midst of a career season, Washington Post (Wagner), 8/27/12

Article #31 – Jayson Werth’s goals with Nationals ahead of schedule, Washington Post (Kilgore), 8/28/12

Article #32 – What's old is new for Nationals skipper Davey Johnson, USA Today (White), 8/28//12
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Article #33 – Even without Strasburg, Nationals boast formidable rotation, Sports Illustrated (Lemire), 8/31

Article #34 - The Nationals bullpen: ‘It’s our little fraternity out there, our own little team’, Washington Post (Wagner), 8/31/12

Article #35 - Christian Garcia could be a call-up after overcoming two Tommy John surgeries, Washington Post (Kilgore),
9/1/12
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Article #36 – Calm, confident Davey right man to lead Nationals, MLB.com (Justice), 9/5/12
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Article #37 – Nationals’ Chad Tracy has perfected the art of pinch-hitting, Washington Post (Kilgore), 9/7/12

Article #38 – Gio deal turns fortunes of both Nats, A’s, MLB.com (Leach), 9/12/12

Article #39 – Nationals’ Christian Garcia proving that talent was never a question, Washington Times (Comak), 9/12/12

Article #40 - Why Class AAA Syracuse coaches are with the Nationals now, Washington Post (Wagner), 9/14/12

Article #41 – In Nationals clubhouse, thick skin required, Washington Post (Wagner), 9/15/12

Article #42 – Davey Johnson: Nationals’ pleasure, ESPN.com (Wulf), 9/17/12

Article #43 – Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth make a potent 1-2 punch, Washington Post (Kilgore), 9/17/12

Article #44 – Could Adam LaRoche’s impressive year price him out of Nationals’ plans?, Washington Times (Comak), 9/17/12

Article #45 – Evolution of Ian Desmond a key part of Nationals’ success, Sports Illustrated (Rosenstein), 9/27/12

Article #46 – Mike Rizzo, the man who built the Washington Nationals, Washington Post, (Kilgore) 9/29/12

Article #47 – Washington Nationals clinch NL East crown as D.C. celebrates its first first-place baseball team since 1933,
Washington Post, (Kilgore) 10/1/12

Article #48 – Nationals end decades of baseball futility for Washington baseball fans, Washington Post (Svrluga), 10/3/12

Article #49 – Kurt Suzuki validates Nats’ trade with clutch hitting, catching, Washington Post (Svrluga) 10/2/12

Article #50 – Ryan Zimmerman’s spirit persisted over the years, Washington Times (Comak), 10/5/12

Article #51 – Nationals deliver a DC winner, USA Today (White), 10/5/12
Article #1
Mike Rizzo, Davey Johnson share vision of building franchise for the future
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 4/11/12
The air was crisp, the atmosphere convivial last Thursday as the Washington Nationals took batting practice at
Wrigley Field. The 2012 season, one that carried more expectation and anticipation than any in the
organization's history, was near.
Behind the batting cage, general manager Mike Rizzo approached manager Davey Johnson. There, Rizzo
reflected on the work that built these Nationals. He glanced out at a team on the verge, and then at the man
who'd chosen to help bring them there.
"Man," Rizzo said to Johnson. "I'm glad I got you here."
Johnson, pushing 70 and managing his fifth major league team, turned and put his hands on the general
manager's shoulders. Their relationship born out of mutual respect that evolved into its current form as a result
of the abrupt and absurd last summer, the two stood like that for a moment, then shared a hug.
"I was more glad," Johnson said later, "that he was there."
"You could see them looking at each other, smiling," said special assistant to the general manager Harolyn
Cardozo, who often serves as a conduit between the two. "It was this moment, this 'We're in it together, and
we've got something good here,' moment. That has to be unique."
For an organization that just passed its eighth birthday and has a history strewn with moments of ineptitude and
instability, the tranquility that presides over it now is incomparable.
For the two men who exemplify that stability most, the symbiotic nature of their relationship sets the precedent
for the organization.
Dialogue, several Nationals officials said, is constant and encouraged. The prevailing thought being the same
one Cardozo visualized between Rizzo and Johnson on Opening Day: We're all in this together.
When Rizzo brought Johnson on as a special assistant, he wanted the man and his vast baseball knowledge by
his side. But when the opportunity arose for Johnson to become the Nationals' manager, one of several
invitations he'd had since 2000, Johnson only agreed to it for this organization because Rizzo was at the top of
it.
"Davey picked Mike Rizzo as much as Mike Rizzo picked Davey," Cardozo said. "Period."
"Today, right now," Johnson said, "It's a perfect fit."
Baseball lifer meets rookie GM
Mike Rizzo has spent his entire professional life in baseball, from player to coach to scout to executive. Even
then, his experience pales in comparison to that of Johnson.
When Rizzo got the GM job in 2009, he knew that in order for him to be successful he had to surround himself
with "smart people." Giving Johnson a more integral role was one of his first moves.
That fall, as the Nationals were on the brink of removing the interim tag from manager Jim Riggleman's title,
Rizzo happened to be in Cardozo's office when Johnson called her with a basic question. Rizzo, who'd
weathered a turbulent year for the organization, realized in that moment the resource he hadn't yet tapped. He
picked up the phone.
"I see it in my mind," Cardozo said. "He immediately got on the phone. 'Davey, Mike Rizzo.' That was the
beginning."
Johnson spent his time as a special assistant getting to know the players, from the bottom up. When he took
over as manager, Johnson had seen roughly 90 percent of the Nationals' system play. And he offered advice to
Rizzo when he felt it was needed.
He voiced some of his concerns early in 2011 that the bullpen was constructed in a way in which its best
pitchers, Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen, would never withstand the weight of their workload. He explained
the merits of an 'A' and 'B' bullpen to Rizzo, who'd never heard of the concept, and wondered how Rizzo
expected to go on a 10- or 12-game winning streak, or win 100 games, without splitting it up that way.
"Well, you know, I never thought about a 12-game winning streak," Rizzo told him, the Nationals' past more
backloaded with losing streaks of that length.
"I thought I knew a lot of stuff about baseball; I'd been in it 30 years," Rizzo said. "He taught me about stuff
that I had never heard of before.
"He is one of the best baseball men I've ever known. My dad [Phil, a longtime baseball scout] taught me more
about this game than anybody. He's the best baseball man I've ever been around. But Davey's right there with
him."
Learning from a renaissance man
Rizzo presided over two other Nationals managers before Johnson, Manny Acta and Riggleman. Both
partnerships ended unceremoniously. Acta was fired after a 26-61 start in 2009, and Riggleman resigned over
contract issues in the midst of an 11-1 stretch last June. The communication between Rizzo and those managers
always was there, he said, but he didn't get the same level of input and conviction back from them as he does
with Johnson.
"Davey, he's been around so long he's going to have his input for hell or high-water or it's not going to work,"
Rizzo said. He also felt that exchange of ideas ends with a unified front more now than ever before. The final
decisions still are Rizzo's to make, there's just room for input throughout the process.
But the relationship between the two also goes beyond the ones Rizzo had with Johnson's predecessors, simply
because they genuinely enjoy one another's company. One evening this spring, Cardozo sent Rizzo an email
letting him know she was having dinner with Johnson and extending an invitation to join.
"In any other case, the email back would have been something like 'No, I have to wash my socks,' "she joked. In
this case, the answer was an immediate 'Yes.'
Rizzo describes himself as very limited in scope. Johnson is, well, not that way.
A successful real estate investor, Johnson owns an island as well as a fishing camp. He's pretty close to a
scratch golfer, has a degree in mathematics and knows more about advanced stats than most 69-year-old
baseball lifers. "We should go fishing sometime," he's told Rizzo, a city-bred guy who'd never been. The same
offer applied to the golf course and other facets of Johnson's life.
"He's like a friggin' renaissance man," Rizzo said. "Although everyone thinks that I'm this old-school scout,
dinosaur kind of guy ... I think we're cut from the same cloth."
We're all in this together
The curtain will go up on Nationals Park for the home slate Thursday afternoon. One week since Rizzo and
Johnson met behind the batting cage, they return home with a 4-2 record. In 2011, the most the Nationals got
was two games over.
Most believe this season will be different. From the caliber of team on the field to the cocksure nature with
which the man in the dugout goes about his job. Right now, it's working as they planned through daily or neardaily phone calls this winter, aside from a few injuries to key players.
Things can change. When asked for outside perspective on the relationship between Johnson and Rizzo, one
official quipped, "Check back around the All-Star break." Johnson had good relationships with his previous
owners and general managers in New York and Cincinnati and Baltimore and Los Angeles. Until he didn't. And
the Nationals took that into consideration during the hiring process.
Johnson says his mindset toward the job hasn't changed, but it'd be wrong to think that he hasn't. A confluence
of improved health and tragic events helped get him here. After he realized Cardozo wasn't joking when she
called following Riggleman's resignation, Johnson offered Rizzo two or three other suggestions for the job.
Then he discussed it with his wife, Susan. In May, they'd lost Susan's son, Jake, at age 34, the second child
Johnson buried after his daughter, Andrea, died in 2005 at age 32.
"You need another challenge," Susan told him. Two days later he was waiting at the airport in Chicago, greeting
every player, coach and official as they walked onto the Nationals' plane. The message then was the same as it
is now: It'll be OK, we're all in this together.
"There'll be tough times, and there'll be good times," Johnson said. "It's how you handle those things as you go.
But I feel very positive about this organization, about Mike and what he's created. I'm just playing my part in
it."
"He only took the job because I'm the GM," Rizzo said. "Tomorrow, if we were to say 'You don't have the job,'
he walks away with a smile on his face. ... We're very comfortable. There's a good, secure feeling. It's all 'We'
and 'Us,' and I think that's him and I."
Article #2
Nor Fear in the Nationals Club, Washington Examiner
By Thom Loverro, Washington Examiner, 6/6/12
In a period of 48 hours, the Washington Nationals put the identity of their organization -- from the front office
to the players on the field -- on display for the world to see -- in case the world wasn't already paying attention.
On Monday, the Nationals didn't have the first pick of baseball's amateur draft -- unlike in 2009 and 2010, when
they chose Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, respectively. With the 16th pick, they chose a 17-year-?old
high school pitcher whose elbow problems frightened away many teams.
On the other hand, Lucas Giolito may be the next Roy Halladay.
"We decided this is the type of player, the type of stuff and the type of ceiling we want here in the Washington
Nationals organization," general manager Mike Rizzo told reporters.
No fear.
It's what the Nationals showed on the field Tuesday night when they refused to lose to the New York Mets,
winning 7-6 in the 12th inning on Harper's two-out RBI single. The Nationals fought back three times after
blowing a 3-0 lead to claim their major league-leading sixth walkoff victory.
No fear.
Harper, the 19-year-old rookie phenom, had that fearlessness before he arrived in the District, but that is why he
fit right in with the Nationals' veterans, who recognized in spring training that this kid could help them win.
Harper isn't afraid to fail because he has prepared himself to win.
So has Rizzo. And Davey Johnson.
The transformation of the Washington Nationals on the baseball side from foolish to fearless is remarkable, and
it started when Jim Bowden was forced to resign in the spring of 2009 and Rizzo took over as general manager.
A longtime scout, Rizzo faced questions whether he could handle the GM job, but there was none in his mind.
Many who wind up in that job operate with the sole purpose of trying to keep it and make decisions accordingly
-- the safe decisions, the ones based on self-preservation.
Not Rizzo. He had prepared for this moment, and he was determined he would do it on his terms -- with
intelligence and guts.
The intelligence was there when Rizzo kept Johnson close to the organization when many in baseball had kept
their distance since Johnson was fired from his last job as Dodgers manager in 2000.
The guts were there when Rizzo stared down manager Jim Riggleman over a contract extension in the middle of
the 2011 season. When Riggleman quit, he called on Johnson, 68 at the time and more than a decade removed
from a major league dugout, to take over the team.
And Johnson doesn't have a fearful bone in his body.
It's time to take those old "No Fear" T-shirts out of storage.
Article #3
Nationals clubhouse is a “good room”
By Thomas Boswell, Washington Post, 6/7/12
Bring back a healthy Stephen Strasburg, add all-star southpaw Gio Gonzalez, then call up breakneck Bryce
Harper, all of them big talents but with personalities so different they triangulate the possibilities of locker-room
temperament. Mix a stoic perfectionist, a grin-on-the-mound extrovert and a teenage demiurge in the Nats’
clubhouse and what do you get?
Are they combustible or compatible, contentious or complimentary?
This trio will play together through 2016, at least. With Harper’s arrival just six weeks old, how have the Nats
coped with such a stirring and shaking of their clubhouse culture? Not much hinges on it: only the franchise
future.
Perhaps one incident captures the current tone. After Harper smashed his bat in anger last month, cutting
himself above his eye when the bat recoiled, he got 10 stitches. When he and Rick Ankiel were in the outfield
minutes later, the dazed Harper asked the vet, “Does it look okay? Am I still bleeding?”
“Oh, you’re good to go,” Ankiel lied, straight-faced.
So, now the sports world has a classic photo of Harper with a six-inch stream of blood running down the side of
his face, a picture that will follow him, and maybe define, in an odd but flattering way, his style at 19.
“Yeah, that story’s right,” Harper said Thursday. “Awesome guys. I’ve really been lucky.” And he meant it.
In the annals of baseball unhappiness, the Nats are useless to us now. Give them time. Maybe they’ll learn to
bicker. For now, the first-place Nats look at Strasburg’s icy mound demeanor, Harper’s fiery, sometimes comic
hustle and Gonzalez’s hat-cocked house party on the mound and think this is just what they needed to turn an
average team with a strong clubhouse into a team that, past the one-third mark of their season, is still on a 94win pace.
Gonzalez has spliced humor and laughter between the sober Strasburg and serious Jordan Zimmermann. He fits
between them in their 1-2-3 rotation slots and on the top step of the dugout during games where they and Edwin
Jackson are inseparable. Zimmermann and Strasburg often look like they could use cheering up and that’s pretty
much Gio’s purpose in life.
“You’d have to be some kind of really miserable person to resent Gio and think, ‘Why is he so happy all the
time,’ ” Ankiel said. “Harper brings that big, young energy. And he brings it every day. He’s fun to watch.
“With Strasburg, you understand the frustrations of the game. You see his talent and just want it to express
itself,” said Ankiel, who was once one of the game’s most dazzling young pitchers and knows whereof he
speaks.
Sometimes stars invade each other’s space and steal what the others need to thrive. But Strasburg provides the
oak-tree ace in whose shadow Gonzalez can flourish. “I just want to pick Stras up after his start so he doesn’t
feel like the whole weight is on him,” Gonzalez said.
Zimmermann’s ego is so contained he just enjoys blending. “When you line ’em up there’s no jealousy or
envy,” Manager Davey Johnson said. “From the first day everybody was comfortable with where they are.
“This team has a lot of confidence, but not a lot of ego. It’s a real good clubhouse. Without that, you got
nothing.”
The major surprise for the Nats, which began in spring training but became clear in the last six weeks, is that
Harper has matured so much in less than 18 months that he fits in the midst of a simpatico team. Plenty of vets
might have doubted that in Viera in ’11. None seem to now.
“When the players with big talent are also real good people, it becomes very easy to fit in,” said veteran Adam
LaRoche, the son of a big leaguer. “It’s usually the showtime people who are the problem in the clubhouse.
They give off a whole other vibe off the field, like they want everybody on their own team to know how good
they are.
“The great ones let their play speak for them. Those three are team guys, humble good guys — the kind that are
really good for the clubhouse.”
Harper humble?
“Harper listens, wants to learn. He knows he’s good but he keeps it inside. He has that internal cockiness,” said
LaRoche, then shaking his head. “He’s 19. It’s hard to imagine.”
Luckily he enjoys absorbing rookie punishment. After a homer, Harper broke up laughing as Strasburg walked
past, needling. “Because he works so hard and he’s so quiet, people don’t know he can be funny,” Harper said.
“Come on, Strasburg has no personality,” one Nats vet said. “He’s like me, boring,” Ryan Zimmerman says.
And they’re off again, no one safe.
Perhaps what’s surprised the Nats most is an overarching similarity in competitive ferocity that links Strasburg
and Harper.
“Players sometimes have an ‘interview personality,’ ” Zimmerman said. “What the public sees isn’t what we
see in here. [Strasburg and Harper] are very similar. There are other athletes as talented as they are, but they are
so driven. They have the same work ethic, the same high baseball IQ.
“For a 19-year-old, Harper’s got a remarkable ability to learn quickly and be criticized by coaches and other
players,” said Zimmerman.
He andJayson Werth, Mark DeRosa, LaRoche and Ankiel sometimes seem like a school of tutors for Harper,
keeping an eye out for him or on him.
“Harper has guys who care about him, maybe even protect him,” Gonzalez said. “Those guys see that shining
star and want him to stay that way.”
When the late innings approach and, five batters early, Harper seeks out LaRoche or Ankiel for a scouting
report on relievers he might face, the Nats take note. “Strasburg and Harper both want to be the best that there
is,” Ankiel said. “They don’t just want to show up and have a talent. When you get special talent plus special
work, that’s when special gets really special.”
The Nats still lack health and hitting. But after a third of their season, they’re still in first place. A big reason for
their resiliency so far, and their potential in the future, is that hard-to-define thing in team sports called “a good
room.”
“We just don’t have any problems now,” said Zimmerman, who’s seen cliquish Nat teams, disrespected
managers and flammable-to-felonious teammates, including one nicknamed “tri-polar.”
“Everyone in here kind of gets it,” Zimmerman said. “Either they have been places where teams knew how to
win and how to act or they were already here, like me, and now we’re even happier that we are winning.”
Most teams aren’t this way. But many contenders are. Once in place, team chemistry can be perpetuated.
However, it’s strongest when built around core stars. In the last nine months, three of the most gifted pieces of
the Nationals puzzle have been put in place. So far, they fit — together.
Article #4
Davey Johnson: On Top of His Game
By Harry Jaffe, The Washingtonian, 4/12/12
Davey Johnson: On Top of His Game
Last spring, the Washington Nationals were partway through another middling season--their seventh since
bringing major-league baseball back to the nation's capital--when signs of turmoil in the clubhouse surfaced on
the diamond.
On Friday night, May 20, Jason Marquis was on the mound against the Baltimore Orioles. By the fourth inning,
Marquis had given up five runs. Manager Jim Riggleman sent him to the showers.
Marquis, the Nats' best starter at the time, was steamed. He argued with Riggleman in the dugout, demanding to
stay in the game. Riggleman tried to calm him down. Marquis looked as if he wanted to belt his boss.
Mike Rizzo, the Nats' general manager, heard about the incident. Players don't argue with managers, especially
in public. Rizzo figured it was time to call a team meeting.
But first he called Davey Johnson.
"Bad idea," Johnson said.
Rizzo respected Johnson, perhaps more than any other baseball man. Johnson was a legend. He had managed
four big-league teams, including the Orioles, and won three World Series, two as a player, one as a manager.
Johnson had signed on as a consultant in 2005.
Johnson's advice: "Your place is to man-age the manager. It's the manager's job to manage the staff. Meet with
Jimmy. Pump him up. Make him feel at ease."
At 9 the next morning, Rizzo met with Riggleman, told him to fix the problem, and said he was totally behind
him as Nationals manager.
Then on June 23, minutes before the Nationals were to take the field at home against the Seattle Mariners,
Riggleman sat down with Rizzo and gave him an ultimatum. His contract would end at the close of the season,
and he demanded that Rizzo agree to an extension on the spot. Rizzo said they would negotiate in October.
After the game, Riggleman quit.
Rizzo called the owner's box and asked to meet with the Lerners. He knew they liked Riggleman. He broke the
news. Then he said: "I want to offer the job to Davey Johnson."
Johnson was 68--he would be the oldest manager in the majors. The Lerners asked if he had the stamina to
manage spring training, 162 games, perhaps a postseason. Seeing as Ted Lerner was 86 and still running the
Lerner companies, Rizzo had an easy sell.
Johnson joined the team in Chicago and was waiting in the charter jet on the tarmac when the Nationals boarded
the plane for a series in California. He greeted each player and told them: "It's going to be okay." For Davey
Johnson, it was more than okay.
He couldn't wipe the smile from his face and wore it for the rest of the season, which the Nationals finished by
sweeping the league-leading Phillies and helping knock the Braves out of the playoffs.
At the end of the season, the best since their first in Washington, Rizzo asked Johnson who should manage the
team in 2012.
"I broke it down into pros and cons," Johnson says. "Who can help the team? Who can make it better? Who's
the best fit?
"I recommended myself," he says. "I was perfect."
No one who knows Davey Johnson would accuse him of lacking confidence. He's been called a lot of names;
shy isn't one of them.
But it had been 11 years since he coached in the major leagues. And he has had some medical problems. I asked
Johnson about his energy level one recent morning in his living room in Winter Park, Florida, a posh
community north of his hometown of Orlando. His eyes narrowed, then he flashed that wide grin and laughed.
"I'm in better shape than I've been in years," he said.
He survived a ruptured appendix in 2005 and endured four surgeries to correct it. He's had both shoulders
repaired and had a heart-rhythm problem fixed a year ago. He's had cataracts removed from both eyes. He says
he has quit drinking from January to October.
"Now I can see with my own eyes if an ump misses a call," he says.
He spits some tobacco into a Styrofoam cup. He shades his eyes from the sun pouring through the two-story
windows in his living room that look onto a pool and palm trees.
"I might want to take some batting practice, too," he says.
There's more than his ability to swat fly balls riding on Johnson when the Nationals take the field on Opening
Day, April 12.
He has a record of turning losing teams into champions. He took the New York Mets from last place in 1983 to
World Series champions in 1986. The Nationals are in need of a turnaround. Since coming to DC in 2004, the
team has never finished with a winning record. The fan base is soft. Nationals Park usually fills just over half of
its 41,500 seats.
The Lerners have begun to show a willingness to spend serious money on established stars. Paying Jayson
Werth $126 million for seven years and $100 million to extend Ryan Zimmerman's contract comes to mind. But
their investment needs to start paying off--with winning teams and higher revenues.
This spring, Johnson will have two of the most talented youngsters to hit the majors in a decade: pitcher
Stephen Strasburg and outfielder Bryce Harper. How will the oldest manager nurture the two young prospects?
"My greatest love as a manager is seeing young players play to their potential," he says. "My job is to create
fertile ground for them to develop. That's the sweetness of the whole deal."
The word in some baseball circles is that Johnson will get just this one year. But word from the owner's box is
that this could be the start of Washington's Davey Johnson era.
Why, I ask, did Johnson take the manager's job?
He had a sweet consulting gig. He could show up at spring training or not. He could put on a uniform, kick the
dirt, fungo a few flies.
"Happy as a clam," he says.
He and his baseball buddies--Mel Stottlemyre, Whitey Herzog, and Bill Robinson among them--could get
together to play golf or fish.
Johnson's place in baseball is secure. He has the third-best record among living managers, behind Earl Weaver
and Joe Girardi. No chance Davey would be bored. He might take a computer class, as he did at Johns Hopkins
while he was in Baltimore. He applied statistics to baseball lineups decades before Moneyball made the movies.
So--why?
"It wasn't the money," he says.
Johnson wasn't born rich. His father was a "tough Swede," in his words. His dad was captured by the Germans
in World War II, escaped, and was captured again but survived the war.
By the time Davey was nine, he had a paper route, sold potholders, and ran a root-beer stand after school. He
played baseball well enough to land a scholarship at Texas A&M, and from there he signed with the Orioles in
1962.
"I used the salary from my first major-league season to buy a Pontiac LeMans convertible and a set of golf
clubs," he says. "But I also used $8,000 to buy a lakefront lot near Orlando."
In 13 big-league seasons, mostly at second base, Johnson was an all-star four times and won two World Series
rings, both with the Orioles, in 1966 and 1970. While he was fielding ground balls and managing teams, he was
investing in real estate. He now owns an island, several choice building lots, a 72-acre fishing camp, and
commercial and residential buildings. He's a millionaire a few times over. So it wasn't the money.
Family life is calm now. Susan is his second wife. They married in 1994. She owns a high-end clothing store in
Winter Park. Their children and grandchildren live nearby. Susan and Davey have an agreement not to be apart
longer than a week at a time, so they had to factor that into whether he took the Nationals job. Their bond has
been defined more by tragedy than by baseball.
Johnson had two daughters in his first marriage, Dawn and Andrea, and a son, Davey.
Andrea was a surfer, a very good one. Sports Illustrated Jr. put her on its cover.
"She was not afraid of anything," Johnson recalls.
But she wasn't well. Andrea started hearing voices and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She moved back to
Orlando in her early twenties. When Johnson lost his job as manager of the Dodgers in 2000, he was happy to
move back home. "I was burned out," he says, "and I had a sick daughter."
Andrea had spent time in Northeast Florida State Hospital in Macclenny, but she was considered well enough to
come home. She deteriorated mentally and physically. In 2005, she was rushed to the hospital in septic shock.
"When I arrived, she was already on life support," Johnson says. "I had to make the decision to pull the plug."
Andrea Johnson was 30.
"I believe in heaven," he says. "I have to believe she's in a better place. She's surfing. She's happy."
Johnson was very close to Susan's son, Jake. He was a "rubella child," born with no hearing and no sight in one
eye, because Susan had had German measles during her pregnancy. Jake needed constant care, often lived in
group homes, and relied on specialists with the Helen Keller National Center.
About a year and a half ago, when he was 32, he lost the sight in his good eye.
"You can't imagine how hard it was for a kid who could barely see to lose all his vision," Johnson says.
Jake loved to feel the wind on his face as he rode in the back of Johnson's speedboat across the nearby lakes.
Johnson took him up to his fishing camp so he could feel the sand between his toes and wade in the water.
Davey and Susan hired a teacher to help him communicate.
"We were turning a bad situation into a happy one," he says.
About nine months ago, Jake developed a urinary problem. Doctors detected a blockage. During a test to
determine the problem, he stopped breathing. It turned out he had pneumonia. He died at age 34 in the same
hospital where Andrea passed away.
How does Johnson cope with the loss of both Andrea and Jake?
"Like any challenge, you have to try and look for the good in it," he says. "You are supposed to die before your
kids die--you're there for them, they're there for you. It doesn't always work out that way.
"I don't try to relive the past," he says. "I'm a looking-forward kind of guy. It's probably the key to the game of
baseball for me, too, as a player and a manager. It's not what I'm doing now but what I can do tomorrow."
That still doesn't explain why he took the job as manager of the Nationals.
"They could afford me," he says.
I ask again.
"It was the challenge."
One day last season, after he took over the Nationals, Johnson hopped on the team bus after a game. His spot,
the right front seat, was taken by Ted Lerner.
"I was dumbfounded," Johnson says. "In all my coaching and playing days, I had never seen an owner ride the
team bus."
They talked about the Redskins, who were then in training camp and jawing about the great season ahead,
perhaps a trip to the Super Bowl.
"They're dreaming," Lerner said, according to Johnson. "I don't believe in dreaming."
Johnson says he's no dreamer, either.
"Ted Lerner is a real-estate man, and a good one," he says. It was the Lerner family's real-estate holdings and
other assets, valued around $3.3 billion, that put them in line to pay $450 million for the Nationals in 2006. "I
admire that in a man. I like to work for people smart enough to hire me."
The four baseball clubs Johnson managed were displeased enough to give him the boot--sometimes because he
wasn't winning enough games, sometimes because he was irascible and disagreed with owners even as he gave
them winning records.
Why, then, should anyone be convinced that his tenure with the Nationals will end differently?
The answer: Mike Rizzo.
"Davey's part of the furniture as long as Mike Rizzo is general manager," Rizzo tells me.
Rizzo joined the Nationals in 2006 as an assistant GM in charge of scouting. He was promoted to general
manager in 2009. He began to rely on Davey Johnson, at the time his consultant.
"He's an old-school guy with a cutting-edge mind," Rizzo says. "He checked off every box I needed in a guy to
run things by."
Is he worried about Johnson's big shoes walking all over him?
"Look," Rizzo says, "I didn't invent this game. There are things I need to learn. I surround myself with bright
people. It makes me stronger. Besides, Davey doesn't intimidate me."
Their first conflict might come over Bryce Harper, the 19-year-old whose crack of the bat can hurt eardrums.
Johnson has said that Harper will compete for an outfield slot in spring training, and the kid could be in center
on Opening Day. Rizzo, more cautious, said he might want to send Harper back to the minors for more
seasoning. Though he added: "Sometimes special talent breaks the mold."
Both Harper and Stephen Strasburg will play under an intense glare. Sportswriters and fans will examine every
pitch, every swing--and the way Johnson handles his young stars.
"In each case," Johnson tells me, "I had a relationship with them before we drafted them number one. Kind of
coincidental."
Johnson managed Strasburg when he pitched for Team USA in the 2008 Olympics. The kid was a rising junior
at San Diego State and the only college player on the team. Johnson recalls that Strasburg took a no-hitter into
the sixth inning of one game, his pitch count got high, and Johnson wanted to give him the hook, but how could
he intrude on a no-hitter? Finally, someone got a hit and he pulled him.
His quote to USA Today: "He's the best I've seen at that young age, and I've had a lot of good ones."
A year later, he helped sign Strasburg for the Nats.
Johnson has heard all the amateur coaching suggestions that he go easy on Strasburg's arm, that he go with six
starters, that he save the kid for the postseason. Will Strasburg be on the mound on Opening Day?
"What do you think?" Johnson says.
How will Strasburg handle the pressure?
"I don't see it as a problem," he says. "Strasburg is a lot like me but a bit quieter. We'll try to control the media
so it doesn't become intrusive."
And Bryce Harper?
"He's got a little different personality."
Whereas Strasburg is quiet, mature, and married, Bryce Harper has been portrayed as a bratty 19-year-old
seeking headlines. After smacking a home run last season in a minor-league game, Harper rounded third base
and blew a kiss at the pitcher. Davey Johnson points out that a pitcher from the same team had drilled Harper in
the previous game.
Until he shut down his Twitter account in February, Harper tweeted whatever came to mind--for example, that
the New York Yankees were his favorite team. He told an interviewer that he aspires to have a lifestyle like
"Broadway Joe" Namath's in New York when Namath took the Jets to the Super Bowl.
Which makes Bryce Harper more like Davey Johnson, who signed with the Orioles at 19 and played a cutup
and prankster in the clubhouse.
Johnson says he met Harper at a home-run derby in St. Petersburg when the kid was 17. He followed his
progress, as did every other baseball scout, and was totally behind drafting him first for the Nats.
"Bryce is a smart kid," says Johnson, spitting into his cup. "His whole life is baseball."
Johnson can relate.
"He was expecting to make the club at 18," he says. "He has no thought of going back to the minors. His talent
has put him in the place where he's earned the right to compete."
Johnson believes the Nationals are headed for a breakout season. They're "over the rookie jitters," he says.
Though he's the oldest manager in the league, he also believes he's the best manager around to help them win.
"I have more experience than any of them," he says, "and that is an advantage."
Article #5
Davey Johnson delivering on Nationals’ promise
By Jason Reid, Washington Post, 5/30/12
Eager to talk privately on opening day at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Washington Nationals Manager Davey
Johnson asked me to follow him to a tool-shed sized office.
During spring training, Johnson said the Nationals, who had never finished with a record above .500 since
moving to the District in 2005, should make the playoffs this season. He punctuated his buzz-worthy comments
with this zinger: “They can fire me” if the Nationals miss the postseason.
“I meant every word of it,” Johnson said before the Nationals began the season by defeating the Cubs. “Hey, it
may sound crazy, but you know me. You know I’m not going to say it unless I believe it. I like my team. I like
it a lot. And you know what? We’re gonna have some fun.”
Johnson and the Nationals are having a lot of it. Led by their 69-year-young field boss, the surprising, injuryovercoming Nationals are atop the National League East.
Despite a season’s worth of roster juggling (sending 12 players to the disabled list before June is even more
confounding than a Gio Gonzalez curveball), batting order shuffling and bullpen reorganizing in the first two
months, the Nationals haven’t broken stride.
“No excuses,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said recently. “Davey doesn’t believe in ’em.”
He never has. Not while guiding the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles to division titles and leading the
New York Mets to a World Series championship. During those good times, Johnson proved he could match wits
with the best of his counterparts. With the Nationals, Johnson is showing something new: He has never been
better.
He’s pushing the right buttons (the Ian Desmond-Steve Lombardozzi change at the leadoff spot was among his
many correct moves) while waiting for the return of key players such as cleanup hitter Michael Morse and
closer Drew Storen. But Johnson’s difference-making contribution goes way beyond knowing when to doubleswitch.
One of the all-time great players’ managers, Johnson has the Nationals believing they can win. His unwavering
support for his players — he’s even standing up for demoted closer Henry Rodriguez — has created a fastacting bond between them and him.
Obviously, the Nationals haven’t won anything yet, and there’s still more than four full months to play in the
regular season. After experiencing only bad luck on the health front, the ballclub sure could use some of the
other kind.
Whatever happens the rest of the way, though, Johnson plans to stick by his comments about the Nationals’
potential. It’s as clear to him as Bryce Harper’s imminent collision with superstardom.
“What’d I tell ya?” Johnson said before the trip, reminding me of our earlier conversation. “Nothing we’ve done
has” surprised him.
“I knew what I saw [in the team]. I’ve been doing this for a little while now.”
Rizzo provided a concrete-strong foundation of pitching. With the Nationals’ deep, power-armed starting
rotation and bullpen, “I knew that would be a pretty good place to start,” Johnson said.
He also figured his bullhorn lobbying to liberate Harper from the minor leagues would at least accelerate the
process a little. Harper’s production prompted Johnson to move him up in the batting order, but Johnson had
always hoped the 19-year-old would make the decision easy for him. “I think he’s gonna be okay,” Johnson said
before smiling wryly.
Harper, Lombardozzi and Tyler Clippard (the top-notch setup man has also taken on part-time-closer duties) are
on the Nationals’ long list of step-up performers. With all their injuries, the club needed new heroes to emerge.
Although Johnson doesn’t count himself as one of them, he should.
Always calm in a storm, Johnson projects the type of we’ll-be-fine steadiness that’s perfect for the up-andcoming Nationals. His strong playing résumé (Johnson was a four-time all-star) and my-door-is-always-open
policy only help to increase Johnson’s stature in the clubhouse.
“Davey has been successful at everything he has done in the game,” Rizzo said. “Believe me, our guys
understand that.”
They also appreciate Johnson’s tell-it-like-it-is honesty.
Johnson stuck with Rodriguez in the closer’s role much longer than many Nationals fans probably would have
preferred. He defended Rodriguez while speaking with reporters and encouraged him in the sanctuary of the
clubhouse. Even after shifting to a closer by committee, Johnson hasn’t given up on Rodriguez. He doesn’t turn
his back on players — unless they give up on themselves.
That’s one of the most important things I learned about Johnson when he managed the Los Angeles Dodgers
(1999-2000) and I covered the club for the Los Angeles Times: He’s fiercely loyal.
“Gotta be that way,” he said. “I gotta be with [the players] because I live with them. They have to know they
can count on me. That’s the only way it works.”
In the past, Johnson’s players-first approach has gotten him into trouble with management. His Dodgers
superiors believed Johnson was too easy-going with players.
Rizzo is fine with Johnson’s style. Not surprisingly, so are Nationals players.
“You know where Davey is coming from,” Desmond said. “You know it makes sense to listen to him.”
The Nationals have the right man for the job. And the real fun will be in seeing how far he can take them.
Article #6
Nationals all-star Tyler Clippard stuck with what felt right
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 7/11/11
Tyler Clippard does not know, exactly, how he came to pitch the way he does. Nothing about what Clippard
does on the mound, as a reliever for the Washington Nationals, looks quite like what any other pitcher does. He
strides forward as if stepping over a hurdle. He pauses slightly. His shoulders tilt upward as he cocks his right
hand behind his head and shows the batter his left forearm. “He’s throwing elbows and [butt] at you,” teammate
and former strikeout victim Matt Stairs says. “It’s not a fun at-bat.”
It’s what always felt right. It helps that Clippard is naturally flexible — he discovered he could do the splits
easily when he signed up as a 6-year-old in Tampa for taekwondo classes. Each year at spring training, Clippard
scores at the extreme end of team-mandated flexibility tests. His teammates call him Gumby.
Clippard will spend Tuesday night in Phoenix, showing off the herky-jerky delivery that, four years after the
New York Yankees traded him and three years after the Nationals shipped him to the bullpen, has made him a
strikeout machine and a National League all-star. Clippard has reached the top of his profession because he
assessed what set him apart and dismissed any external forces trying to change him. He knew what felt right.
Clippard long ago learned to embrace what made him different, coolly self-confident and wonderfully
oblivious. On the day of his major league debut, Clippard sat in the Yankees’ clubhouse and wore a T-shirt he
had won in a baseball tournament at 16. He doesn’t wear glasses off the field, but he wears protective goggles
on the mound. For years, he chose for his warmup music the goofy alternative rock song “Peaches.”
“Me being outside the box a little bit I think is a beneficial thing,” Clippard said. “I like it. I relish it. I don’t
want to be in the cookie-cutter category of mechanics and delivery.”
In a vacuum, the quality of Clippard’s pitches would make him, maybe, a fringe major leaguer. He throws his
fastball between 92 and 94 mph, hardly overpowering velocity for a reliever. He pairs it with an above-average
change-up and a curveball he rarely uses. The manner in which he unleashes those pitches, though, makes him
one of the most dominating relievers in baseball.
“If everybody threw like Tyler,” his father, Bob Clippard, said, “he wouldn’t be effective.”
Not as fast as it looks
Clippard’s funky delivery includes a brief pause, which throws off a hitter’s most crucial asset — his timing.
Clippard hides the ball with his arm, shielding his release point with his glove. Because of the way his shoulders
point up, not down like most pitchers, his fastball stays on an even plane.
It does not rise, but it seems to. He uses precisely the same motion for his change-up, which seems, to a hitter,
to disappear once it reaches the plate.
Each singular tic would provide an advantage. In combination, the qualities of Clippard’s motion create a
devilish optical illusion. In the minor leagues, hitters would reach second base and ask infielders how hard
Clippard threw. The answer was 90 mph. They replied that it seemed like 96, maybe 97.
“I think when it comes to release point and the positions that you get in before you release the ball, everyone is
very similar,” Clippard said. “I think I get into that position just like everyone else. Obviously, little things
might look a little different. My frame, my body and the way it moves is different than other people. So that
plays a factor.”
Bob Clippard provides mental support for his son these days, calling him after great games and blown leads. He
coached him growing up. He bought a book on pitching mechanics, but he only incorporated mechanics into
Clippard’s natural motion. He put Clippard through various drills, like stepping over a plank to lengthen his
stride, but he never fundamentally changed him.
“My dad never tried to correct me,” Clippard said. “He just let my natural delivery take over, and then we
worked from there. I don’t know if that was on purpose or not, but it worked out.”
Clippard excelled in youth baseball games, playing on three travel teams a year in baseball-crazy Florida
against elite competition. Getting noticed still did not come easy. He was skinny, he threw funny and he did not
light up radar guns. When he entered high school, Bob Clippard said, he thought maybe he could play golf
professionally.
“He was always the number three guy or not even on the radar,” Bob Clippard said. “He never looked like the
guy. You look at him, he doesn’t look like he’d be able to do what he does.”
Clippard starting breaking 90 mph by his senior year of high school, and the Yankees drafted him in the ninth
round. He rose quickly through their system and in 2007 a rash of injuries necessitated a sudden call-up. He
made his major league debut at 22, before more than 56,000 people at Shea Stadium, for the most venerated
franchise in American sports. He pitched six innings, allowed one run and won.
“We were calling up everybody under the sun because we had injuries,” Yankees General Manager Brian
Cashman said. “It was a great performance. He made a name for himself.”
Clippard made five more starts before the Yankees’ star-studded staff got healthy, and he returned to the
minors. Once he left the majors, though, his career hit a speed bump. He experienced his first sustained
struggles, and by the end of the year the Yankees had demoted him to Class AA. Clippard’s head spun. He had
made the majors, but he no longer sensed he was a prospect.
He was right. The Yankees viewed him then, Cashman said, as “a fringy starter.” Cashman did not see
Clippard’s mechanics translating to the bullpen, but he thought he could turn him into a useful reliever.
“We thought that he had pretty complicated delivery; we felt it was going to stay complicated,” Cashman said.
“We had some questions there. . . . I certainly didn’t see this coming. I’m happy for him. He’s a good kid.”
Shift to the bullpen
In December 2007, the Yankees traded Clippard to the Nationals for reliever Jonathan Albaladejo. (“He had
some filthy stuff,” Cashman said of Albaladejo, who is pitching in Japan now.)
“It was a motivational breath of fresh air,” Clippard said. “A new start, a new beginning. I enjoyed it. I was
happy about it.”
Clippard made two major league starts in 2008, but by the following spring training Nationals pitching coach
Steve McCatty had come to believe Clippard translated better out of the bullpen. Batters, McCatty figured,
wouldn’t get a second chance to figure him out, his fastball would play up, he would present a radical change of
pace. He sat Clippard down and explained that his career as a starter had ended. He was a reliever now.
“I was mad,” Clippard said. “I was not happy about it.”
Fuming, Clippard called his father. Bob Clippard listened, then asked his son, “You got a job, right?”
There was a long pause.
“You’re right,” Clippard said. “I’m still playing baseball.”
Soon, Clippard embraced pitching out of the bullpen. He started the year at AAA Syracuse but knew it was a
matter of time before he reached Washington. By the end of the year, he had become indispensable. In 2010, he
gained notice as a dominant setup man. This year, he became an all-star.
Tuesday night in Phoenix, Clippard is going to hear his name over the loudspeakers and tip his cap, validation
that he was right not to change. As a Yankees farmhand, Andy Pettitte had walked past him in a bullpen one
spring training morning and asked, “Why do you throw like that?” Clippard has shown why, proving that
different is not wrong.
Article #7
Nationals’ Steve Lombardozzi brings the right approach
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 5/31/12
The first time Kevin Kelly saw Steve Lombardozzi, he wondered if he could make the throw from shortstop to
first base. Lombardozzi was a freshman trying to make the Atholton High varsity team. Kelly, the head coach,
had heard Lombardozzi, the son of a big leaguer, could play, but he stood 5 feet 2, 110 pounds. “He was a little
guy,” Kelly said.
Lombardozzi made the team, but Kelly played him at double-play depth at all times, just so he could make the
throw. In the coming years, Lombardozzi played such flawless defense that scouts came to Atholton to watch
him. They would tell Kelly that Lombardozzi did not possess the size or the arm strength to play professionally.
“You better not sell him short,” Kelly would reply.
Not even 10 years after Lombardozzi arrived for his first high school tryout, he has become a major leaguer, a
local kid who never stopped working, suddenly a crucial player for the first-place Washington Nationals.
Lombardozzi arrived at spring training this season hoping to make the 25-man roster. Fifty games into the
season, he has become their regular leadoff hitter, an on-base machine who, coaches say, is impervious to
mistakes.
During his September call-up last year, the Nationals played Lombardozzi at third base even though he had not
played there before. This year, the Nationals have turned Lombardozzi, at least temporarily from a second
baseman into a left fielder in order to give him more playing time.
“I don’t ever have to watch him, because he’s always in the right spot,” said Nationals bench coach Randy
Knorr, who managed Lombardozzi in the minor leagues. “You look, and he’s standing there. Just throw him out
there, he’ll figure it out. That’s the one thing I always say about him – he’ll figure it out.”
Wednesday afternoon in the clubhouse at Marlins Park, Manager Davey Johnson approached Lombardozzi and
told him, “You’re back out in the pasture.” Lombardozzi had started at second base the previous day, but that
night he would play left field, a position he had no earthly idea he would man when he showed up for spring
training.
Johnson considered Lombardozzi an everyday second baseman, but in Danny Espinosa he already had his
starter. Johnson wanted to give Lombardozzi a better chance to find consistent playing time, and so he tried
Lombardozzi in left field.
The Nationals began the year with Ian Desmond as their leadoff hitter, but Johnson knew Desmond did not fit
the leadoff mold. Even as Desmond started strong, tying for the team lead with eight home runs, his on-base
percentage hovered around .300. The Nationals still had the same problem from the previous two years, when
their .312 on-base percentage from the leadoff spot ranked in the bottom third of the league.
At the end of last week, Johnson moved Desmond to fifth in the lineup and finally turned to Lombardozzi on a
full-time basis. This year, in 116 plate appearances, Lombardozzi is hitting .320 with seven doubles and a .381
on-base percentage, tied with Adam LaRoche for the highest mark on the team.
“He’s great,” third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said. “I think he doesn’t let anything affect his approach and his
style of play. He knows who he is and what kind of player he is. And he definitely knows what he needs to do to
be successful at this level. And he sticks with it, no matter what the situation is or who says what to him.”
This week, one Nationals official said if he could pick any Nationals hitter to bat with a runner on third base and
less than two outs, he would pick Lombardozzi. Coaches rave about his “approach,” the way he attacks pitchers.
“I think it varies,” Lombardozzi said. “I’m watching the pitcher when I’m in the dugout. Before the games I’m
watching tape on him, seeing what his tendencies are. I try and go up there and stick to a game plan.”
When Knorr first managed Lombardozzi at Class AA Harrisburg, he was struck by Lombardozzi’s grasp of his
own strengths and weaknesses. Knorr had seen so many players ruin their swing by trying to hit home runs.
Lombardozzi always had a plan, trying to spray line drives and work counts.
“He’s one of the earliest players I’ve known that understands what type of player he is, his capabilities,” Knorr
said. “He makes the best out of them. For his age, to identify what he is, is pretty amazing. Most guys are still
searching.”
Before games, Lombardozzi is always pacing somewhere, to the field or the batting cage, a glove or bat in his
hand, sticking to his rigorous routine. This offseason, he gained 15 pounds of muscle lifting weights with
Zimmerman and Jayson Werth, driving from Atholton to Nationals Park six days a week. He is listed at 6 feet,
195 pounds.
At Atholoton High, Kelly watched the extra drills sessions Lombardozzi grinded through after practice. Every
day for four years, Kelly said, Lombardozzi stayed on the field for an extra hour or two with his father, Steve
Sr., who played for six seasons with Minnesota Twins and won a World Series ring.
His father would hit Lombardozzi every variety of groundball – backhanded stops, bare-handed plays, onehoppers, slow-rollers. He took extra practice. He worked on his jumps off bases and improved his speed with
endless sprints.
“If there is something to be said for hard work, he’s going to find a way to get it done,” Kelly said. “As good of
a player as he was, he’s probably not the most talented guy I ever coached. But nobody is going to outwork him.
“Don’t misunderstood me, he’s a very good player. He’s probably the best fielder I ever had. But other guys had
more raw ability or raw talent. But they didn’t have his work ethic. That’s the neat part of this.”
He never stopped working. In left field, Lombardozzi’s arm is vulnerable to runners taking an extra base. (“I’m
working on that,” he said.) But he has not botched a single ball hit to him, and “I don’t think he’s going to miss
one,” said Nationals third base coach Bo Porter, who instructs outfielders.
“You know that he’s going to do everything in his power to be prepared to play,” Porter said. “I never had any
concerns about him. He’s been great. Some people just have a feel for the game. He understands situations.”
Before this season, Lombardozzi dropped by Atholton High to chat with his old coach, who retired last year. He
told Kelly if he ever needed any tickets, he would take care of him. Kelly beamed with pride, and with the
satisfaction that there is something to be said for hard work.
Article #8
Jesus Flores makes most of opportunity at hand
By Jason Reid, Washington Post, 6/6/12
One of the harsh realities of athletics is that the injured are pushed aside. The drumbeat of the schedule leaves
little time to lament sidelined players.
For every disabled starter from high school to the pros, an understudy benefits from a next-person-up
philosophy. When one door closes, another opens. Washington Nationals catcher Jesus Flores has seen it from
both perspectives.
The ballclub’s former and current top player at his position, Flores rose to the top of the depth chart in May
after Wilson Ramos suffered a season-ending knee injury that will require at least two surgeries to repair.
In November, Ramos, a fast-rising standout on a team full of them, was kidnapped at gunpoint in his native
Venezuela. Rescued unharmed after two harrowing-beyond-belief days, Ramos put the staggering incident
behind him — only to be knocked out by his own body.
Flores had hoped to win back the job (he lost it while sitting out most of the 2009 season and all of 2010
because of a shoulder injury) through competition. He would rather not have benefited from his countryman’s
misfortune (their home towns in Venezuela are just 325 miles apart), especially after Ramos’s kidnapping
nightmare.
It would be understandable (appropriate?) for an athlete to feel a degree of guilt about experiencing good
fortune at the expense of a teammate’s pain. It’s clearly a less-than-ideal situation, though one as common as
the sight of a catcher crouching.
“I feel sorry for everything that happened to him,” Flores said of Ramos on Tuesday night before the Nationals
began a three-game series against the New York Mets. “I know it’s sad because he’s such a good player. But
that’s baseball sometimes.”
It’s also football, basketball, hockey, soccer — just pick any team sport. Whether a team maintains a high level
of play often depends on the talent of its backups, and the Nationals have benefited from having Flores in
reserve.
Behind the plate and at it, Flores has made a smooth transition to being a No. 1 catcher again. Changing primary
receivers hasn’t bothered the major leagues’ best pitching staff, which has played the biggest role in the
Nationals maintaining their lead in the better-than-expected National League East.
Nationals pitchers view Flores as “a guy who you can rely on the whole game,” said perpetually upbeat lefthander Gio Gonzalez, who is off to a start worthy of Cy Young Award consideration in his first season with the
club.
“He’s the lead guy now and he really has taken over the rotation. He knows what he wants to do out there. You
might shake him off once all game out of all of the pitches you throw. He mixes it up, wants you to attack the
strike zone, and he really has helped out a lot with all of the success I’ve been having.”
Defensively, Flores has done a textbook job of blocking balls in the dirt (“He actually does that better than
Ramos,” Manager Davey Johnson said). He has also has been more efficient against runners attempting to steal:
Flores has thrown out 27 percent; Ramos was at 17 percent when he was knocked out for the season.
With Flores part of the everyday lineup, there hasn’t been an appreciable decrease in offensive production from
the catcher’s spot: Their statistics are similar through about the same number of plate appearances this season.
Flores’s solid all-around production hasn’t surprised the Nationals “because he was the starting catcher here
once,” right-hander Edwin Jackson said. “It’s not like it’s something he’s unfamiliar with. Before he got hurt,
he was the man, and that’s not something you forget. He’s a smart dude, man. He’s an everyday catcher.”
Johnson always thought Flores could be a good one. During his time as a Nationals consultant, Johnson strongly
recommended trading for Flores when he was just starting out in the Mets’ farm system.
“You could see he was a good receiver, he had a cannon arm and good bat-potential,” Johnson said. “As a
manager, you’re looking for guys like that.”
The Nationals selected Flores from the Mets in the 2006 Rule 5 draft, in which teams chose from a pool of
minor leaguers left unprotected by other organizations. At only 23, he was considered a high-ceiling starter in
the majors. Then he suffered derailing injuries in 2009 that began after a ball caromed off his shoulder and
fractured a bone (“I get a foul tip and it was almost the ending of my career,” Flores said), which eventually led
to labrum surgery and a long road back. Now 27, Flores wondered whether he would be relegated to a backup’s
life for the remainder of his career. It was a good question.
Ramos, 24, has more hitting potential than Flores, Nationals observers say. Last season, Ramos’s first full
season with the club, he displayed the type of can’t-miss ability that left Johnson and General Manager Mike
Rizzo feeling very secure about the position.
Not surprisingly, Flores wondered about his future each time Ramos delivered a clutch hit or made a dazzling
defensive play. “I was the No. 1 catcher for this organization,” Flores said. “And then it was kind of like my
chance just went away.”
Flores didn’t hide his frustration. He wanted to play much more than he did last season. But even by late in the
season, Flores still hadn’t fully recovered from the rehabilitation process.
“He was still short [not fully recovered]. You could see it,” Johnson said. “But then he went to winter ball and
tore it up. Then he had a great spring for me.
“I always looked at him as a No. 1 catcher, so I thought he could do this. Don’t get me wrong, now. Losing
Ramos was a huge blow. It’s just good we’ve got another guy who can also do it.”
Flores was eager for the opportunity. He’ll at least have the rest of the season to make the most of it.
Article #9
Harper still impressing teammates
By Ken Rosenthal, FoxSports.com, 6/8/12
This is the second time I’ve come to Nationals Park to write about Bryce Harper. And once again, my notebook
is so full, I don’t even know where to start.
SHOOTING STARS
These athletes burst onto the scene with great fanfare.
The last time, I wrote that there was no chance the Nationals would send Harper back to the minor leagues, an
opinion that could have been formulated by a chimpanzee.
This time, I’m not going with a set theme. No, I’m going with a Bryce-a-palooza, complete with teammates’
favorite Harper stories, a revised look at Harper’s supposed “bad” attitude, Harper’s thoughts on fellow prodigy
Mike Trout and a stat that will blow you away.
Shall we begin?
Harper, 19, is a veteran of 34 major league games. Yet, when I ask five different Nationals to name their
favorite Harper moment, I get five different answers.
Here are the three best:
• Shortstop Ian Desmond mentions Harper’s reaction to getting hit by Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels on May
6.
“He just brushed it off,” Desmond says. “It was, ‘I got hit. So what? Hamels is a great pitcher. I’ve got a lot of
respect for him. Next question, please.’ ”
• Left fielder Michael Morse raves about the way Harper “forgets” his last at-bat, citing his first walkoff hit,
Tuesday night against the Mets.
Harper struck out swinging in the 11th inning, then lined his game-winning, opposite-field hit in the 12th on an
0-2 count with two outs and the bases loaded.
“He had a pretty bad at-bat, struck out, looked bad, fooled every pitch,” Morse says. “He came out his next atbat and won the game. That’s something that takes years to learn.
• Closer Drew Storen, without hesitation, says his favorite Harper moment, “hands down,” occurred in Atlanta
on May 26.
Harper hit a routine single to right, then kept running to second when the Braves’ Jason Heyward mishandled
the ball nonchalantly in right field.
“It’s one of my favorite things I’ve seen since being in the big leagues,” Storen said. “Nobody does that.
“It’s a casual base hit. He could have just gotten to first, taken a hard, nice turn and nobody would have said a
word. They would have said, ‘Nice job.’ But he took the initiative, was aggressive and took second base.
“Guys feed off that. That’s what gets him respect being a young guy — the way he plays. It’s not too much. It’s
refreshing — refreshing to see a guy that young, with that much talent, play that hard.”
Remember all those stories about the brash Harper, the cocky Harper, the arrogant Harper who was supposed to
receive a rough initiation from his opponents, and not just Hamels?
Whatever happened to that guy?
I posed that question to Harper on Wednesday after he said this about his initial adjustment to the majors:
“I didn’t try to put any pressure on myself. I just tried to play my game, keep as quiet as I can, let my play talk.
“I didn’t want to come in here and say, ‘Hey, I’m big, bad Bryce Harper.’ I’m another guy in the clubhouse,
trying to have every single day, listen to all the veteran guys in this clubhouse.”
So, was it unfair for people to question his attitude?
Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman contends that Harper’s reputation developed because he was the
“first (player) to really go through social media, where people who aren’t qualified to have an opinion, have an
opinion.”
Harper, though, admits that he brought some of the problems upon himself.
“I took situations a little too far in college,” Harper says, referring to his one year at the College of Southern
Nevada, when he was 17.
“That’s how it is. That fire, that passion you get in college, I think everybody has it. Everybody looked at me,
‘He’s got eye-black all over his face.’ They didn’t really look at the game side. They looked at other things.
“I play this game hard. That’s what you’re going to get out of me every single day.”
BIG TIME FOR BRYCE
That’s what the Nationals love about him, and that’s what opponents respect. Not even Hamels claimed to be
offended by Harper. He hit him, well, just because.
Harper’s supposed bad attitude is not a talking point in the Mets’ clubhouse after Wednesday’s game, hasn’t
been a talking point since his major-league debut on April 28.
Mets outfielder Scott Hairston talks about Harper’s “mature” two-strike approach and “amazing bat speed.”
Mets manager Terry Collins says, “He’s going to put up huge numbers in this game — huge numbers.”
And he’s going to do it his way.
The right way.
“When you’re confident and play the game hard and you’re so competitive that you don’t feel bad for other
people, people don’t always take that the right away,” Storen says.
“If you bury people, and you play hard … he’s not out here to make friends. That’s what’s good. He’s here to
win.”
Speaking of friends, Harper says he knows Trout, his American League doppelganger, “pretty well.” The two
actually were teammates with the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League after last season ended.
See if your favorite team is pointed in the right direction this week.
The Scorpions also featured another top young major leaguer, Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks, and a
third top young outfielder, Giants Double A outfielder Gary Brown.
Does Harper keep tabs on Trout, who at 20 is a year older than him?
“Definitely,” Harper says. “I wish all the best to him.
“He wasn’t at full strength (in the AFL). He was tired. He had played a lot of baseball. I don’t think everybody
saw the full intensity of Trout out there.
“But I knew he would be an unbelievable talent. You can see it now. He’s having a great year. He’s turned that
Angels season into a winner. I’m excited for him.”
I ask Harper if he is aware of the big question among scouts and executives: If you were starting a franchise,
would you pick Harper, Trout or Giancarlo Stanton?
Harper seems surprised that Stanton is included in the conversation, and maybe the Marlins’ right fielder
shouldn’t be.
I mean, Stanton is so much older than Harper and Trout. He’s 22!
“I haven’t really seen Stanton’s name in there,” Harper says. “Stanton, he hits some bombs. He has the most
pop I’ve seen around. He’s done a lot. He’s fun to watch — very fun to watch.
“I just try to come out here and play my game. Trout’s in the other league. I’m trying to play my game. He’s
playing his game. Who knows? Maybe we’ll play together one day. Maybe he’ll come to DC.”
Harper smiles.
“I don’t want to leave here, I can tell you that.”
I promised a stat that would blow you away, and it is indeed a doozy.
Harper entered Wednesday night’s play with a .903 OPS, though it dropped to .884 when he went 1-for-5.
Check out where the greats rank on the all-time home run list.
So, I asked my friends at STATS LLC to research the last time a player at 19 produced a .900 OPS, minimum
400 plate appearances.
A player’s “season age” is his age as of July 1. Harper turns 20 on Oct. 16. If he stays healthy for the rest of the
season, he should easily reach 400 plate appearances.
Anyway, the list of players who had 400 PAs in their age 19 season isn’t all that long. The list of players who
had a .900 OPS is even shorter.
In fact, it consists of one name.
Mel Ott.
That’s it. And Ott’s OPS for the New York Giants, way back in 1928, was .921.
What if we expand the list to include 20-year-olds, considering that Trout currently is sitting on a .924 OPS?
Here goes:
Ott, 1929, 1.084.
Ted Williams, 1939, 1.045.
Alex Rodriguez, 1996, 1.045.
Al Kaline, 1955, .967.
Jimmie Foxx, 1928, .964.
Frank Robinson, 1956, .937.
Mickey Mantle, 1952, .924.
Six Hall of Famers plus A-Rod, who was a mortal lock for the Hall before acknowledging that he had used
performance-enhancing drugs.
That’s what we’re talking about here.
Fun to watch. Fun to write about. Fun for hopefully a long, long time.
Article#10
The Great Bryce Hype
By Rany Jazayerli, Grantland.com, 6/12/12
There's no cheaper commodity in sports than that noxious mixture of potential and hype. Everyone's selling it,
and they're digging deeper and younger to find it. Draft coverage — pick the sport — often gets more headlines
than the games themselves. It's no longer enough that 16-year-old football players are fêted nationally when
they sign letters of commitment — now 13-year-olds are ranked on their ability to play basketball.
America is a nation of optimists. It is part of our cultural DNA to dream that the best is yet to come. And so it is
with sports: We believe that somewhere in this great land of ours, there's a teenager who's destined to be the
best ever at his sport. The best tennis player — Jennifer Capriati was on the cover of Sports Illustrated when she
was 13. The best golfer — Michelle Wie was supposed to change the face of women's golf when she was still in
junior high. And even, when our national pride swells to imperial hubris, the best soccer player — remember
when Freddy Adu was supposed to change the world? Adu was cast next to Pele in a Nike commercial and
featured on 60 Minutes when he was 15 years old. Eight years later, Adu is toiling in Major League Soccer this
year, after playing in Turkey in 2011. The Turkish Second Division.
So when Bryce Harper introduced himself to the national consciousness three years ago this month — as the
youngest baseball player ever to appear on the cover of SI — it was fair to be skeptical. Of our four major
sports, baseball is clearly the one that takes the longest to master. College football players go straight from the
draft to NFL stardom. Elite players can jump to the NBA or NHL right out of high school. But even the best
college baseball players usually need a year or two of minor league instruction before they debut in the majors.
And Harper wasn't a 21-year-old college junior; he was a 16-year-old kid. To many, that magazine cover set
Harper up to fail more spectacularly and visibly than he would have otherwise.
Three years later, Harper evokes another teenage prodigy who was hyped before he achieved anything against
the best in his sport. Only now, he's making his case to be the Tiger Woods of baseball — the child phenom
who had unrealistic expectations placed on him and who has not just lived up to them, but has somehow,
impossibly, exceeded them.
When Harper became a national figure in 2009, there was a problem — he still had two years of high school left
to finish, two years before he could even begin his journey through the minor leagues. Problem solved: He got
his GED after his sophomore year and enrolled at the College of Southern Nevada, which would make him
eligible for the draft in 2010, while he was still just 17.
The College of Southern Nevada plays in the SWAC conference, where only wooden bats may be used during
conference play. This allowed Harper to emulate professional hitters in another way. In his one year at CSN, as
one of the youngest college hitters in the nation, Harper hit .443/.526/.987. In 66 games, he hit 31 home runs.
The school's previous record for homers was 12. CSN made it to the Junior College World Series; in the
regional championship game, Harper hit four home runs and had 10 RBIs.
After the Nationals drafted him no. 1 overall, Harper took the summer off before Scott Boras negotiated a lastminute, five-year major league contract that guaranteed him $9.9 million, the highest bonus ever for a hitter out
of the draft. Harper finally made his pro debut that November, in the Arizona Fall League. Having just turned
18, Harper was the youngest player in the history of the AFL, which is a finishing school for prospects, most of
whom had spent the year in Double-A and Triple-A. In nine games, Harper hit .343 and slugged .629.
Harper finally made his official minor league debut last season, and he needed only 72 games — during which
he hit .318/.423/.554, swatted 14 homers, and even stole 19 bases — to reach Double-A. Still 18, Harper hit a
tepid .256/.329/.395 for six weeks before his season ended a few weeks early with a bad hamstring strain.
This spring, Harper tempted the Nationals to bring him north with the major league team after spring training.
Instead, he went to Triple-A and in 20 games hit .250/.333/.375 with a single home run. As hard as this is to
believe today, six weeks ago most people in the game thought Harper still needed more development time in the
minors.
And then the Nationals called him up to The Show.
When Harper debuted on April 28, he was 19 years, 6 months, and 12 days old. He's the youngest player to
appear in a major league game since Felix Hernandez debuted in 2005 and he's the youngest position player
since Adrian Beltre in 1998.11 In the last 25 years, the only position players to reach the majors at a younger
age have been Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., and Andruw Jones.
That, in itself, is a notable achievement — only four hitters in the last quarter-century reached the majors at a
younger age than Harper, and depending on how much credit the electorate gives Jones for his defense, it's
possible all four will wind up in the Hall of Fame. But what's really notable about Harper is what he's done
since being called up.
After going 3-for-4 with a walk Monday night, Harper is batting .295/.381/.527. He isn't simply holding his
own — he's dominating. Among players with at least 160 plate appearances, Harper ranks 12th in the NL with a
.908 OPS. He has the highest OPS on the Nationals.
Let's rephrase that: Bryce Harper, age 19, is the best hitter on a first-place team.
His fellow teenage debutants don't come close to replicating his performance. As a 19-year-old rookie, Beltre
hit .215/.278/.369. Jones hit .217/.265/.443 when he was called up in 1996. Rodriguez debuted in the majors
while he was still 18, but he was clearly overmatched and hit .204/.241/.204 before he was sent back to the
minors. The following year, A-Rod played sparingly and batted .232/.264/.408. Only in 1996, when Rodriguez
was 20 (he turned 21 during the season), did he dominate, leading the AL in batting average (.358), doubles
(54), runs scored (141), and total bases (379).
In the last 40 years, the only 19-year-old to play regularly and hit at an above-average level was Griffey, who
batted a respectable .264/.329/.420 for the Mariners in 1989. Factor in his glove in center field and Griffey was
a well-above-average player — but at the plate, Harper has clearly been better.
In fact, with one exception, Harper has out-hit every teenager in major league history. Here is a list of the
highest OPS by a teenager (minimum: 150 plate appearances) going back to 1876:
Year Age Name OPS
1928 19 Mel Ott .921
2012 19 Bryce Harper .908
1964 19 Tony Conigliaro .883
1951 19 Mickey Mantle .792
1970 19 Cesar Cedeno .790
Ignore, for a moment, the names on the list, and just consider Harper's place on it. Bryce Harper is in the midst
of a season that is almost without precedent in MLB's 126-year history.
Now, with only 39 games under his belt, it's possible that Harper is simply in an unsustainable hot stretch, and
that by year's end his numbers may drop into more pedestrian territory. But Harper has built up such a lead that
he's likely to stay on this list even with some regression to the mean. Griffey, for instance, didn't have a .908
OPS in any single month of his rookie season. Harper has played so well for so long that there's no other way to
characterize what he's doing but to call it historic.
Mike Trout, the wunderkind who is making his case as the best player in the American League at the age of 20,
hit just .220/.281/.390 last season, when he was 19. Trout is having a historic season in his own right, but even
he couldn't match Harper's exploits as a teenager.
OK, back to the names. Mel Ott's a Hall of Famer, and Mickey Mantle was apparently a ballplayer of some
renown. (Harper wears no. 34 in homage to the Mick, because 3 + 4 = 7.) But Conigliaro was never the same
after he took a fastball to the temple in 1967 — inspiring a very different sort of SI cover — that caused him to
miss the next 18 months. Cedeno was on a Hall of Fame trajectory into his mid-20s, but by the time he reached
30 he was a shell of his former self.
Just because Harper is an All-Star caliber ballplayer at age 19 doesn't mean he's guaranteed to scale greater
heights as he ages. If anything, by setting the bar so high at such a young age, he has created such high
expectations that he could become one of the signature players of his generation and still leave people wanting
more. (In unrelated news, the NBA Finals get under way tonight.) Not even Harper has raised the realm of
possibility as much as Kerry Wood did the day he struck out 20 Astros in just his fifth major league game.
Wood's retirement last month, with just 86 wins and 63 saves to his credit, is a fitting reminder of how much
can go wrong even after a player reaches the summit.
Except for one major distinction: Wood was a pitcher, and pitchers — especially young pitchers — get hurt.
Moreover, their injuries have a nasty way of eventually robbing them of their ability to pitch. Hitters don't get
hurt as often, and their injuries rarely cause permanent impairment to their abilities.
Let's take a look at a couple of charts. Here is a list of the 12 pitchers in the live ball era (since 1920) with the
most career wins by their age 22 season:2
Pitcher Wins Career Wins Hall of Fame?
Bob Feller 107 266 Yes
Dwight Gooden 73 194 No
Bert Blyleven 63 287 Yes
Larry Dierker 55 139 No
Mike McCormick 54 134 No
Milt Pappas 53 209 No
Frank Tanana 51 240 No
Don Drysdale 51 209 Yes
Fernando Valenzuela 49 173 No
Gary Nolan 49 110 No
Don Gullett 48 109 No
Wes Ferrell 46 193 No
By definition, every pitcher on the list was a phenom in his youth, and yet the majority of them are remembered
more for what might have been than for what was. Too many pitches at too young an age ended the careers of
Dierker, Nolan, and Gullett by the time they turned 30. Tanana and Valenzuela hung on as crafty finesse
pitchers as they aged. Gooden tore his rotator cuff when he was 24 and was never the same. Even the success
stories were finished early. Drysdale threw his last pitch two weeks after he turned 33. Bob Feller, still (and
probably always) the greatest baseball phenom ever, lost his fastball in his early 30s and won his last game at
36. Bert Blyleven is the only pitcher on that list to stay effective into his late 30s.
Now here's a list of the 12 hitters with the most hits through their age 22 season:
Name Hits Career Hits Hall of Fame?
Buddy Lewis 753 1563 No
Robin Yount 717 3142 Yes
Mel Ott 715 2876 Yes
Al Kaline 710 3007 Yes
Freddie Lindstrom 689 1747 Yes
Ken Griffey Jr. 652 2781 Probably
Alex Rodriguez 648 2834+ Probably
Vada Pinson 626 2757 No
Cesar Cedeno 618 2087 No
Edgar Renteria 611 2327 Probably not
Ted Williams 563 2654 Yes
Mickey Mantle 561 2415 Yes
It's not really a comparison. Two-thirds of the players on this list are or will be Hall of Famers — granted,
Lindstrom's induction was a joke — and three of the other four players had long and generally satisfying
careers. Buddy Lewis is forgotten today, but he was one of the AL's best third basemen before serving three
years as a pilot in World War II, and he retired soon after returning from the war, while still a valuable player.
If you extend these lists the differences become even more stark. Of the 25 winningest pitchers through the age
of 22, just six made the Hall of Fame. (C.C. Sabathia and Felix Hernandez have a chance to make it eight.) Of
the 25 hitters with the most hits through age 22, 18 of them — counting Griffey and Rodriguez — are Hall of
Famers. Being a productive everyday player in the majors at a very early age doesn't guarantee that you'll go on
to a Hall of Fame career — but it comes awfully close.
Since we're talking about Bryce Harper, one more list is relevant here — the list of the 12 hitters with the most
home runs by age 22:
Name HR Career HR Hall of Fame?
Mel Ott 115 511 Yes
Eddie Mathews 112 512 Yes
Alex Rodriguez 106 638+ Probably
Tony Conigliaro 104 166 No
Frank Robinson 98 586 Yes
Bob Horner 91 218 No
Ted Williams 91 521 Yes
Ken Griffey Jr. 87 630 Probably
Johnny Bench 87 389 Yes
Jimmie Foxx 86 534 Yes
Mickey Mantle 84 536 Yes
Al Kaline 82 399 Yes
While there's a lot of overlap, this list is even more impressive than the last one. Conigliaro got hurt, and Bob
Horner got fat — but every other player on this list is a Hall of Famer. There is no stronger indicator of a Hall
of Fame career than precocious power — the very skill Bryce Harper is most famous for.
It seems that only two things can prevent a hitter who has reached Harper's level from going on to a Hall of
Fame career. The first is a serious injury. The pitch that eventually cost Conigliaro the vision in his left eye still
resonates a half-century later. Cesar Cedeno suffered a severe ankle injury in the 1980 NLCS and was never the
same.
It's also possible that a player might simply lack the drive to achieve greatness. Cedeno was questioned about
his work ethic for much of his career. Horner ate his way to Japan by the time he was 29. Andruw Jones, who
would rank next on the home run list with 80 homers by age 22, was notorious for his laissez-faire attitude
toward practice, which might explain why he suddenly appeared washed-up at the age of 31 before reinventing
himself as a platoon corner outfielder.
There's no way to guard against injuries, but if there's one thing no one worries about with Bryce Harper, it's
whether he has the desire to be great. For a while, there were actually worries that his desire to be great might
get him killed. The kid bought eye black by the barrel, and his team was eliminated from the Junior College
World Series after he was suspended for arguing with an umpire. In the minor leagues last year, Harper caught
heat for hitting a home run and then blowing a kiss at the pitcher. His reputation preceded him — when Harper
was introduced during his major league debut in Los Angeles, he was booed. Lustily.
But since reaching the majors, Harper has only shown up his opponents with his bat, his legs, and his arm. It's
as if he finally decided to respect his opponents once he reached a level of competition where he felt they were
worthy of his respect. He has been a model citizen as a major leaguer, having done nothing more egregious than
deliberately knocking off his helmet while cruising into second base on his first major league hit. He took the
high road when Cole Hamels hit him with a pitch and bragged that he did so to put the rookie in his place.
While Harper has behaved himself, he has also played balls-to-the-wall day in and day out. After Hamels
plunked him, Harper served revenge on a straight steal — of home. Harper has good speed but is hardly a
burner, yet he has already hit four triples in a little more than a month, the sign of a player who's thinking extra
bases every time he comes out of the box.
He makes adjustments quickly; last Tuesday, after striking out badly in the 11th against Elvin Ramirez, he faced
Ramirez again with the bases loaded and two outs in the 12th, and after falling behind 0-and-2, Harper served a
line drive to left field for the first walk-off hit of his career. He has a flare for the dramatic. On Sunday, Harper
wasn't in the starting lineup for the first time since he was called up. Instead, he pinch-hit in the ninth inning of
a tie game, drew a walk, then streaked around from first on a two-out double to plate the winning run.
Bryce Harper is 19 years old. He's been in the major leagues for six weeks. He's accomplished almost nothing.
And yet he's proven almost everything. Sometimes the hype machine gets one right, and sometimes the hype
machine is even a little understated. If you find him to be infuriating, we suggest you find a way to learn to live
with him. It looks like he's going to be with us for a long, long time.
Article #11
Danny Espinosa, switch hitting and the confounding nature of having two different swings
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 6/23/12
BOSTON -- Danny Espinosa has been laughing off the question for years. Whenever his splits begin to skew
the suggestion arises: If you're so much better from one side of the plate than the other, why not hit from that
side exclusively?
The only difference now is that the question used to be if he would consider abandoning hitting right-handed.
Even his father, Danny, used to get asked if his son would ever consider giving up hitting from the right side.
He had more power from the right side, they'd say, but he was a better hitter left-handed.
That is not the case this season.
When Espinosa faces left-handed pitching this year, he's hitting .368 with a .467 on-base percentage and .684
slugging percentage. When he faces right-handers, he's a .191 hitter with a .273 OBP and .293 slugging
percentage.
Friday night, Espinosa was 2-for-4 with a walk and two doubles against Red Sox lefty Felix Doubront. He hit
the ball with authority, swung at his pitches and didn't waver in his approach. Against two right-handed
relievers, he made outs.
"I feel like no one can get me out (right-handed)," Espinosa said. "I have a good approach up there. I know what
I can hit and I know what I can't hit. I feel good."
It's almost like he's two different players, two different hitters. There's the left-handed Espinosa, who feels like
he's not using his hands enough and is trying to force his upper body to propel itself into a pitch. And the righthanded one, who is more active in the box, has more movement in his swing and feels much more dominant
with his top hand.
That's the one where Espinosa gets in the box and "I feel like I can put the bat wherever I want and get to where
I need to be to hit it."
"On the left side, I just see more of an upper body swing," said bench coach Randy Knorr, who managed
Espinosa in Double-A in 2010 and recalled a three-homer game in which he hit two right-handed and three lefthanded.
"Every once in a while, he'll put it all together and his legs will come along with his upper body and he puts
good swings. When he doesn't use his lower half, he kind of gets under it and misses his pitch. That's what I see
from the dugout watching him.. He just needs to get back there. He's got to relax and just trust his ability and
get back to being confident on the left side."
What Espinosa has come to figure out is that a lot of his issues stem from his mindset. He finds himself
swinging at pitches he wouldn't even think of offering at if he were batting right-handed, his mind racing at the
plate. But it's difficult to carry anything over from one side to the other given how vastly different both sides
are.
"Sometimes left-handed, I over-think it," Espinosa said. "I try to be too fine. I try to be too perfect. That’s
what’s creating the bad swings too much when I hit. I don’t’ find myself swinging right-handed at bad pitches.
Left-handed, sometimes I find myself going out of the zone -- not some of the time; a lot of time this year, I’ve
been going out of the zone.
"Maybe it’s one of those things, I need to go up there completely clear-headed and not think anything."
The Nationals will face right-hander Daisuke Matuzaka Saturday afternoon but Espinosa will get another lefty
on Sunday in Jon Lester. His overall numbers could easily continue to rise if he gets to face more left-handed
pitching but he knows he's got to figure out his left-handed swing. Giving up switch hitting is simply not an
option for him.
"It’s been real weird for me," Espinosa said. "My whole life, I was a better left-handed hitter. It’s kind of just a
confusion thing. I don’t understand it... It’s just been a work in progress this whole year. It gets frustrating at
times, because my whole life I’ve been a better hitter left-handed. I’m just like, ‘Why am I all of a sudden
struggling left-handed?’ Right-handed, I can’t get out. I just got to keep with it."
Article #12
Nationals' Harper, Strasburg are mature beyond their years
By David Lennon, New York Newsday, 6/17/12
WASHINGTON -- When it was time, Bryce Harper gestured to the gathering media crowd, and the half-circle
of reporters tightened around his locker like a noose. Television lights shined in his face. Microphones were
shoved under his chin.
Not once during the 5-minute, 43-second interview did Harper's expression change. Not even when a teammate
suddenly decided to blast a profanity-laced rap song so loudly that it made a number of his answers inaudible to
those standing within three feet.
And people were worried about Harper's maturity?
As the music blared, Harper never flinched. As far as the Nationals' 19-year-old prodigy was concerned, he
could have been standing in the Library of Congress . His focus was on listening to the question, formulating a
response and moving on to the next one.
Bryce, are there any current Yankees that you idolized growing up?
"Um, not much," Harper replied. "There's a lot of guys that I looked up to. There's a guy in our clubhouse now
that I look up to -- Ryan Zimmerman . He's unbelievable. For him to take me under his wing and really help me
out every day, I think he's a guy that I want to be like in the near future."
Bryce, is there anything that you can learn from Derek Jeter as someone who's played in the fishbowl for so
long?
"Jeter is the face of baseball," Harper said. "He's going to be a Hall of Famer. He's had a great career. Hopefully
he can play for the next five years, too."
And so it went. For as much unfettered joy as Harper displays on the field, he also can pull in the reins when
necessary, and that's something that needs to be done occasionally to stay on point in the major leagues.
Stephen Strasburg , the No. 1 pick in 2009 before Harper went first overall the following year, knows the
feeling. Now back as the ace of the Nationals' rotation after making only five starts in 2011 because of Tommy
John surgery , Strasburg, 23, no longer has to absorb most of the media crush by himself.
At 8-1 with a 2.45 ERA, Strasburg has 100 strikeouts in 77 innings. He's a threat to R.A. Dickey to start next
month's All-Star Game for the National League . Two years ago, Dickey likened his D.C. matchup with
Strasburg to a butterfly vs. an F-15 fighter jet. As different as their styles may be -- a floating knuckleball
compared to a knockout 98-mph fastball -- both burn with a similar white-hot competitive fire.
"I'm not one to sit here and say that we've arrived," Strasburg said of the Nationals' fast start. "That we've
accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. We're not even halfway through the season.
"A lot can change. You look at last year, some of the teams that didn't get in the playoffs. They were playing
good baseball all year except up until the last month. You can't really worry about all the hype that this team is
getting now."
Strasburg and Harper are the magnets for that attention, just as Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry were for
the Mets of the mid-1980s. Those also were teams with plenty of other talented pieces surrounding two young
superstars.
Three decades later, former Mets manager and current Nationals manager Davey Johnson has his modern-day
Doc and Straw, but Strasburg and Harper appear to be immune to the distractions that haunted their Mets
counterparts.
"Nowadays the spotlight is on you," said Johnson, 69. "We have lessons on Tweeter and Facebook -- be careful
what you say, the world knows what's going on. We know people are watching. But the makeup on this ballclub
is such that they like it. They like scrutiny. They like being up against the best. They like the challenge that
brings."
Harper, who began the season at Triple-A Syracuse, was supposed to get only a taste of the majors when he was
called up April 27 to replace the injured Zimmerman. But Harper soon made it impossible to be sent back
down.
Before going 0-for-7 with five strikeouts in a 5-3, 14-inning loss to the Yankees Saturday, he was batting .365
(31-for-85) with three doubles, three triples and five home runs in his last 22 games. He had a .438 on-base
percentage, a .647 slugging percentage, 14 RBIs, 19 runs scored and three stolen bases in that span.
"One thing about him: I bet he never changes the way he plays," said Mets manager Terry Collins , who first
watched Harper in the low minors before getting a more recent look at Nationals Park. "He's the whole package.
I saw him when he was 17. He walked on the field with guys four years older than him and he was head and
shoulders above all of them."
Just as the Nationals have to worry about Harper's high motor wearing down over the course of a long season,
they plan to protect the surgically repaired Strasburg by restricting his innings. The Nationals have not publicly
announced a number -- reportedly they plan to cap him at roughly 165 innings -- but that could be a dicey
proposition, especially if they are making a playoff push in September.
Strasburg made his 13th start Thursday but left after six innings because of what the team described as a
fingernail-grooming incident that cut his middle finger. He still won his fifth straight, striking out eight. When
asked about the innings-limit cloud hovering over him, he shrugged.
"I understand where it comes from," Strasburg said, "but nobody's approached me on it within the organization,
so I really just don't have much to say. It's something that obviously is going to be a tough decision down the
road and something that I have no control over.
"You can sit here and play the what-if scenario and stuff, but I'm not trying to do that. I think it will give me a
headache. I'm going to give it everything I got until Davey takes the ball out of my hands, and that's what I've
focused on. That's what I've always tried to do."
Article #13
Edwin Jackson proving to be the Nationals’ No. 4 starter in name only
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 6/23/12
BALTIMORE — It was almost five months ago now that Edwin Jackson chose the Washington Nationals.
Considered one of the top free-agent starters on the market, he looked at what they had in their rotation and in
their bullpen and thought being titled No. 4 in D.C. might be better than being a No. 1 or a No. 2 anywhere else.
Everywhere the Nationals have gone this season, they’ve proven that to be true. Adam LaRoche hears it at first
base on a nightly basis. Batters shake their heads but can’t catch their breath in a three-game series against them
and a rotation that features power arm after power arm.
Even on nights like Saturday at Camden Yards, when Jackson knew from the time he began throwing his warmup tosses in the bullpen that it was going to be an uphill battle, they make the opposition look silly. In a 3-1
victory over the Baltimore Orioles, Jackson was perfect through four innings and didn’t allow a hit until there
was one out in the fifth. And his pitching coach was wondering what was wrong.
“For six innings he was just unbelievably good and he said he didn’t feel good,” said Nationals manager Davey
Johnson said, noting Jackson’s velocity, which is normally in the 94-96 mph range, was barely hovering around
90.
“Even [pitching coach Steve McCatty] said, ‘What’s wrong with him,’” Johnson said. “I said, ‘There ain’t
nothing wrong with him. They ain’t got a hit yet.’”
When Jackson’s night was over, with one out in the seventh inning, all he’d given up was four hits and the only
one that did damage was a solo home run by Adam Jones on a hanging slider that clanked off the left field foul
pole. His season ERA dropped to 2.91 — which only made him fit in even more with his teammates.
The Nationals are the only team in the major leagues with four starters with ERAs under 3.00. There are 15
teams that don’t have a single starter under that mark and no other major league team has more than two with
numbers that good.
If Stephen Strasburg (2.46), Gio Gonzalez (2.55), Jordan Zimmermann (2.89) and Jackson can maintain this
pace over the course of the season, the Nationals would be the first with four starters under 3.00 since the 1985
Los Angeles Dodgers. That was Orel Hershiser (2.03), Bob Welch (2.31), Fernando Valenzuela (2.45) and Jerry
Reuss (2.92). The Baltimore Orioles‘ rotation in 1972 accomplished the feat as well but the Nationals are also
making their mark with an average staff age under 26.
“You look at the guys on paper and you look at the rotation and it’s a great group of guys and everybody is
young,” Jackson said, the elder statesman at 28. “It’s not often that 28 is the oldest starter on the rotation. But
these guys have going out and been getting done for a couple years. So they’re starting to be established
pitchers — and they’re pitching like it.”
Perhaps none, though, as consistently of late as Jackson. For a pitcher who has battled to find that consistency
from start to start throughout his career, Jackson is averaging 6 ⅔ innings per start and hasn’t allowed more than
three runs in a game since May 2. And he’s supposed to be the fourth-best starter the Nationals have.
“That’s insane,” said Nationals closer Tyler Clippard, who picked up his 12th consecutive save with a 1-2-3
ninth and is making Johnson seriously consider leaving him in the role even when Drew Storen returns healthy.
“It make us smile. Looking around this clubhouse … I just can’t imagine what those other teams are thinking
when Edwin is our fourth guy. It’s a joke. He’s probably the No. 1 starter on more than half the teams in the
league.”
Even on Saturday, without his best stuff, the well-struck balls early either went right to fielders or were tracked
down. Bryce Harper ranged well to his left in the second inning to chase Matt Wieters’ deep fly to right center.
Tyler Moore to his left in the fourth for one off the bat of J.J. Hardy. Chris Davis squared up Jackson’s 86-mph
slider and ripped it right at first baseman Adam LaRoche.
“Normally those are the days you pitch better, when you don’t feel the best and you’re not trying to over do it,”
Jackson said. “You’re down in the zone and pitching to contact and making them put the ball in play.”
The Nationals themselves only had eight hits. They only scored three runs. They were practically silenced after
the fourth inning. Ryan Zimmerman’s sore shoulder and his slump wore on. Once again, it didn’t matter.
As he walked off the field, Johnson waved to his wife in the crowd and then pumped his fist. On the back of the
best pitching staff in baseball, his team had won again.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “It tells you just how good they’ve been going. I’m impressed. Everybody’s
impressed.”
Article #14
Reliever Mike Gonzalez brings veteran presence to Nationals’ youthful staff
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 6/26/12
DENVER — Michael Gonzalez was a member of the Washington Nationals for just more than two weeks when
he got Ross Detwiler’s ear in the bullpen. Detwiler had made four appearances out of the bullpen after ChienMing Wang had bumped him from the rotation, and he’d gotten mixed results.
So in the midst of a tough interleague stretch against American League East teams that Gonzalez, a former
Oriole, was intimately familiar with, the two lefties began to chat.
Gonzalez had seen enough out of Detwiler to know “no one wants to be up there against him.” And yet he’d
watched as the 26-year-old didn’t always go right after hitters with stuff he thought was “obviously so good.” In
his those four relief appearances, Detwiler had walked as many batters as he’d given up hits to (five).
“Be aggressive,” Gonzalez told Detwiler. “Trust yourself.”
Detwiler went out that night and threw 3 2/3 hitless innings in relief of Wang. The next day, the Nationals
moved him back into the rotation.
“[Gonzalez] was really kind of pumping up, telling me to stay in a rhythm and really trust my stuff,” Detwiler
said. “That’s what I took out to the mound.”
It was an immediate impact for a player who has otherwise gone largely unnoticed on a stacked pitching staff.
Gonzalez was a late addition to the Nationals’ relief corps, one he feels on stuff alone is “top two in the major
leagues.” He didn’t sign with the team until May 8 and he didn’t pitch for an affiliate until June 1. By June 3,
with an out in his contract, he was added to the major league roster.
His numbers (zero earned runs, five hits, three walks, five strikeouts, four of 13 inherited runners scored) are
decent. But with Brad Lidge since released, Gonzalez’s role becomes something more. In a bullpen full of
relative youth, Gonzalez has become the elder statesman and the veteran voice. That’s fine with him.
“I know the experience is one of the reasons why they signed me,” said Gonzalez, who is coming off two
injury-plagued and ineffective years with Baltimore and a fall playoff run with Texas. “But it’s one of those
things where the guys themselves have to be receptive. I’m all for it, to share what I’ve learned over the years.”
For whatever Gonzalez brings as a reliever, which the Nationals have been pleased with, he’s known as one of
the best teammates in baseball. In Baltimore, he bought several rookies suits as one of his first acts. In Atlanta,
he and Rafael Soriano, now the Yankees’ closer, were so close Soriano named Gonzalez the godfather of his
son. While they booed him on the mound in Baltimore, in the clubhouse he still has plenty of fans.
Gonzalez is approaching his one-month anniversary with the Nationals as they head toward the All-Star break.
“He’s been a good addition,” manager Davey Johnson said. “It’s nice to have veteran presence around.”
Article #15
Moore at ease second time around
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 6/25/12
DENVER — The first time Tyler Moore got the call to the big leagues, he concedes he might not have been
mentally ready. Going from playing every day in Triple-A to playing sparingly in the majors, Moore found
himself standing in for pinch hit at-bats and being overcome.
“The crowds getting big, there’s runners on,” Moore said. “I’d get tensed up.”
Moore was optioned to Triple-A on May 28. He went back to playing first base and left field every day and hit
.391 with two homers. Nine days later, he was back with the Nationals. Since then, Moore has hit .450 (9 for
20) with two doubles, two homers, five walks and only three strikeouts. He started Monday against Colorado
lefty Jeff Francis.
His performance has been enough that he’s worked his way into a platoon role in left field with Steve
Lombardozzi. In the past 11 games, if Lombardozzi isn’t playing left field, Moore is as the Nationals have faced
far more left-handed pitching than they did early in the season. If he keeps producing, manager Davey Johnson
said his role could expand.
“There’s been some discussion on Tyler of ‘Not just lefties,” Johnson said. “His performance has not gone
unnoticed by the manager or the staff, or all of baseball.
“He’s gaining respect from his teammates and around the league. All you have to do is watch how cautious the
pitchers are when they pitch to him. And he’s not swinging at balls out of the zone.”
Moore credits the minor league interlude for allowing him time to reboot after his first call-up.
He said this time around “feels like a clean slate,” and cites improved confidence for his increased comfort at
the plate and in the outfield as a converted first baseman.
“Now I know exactly what to expect,” he said. “How the stadiums are going to be and how my emotions are
going to be to kind of calm myself down, and just play baseball and compete with the pitchers.”
Article #16
Davey Johnson living in the now — and loving every bit of it
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 6/23/12
BALTIMORE — A year later, there weren’t too many eyebrows raised.
The date, June 23, came and went somewhat unceremoniously inside the Washington Nationals' clubhouse at
Camden Yards, except for the note on the white board in blue ink that let everyone know it was clubhouse
manager Mike Wallace’s birthday.
It was a year ago that things changed for the Nationals. A year ago that Jim Riggleman decided, following a
walk-off win and an 8-1 homestand, to abruptly resign as manager in a contract dispute.
That day Davey Johnson was fishing off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in John Havlicek’s tournament when
he heard the news.
His life changed then, too.
“It was a very sad day for me,” the Nationals’ current manager said. “I like Jimmy, and I hate to see anybody’s
career in managing go that way. But it doesn’t feel like I’ve been here a year. It feels more like 10 years.”
“No,” he added with a laugh, “It feels more like a month or so. When you’re back in baseball, it doesn’t leave
you. You think about it year-round, offseason, and then the travel. … One day runs into the other.”
As the anniversary was mentioned to players who were there then, it was met more with surprise that only a
year had passed than any real reflection or reaction. Felt like longer, most said, and they acknowledged it was
one of the strangest days they’d ever witnessed. Felt like a different team and a different time, even though
many of the parts remained the same.
These Nationals are 40-28. They’re 80-71 under Johnson, who took over three games later in Anaheim, Calif.,
after last managing in the majors in 2000 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and they’re in first place in the National
League East.
“I think we’ve been gradually getting toward playing up to our potential,” Johnson said, the Nationals 38-37 at
this time last year. “As far as I’m concerned, we still have a ways to go as a team. We’re still very young, still
very inexperienced as a whole team, but I’m not surprised at how we’re playing and where we’re at, because I
expected it.”
Johnson ended the 2011 season admitting finally that while his contract stipulated for him to become a
consultant at season’s end, he would prefer to return in 2012 as manager. The assumption is that the same
options will be on the table for him at the end of the current season.
Asked Saturday if the Nationals’ first 68 games this season have made him re-evaluate or make any decisions
about next season yet, Johnson didn’t bite.
“I keep all my energy on today, with an eye on tomorrow,” Johnson said, his stock answer for any questions
that he deems too far in the future. “That doesn’t go any farther than that. That’s the way I basically live my
life. I’m very comfortable living in the short-term. I think I’m lucky to be here, as I am here now, with all that’s
happened. I’ve had a very fun life.
“For me to think about what challenges I’m going to face six months from now is a useless exercise. Why go
there? Who cares? I hope they still like me today, and I hope they still like me tomorrow. But I’m not going to
ask them, are you going to like me six months from now? Are you kidding me?”
Johnson, 69, uses that mantra in every facet of his life. Even with his wife, Susan, when she tries to discuss
future plans or vacations with him. But it’s a unique perspective he brings to the position. When Riggleman,
who is now managing the Cincinnati Reds’ Double-A team, and Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo had
their standoff a year ago, it was the opposite perspective that led to Riggleman’s issuing of an ultimatum.
The sun drenched the field at Camden Yards on Saturday as Johnson glanced at his players making their way
out to stretch before batting practice. His own tenure as the manager in Baltimore ended in an abrupt and
unceremonious manner 15 years ago, so it seemed as fitting a place as any for the topic at hand.
Contract status is no longer a concern for Johnson, though he smiled at the nature of the questioning, knowing
his answer wouldn’t change. These things will all work out in time, his look seemed to indicate.
“I’m sure [the Nationals] are comfortable with that,” Johnson said. “And I’m comfortable with it, too.”
Article #17
Bryce Harper loves Washington, and says he wants to play his entire career in the city
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 6/29/12
Ron Harper speaks with his youngest son most every day, and on the evening of June 13, Bryce Harper sounded
tired. The Washington Nationals had finished a road trip through Boston and Toronto, during which Harper put
on one of the most devastating hitting stretches by a teenager on record. On the phone with his father, baseball
was not on his mind. “I can’t wait to go home, Pop,” Harper said.
The casual reference gave Ron Harper pause. Home? Home had always been Las Vegas, the city where Harper
was born and raised. Then, he realized his son wasn’t talking about Las Vegas. He was talking about
Washington.
“This was the first time I heard him say D.C. felt like home,” he said.
Since his major league debut on April 28, Harper has played at a historic level for someone his age. He has
emerged as an offensive catalyst for a first-place team, and attracted fan and media attention throughout the
sport with his blend of power and hustle.
He also remains a 19-year-old who could be in college but is instead living alone in a top-story apartment in
Pentagon City, a $9.9 million contract in his pocket and a $20 Weber grill on the balcony. He does his own
laundry, except when his father visits. When he is bored, he goes shopping in Georgetown. He thinks of
Washington as home with a surprising — or, for the Nationals and their fans, encouraging — degree of
permanence.
About three weeks ago, Harper talked to teammate Ryan Zimmerman about playing in the same city for the
duration of his career. Zimmerman, who grew up in Virginia, signed a contract extension this offseason that
ensures he will stay in Washington through at least 2019. Harper told him he wanted the same thing in his
career.
“You look at Cal Ripken. You look at Derek Jeter. You look at all the greats that played for one team their
whole career,” Harper said last weekend, sitting in the dugout at Camden Yards in Baltimore. “I want to be like
that. I’ve always wanted to be like that. I’ve always wanted to play with that same team.”
“Having a community and fans like we do in D.C. that love our players, love everything about us, we deserve to
give something back to them,” he added. “I want to do that. I don’t want to do anything else.”
Harper has told his father the same thing, that he wants to make Washington home and play here until he retires.
“Bryce is as loyal as they come,” Ron Harper said. “He doesn’t care about nothing but winning a
championship.”
He is considering moving to Washington for the winter, to live here year-round and visit family out West for
holidays. Only three Washington players — Zimmerman, Jayson Werth, and Columbia, Md., native Steve
Lombardozzi — live in the area.
“The best thing about D.C. is the people,” Harper said. “They are so nice and genuine. Seeing us on the streets,
it’s just like ‘Hey, I don’t want to bother you, but it’s nice to meet you. You’re doing a great job.’ They’re so
nice. I got the vibe right when I got to D.C. I was like, ‘These people actually care about their athletes. They
actually care about the people around them.’ They just want the best for us.”
Feeling a vivid peace
Baseball’s relentless schedule consumes the majority of Harper’s time, but he has developed routines in his life
away from the game. On many days, that includes scribbling it all down in a journal. He listens to Counting
Crows and Dave Matthews Band and unburdens himself of his thoughts. He jots down quotes he wants to
remember and logs his experiences.
“Just getting things out,” Harper said. “Once I get things out, then I come to the field the next day, I’m good. I
don’t write every day. It’s just those times where it’s like, I’ve got to get a release.”
Harper has been writing in his journal since the end of high school, which for him is not long ago. Harper did
not stay in college long — he passed the GED, left high school after his sophomore year and spent a semester at
the College of Southern Nevada in order to qualify for the baseball draft at 17.
If he had stayed in school, he said, he would have majored in journalism. He likes to keep his writing sharp in
case he becomes a sports broadcaster after his career. “It’s not like I’m writing poetry or anything like that,” he
said.
He feels a vivid peace when he writes. One night, Harper sat on his balcony and listened to music as a storm
gathered. “The rain and stuff is unreal — the thunder and the lightning storms,” Harper said. “The lightning
storms are pretty impressive out here. In Vegas, you get that a lot, too. I like when it rains. It’s relaxing.”
A close circle
Harper wakes up most mornings between 9:30 and 10. He makes the bed every day. He eats often at Ted’s
Bulletin, on Barracks Row, because he loves the breakfast and they serve it all day. Sometimes he sits at the bar
or in the main dining room, or takes food to go. His favorite order is a stack of chocolate pancakes.
One time, his waiter slipped Harper a blueberry tart, a Pop-Tart-like house-made pastry covered in icing and
purple sprinkles. That night, May 14, he hit his first career home run. Another day, the same waiter gave him
another blueberry tart, Harper smashed another home run. Now, the staff views it as a tradition.
“We call it his power pop tart,” manager Edel McAloon said.
Harper has developed other, similar relationships. On the night he hit his first home run, he went for a late
dinner with a friend at Clyde’s in Georgetown. It is quiet on weeknights, and Harper had eaten there frequently
enough to become friendly with the staff. Two bartenders and five waiters were working that night. They
clapped for him as he walked in. At the end of his meal, they brought him a slice of chocolate cake with a
candle on it. The meal was on the house.
Harper takes tips on local restaurants from Bill Gluvna, a former Nationals public relations official who now
works for the company headed by Harper’s agent, Scott Boras. Gluvna is one of Harper’s closest confidants in
the city.
For a game beginning at 7:05 p.m., Harper typically drives one of his two cars to Nationals Park by 1 p.m. He
receives treatment on his back, studies video of the opposing team and prepares for the game. He needs to get
his work done early because, invariably, reporters will vie for his time once the clubhouse opens to media.
“I’m sure it wears on him,” his father said. “Just getting tired. Just wanting to get in there and get his thing
done, and just be another player. I keep telling him, ‘Kid, you’re not. You’re not another player. It’s all been
built up. You didn’t ask for it. You just were good at something and it worked out.’ ”
Harper keeps a close circle around him. His father, a retired ironworker, visits more often than his mother,
Sheri, who still works as a paralegal. Harper sometimes cooks for himself — grilled chicken and pastas, mostly
— but relishes the times when his mother visits and makes his favorite dish, shepherd’s pie. During his parents’
last visit, they noticed he had already done his own laundry. They still run errands for him, which makes him
feel almost guilty.
“Everything I need, they’re always there for me,” Harper said. “I’m so appreciative towards them. I feel bad
sometimes. Sometimes, they do a little too much, running errands for me and whatnot. But they want me to be
focused and have fun and not worry about little things around me. I think that’s really huge.”
Harper’s entire family visited him in Denver this week when the Nationals played the Colorado Rockies. His
father drove the 11 hours from Las Vegas to Denver so Harper could see the puppy his family gave him for
Christmas, which Harper had not seen since February. Harper named the puppy Swag.
“We’re like family”
For Harper, the demands of a major league ballplayer preclude a typical social life of a 19-year-old.
He sometimes hangs out with other Nationals players, often second baseman Danny Espinosa, who’s 25. Many
of his older teammates have families, and so he does not want to bother them on off days at home. He spent
several nights over the past month at home watching the College World Series or a movie on TV.
On the road, he stays tight with teammates. One night, on a walk to the hotel from Great American Ballpark in
Cincinnati, Zimmerman teased him when he figured out Harper was 8 years old when first baseman Adam
LaRoche got married.
“You’ve got a bunch of players around him who love him as a teammate and protect him and don’t let anybody
mess with him, except for them,” Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo said. “It’s like your brother. You can
mess with your brother as much as you want. Don’t let somebody from the outside mess with him.”
There is one unavoidable divide between Harper and his teammates. On the road, if a large group visits an
establishment with a 21-year age limit because of the drinking age, Harper cannot join them.
“From what I know, he’s got his close circle,” Ron Harper said. “It’s hard. He’s the youngest kid on the team.
He can’t go out. Really, his circle is him.”
Recently, the Harpers have been taking Swag to dog training classes. They want Swag to learn how to stay
inside for long enough to feel comfortable shipping him East to live with their son. “So he’ll have a
companion,” Ron Harper said.
Teammates will look out for him. When he cannot enter a bar, Harper said, a few teammates, often LaRoche or
outfielder Rick Ankiel, will break off with him and find a restaurant that does not require identification to enter.
“They don’t want to put me in bad circumstances,” Harper said. “That’s what this team has got. We’re like a
family. We have that camaraderie in the clubhouse. We all have fun. I respect those guys so much for that.”
A celebrity of Harper’s stature could surely massage his way into many bars or clubs. Harper said the
temptation does not even strike him as an option. He does not drink alcohol, he said, and he is adamant he will
not. Although he was raised a Mormon, Harper did not mention his religion as a reason.
“That stuff has never appealed to me,” he said. “It’s never appealed to me to go out and get hammered or
anything like that. That’s never been my nature. I want to take care of my body. I want my body to be strong all
the time. I don’t want to be fatigued. I don’t want to drink and have my liver collapse. I want to play for a long
time, and I want to be strong for a long time.
“I’ve always said my body is a temple. I take care of it. I don’t want anything to go inside of it that’s going to
destroy it or anything like that. I always tell my parents I’d never do anything like that. I’m going to keep strong
on that. There’s a lot of people that say, ‘Ah, no you won’t, no you won’t.’ But I’ve always told myself I
would.”
He said he also feels certain obligations.
“I’m not going to be a clown and go out, do anything like that,” Harper said. “I want to respect this town. I want
to respect the people in this town. I want this town to know, Harper is going to give this town his best every
single day. He’s not going to play hung over. He’s not going to do anything like that. He’s going to be the real
deal. He’s not going to do any stupid things that destroys his career. I really want to give my best every day. If I
don’t do those things, that’s not what’s going to happen.”
Years separate Harper from decisions about his long-term future, yet already he speaks about Washington as a
long-term home. He grew up a Yankees fan, but now he plays for the Nationals and calls Washington home.
Before the Nationals played the Yankees in mid-June, Harper told his father, “I don’t want to be a Yankee. I
want to beat them.”
Article #18
Youth is not a hindrance for Washington Nationals
By Jon Paul Morosi, Fox Sports, 7/5/12
On the Fourth of July, I’m prepared to make a patriotic proclamation.
The Washington Nationals will win the National League East.
The statement sounds bolder than it actually is. The Nationals have the best record, lowest team ERA and
largest division lead in the NL. At a time one might expect them to tire in the summer heat, the Nationals are
playing their best baseball yet. The San Francisco Giants arrived here this week as the NL West leader, and the
Nationals battered them in the first two games by an 18-7 count.
Ryan Zimmerman and Mike Morse, limited by injuries for much of the season, hit back-to-back home runs in
the holiday matinee. A backup catcher named Jhonatan Solano — he’s the fifth player to start at the position for
Washington this year — delivered the go-ahead home run. Edwin Jackson, a winner for the fourth time in sixth
starts, received a partial standing ovation in the fourth inning — after a fly ball to the warning track.
The Nationals are living right. And I don’t see any team in the division catching them now.
“I don’t think it’s a fluke,” general manager Mike Rizzo said after Wednesday’s 9-4 win when asked about his
team’s position atop the league. “We knew with the starting pitching we had, the bullpen we had, the defense
we had, we were going to be in a lot of games. Then when the offense would catch up, we would have a chance
to go on some streaks.
“I’m very pleased with it — don’t get me wrong — but I’m not shocked by it. I’m not taken aback or in awe
with it. We feel comfortable in our own skin. We feel comfortable with where we’re at.”
At 15 games over .500, most of the yeah-buts associated with the Nationals’ torrid start have melted away.
There remains the thorny topic of how many innings the organization will allow Stephen Strasburg to throw this
year. (And, yes, the team still plans to take the ball away from Strasburg sometime in September.)
Aside from that, what exactly are this team’s weaknesses? A recent shot of cortisone into Zimmerman’s right
shoulder enlivened his bat and, by extension, the lineup. The Nationals have averaged better than eight runs per
game during their current 6-2 run. Jayson Werth should further improve matters when he returns from the
disabled list later this month. Recuperating closer Drew Storen should have a similar impact on the bullpen
when he comes back after the All-Star break.
The team’s most obvious flaw is a lack of postseason experience. Only two players on the active roster —
starter Edwin Jackson and reserve Mark DeRosa — have World Series rings. The Nationals’ core is young,
homegrown and generally inexpensive. Those are excellent attributes, but inherent is unfamiliarity with
meaningful September baseball.
Zimmerman doesn’t care.
“We’re learning how to win,” he said. “We’re very inexperienced in this kind of stuff, but experience is the
most overrated thing in sports. The game is the game, whether it’s now or Sept. 15, and you need five more
wins to do whatever. It’s the same game we’re playing right now. That’s the way all of us think of it.
“It’s easy to say now, because none of us have ever been through it. But I really have a feeling that, even later in
the year, I really don’t see anything changing. It’s just a group of guys that enjoys playing baseball. Pressure
and experience and age — all that junk is overrated. Take our 25 guys against someone else’s 25 guys. It’s not
like we’re going to show up in September and swing at every slider in the dirt.”
That, in short, is why I’m convinced the Nationals will win the division: They have truckloads of talent and just
the right amount of swagger.
Speaking of the talent/swagger nexus, we’ve reached this point in a discussion about the Nationals and here
comes the first mention of Bryce Harper. Competitively speaking, that’s about the way it should be. Harper is a
19-year-old rookie, facing more scrutiny than just about any teenage athlete we can recall, and it’s no accident
that his worst stretch in the majors came just before Zimmerman and Morse got going. Perhaps Harper had
begun to feel the tightening vise of expectations.
Now, Harper can settle into his role — a No. 2 hitter who provides a lot of energy, some power and good
defense in center field. Even at his tender age, he’s capable of that much.
Nationals manager Davey Johnson remarked this week that he would like to move Harper to the outfield
corners more often, as a way to ease the stress on his body. But that will become difficult once Werth returns to
play right, now that Morse is reestablished in left. Morse can play first base, but that would force Johnson to sit
Adam LaRoche, who leads the team with 15 home runs and 52 RBI.
The Nationals might acquire a center fielder during the offseason — Michael Bourn? B.J. Upton? — but Harper
appears to be the solution for the remainder of the season.
“I think Bryce has showed all of us that he can handle center field,” Rizzo said. “He’s got 19-year-old legs. His
legs aren’t going to be an issue for us. His energy level isn’t going to be an issue for us. It looks like he’s going
to be our center fielder, because you’ve got to get everybody’s bat in the lineup. He’s played it well, and I think
that makes the decision much easier for us.”
The hard decision is the one that involves Strasburg, but Rizzo has resolved to make it. The Nationals have said
since spring training that Strasburg’s innings will be capped (likely around 160) in his first full season after
Tommy John surgery, and their success hasn’t changed Rizzo’s approach. Nor has the fact Strasburg said he
feels “great” after throwing 93 innings so far this year. “I have no clue how many innings I’m going to throw
this year,” Strasburg said. “Nobody’s said anything to me.”
Asked how the clubhouse will react when the front office shuts down Strasburg for the season, Morse said,
“When they say he can’t pitch, he can’t pitch. Our team is good enough. Mike Rizzo built this team, knowing
that Stephen’s not going to be able to go the full length. I bet he has a good game plan, and I think we’ll be
fine.”
I don’t agree with the Nationals’ approach, because they owe their players (and fans) the best possible
opportunity to win the World Series. But I’ve written as much before, and, much to my amazement, it didn’t
affect Rizzo’s plans. So, soon the focus will turn to how the Nationals can account for his absence.
The Nationals, in fact, should have a good rotation without Strasburg. Gio Gonzalez is an All-Star, Jordan
Zimmermann should be one, too, and Jackson and Ross Detwiler have ERAs below 4.00. Unless Rizzo trades
for a starter — which is possible — Strasburg’s likely replacement is John Lannan, the left-hander who led the
Nationals in wins last year but has spent all of this season at Triple-A
Syracuse.
Lannan’s full-season numbers are ordinary, but he’s been excellent lately: 1-1 with a 2.10 ERA in his past four
starts. Rizzo said the Nationals “never shopped” Lannan earlier this season, adding, “We knew what our
calendar looked like.” That was a not-so-subtle reference to Strasburg’s seasonal sundial. And if the Nationals
needed a starting pitcher tomorrow, Rizzo said, Lannan would get the call.
Contrast that with the pitching quandaries of the Mets (worst bullpen in baseball) and Braves (Brandon Beachy
out for the season, Mike Minor and Randall Delgado struggling). The Marlins and Phillies? Please. Both of
them are stuck on the wrong side of .500, and Philadelphia recently lost six straight.
So, count on Nationals Park hosting its first postseason game this October. The Nationals have a 4-1/2 lead in
the NL East, and they’re just naïve enough to make it last. “We’re not marking off days on the calendar, hoping
the season ends, because we’re in first place,” Zimmerman said. “We just go out and have fun. It’s a good
atmosphere, a good place.”
Article #19
Minor-league lessons shaped Desmond’s All-Star season
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 7/8/12
Ian Desmond stood on the field at Pfitzner Stadium and looked down at the dirt. A 21-year-old Single-A repeat,
Desmond walked the line between self-confidence and self-doubt. Which he had more of on a given day
depended so much on the night before. The big leagues were 45 minutes away in D.C. They may as well have
been on the other side of the world.
Randy Knorr, who often spent time with Desmond as he took ground balls, joined him. Knorr, an 11-year major
league veteran and World Series winner, was back at the bottom of the ladder in his new managing career.
"One day I'm going to be a major league manager," Knorr said to Desmond that evening. "And if it comes
tomorrow, you're going to be my shortstop."
"He gave me that look like 'You're so full of [crap],' " Knorr said.
Eight days ago, Knorr, now the Washington Nationals' bench coach, got word that Desmond was named to the
National League All-Star team.
Later that morning, alone in the dugout, Knorr approached Desmond — the starting shortstop on the National
League's best team — and put his arm around him. It had been six years since they stood together that night in
Potomac. The two did not speak. Knorr patted Desmond on the shoulder and walked away.
"He knew," Knorr said. "That's just our relationship. He knew what I was telling him."
"Randy was right," Desmond said. "He saw it a long time ago, and I think a lot of other people in the
organization did, too. They stuck with me. This is probably better for them than it is for me. A lot of people in
this organization put a lot of heart in me."
For as much as Ryan Zimmerman is the Nationals' Face of the Franchise, Desmond may be the face of their
farm system. One of the Montreal Expos' last draftees, an 18-year-old beginning his professional career with
obvious talent but no top-prospect status, Desmond spent six years in the Nationals' minor league system.
He was promoted and demoted. Spent some nights showing off his athleticism and others taking his bat home
after a hitless game to stand at the mirror for hours to perfect the swing that failed him. They once considered
moving him to center field, a proposition Knorr hated, manager Davey Johnson told Desmond to forget and
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo quickly nixed.
A year ago, he was statistically one of the worst offensive players in the league. Calls grew for the Nationals to
give up on him. His name came up in trade talks. Fans lit their torches and grabbed their pitchforks.
Rizzo didn't flinch. Johnson's confidence in him only deepened. Desmond escaped the No. 8 spot in the lineup,
seized the leadoff role Aug. 18 and, in his words, "salvaged a year," with a second-half run.
"Nobody's untradeable," Rizzo said. "But he was one of the core group of guys, and it would have taken a big,
big time upgrade to trade him. This guy was a winner. A makeup player who was a big part of where we were
going — and he would show you flashes of skills that it takes to be a guy that you're going to build a team
around, not a guy you're going to get rid of."
In 2012, he's one of the best shortstops in the NL. He's harnessed his athletic ability and sharpened his decisionmaking to cut down on errors. He enters the All-Star break with a .285 average, 17 homers and leading all
major league shortstops with 43 extra-base hits.
"How 'bout that?" Rizzo said. "This is as good as it gets for an old player development guy like me."
Desmond won't play in Tuesday's All-Star Game because of a sore left oblique he fears worsening and keeping
him out of an exciting second half. But his ascension to elite status and his All-Star designation remains. The
faith of an organization rewarded.
"I don't know if anybody with an opinion that matters ever thought [we should give up on him]," Zimmerman
said. "People forget that Ian's still very young. He was learning at this level, and any time you learn up here it's
tough. Your mistakes are magnified. Fans, or people who don't really have the most knowledge of the situation,
don't understand that he's still becoming a better player. They only see what's in front of them.
"I think that's why a lot of people were so quick to say 'Trade this guy.' Because they don't have the eye to see
how much he has to offer if he were to figure it out. I can see why people would say what they said, but I don't
think anyone in here ever felt that way."
When the Nationals first added Desmond to their roster in September 2009, he spent a few days in the majors
before he called his mom and his agent and told them he wanted to go back to the minors. "I don't want to be a
big leaguer," were his words.
It was a different time in Nationals history; a team far less composed of homegrown talent and more littered
with aging mercenaries mired in a losing culture.
"I was frustrated," Desmond said. "Because all I ever dreamed about was what the big leagues would be like. ...
Then I got called up and it was like every man for himself."
Gone were the nine-hour bus rides filled with card games and stories, the friendships he'd spent years
developing. Players would leave the clubhouse so quickly most would be gone before reporters entered for
postgame interviews.
Gone, too, was Desmond's sense of place. In the minors, he always hit in the top of the order and played short.
In his first two major league seasons, Desmond started 282 games at shortstop but hit in every spot in the
lineup.
That changed this year. Desmond has started 82 of the team's 83 games and hit only first, fifth or sixth. He hit
leadoff for the first 39 games until his .451 slugging percentage at the time made it ridiculous for him not to be
in a better position to drive in runs.
He worried his first two seasons about his status in the major leagues and on his team. This season he does not.
He changed his number from the team-issued No. 6 to Frank Robinson's No. 20. He's finding his way around
D.C. and exploring more than he ever has.
There is plenty he wants to improve on, such as strike zone recognition and consistently playing Gold Glove
defense, as he works toward winning a World Series. He brushes off the first-half accolades because they won't
mean much if the team doesn't maintain its pace. But he embraces his role as a leader in the infield and a
clubhouse filled with homegrown players. With more than three years left on his rookie contract, he talks about
spending his entire career in a Nationals uniform.
He's an All-Star. The major league shortstop for a bona fide playoff contender. The work of so many borne out
in the season they all knew he could have.
"As long as I have a jersey on my back, I'll be happy," Desmond said. "I think if it's a Washington Nationals
jersey, I'll be happier.
"But I have to worry about the team I'm on now and the teammates I have now. If I play the way I know I can
play and we play the way we can as a team, there should be no problem with me being here the rest of my
career."
Article #20
Nationals all-star pitchers Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez couldn’t be more different
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 7/9/12
On the days Gio Gonzalez starts, he blares Motown music throughout the Washington Nationals clubhouse, flits
around the room and chatters at teammates, reporters, broadcasters, anyone who will listen. He grew up in
Miami and became a professional out of high school. He is a left-hander, a curveball maestro and an
unrepentant goofball.
On the days Stephen Strasburg starts, he arrives later than most teammates and glowers in almost total silence,
rarely leaving the small circumference around his locker. He grew up in San Diego and went to college for three
years. He is a right-hander, the hardest-throwing starter in the league and a natural introvert.
“One’s a butterfly traveling at 150” mph, pitching coach Steve McCatty said. “And the other one’s a plodder on
that straight course.”
Strasburg and Gonzalez are both all-stars. Tuesday night in Kansas City they will stand next to each other, lined
up among the best players on the planet, and represent the Nationals, the team they have lifted to the best record
in the National League midway through their first season together.
For the odd couple at the top of the Nationals’ rotation, it is only the beginning. Strasburg cannot become a free
agent until after the 2016 season, and Gonzalez signed a contract extension that could keep him here through
2018. They will grow into the prime of their careers in Washington.
Here may be the oddest thing about the odd couple: They really, truly like each other. Strasburg, 23, and
Gonzalez, 26, get along not despite their differences, but because of them.
“Opposites attract, right?” Gonzalez said. “I think that’s how we click so well. I kind of like to kick back a little
bit and enjoy some of the moments, where he’s always trying to get better and better and better. I want that guy
by my side, because he’s going to push me to get better. To me, that’s why he’s our number one.”
Strasburg said most of his friends back home are like Gonzalez. “He does all the talking for me,” Strasburg said
with a slight grin. Gonzalez was a chatterbox from the moment he walked into the Nationals’ clubhouse in
spring training.
“Three or four days after I first met him, I said, ‘Do you go home and ice your vocal cords at night?’” starter
Jordan Zimmermann said.
When he met Strasburg, Zimmermann said, only half jokingly, “Oh, yeah, we didn’t talk for about a month and
a half.”
Drawing out Strasburg
Inside the clubhouse, teammates have noticed Strasburg thaw in his first full season and start to show his sharp
wit. “He’s joking around more,” Zimmermann said. “Even last year at the end of the year, he would sit in his
locker and not really say much.”
Gonzalez has tried to draw out Strasburg’s personality. Strasburg’s focus helps make him who he is on the
mound; teammate Jayson Werth described him earlier this year as “a killer.” But McCatty has also spoken with
him about trying to enjoy the game more. “I don’t know if the right word is ‘enjoy,’ ” McCatty said. “It doesn’t
cross my mind when he’s out there.”
Between starts, Gonzalez, Strasburg and Zimmermann almost constantly talk baseball in the dugout. They
discuss how they’ll pitch specific hitters. “Usually, it ends with Gio telling a story that makes those guys
laugh,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said.
“You got to have, once in a while, that guy that actually kind of makes it easier, that can break the ice when
you’re having a little trouble,” Gonzalez said. “It’s not all about baseball when we talk. You can have some
knowledge when the game is going on.
“But Stras is human. He does have a life, just like everybody else. That’s what I try to do. I try to bring out the
fun about baseball. It’s not all about baseball. To him, he works so hard. You don’t want to burn him out. You
want him to enjoy the fruits of his labor.”
Strasburg insists he does enjoy himself on the mound, even if it doesn’t show. He loves the competition, when
he makes a hitter look stupid or when he tries to learn from a mistake. His fixed facial expression, he said, is by
design, a result of studying other aces.
“If you look at some of the top guys in the game, if you were to take a close-up and just show their facial
expressions throughout the game, whether it’s going good or bad, you really can’t tell the difference,” Strasburg
said. “That’s something I try to do.
“It’s fun to look back and it’s fun to win. At the same time, I’m more focused. I’m trying to get really focused
out there. I don’t know if that makes me look like I’m not having fun out there. It doesn’t matter to me.”
Gonzalez said Strasburg reminded him in some ways of Dallas Braden, the veteran starter who served as his
mentor with the Oakland A’s. Even though Strasburg is three years younger than him, Gonzalez reveres
Strasburg for his advice and knowledge, the way he can break down an at-bat against a certain hitter.
“I put him way up there as one of those guys I admire,” Gonzalez said. “These guys, you want to hear him talk,
because you never know how important those words coming out of his mouth could be.”
Opposite approaches
Gonzalez and Strasburg have helped each other, but they have not necessarily influenced each other. Gonzalez
still yaps, and Strasburg still never changes his countenance during a start. McCatty said all pitchers have
different ways to handle the pressure of a start, and Strasburg and Gonzalez represent opposite poles.
“I could never go out there and pitch the way he does, and I don’t think he could go out there and pitch the way
I do,” Strasburg said. “We go about it a different way.”
Last week, the Nationals held a news conference for their all-star players. Gonzalez entered the room first and
saw rows of reporters. “Take it easy on us,” he bellowed, a mock-serious countenance giving way to a grin.
“We’re not going to shoot right away. We’re going to wait for Stras to get all his answers ready.”
Strasburg’s expression never changed as he walked behind Gonzalez.
As they settled into their seats, a public relations official introduced two members of the Nationals’ Wounded
Warrior softball team who were on hand. The PR guy explained they had been chosen to play in the celebrity
softball game during all-star weekend. Gonzalez grabbed the microphone.
“Make us proud,” Gonzalez told them. “A couple bombs, that’s all we ask.”
Strasburg stared straight ahead, content to let Gonzalez do the talking for him.
Strasburg and Gonzalez have talked about ways to hang out more often. Gonzalez suggested mini golf, and
Strasburg had designs on the real thing. “I’m trying to get him lessons in the offseason so I can take his money
in spring training,” Strasburg said.
Strasburg laughed at the idea, a wide grin on his face, and for just one moment, he and Gonzalez did not seem
so different after all.
Article #21
Stars on board with way Harper approaches game
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 7/11/12
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bryce Harper went from laughing with Chipper Jones to shaking hands with George
Brett and saying hello to Frank Robinson. The game's greats surrounded him, watched him take batting practice.
"I'm a big fan of yours," Brett told Harper.
"Ah, that was pretty unbelievable," Harper said later. "No words."
But there was a 7-year-old kid squealing inside his 6-foot-3 frame. Brett — the same George Brett Harper used
to imitate with takeout slides at second base in Little League — was a fan of his. That was a running theme this
week in Kansas City as Harper partook in his first All-Star Game.
"He seems like a really good dude," said Brewers slugger Ryan Braun. "He's handled himself great. He's very
humble. Dealing with everything he's had to deal with? I don't think he gets enough credit."
How could that be? Harper's supposed to be a brash, cocky punk who carries himself without regard for anyone,
right?
"I'll be the first to admit I was hesitant to give him much credit when he first got here," Jones said. "But man,
he's changed my thought process."
Harper is not who Jones thought he'd be. Not what so many expected. Not the guy even Cole Hamels planned
on when he hit Harper with a pitch in his eighth career major league game.
Bryce Harper, the kid who's been anointed the next greatest-ever since before he was old enough to drive, isn't
supposed to be this likable and easy to respect.
"More times than not, I would say people have a bad perception of him," said third baseman Ryan Zimmerman,
one of a handful of Nationals veterans who have been integral in Harper's transition to the major leagues. "And
then they play against him for three games. And more times than not it completely changes to the other way."
"ESPN shows him hitting a home run and blowing a kiss to a pitcher, you know?" Jones said. "They don't relay
the fact that the pitcher threw one behind him the pitch before. They don't relay that. That's where everybody's
opinion gets skewed."
As Harper has navigated through his first 63 games, he has allowed his play and his personality to take care of
those perceptions. He's not unaccustomed to the opposition loathing him, but the big leagues are a different
story.
"I think everybody had this misconception that I was going to come up here, be a lollygagger and pimp home
runs," Harper said. "But my brother is a pitcher. Somebody showboated him, I'd get [upset] as a catcher. I never
wanted to do that."
But before he could change the mind of someone like Jones, Harper had to work on his own clubhouse — on
veterans such as outfielder Jayson Werth, who didn't immediately gravitate to him given his truncated path to
the big leagues,
"Werth, our first spring training together, he was always on me," Harper said. "But I think Werth's been the
biggest help out of anybody."
Zimmerman chuckled when it was mentioned that Harper emphasized how far the relationship between he and
Werth had come. "Right," he said with a wide smile. "But I think that's our job.
"We were all taught the same thing. It would be selfish of us to not help him. He could go on to be, whatever,
the best player to ever play the game — but it's up to us to make him fit in."
Werth has a lot in common with Harper. He's a former first-round pick and a former catcher. But his path to the
major leagues, and to starring in them, was anything but direct. He made sure Harper knew his vaunted road
didn't make him any different.
"He was, in his own way, trying to give him that tough-love type of thing and, 'You've got to earn this, kid,' "
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said. "And as the year went by and he came back this spring training, it
was a much more of a mentorship."
Harper's seen the space above his locker feature monikers such as Joe Namath and Roy Hobbs. In spring
training this year, Werth got a duplicate of his own nameplate and slotted it into an empty stall beside Harper's.
The message was simple: No rookie gets two lockers.
This is not a new process.
"I had to do the same things as everybody else does, too," Braun recalled. "I sang on the bus, I carried the beer,
all those things."
But Werth also has been one of the most positive influences on Harper this year, along with Zimmerman, Adam
LaRoche and Rick Ankiel.
"For me, if you're part of the team and you're helping the team win, that's a lot different than being some kid in
big-league camp in spring training," Werth said. "You've got to respect the way he plays the game, and you've
got to respect the player that he is. But he has to respect the game the right way and continue to play the right
way to continue to gain our respect.
"He's got a lot to learn and he's got a long way to go, but my dad always told me that it takes no talent to hustle.
Those are words to live by. So far Bryce has done a great job doing that."
There are times, though, when it gets exhausting being "Bryce Harper, future face of baseball."
A week ago, Harper talked about how excited he was to go home to Las Vegas and just be "Bryce" for a few
days. Instead he found himself staring into cameras and recorders four rows deep at All-Star media day. At one
point, his face reddened from the heat of the lights, Harper turned to his right, clenched his teeth and broke into
an overwhelmed smile.
When he has those moments with the Nationals, one of their veterans has been there to help. Ankiel, especially,
has tried to impart to Harper the importance of enjoying the moment he's in when he's in it. While Harper has
made a concerted effort to tone down some of his actions on the field and learn to deal with failure more
appropriately, he's also tried to enjoy what's happening in life — and know it's OK to still act like he's 19 every
now and then.
"We're playing a game for a job," Zimmerman said. "It's not like we're all the most mature, either."
Harper looked plenty mature sitting on a podium with Angels outfielder Mike Trout on Tuesday, talking about
respect. "I think you've got to give respect to get respect," he said. "I've been here for like 20 days. I haven't
done anything in this game yet."
Down the hall, inside a clubhouse filled with the best players in the game, that was not the perception.
"Through the first [part] of his major league career, he's handled his business and he's handled it very maturely
and the right way," Jones said. "He's played the game the right way. That garners respect from players, and he's
certainly got mine."
Article #22
Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond is putting it all together
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 7/13/12
Ian Desmond’s path to his current position traces the same arc as the Washington Nationals. The Montreal
Expos drafted him months before they relocated. He roared into professional existence — his general manager
compared him to Derek Jeter after his first spring training game. Then he meandered through the wilderness for
years, in the minor leagues and through two treacherous major league seasons, lost for good, some thought.
This year showed the wandering was not idle time, but preparation for the moment when everything came
together. Desmond has been part of the Nationals’ future since before they had one, and finally it arrived for
them both.
Earlier this month, Desmond was named to the National League all-star team. He pulled out of the game with
an oblique injury he has felt since mid-June. Otherwise, he would have lined up next to the world’s best players
and represented the team with the best record in the National League.
In his rookie season, Desmond committed 34 errors. Last year at the all-star break, he had a .264 on-base
percentage. He is now a stabilizing defensive force, the nerve center of the Nationals’ infield. He is on pace to
slug 30 homers and drive in nearly 100 runs. He is an all-star. It was not easy, but Desmond knows the game is
not supposed to be easy.
“God gives you more than you can handle, because he needs you to rely on him,” Desmond said. “It’s the same
in baseball. You’re going to get more than you can handle, because this is an elite league. The weak don’t
survive.”
‘A natural progression’
Desmond, 26, has always possessed raw talent and shown it in flashes. In his major league debut, he blasted a
home run almost to the back wall in center field. Even as he booted routine grounders at shortstop, he made
jaw-dropping stops.
“Not really knowing much about him, just watching him from afar, coming into town the last two or three years
I always saw a player where the tools just oozed off of him,” said veteran Mark DeRosa, who’s in his first
season with the Nationals. “He just hadn’t put the entire game together yet. When he did, watch out.”
Desmond began to show the potential for a breakout last year, when he hit .315 over the final quarter of the
season. General Manager Mike Rizzo called the success in Desmond’s third full season “a natural progression
as a player developing early in his career.”
Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman has watched every step of Desmond’s career for the past seven years. In
2010, when Desmond took over as the Nationals’ everyday shortstop as a rookie, he saw a player learning the
game in the majors, for a franchise that had no better options.
“People were ready to ship him out and get rid of him, when a lot of people don’t even get to the big leagues,
with his talent for his age,” Zimmerman said.
The consistency this year came, Desmond said, from a more consistent environment. In the first two seasons, he
sometimes wondered whether he would play, how the organization felt about him and what he still needed to
prove.
This year, he does not have to check the lineup card when he walks into the clubhouse. He knows he will be
playing shortstop, batting fifth or sixth. In spring training, he asked for his own uniform number for the first
time, and he took 20 in honor of former manager Frank Robinson.
“Confidence,” Zimmerman said, “is a scary thing.”
‘No more audition’
In spring training, Manager Davey Johnson and Rizzo both communicated to Desmond that he was their guy at
shortstop. They “pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to run you out there every day,’ ” Desmond said.
“ ‘You’re going to be an integral part of our offense and defense. Play the way that you know how to play, and
that’s it. There’s no more audition here.’ ”
If Rizzo wanted to cut bait on Desmond, the league gave him ample opportunity. He fielded calls from several
teams, including at last year’s trade deadline and over the winter, inquiring about Desmond’s availability. Rizzo
never lowered a high asking price.
“He was a name that everybody bandied about,” Rizzo said. “A good, young athletic player. People figured that
we would sell low on him, that type of thing. We were pretty stubborn in our evaluations. Nobody is
untradeable. He was very close to being untradeable.”
Starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez has called Desmond “the leader of this team.” He studies everything — outfield
arms, the positioning of the other defenders, how where he lines up affects what pitch the other bat expects to
see. “He was like that when he was a 23-year-old shortstop — and a struggling 23-year-old shortstop,” Rizzo
said.
“He’s a smart guy,” Zimmerman said. “He kind of notices these things a little bit more than other people. And
then he has the confidence to say them.”
Desmond has grown more comfortable with the job this year. As a rookie, he wondered how others viewed him
jogging to the mound to share information with pitchers. While he struggled at the plate, would teammates still
listen?
“In the past, I felt like I hadn’t really earned that role,” Desmond said. “I would do it because that’s what my
body was telling me to do. On the inside, I always second-guessed myself when I did it. I didn’t know if players
were saying, ‘Why is this kid saying this? Why is this kid doing that? He hasn’t proven anything here.’ ”
Said Zimmerman: “Obviously, it’s a lot easier to do it now when you’re having a lot of success. I think the
important thing for him is, he wasn’t afraid to do it even when he was struggling a little bit. If you stay the same
from when you’re not doing well and you’re the same person when you’re doing, I think that means a lot to
people. You don’t really get caught up in yourself.”
‘Just touching the surface’
Desmond always had the talent, and now that he has harnessed it, he hasn’t changed.
“You can’t not like him,” DeRosa said. “He’s a guy’s guy. Nothing was handed to him. . . .
“The talent is off the charts. From a guy who’s been around a lot and watching how smoothly he plays the game
— the Carlos Beltrans. Carlos is a great example of a guy who plays the game hard but makes it look like it’s a
walk in the park. I see a lot of that in Desi. He’s got those tools. He can hit a ball 500 feet. He can play a
premier position. He’s 6 foot 3. He’s got everything you’re looking for. It’s just a matter of putting it together. I
think he’s just touching the surface.”
One day last week, Desmond sat in the Nationals’ dugout, taking a brief break from batting practice. He thought
back to 2005, after the first exhibition game for the Nationals at RFK Stadium. He was 19 then, and he shared a
conversation with Wil Cordero, a veteran on his way out. “Determination, perseverance and hard work are
going to make you stay in the big leagues,” Cordero told him. Desmond wrote it in his phone, and he still has
the note today.
He said it was too early to reflect on this year, with a half season still to come. He said he noticed and
appreciated the crowds filling into Nationals Park. The first days at RFK Stadium seem so long ago.
“They see us playing better,” Desmond said. “We see them coming. We appreciate it. And here’s to the future.”
Article #23
Nationals’ Danny Espinosa at ease switching to short
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 7/24/12
NEW YORK — Danny Espinosa the major leaguer is a second baseman. Of the 261 big-league
games Espinosa has started, only nine have been anywhere but second base.
But Danny Espinosa the ballplayer is a shortstop. And he probably always will be one.
With shortstop Ian Desmond on the shelf until at least Aug. 6, and possibly longer, with a left oblique
strain, Espinosa the major leaguer is a shortstop again. And in the eight games he’s started there since the AllStar break, he’s made the transition as seamlessly as anyone could have expected.
“He’s been solid over there,” said first baseman Adam LaRoche. “We all know he’s got a [heck] of an arm.
Because of his arm strength I didn’t think it’d be a problem. I think you could probably put him anywhere and
he could do it because he’s got such a good arm and great hands.”
“The big adjustment is going from that little short throw at second base to shortstop,” said manager Davey
Johnson, who made the same transition a few times during his major league career. “Danny has handled that
transition from short to second, and going back he hasn’t skipped a beat. He’s looked like a very polished
shortstop to me.”
When the Nationals drafted Espinosa in the third round of the 2008 draft, it was at the urging of scouting
director Kris Kline, who lovedEspinosa’s skills at the position — especially his arm.
“I will spend the rest of Danny Espinosa’s career thinking about Kris Kline,” former Nationals president and
current Dodgers owner Stan Kasten recalled this past offseason. “Kris was so locked in on him. I
remember Kris saying, ‘This is the only shortstop in the draft’ over and over.”
When Espinosa first moved back to short after the All-Star break, asDesmond’s oblique issue flared, he’d look
to Desmond in the dugout for positioning with certain hitters. The ball spins off the bat such different ways
from one side of the infield to the other that Espinosa didn’t want his second base instincts overriding his
shortstop ones. Where a ball coming toward him at second might slice toward the right-field line, at short he’s
noticed balls don’t hook toward the third-base line as often.
The more he has played there, the more comfortable he’s become.
“It comes back,” Espinosa said. “[When you] just get back to your natural position you kind of understand it.”
It’s those abilities that allow the Nationals to feel sure enough withEspinosa as Desmond’s replacement for the
time being that they feel no pressure to acquire a starting position player at next week’s trade deadline.
But with Desmond out, Espinosa at short and Steve Lombardozzi the starting second baseman in the meantime,
the Nationals’ insurance at the middle infield positions is only veteran Mark DeRosa, who is more suited to
second base. To that end, the Nationals are exploring the market for veteran middle infielders who could help,
though sources indicated no move would be considered a splash.
For now, the Nationals feel fortunate they’re able to sustain the loss of their All-Star shortstop, at least
defensively, so adequately.
“Desmond has terrific range,” Johnson said. “Probably the best range in the league. Espinosa’s right there with
him, and they’ve both got great arms. I’d be hard-pressed to be able to tell you who has the better arm
between Espinosa and Desmond. As far as I’m concerned, there’s not much change.”
NOTES: Catcher Jesus Flores was back in the lineup after missing the previous three games with a stiff back.
Flores went through batting practice Monday and didn’t have any issues. Sandy Leon likely will start the series
finale, a day game Wednesday at Citi Field.
• Jayson Werth and Chad Tracy continued their rehab assignments with Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday night.
Tracy was serving as the DH and batting second, Werth playing center field and batting third.
Article #24
Harper, Strasburg recall Doc, Straw
By Johnette Howard, ESPN New York, 7/26/12
NEW YORK -- The Washington Nationals were about to polish off a series sweep of the nose-diving Mets in
Wednesday's noon finale at Citi Field, and 69-year-old Nats manager Davey Johnson admitted it brought back
memories, all right, to be back in the same patch of Queens where he once presided over the '80s Mets of Doc
Gooden and Darryl Strawberry when they were kid phenoms, same as his kid stars Bryce Harper andStephen
Strasburg are for the Nationals now.
But one big difference is Gooden never had to deal with the innings limit Strasburg is currently facing because
he's in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. And Johnson's good mood evaporated in a heartbeat
before the game when a beat reporter asked him if, rather than shut down Strasburg before the regular season
ends as planned, there were not some way the first-place Nats could change their mind and start spacing out his
starts so that ...
"NAH, I'm not going to get into any of that spacing CRAP!" Johnson interrupted, his voice suddenly rising. "I'm
not discussing anymore what's happening in a month! I know people are interested, but it's something that's
seven, eight starts from now. Why even talk about it, you know?"
But what if you shut him down for a period of time now, the same reporter persisted a few minutes later, so you
could have Strasburg back for the postseason?
"No -- no!" Johnson said. "You just don't do that. If you're trying to take care of an arm, you don't shut
somebody down and then crank 'em back up. What we're trying to do is have him for a long time. So jockeying
him around, putting him in as the fourth starter, missing starts -- that's not good for THAT."
Well then, how about using Strasburg only in relief as the Yankees once did with Phil Hughes and Joba
Chamberlain to keep them alive for the postseason?
"No possibility -- no possibility," Johnson said, crossing his arms now.
Case closed.
Johnson's shows of irascibility, like the leavening doses of humor and baseball insights he doled out before and
after the game, were all yet more proof of why Johnson is the perfect manager for this Nationals club, but
especially the 19-year-old Harper and 23-year-old Strasburg at this formative stage of their careers.
Washington's 5-2 victory Wednesday was a self-assured, total team effort, same as its other wins in this series.
What it also underscored was the talent gap between the Nationals and the Mets, who slink off now to a
forbidding 11-game West Coast road trip having lost six in a row, and 11 of 12 since the All-Star break. "Gotta
have the firepower," one Nats player said, when asked about the Mets' swoon after such a promising start to the
season.
The Nats (58-39) smacked three home runs Wednesday, and Strasburg struck out 11 and walked none while
scattering four hits in seven crisp innings of work. He improved his record to 11-4 while Harper, Washington's
starting left fielder, got on base twice, scoring once.
Johnson said one of the things he liked most about Strasburg's outing was the right-hander continues to follow
his advice to work on becoming a pitcher, not just a fireballer throwing "100 mph and going up the ladder" all
the time to live up to the "media hype."
Johnson knows the 24/7 hype and scrutiny that both Strasburg and Harper face is far different from what
Strawberry and Gooden had to shoulder as part of his "Wild Bunch" Mets team that won the '86 World Series.
Gooden and Strawberry debuted in 1984, and the Mets quickly became the sports story in New York. These
Nationals are tame compared with that hell-raising bunch, which also included Lenny Dykstra and Keith
Hernandez, and became known for antics like tearing up the team's charter plane during a victory celebration on
the way home from winning the '86 National League Championship Series -- only to have Johnson call a team
meeting after Mets management gave him a letter from the airline asking that the players pay for the damage.
As legend has it, Johnson stood in the middle of the clubhouse, ripped the letter to shreds as his Mets players
looked on, and then half-smiled, half-growled, "There wouldn't have even been a victory celebration if it wasn't
for us."
"Aw ... heh heh ... well, that -- that story was a little blown out of proportion," Johnson insisted Wednesday,
trying to suppress a smile. "Tearing up the plane, why, that was the wives that done that --"
"Oh, the wives," I repeated, then burst into laughter.
"That's right, the wives," Johnson nodded, laughing a little now himself about what a spectacularly big fat lie
this was. "My guys were pretty good," he continued. "They knew to put their beer cans in the garbage can."
Then he laughed again.
"Managing is a lot like being a guidance counselor," he said.
The burden of making sure nothing happens to Strasburg and Harper while they're on the way to greatness like
Gooden and Strawberry were is the sort of burden that might overwhelm a manager who hasn't seen as much as
Johnson has. There aren't many others who can throw off the been-there, done-that mix of humor and
combativeness that Johnson brings as the Nats try to stay ahead of Atlanta in the National League East.
But it's easy to see Johnson's influence on both players.
The look-at-me antics that earned Harper a sketchy reputation before he even hit the big leagues are largely
gone. And that had to help him become a late addition to the All-Star Game roster.
Strasburg, who also made the All-Star team, is often apologetic about how injuries have prevented him from
being the 200-inning, top-of-the-rotation workhorse for the Nats that he intends to be -- a shortcoming that he
said he felt "guilty" about last season when he was rehabbing, and a wish he again volunteered after beating the
Mets Wednesday, when asked about being shut down before the end of the season. "I want to be a horse they
can count on," he said.
But Johnson seems to perfectly toe the line between absolving Strasburg from any lapse back into selfconsciousness about not being able to finish the season contributing to what could be a Nats playoff team and
yet not treating him like a sacred cow. And that plays well in the Nationals clubhouse, too. "He reminds me a
lot of Bobby Cox," Washington veteran Mark DeRosa says. "He protects his players, he lets you be who you are
and trusts us to police ourselves. Yet you still always know who's in charge. And because he's funny, he gets
away with saying a lot of things other people can't."
Back in May, Johnson had a pretty good laugh after finding out that he'd apparently embarrassed Strasburg by
telling reporters the unvarnished truth of why Strasburg had to come out of a game after just four innings:
Johnson said Strasburg had some "hot rub" trickle down Strasburg's body to a place "it shouldn't have" -meaning Strasburg's jock strap -- which made Strasburg uncomfortable as he pitched. The Washington Post
reported that Strasburg seemed a bit "miffed" when asked to confirm Johnson's explanation.
"You know, I'm going to keep that in the clubhouse," Strasburg said.
Too late.
Johnson now says, "I never try to change any player's personality because I figure that's the one that got him
here." And the same could be said about him.
So far, Johnson is keeping Strasburg and Harper sailing along ahead of schedule. And together, they're keeping
the Nationals in first place. Which is the biggest reason they're reminding people of Doc and Strawberry as they
go. They're not tearing up planes, just the league.
Article #25
Michael Gonzalez provides experiences for a young Nationals bullpen
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 7/27/12
Late Thursday night, as the Nationals celebrated another win, Michael Gonzalez plopped down at a table with
three video monitors. Gonzalez had closed out the victory in the ninth, but he did not sit to watch video of
himself. He sat next to Henry Rodriguez so he could watch him.
As Rodriguez reviewed his performance, which included hitting Rickie Weeks with a curveball and giving up a
430-foot home run to Carlos Gomez, Gonzalez talked Rodriguez through the outing, a mix of encouragement
and constructive criticism.
The Nationals have one of the best bullpens in the major leagues, a loose, cohesive group comprised mostly of
20-somethings with no pennant-race experience. Seven of them fit that description. And then there is Gonzalez,
the 34-year-old left-hander who pitched in seven postseason games last year, including three in the World
Series.
While giving Manager Davey Johnson a solid left-handed option, Gonzalez has filled the role the Nationals
envisioned for Brad Lidge – an experienced, sage reliever to look after the talented, rambunctious kids.
“I was just talking to some guys the other day about that,” closer Tyler Clippard said. “He’s a leader. He brings
that mentality. He’s been through it. He’s kind of been in all the roles you can be as a reliever – lefty guy, a
closer. It’s a good thing to have.
“It’s funny – we kind of had that with Brad early on in the year. Myself and other guys would go to him and ask
him questions and things he’s done and certain situations. Gonzo came in and has filled that role to a T. That’s
kind of the full spectrum of the type of team we have this year. We’ve had injuries and guys coming and going.
And everyone seems to fill the role.”
The Nationals signed Gonzalez to a minor league contract in mid-May and promoted to the majors June 3. He
joined a group of relievers that had been together for several seasons. One year, they shined each other’s shoes
on Sundays. Another, they wore fedoras on the final day of road trips.
“That’s a whole new breed out in the bullpen,” Johnson said. “They’re a crazy bunch. I have a lot riverboat
gamblers out there. They’ll throw you a 3-2 breaking ball. I like their mental approach. They kind of take the
way they live and take it out there.”
Gonzalez knew Sean Burnett and Tom Gorzelanny from their days together on the Pirates’ pitching staff, and
they helped him fit immediately into the bullpen. He shared his insights not as a concerted effort, but “just being
who I am,” Gonzalez said.
“This is my fifth team,” Gonzalez said. “I understand now that it’s a family. You can’t pick your family
sometimes, but they’re your family. When you’re talking about different types of experiences that you’ve got,
that’s where it helps. Everything else comes to asking questions, thinking about different situations. Just looking
back, I’ve been there, done it.”
Shortly after Gonzalez arrived, Ross Detwiler credited Gonzalez with convincing him to be more aggressive
and attack hitters with his fastball. When Gonzalez first joined the Nationals’ bullpen, Craig Stammen had
moved from long relief role to setting up more with Ryan Mattheus on the disabled list. Gonzalez helped
Stammen learn how to prepare for more frequent appearances – throw fewer pitches to warm-up.
“At the beginning of the year, we had Brad Lidge,” Stammen said. “He was kind of that father figure, I guess
you could say. Gonzo’s kind of taken that role. He does a really good job of explaining things, constructive
criticism.”
Gonzalez’s performance should not be discounted, either. He has appeared in 24 games and is typically the first
left-handed Johnson goes to before the eighth inning. He has a 2.45 ERA in 18 1/3 innings, striking out 21 with
nine walks. But because he never went through spring training this year, he feels he has room to improve.
“I still feel like I’m not where I want to be yet,” Gonzalez said. “I’m happy with the way things are going.
Everything feels good. But I’m getting close.”
Even Gonzalez hasn’t felt in midseason form, some of his best contributions have come off the mound.
Article #26
Tom Gorzelanny: the Nationals’ unheralded clean up man
By James Wagner, Washington Post, 8/5/12
Last week, the Philadelphia Phillies chased Stephen Strasburg, who was struggling with command, after four
innings.Nationals Manager Davey Johnson needed someone to churn through innings. So he called for one of
his two regular fixers: Tom Gorzelanny.
Gorzelanny, a pitcher with 110 starts who was converted to a full-time reliever last season, came into the game
and pitched three scoreless innings. As usual, Gorzelanny, 30, will earn little recognition for that appearance
but, inside the Nationals clubhouse, his role and work is appreciated. He saved the team from having to use
another pitcher or two that night.
“It’s something for the average fan you might not understand what he does,” said reliever Sean Burnett,
Gorzelanny’s locker mate and former Pittsburgh Pirate teammate. “But as a teammate and fellow bullpen guy,
he picks up the pitching staff night in, night out.”
If you subtract a bad six-run outing in April, Gorzelanny has a 2.39 ERA. With it, he still has a respectable 3.35
ERA, and has struck out 40 batters and walked 18 over 51 innings. Among National League relievers, he is 10th
in innings pitched.
In his 31 appearances this season, only twice has Gorzelanny been handed a lead and lost it. He has allowed a
Nationals lead to be trimmed only twice. Most of his appearances have been of the mop up, eat-through-innings
variety.
Fifteen of his 31 appearances came when the Nationals were down, six of those when they trailed by three runs
or more. Gorzelanny said he doesn’t necessarily want to be the clean up guy but understands his role and knows
Johnson will use him late in games, too, if needed.
“You can’t go out there with the mentality of, ‘Oh great, I get to pitch in a game that doesn’t matter,’”
Gorzelanny said. “It’s not going to help you. It’s going to make it worse for you. I just have to go out there each
time and focus on what I’m supposed to do and the task at hand.
Gorzelanny is walking batters at a lower rate (3.2 walks per nine innings) than he did in most of the seasons
when he was a starter.
And, he is also striking out more batters (7.1 strikeouts per nine innings) than he did in most seasons as a starter,
too. Gorzelanny attributes that to being a reliever who has less time to feel out a batter or test pitches. A reliever
must get outs immediately. That’s especially tough when his workload isn’t regular.
“As a reliever you have to make the pitches right away,” he said. “I feel like I just try to have that mentality
from the get-go and get guys out.”
Gorzelanny was drafted in the second round in 2003 by the Pirates. He came up as a starter, making 65 starts in
his first four seasons. In 2009, he started the season as a reliever for the Pirates and did both for the Cubs after
he was traded mid-season. He was the Nationals fifth starter last season before becoming a reliever again in late
July.
The Nationals tendered Gorzelanny a contract this offseason and are paying him $3 million after salary
arbitration. They control his rights through the 2013 season.
“I’ve gone out there each outing with the same mentality of trying to do my job no matter what situation we’re
in,” he said. “If I come in to clean up an inning or eat some innings up, I’m not trying to take it the wrong way
or anything, I just wanted to go out and pitch and do my job.”
Article #27
New Nationals catcher Suzuki, family adjust to being relocated across the country
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 8/13/12
SAN FRANCISCO — Renee Suzuki wasn’t looking at her phone.
Gone to the grocery store on a Friday morning that seemed like so many before it, she left her husband, Kurt,
and their 15-month-old daughter,Malia, in their East Bay home while she picked up a few essentials. She’d put
the phone away for mere minutes.
When she checked, her heart jumped. Seven missed calls from Kurt.
“I knew it was either the baby or he got traded,” Renee said Sunday morning with a laugh — the type of goodnatured laugh that can only come when exhaustion has rid you any other reaction.
In the past week, while Kurt, the Washington Nationals’ new catcher, journeyed from Oakland to the District —
and Houston and Phoenix and back to the Bay Area — undergoing the whirlwind that is adjusting to a new
team, Renee has cleaned up the rest of their life’s suddenly loose ends.
Kurt holed up in a hotel. He met new teammates and learned new pitchers. He became acquainted with new
coaches and signs, and new opposition in the National League. Renee packed their rental home, removed
everything from their storage unit, summoned her mother up from Southern California and crammed everything
she could from six years of their baseball life into the family’s two cars and a U-Haul trailer she attached to the
back of hers.
She drove Kurt to the Oakland Coliseum that Friday morning, Aug. 3, as the family digested the news. Kurt
packed hurriedly while Athletics director of team travel Mickey Morabito contacted Nationals vice president of
clubhouse operations and team travel Rob McDonald, who put Suzuki on a flight to D.C. that evening.
Renee and Malia went home. Renee took a deep breath.
“We were walking out the door and he said to me, ‘All right, Renee, you’re sure you’re OK with all this?’” she
said. “And I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ I came home and I said, ‘All right. Where should I start?”
“Your life changes in the blink of an eye,” said Nationals veteran Mark DeRosa, who was a part of a midseason
trade in 2009 when he went from Cleveland to St. Louis. Being prepared for it is a must. DeRosanever really
unpacked that year in Cleveland, he said. The Suzukis had begun the process, too, at least mentally.
“You have to or you’ll get really overwhelmed,” said Renee, a former volleyball player at Cal State Fullerton.
“You have to anticipate this. It’s an adventure. I just do what I can on my end to make the family situation the
best I can. I think if you stress out about it, you’re going to lose your mind.”
When A’s general manager Billy Beane called Suzuki that Friday morning, two full days had passed since the
July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline. For the first time in weeks, Renee and Kurt had exhaled. The Suzukis live in
the Los Angeles area in the offseason and, over the All-Star break, purchased a new home. They don’t close
until Aug. 24, but dealing with all of that wouldn’t be too hard from Oakland. From D.C., it’s a bit more
complex.
“It’s just wild and crazy,” said Renee, who headed from Oakland to L.A. two days after the trade. “We’ve got a
good plan and the house is pretty much move-in ready, but the current house we’re in now looks like a bomb
went off. It’s just boxes and baby stuff everywhere.”
They knew there was a possibility that Kurt, the A’s starting catcher for four years, might be moved. Suzuki’s
playing time was cut with the emergence of former Nationals prospect Derek Norris, acquired in the Gio
Gonzalez trade last winter. He had started just 72 of the A’s first 105 games. But then the deadline
passed. Suzuki was still in Oakland, and Norris recently had been optioned to the minor leagues. Three days
later, Suzuki was a National.
“I haven’t felt like I’m on the ground yet,” Suzuki said — something thatDeRosa said won’t happen until “the
cable’s connected. When you can go home and watch TV at night.”
“You feel like you’re a freshman in high school again,” Suzuki added. “Trying to get to know people, trying to
get comfortable in the situation. It feels like you have to prove yourself again almost.”
Renee and Malia traveled back to the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon, meeting Kurt and the Nationals when they
arrived for a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants.
They’ll make their semi-permanent move to D.C. for the rest of the season in September, once things are
finalized with their new house, Kurt has found a condo or apartment in D.C. and the Nationals open an 11-game
homestand.
Suzuki puts on his uniform each night and knows things have changed. Gone is the green and gold, replaced by
a red he’s getting used to. The days go by. The games go on. Baseball doesn’t wait for the rest of your life to
catch up.
“It is kind of hard,” said Renee, whose only experience in Washington came during an eighth-grade school trip.
“We leave all [our friends] behind and say, ‘We’ll see you when we see you.’ But the opportunities that D.C.
offers, I think it’s exciting.”
Article #28
Vets help young Nats to keep focus on here and now
By Adam Berry, MLB.com, 8/16/12
SAN FRANCISCO -- For a few moments after games and during long flights, Tyler Clippard admitted that the
Nationals look ahead. It's hard not to.
The Nats (73-45) own the best record in baseball. The nation's capital is well on its way to hosting its first
playoff-bound baseball team since 1933. Finally, there is a lot to look forward to in Washington right now -- not
in the distant future, not working through the low Minor Leagues, years away from making an impact.
But those look-ahead moments are relatively few and far between. They never take place in the dugout, nor on
the field. There may be a lot to look forward to, but these Nationals, as a group, have never seen any of it.
A few of the club's veterans have experienced pennant races, postseasons and World Series, so they know what
lies ahead, and they've stressed to their younger teammates the importance of staying in the present -- of putting
their "blinders" on, as Michael Morse said recently.
"When game time comes, those thoughts are long gone," Clippard said. "You're just really focused on what's
going on in the moment. That's what's great about this team -- everyone just kind of bears down ... and gets the
job done. Then we can talk about it after."
Some might view the Nats' overall lack of experience in a playoff push as a hindrance to their chances, but the
players believe the club's years of futility might keep them fresh. So, too, might its influx of young talent.
"Compared to what we have gone through, this season's easy. It's fun," third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said.
"When you're coming to the park in June and you're 20 games out already, that's when it's hard. It's kind of a
breath of fresh air, I guess you could say.
"Baseball is baseball," he added. "I think that's why you're seeing so many young guys come up now and have
some success. Ultimately, if you can play, you can play."
And as the Nationals have shown thus far, they can play. Just as important to them is the fact that they can play
together. Their talent is significantly more important than experience when it comes to winning games, and their
chemistry might be a close second.
Washington has the former in spades, from a dominant rotation to a shutdown bullpen and a lineup that's only
getting better as key players get healthy. But the Nats might have even more of the latter, which was the first
thing catcher Kurt Suzuki noticed when he was acquired from the A's on Aug. 3.
"You just feel that vibe, that togetherness as a team. You can't describe it, but you can feel it," Suzuki said. "I
think it's important. Obviously there's a lot of talent in this room. That's the main reason why the team is
winning. ... But you get talent andchemistry -- it's a good mix."
"We won't win this thing playing individual baseball," added Mark DeRosa. "We'll win it as a team. I think
that's what we've become, what we've evolved into, as this season has gone along."
That evolution has been sped up, manager Davey Johnson said, thanks to the presence of a few productive
veterans.
Jayson Werth, when healthy, has returned to form after a disappointing 2011 season. Adam LaRoche has
bounced back from an injury-riddled campaign with one of the best seasons of his nine-year career. DeRosa
hasn't been able to contribute much on the field, but he's been an invaluable asset in the clubhouse.
"They've been awesome with a lot of the younger guys in here, like myself -- they're able to keep us focused on
the task at hand," ace Stephen Strasburg said. "Just because you lose one [game] doesn't mean it's the end of the
world. You have to go back out there and show up to play the next day."
Just listen to the veterans talk and you quickly realize where Strasburg has heard that before, or where someone
like Morse learned to talk about putting his blinders on, and you can appreciate that vibe Suzuki immediately
felt.
"We just keep hammering, hammering, hammering, and let's see what happens," LaRoche said. "I don't want to
look up now and talk about [being] five, six [games ahead in the National League East] -- whatever it is. Let's
win as many games as we can."
"This is the time of year when good teams start to mesh," added Werth. "The daily grind of spending 10 hours a
day together either is wearing on you, or it's making you become a good team. Luckily for us, we've got a bunch
of good guys. ... The rest of the stuff takes care of itself. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing. We're a
good ballclub."
That's the story that's flown under the radar, with the bulk of the national attention focused squarely on
Strasburg's right arm, which will be shut down at some point during the club's march toward the postseason.
Strasburg's teammates may not fully understand it, but they've at least come to terms with the fact that it's going
to happen.
Strasburg has bought into the head-down, blinders-on concept, too. He's not abandoning that idea, even if the
curtain will fall on his season much sooner than it will for the rest of the Nationals, and his final start will likely
come before the NL East is decided.
"The thing that we've got to go back to is it's one game at a time," Strasburg said. "We can't focus on the finish
line when we've got [44] games left."
But in those fleeting moments when they do take a peek ahead, the Nats find there's a lot to look forward to,
whether or not they've seen it before.
"We're getting into the fun part of the year," Johnson said. "Everything's magnified in a pennant race, and these
guys are primed for it."
Article #29
Nationals 'Goon Squad' Crucial To Team's Success
By Kevin Jones, WUSA9, 8/22/12
WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- Go back to opening day on April 5th at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Who sparked a
rally for Washington in the eighth inning? It was reserve infielder Chad Tracy.
Same thing goes for April 24th against the Padres, when clutch RBI's from Tracy resulted in a 3-1 Nats victory,
and a 13-4 streaking-out-of-the-gates record. Of course, there was Tracy's RBI single this past Monday in the
13th inning against the Braves.
Clearly, Tracy's left-handed bat has had a substantial impact on the 2012 Nationals season.
But possibly more importantly, Tracy coined the moniker Goon Squad, creating a much needed identity for the
Nats group of bench players.
"We've got a good group. We've kind of got it covered," described Tracy, who printed t-shirts for his fellow
goons in May. "[I'm] your lefty bat. You got Lombardozzi as a switch-hitter. You've got Bernadina, your speed
guy. You got Tyler Moore, your power right-hander. It's just a good mix of guys. We can matchup with
whatever the bullpen is, over there."
For rookie Tyler Moore, Tracy's guidance and expertise has been invaluable. The big swinging righty was
drafted on three separate occasions by the Nationals, he latest being in the 16th round in 2008.
Moore was only expected to grab a cup of coffee in the big leagues -- and had been thought about more as trade
bait, than having a significant impact on the team. But the 25-year-old has been able tocraft his niche role in
the Goon Squad.
"It's just kind of cool to have our own name, especially when we aren't starting. It kind of helps us have a tight
knit group and help each other out. What pitcher is coming in, what pitches does he have," said Moore.
Like Tracy explained above, each Goon Squad member has their very own unique skill set. But each player also
has their own storyline which has propelled them in 2012. For the most part, each of these players are battling
redemption.
For Roger Bernadina, it was switching to a smaller bat, advice given to him by veteran Mark DeRosa, an onagain off-again member of the goon squad due to injuries. The player affectionately nicknamed 'Shark', had
always been a flash in a the pan and lacked consistency. That is until 2012.
The results? Bernadina is having his most productive season since he debuted in 2008, boasting a .298 batting
average, 10 doubles, 22 RBI's and 13 steals. Manager Davey Johnson has been quite consistent in using
Bernadina too. As of Wednesday, Bernadina had played in 17 of the Nats 21 games during August.
"Your cold coming from the bench. That's the toughest part of the [Goon Squad]. Things have been going good,
but you have to keep it up. It's a long season," said Bernadina, who came up with a memorable ninth
inning home run July 29th in Milwaukee, which later turned into a victory.
Utility man Steve Lombardozzi has summed up the essence of theGoon Squad this season by producing at an
eye-opening rate for a rookie. He's played a substitute roll at an incredible five positions: shortstop, second
base, third base, left field and center --and he's committed just four errors all season.
Juggling all the fielding is not even the hardest task Davey Johnson has asked of his rookie, who posted a .279
average in the 54 games he served as a lead off man. At just 23-years-old, Lombardozzi has become one of the
most interchangeable players in the entire league.
"You know we're just having fun with it. It's a way for us to rally together. It originally came up in spring
training," spoke Lombardozzi. "We would be together a lot during the road games, we were the traveling squad
[within the split squad games]. We're a little bit out there, but it's fun."
Finally, for Chad Tracy, this experience is one that has come completely full circle. The 32-year-old spent the
entire 2011 baseballseason playing for Hiroshima in Japan, anxiously awaiting a call from a major league club.
The phone never rang.
"It's kind of tough to describe the biggest difference unless you get over there and see the culture. Everything
about it is different. The way professional baseball is run, it's just a different world," reminisced Tracy about the
experience.
An eight-year MLB veteran, Tracy realizes that not many players on the Nationals roster have experience in a
pennant race. He himself does. While with the Diamondbacks in 2008, Arizona choked away an eight game
lead down the stretch and missed the playoffs. A lack of quality bench play crippled the D-Backs chances.
"You go on an eight game losing streak...it takes all of eight days to be back to even. We had L.A. walk us
down one year when I was over in Arizona and it's not a good feeling. You can feel them coming. Off the
bench, you have to be able to come through late in games."
So the next time you praise how good Washington baseball has been, don't forget about the Goon
Squad's importance. Their overachieving efforts and comeback stories are the epitome of the 2012 Nationals.
Article #30
Roger Bernadina: the Nationals’ muscle man in the midst of a career season
By James Wagner, Washington Post, 8/27/12
Roger Bernadina’s teammates tease him, as good teammates often do, about his build. But it’s really flattery.
He’s a chiseled 6-foot-2 outfielder in the midst of the best season of his career. He’s perhaps the most muscular
player on the Nationals, a team full of 6-foot-plus, well-built athletes.
“The guy is a Greek god,” said teammate Chad Tracy, whose locker is adjacent to Bernadina’s at Nationals
Park. “I’ve played against him but you don’t realize how solid he is until you see him with his shirt off.”
In fact, Bernadina, 28, didn’t always look like this: defined arms, tree-trunk forearms and thin legs. Three years
ago, Bernadina weighed 215 pounds. Since then, he has slimmed down to 205 pounds, replacing the mass with
lean muscle. Each offseason, it’s as if he shows up to spring training even better built than before. (He looked
jacked last season, too.)
Three years ago, Bernadina decided to take conditioning, and particularly weight lifting, more seriously. He felt
tired near the end of the season and wanted to avoid that in the future.
“Everybody is going to get tired,” he said. “But I wasn’t lifting at all. I started doing that.”
He hired a personal trainer in his native Curaçao. They did whole body training and lifting for about 90 minutes
five days a week. He has done that every offseason since. During the season, he works out two to three times a
week to maintain. He adapted his diet, too, loading up on proteins such as chicken and choosing natural foods.
(There’s still some fast food in his diet but his metabolism can clearly handle it.)
Now, Bernadina is in tremendous shape. He looks much different than he did when he first received significant
playing time for the Nationals in 2010. This season, given the injuries to several outfielders, he has filled a
larger role than expected and performed well. He began using a lighter bat at the urging of teammate Mark
DeRosa and fixed a hitch in his swing. He has made spectacular catches. He is known as “The Shark,” for his
ability to hunt down balls in the outfield.
Over the past 16 games, only four of which he started, Bernadina is 13 for 24 (.542) with five walks, including
two hits in Sunday’s game. All of his averages — batting average (.308), on-base percentage (.390) and
slugging percentage (.410) — are way above his career marks.
“This year compared to last year, he’s shortened his stroke,” Nationals Manager Davey Johnson said. “Not big
and more direct to the ball. He’s just making the pitchers throw the ball in the strike zone better, more than last
year. Just a more mature hitter. He’s done a great job in his role. He’s basically been almost a regular at times
this year.”
Johnson said Bernadina has the tools to be an everyday player, but is still developing. Though Bernadina has
been in the system since 2001, when he signed with the Montreal Expos, he has only two full years of time in
the majors since his debut in 2008. Injuries and performance derailed his playing time.
And at this point of the season, Bernadina insists he doesn’t feel sluggish, as he did before he started focusing
more on his fitness.
“I still feel strong,” he said. “I still feel good. I’ve got at least a month or so for sure,” he added, smiling.
After Bernadina changed from street clothes into a t-shirt and shorts at his locker before Sunday’s game,
DeRosa looked at Bernadina and asked: “How small is your waist?”
Bernadina laughed it off and walked away. DeRosa continued: “He could play in the NFL tomorrow.”
“He’s pretty humble,” Tracy said earlier, laughing. “If I had that body, I’d never have clothes on.”
Article #31
Jayson Werth’s goals with Nationals ahead of schedule
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 8/28/12
PHILADELPHIA — Jayson Werth insisted last year that he had come to Washington to win and win big, and a
great portion of the baseball world scoffed. Werth had traded the Philadelphia Phillies’ mini-dynasty for a
doormat, first place for last. The Nationals had lost 298 games the three previous seasons, and yet in spring
2011, he predicted a coming shift, saying, “I want to be part of the group that changes perception of baseball in
Washington, D.C.”
It turns out he was right — sooner than he figured. So, just two years into his Washington tenure, does Werth
get to stand up and yell, “I told you so?”
“I mean, that kind of speaks for itself,” Werth said. “I don’t think I have to say anything.”
Even as he spent three months healing from a broken wrist, Werth’s second season in Washington has delivered
everything he hoped. He feels relaxed in the clubhouse and in the Virginia suburbs, where his family and two
dogs live year-round. He is “much more comfortable in his own skin,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said.
Werth returned sooner than expected from his wrist injury. He has made last season’s offensive struggles appear
to be a blip.
Most important, the Nationals have won. The seven-year, $126 million contract Werth signed was of course a
primary motivation to join Washington. But he also vowed he had come here because of his utmost confidence
in management and ownership to produce a winner. Less than two years in, even after their current four-game
skid, the Nationals have the best record in the major leagues.
“I didn’t know how fast it would take place,” Werth said Saturday, standing behind the batting cage about an
hour before first pitch at Citizens Bank Park. “But after last season, we played so well in September and under
Davey [Johnson] and everything, I wasn’t really sure how this year was going to go. I know originally, I
thought Year 3 was going to be our year, you know, with [Stephen Strasburg] on the limit this year and
everything. It’s not that surprising that it was this year, with the group of guys we’ve got, the talent. The
direction the organization was inevitably going anyways, it’s not a surprise.”
Werth dashed away from his conversation, hopping across a green tarp and into the dirt inside the batting cage.
The place he used to call home rose around him, blue seats and maroon and gray facades. His Nationals
teammates milled outside the cage. The crack of a line drive off his black bat echoed throughout the place. A
deep drive banged off the right-center field wall.
Werth ambled back out of the batting cage. His bird’s-nest beard and sleek sunglasses concealed his face. He
restarted his thought.
“Again, it was kind of inevitable, whether it was this year or next,” Werth said. “I think Davey was a big help to
that. I don’t see us in this position if [Jim] Riggleman is our manager. You got to have somebody at the top
that’s brash, and that’s not afraid.”
Werth sprinted back into the cage. He sprayed more line drives, then walked back out, the thrill of this season
still on his mind.
“Being on a first-place team again, any day you wake up in the morning and you’re in first place is a good day,”
he said. “Whether you’re on the DL or not.”
The Nationals have attained their status even as others joined Werth on the disabled list. Werth mentioned Tyler
Moore, Steve Lombardozzi and Roger Bernadina by name as the reason the Nationals had held steady while
others were injured.
“It speaks volumes for those guys,” Werth said. “They can step in and produce like an everyday guy. There’s a
lot of good teams out there that could be good teams, but they don’t have a bench. If they get hurt, they’re
[finished].”
As Werth walked back to the plate for another round of swings, he did not name any names. It was not hard to
guess a certain team he may have been referring to. The Phillies, his former team, tumbled this season without
injured Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. They are playing better now, as evidenced by their weekend sweep of
the Nationals, but a lack of depth sunk their season. They won 102 games without him last season, but with
their stars shelved, maybe the Phillies could have used Werth?
“Just look at the Nats,” Werth said.
When Werth has played this season, the Nationals have gone 33-16, including 15-7 since he returned Aug. 2
from a broken wrist.
“He’s really turned this team on with his energy, and really given this team a lift, offensively and defensively,
that we expected from him,” Rizzo said.
In an organization pushing through its first pennant race, Werth is one of four on the Nationals’ 25-man roster
with postseason experience. Other than Werth, only Edwin Jackson has won a World Series ring.
“It’s kind of a calming influence,” third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said.
Even as Werth struggled last year, teammates say his influence helped change the Nationals’ mind-set.
Zimmerman said Werth assisted a young team in growing up.
“J-Dub brought a winning attitude,” shortstop Ian Desmond said. “When you got a guy that’s come from 100game winning seasons, and he comes in and he’s flipping out because you lost the 10th game of the year, you’re
kind of like, ‘Oh. Maybe we should turn it up a little here.’ He expects to win. He comes in ready to go every
single day. He’s definitely got a passion for beating the other team.”
Bryce Harper has touted Werth as a key mentor. In spring training, Werth “rented” the locker next to Harper’s,
stuffing his clothes in an empty stall so Harper, a 19-year-old, would have no more space than any other rookie.
During games, Zimmerman can hear Werth helping position Harper.
“He’s not afraid to tell Harp things when he does something wrong,” Zimmerman said. “He’s not like a dad.
But he takes care of him.”
Werth also has made less subtle contributions. After his dismal 2011 season, when he hit .232 with a .718 OPS,
Werth, in a 45-game sample, has returned to his career offensive norm. He’s batting .305, the best average of
his career. He has a 130 OPS+, which would rank behind only his 2010 season. His power has been slow to
return since he came back, as he has no homers in 79 at-bats. But he’s swatted liners to gaps, smacking eight
doubles and a triple.
This spring, Werth predicted that enhanced comfort in his new surroundings would transfer to the field.
Differences both small and large have mattered. He sleeps in his own bed, and he knows the Nationals’ video
system. He has a daily routine. He loves his teammates.
“It was just different,” Werth said. “It’s kind of tough to explain, really. It just didn’t have a real good feel to it,
you know? Baseball to me has always been feel. You go through the game, some days you feel good, some days
you feel bad. To me, that’s part of it.
“Whatever. I don’t need to sit here and talk about it. I feel good. I feel comfortable. I’m in a good place. I love
my team. I love my town.”
Article #32
What's old is new for Nationals skipper Davey Johnson
By Paul White, USA Today, 8/28/12
WASHINGTON – After the Washington Nationals suffered their fourth consecutive loss Sunday, manager
Davey Johnson could be heard shouting at general manager Mike Rizzo, "Why don't you come down here and
manage this team!"
News reporters who overheard the exchange were ushered out of the visitors clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park in
Philadelphia. Later, Johnson simply explained, "I had a discussion with my boss."
Getting embroiled in the daily grind — and sometimes contentious exchanges — of a baseball season was
something Johnson could have scarcely imagined a year ago.
About this time last year, Johnson recalls, he knew the Nationals would win the pennant.
Now the team with the best record in baseball is proving its manager right — not only in the standings but in the
formerly interim skipper's message last offseason to Rizzo:
"You need to hire me back."
No Washington-caliber lobbying job was necessary. Rizzo already knew the long-term answer for his team of
next-generation stars was Johnson, a cross between renaissance man and baseball lifer.
Rizzo knew it the day in June 2011 when Jim Riggleman abruptly resigned. He knew it when he almost
immediately asked Johnson to move over from his consulting role with the team.
In fact, Rizzo says, he knew it even "two years before I asked him. The resignation part of it was a complete
shock, but there was a contingency plan that Davey was in the background at all times."
Maybe Riggleman suspected correctly, in making the demand for a contract extension Rizzo wouldn't meet, that
he wasn't going to be around anyway when this team was ready to contend.
But did Johnson know he would be — should be — the guy?
"I had no aspirations of wanting to take over the job," he says.
Yet here he is, at 69, helming a club that has jolted the baseball community with its success, guiding two of the
game's transcendent young stars in Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg through both expectations and the
occasional controversy, all while never betraying a personality that's distinctly Davey.
Even if that means standing up to the man who hired him.
Time for golf and fishing
He hadn't managed in the majors since 2000 when, after two seasons with a Los Angeles Dodgers organization
that he says was dysfunctional, he went home to Florida.
"I was burnt out," he says. "I needed to be at home. Then my wife started a business."
He managed college players in a wood bat league, helped out with the Netherlands' fledgling national program
and eventually worked with USA Baseball. He managed the U.S. team in the World Baseball Classic.
But he also got to work on maintaining his scratch golfer status. "Had a little arrhythmia, a ruptured appendix,
got up to a five handicap," he says. He kept up with his real estate investments, including an island on Florida's
Atlantic coast, and a fishing camp.
And he could go fishing, even after signing on with the Nationals as a consultant in 2005.
He recalls a dinner early in the 2011 season with Rizzo and his special assistant, Harolyn Cardozo, when he told
them he hadn't thought about managing again.
"I left the dinner and went off to Syracuse (to see a Nationals farm team), and then my wife and I were going
fishing with (Basketball Hall of Famer) John Havlicek," he said.
Johnson already had done it all — managed three other teams for 14 years, won a pennant and a World Series—
and hadn't been on a major league bench in more than a decade.
His first major league managing job was taking a New York Mets team that lost 94 games in 1983 and
averaging 96 wins the next six seasons, including winning the 1986 World Series.
Those teams included a young Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, emerging stars of their era much like his
current phenoms, Strasburg and Harper, though Johnson says comparing his current media darlings to Gooden
and Strawberry is "apples and bananas."
Johnson was ahead of the statistical curve, building on his mathematics degree from Trinity University by
taking computer courses at Johns Hopkins while playing All-Star second base for the Baltimore Orioles.
He'd badger his manager, Earl Weaver, with statistical printouts, including one called "Optimize the Orioles
Lineup."
"He had me hitting seventh, and I wanted to hit second," Johnson says.
Teammates were targets, too. He watched pitcher Dave McNally throw pitches over the middle of the plate
instead of on the corners, until one day it became too much, as Hall of Famer Jim Palmer recalls.
"Davey says, 'Have you ever heard of standard deviation theory? It's a mathematical theorem, and … if you're
throwing the ball at the corner and it's going in the middle, maybe try to throw it in the middle and it will go to
the corner. That's when we all knew he was going to be a manager."
They couldn't have imagined how successful.
His .564 winning percentage is second to that of Joe Girardi of the New York Yankees among active managers,
third to Girardi and Weaver among living managers.
No wonder Rizzo had his mind made up.
"I knew he was one of the best baseball guys I ever saw," Rizzo says. "When we talk about the other veteran
managers —Joe Torre, Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa— he's about the same age with a better winning
percentage."
But he was content in his consulting role for the Nationals, until he got his hands on what Rizzo was building.
"We weren't .500 last year, but I knew," Johnson says. "I knew in August this club had enough talent and, if we
played up to our potential, we could win the pennant. My consulting to Rizzo was, 'You need to hire me back.' "
The puppeteer
The young Nationals needed him more than they realized.
Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, the first face of the Nationals franchise when he was drafted in 2005, had
played for four managers when Johnson took over. Zimmerman says the latest interim manager's confidence
was palpable.
"I'm sure every manager wishes he had the track record and the résumé of Davey to be able do whatever he
wants," Zimmerman says. "He'll make a decision, and you'll be, like, 'Man, that was pretty gutsy.' It's something
a lot of us had never seen before, but it made us more comfortable.
"He can do something and say, 'Hey, it worked when I won the World Series.' He would never say that. But it
gives us the confidence, and confidence spreads."
Johnson calls himself the puppeteer, saying he's fine "if nobody ever saw me."
But people do see — and hear — Johnson.
He called Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon "a weird wuss" in a dispute after the Nationals got Rays
pitcher Joel Peralta ejected for too much pine tar on his glove.
He loved the swagger he saw when Harper responded to being purposely hit by Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels by
stealing home.
"You have a manager who's going to fight for his players, the players are going to play hard," Nationals pitcher
Edwin Jackson says. "He's not going to cave in. He's not going to bash anybody, but he's always going to have
our backs."
Johnson often drops nuggets on the news media — either gentle criticisms of his players or bits of information
that otherwise might have remained private — such as Strasburg isn't throwing his fastball enough or Harper
shouldn't have thrown to the wrong base or Strasburg was bothered in a start due to heat balm that "got
misplaced."
Motivation?
Looking to push the right buttons?
"I ain't pushing diddly-squat," Johnson says. "All I'm doing is giving them an opportunity to succeed.
"From the first day I was a manager, I always was candid. It's my job to make sure everybody knows what's
expected of them. Successful managers let guys play, have patience and let them develop."
Besides, the players already have gotten the message directly before the media hears it.
"It's what I do, not what I say," Johnson says. "(Players) are going to be grading me, just like I'm evaluating
their performance. Every day.
"I've got to earn their respect and vice versa. You earn the respect on a daily basis by being right."
Johnson is non-committal about how long he'll manage, claiming wife Susan — "the higher power," he calls her
— gets to make that call.
Johnson says he's as comfortable working with his current colleagues as anywhere. But he says one thing hasn't
changed:
"I manage the way I live: today, with an eye on tomorrow."
Article #33
Even without Strasburg, Nationals boast formidable rotation
By Joe Lemire, Sports Illustrated, 8/31/12
WASHINGTON -- Construct a competitive playoff rotation for a contender, and you might start with a hardthrowing righthander who is second in his league in ERA and who boasts a gaudy strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Behind him, you could do worse than a two-time All-Star lefty with giddy-up on his fastball, which he mixes
with a knee-buckling curve to rank second in wins and in strikeout rate and 12th in ERA.
Maybe the third starter would be a World Series-winning righthander, the one with the devastating slider, the
no-hitter and 22 innings of playoff experience, who this year sits among the top-20 in WHIP and strikeouts.
Nowadays almost every team uses a fourth starter in the postseason, and a club would do well to give those
innings to an up-and-coming lefthander with the best groundball rate in the bunch, who has emerged from
nowhere to join the league's top-15 in ERA and WHIP.
This, of course, is not a hypothetical exercise, but the alignment of the rotation for the NL East-leading
Nationals once ace Stephen Strasburg reaches his innings limit and gets shutdown after two or three more starts.
With Strasburg, the Nationals have the majors' best starting pitcher ERA of 3.27. Subtract Strasburg's
contributions this year, and the Nationals still have the majors' best starters' ERA at 3.32. (The Rays are second
at 3.49.)
Judging by their performance credentials rather than their not-so-familiar names -- Jordan Zimmermann, Gio
Gonzalez, Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler -- Washington, the only team with a winning record every month
this season, remains in good shape to make a deep run in the postseason.
"Even without Strasburg," one NL scout said, "they have as good a chance as anybody to win the National
League."
This is not to take any stance as to whether the Nationals should or shouldn't shut down Strasburg, a topic
already argued to infinity and back, but to acknowledge the seeming inevitability that it's happening and to
asses the club's chances once it does.
And it's certainly not a suggestion that losing Strasburg is anything but a blow to the club's chances, mostly
from the practical level of not having one's best starter but also from the psychological edge that comes with
starting a series with a dominant pitcher.
"Obviously Stras is the ace of the rotation," Gonzalez said. "He deserves that recognition on our staff. He's a
guy who's made a great name for himself. But the big picture is that we all have been playing a big piece in this,
and Stras has been key to that rotation. We've got that kind of staff where we might lose one [but] we have four
other guys that are willing to go out there and step it up for him.
"It's hard to replace a guy like Strasburg. It's hard to just overlook him and say, 'Wait, we've got other guys.'
He's a big-name guy who's been a big part of this winning season for us."
Strasburg, who is 15-6 with a 3.05 ERA and an NL-leading 186 strikeouts, is Washington's best pitcher. But
he's not their only elite pitcher.
Washington pitching coach Steve McCatty said he believed all the attention on Strasburg -- given his ability and
the unique shutdown -- has "overshadowed everybody else."
"It takes the pressure off the rest of us," Detwiler said. "Coming to the field everyday, we know what's going to
be said on TV or whatever. We kind of fly under the radar, and a few of us like that."
While Strasburg has the No. 1 average fastball velocity among NL starters, according to FanGraphs, the four
remaining starters are Nos. 3, 5, 7 and 10 -- hard-throwers with good results, judging by the littering of
Nationals on the leaderboards. All five of their starters are in the top-16 in the league in both ERA and WHIP.
Strasburg's presumed replacement and the fifth starter for the rest of September, John Lannan, is 2-0 with a 3.46
ERA in 13 innings and has spent four years in the big league rotation.
"Zimmermann really gets lost in the weeds, but he's got great stuff," McCatty said. "He has great command.
He's got quick arm speed. The ball plays faster than the velocity reads on the board. He's got an outstanding
slider -- it's a plus slider. He doesn't use his curveball as much, but that's a plus pitch also. And he uses his
changeup at times."
While Zimmermann may not be a household name, the baseball world surely knows his repertoire.
"I'm a big fan of Jordan Zimmermann," the scout said. "He has zero hype, but the difference between him and
Strasburg is not that much. One's a 1A that touches 97, and the other's a 1A that touches 96. Both of these guys
have dominant stuff, and Gio Gonzalez has dominant stuff."
On Thursday night Jackson showed his potential, as he went eight innings and allowed only one unearned run
while striking out 10 to beat the Cardinals, the league's highest-scoring offense. The scout raved about his
swing-and-miss slider, though noted that Jackson can be inconsistent. But Jackson is the only starter with
playoff experience, having reached the World Series in 2008 with the Rays and won a title last year with St.
Louis.
The rotation's big revelation this season has been Detwiler, a tall lefty who has cleaned up his delivery,
according to the scout, helping him get more velocity on his fastball, which now averages 92.7 mph, seventhbest among all major league lefties. McCatty said Detwiler can touch 96 but won't always throw that four-seam
fastball because of his sinker, which was the pitch Zimmermann raved about.
Detwiler thanked the defense behind him and credited the other four starters with helping him learn more about
pitching this year than his four previous seasons combined, especially the urging to always pound the zone with
strikes. "Just attack and put the ball in the hitter's court," he said of the lesson. "You're going to have to hit. It's
going to be out of a pitcher's count, so you're going to have to hit out of a pitcher's count and hit my pitch."
Said the scout: "He's got a little bit of tail action. He's more of a mix guy than a movement/contact guy. He's got
a plus curveball, and when he gets that over, he's very good. He's not afraid to pitch inside. He's got a very
usable changeup. He's a solid guy that for me could probably be a No. 3 at some point in his career."
An ancillary impact of Strasburg's absence is that both Jackson and Detwiler will be in the rotation, instead of
manager Davey Johnson getting to choose one to start and using the other in the bullpen.
After all, if there are any issues with the rotation -- and this would be true with or without Strasburg -- they are
the lack of postseason experience beyond Jackson and that Washington hasn't gotten much length from its
starters, who rank 11th in innings while the bullpen has logged the second-most.
The Nationals have had to cover more sixth and seventh innings than most clubs would hope, but the bullpen
has held its own. Five relievers have thrown at least 49 innings; four have an ERA below 2.75 and the other has
a still-impressive 3.25.
"Our bullpen has been our biggest key to all of our success," Gonzalez said.
With that bullpen supporting the four remaining starters, Washington's pitching still matches up well with the
staff of any other contender. Even with the end of Strasburg's season imminent in the next two weeks or so, it's
hard to get the staff to think beyond the here and now in this game of inescapable routine.
"We're just trying to finish strong here," Zimmermann said.
He was speaking of the regular season and of staving off the Braves in the division but, even without Strasburg,
the Nationals have a chance to finish strong in the playoffs, too.
Article #34
The Nationals bullpen: ‘It’s our little fraternity out there, our own little team’
By James Wagner, Washington Post, 8/31/12
The Washington Nationals‘ bullpen may be the most distinctive subgroup within the team: a cluster of seven
pitchers caged together in one little space every day, far removed from the rest of the team. That’s the perfect
recipe for bonding, laughing and learning. From the bullpen in the outfield, they watch the game, arguing over
balls and strikes and talking about anything and everything. Each pitcher has his own routine, seating
arrangement and personality.
“That’s why we’re such a tight-knit group because no one else can really relate,” reliever Ryan Mattheus said.
“We’re always caged in a little cage together, sticking up for each other and yapping back at fans.”
Added reliever Craig Stammen: “It’s our little fraternity out there, our own little team. I think we take pride in
that. We root each other on probably a little bit harder than we root everybody else on.”
Other than the few times a reliever is warming up in the bullpen and it’s shown on television, fans don’t often
look in that direction. In fact, in some ballparks, the bullpen is hard to spot. As a result, fans might know little
about what happens back there.
The relievers don’t all take their place in the bullpen by the game’s first pitch. At home, they usually join their
teammates on the field for the national anthem and filter over to the bullpen afterwards. On the road, however,
they take their time.
Stammen and Tom Gorzelanny, the Nationals’ middle relief, are the first pitchers in the bullpen because they’re
often the first ones to enter a game. By the middle of the third inning, the rest of the relievers make the trek as a
group from the clubhouse through the dugout onto the field and into the bullpen.
Stammen, Gorzelanny, bullpen coach Jim Lett and the bullpen catcher usually sit in a cluster. Then, when the
rest join, everyone finds his spot. Henry Rodriguez, in between his stints on the disabled list, would sit off to the
side, his way of focusing — and also because he speaks less English. But he is known for creating new and
unique handshakes with teammates on a near-daily basis. Michael Gonzalez bounces around, sitting wherever
he wants that day. Mattheus always finds his usual spot in between Stammen, to his left, and Sean Burnett, to
his right.
“It just happens that way,” Mattheus said. “We just go out there and we sit down. It’s weird. We don’t ever
really talk about it. No one ever says, ‘Hey, get out of my seat.’ Or anything like that. It’s not superstition or
anything like that. It’s weird how we’re like that. It kind of falls into place.”
From there, they watch the game, analyze at-bats, gauge hitters and watch the tempo of play. Despite the
unusual angles and vantage points from far in the outfield, they pick up useful tips. (“In some places, you can’t
see anything so you just forget about it,” Stammen said. )
“I’m watching how Gio [Gonzalez] or [Ross] Detwiler is pitching these hitters,” Gonzalez said. “And that’s
what these guys are doing. This guy swung at this pitch and this guy swings at this pitch.”
But it’s also fun and light; considering they spend a ton of time back there over the course of the season. Drew
Storen and Tyler Clippard, roommates and friends, banter back and forth, impersonating voices and announcing
the game. (“It’s hilarious,” Mattheus said.) They talk about baseball, the fans in the crowd, life, fantasy football
or “what’s Sean’s kid’s saying funny at home,” Mattheus said.
“You name it, we probably talk about it,” Stammen said.
In places like Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Wrigley Field in Chicago or AT&T Park in San Francisco,
where the bullpens are intimately close to fans, the relievers laugh at the banter from opposing fans (“You spent
eight years in the minor leagues!”). And, of course, the relievers grumble over calls.
“That’s probably what we do most: complain about the strikes and balls, the out calls,” Mattheus said, laughing.
“We’re a million miles away, we have no place, but we’re always yelling, ‘Where’s that pitch?’”
By the fifth inning, each reliever gets up and stretches, regardless of whether they are pitching or not that day. It
keeps them loose, ready and in a routine. They each have their own methods, but it usually involves stretching
their arms, running around and breaking a light sweat. They warmup their arm with an outfielder the inning
before they think they’re coming in.
“Everybody’s got their little routine that they do at certain times during the game,” Stammen said. “Once it gets
past the fifth, sixth inning, it’s a little quieter. There isn’t as much horsing around going on.”
When the fifth inning hits, Burnett, for example, says nothing and sits off to the side. And when the bullpen
phone rings and the voice on the other end calls their name, it’s all business.
“Once crunch time hits, we’re all locked in,” Mattheus said.
Article #35
Christian Garcia could be a call-up after overcoming two Tommy John surgeries
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 9/1/12
In April 2010, Christian Garcia drove home to his apartment in Trenton, N.J., mad at the world. He had just
learned, again, that a doctor would slice open his pitching elbow — his second Tommy John surgery and third
elbow surgery. His anger rose as he thought about the rehab ahead and the risk to livelihood.
“And I see this blind kid getting off a school bus,” Garcia recalled earlier this week. “I’m like, ‘Man, I’m
worried about little things like this? When there’s people in the world that’s got way bigger problems than I’ve
got?’ It made me think, you know what? This is just an obstacle. This is just a speed bump. I’m going to work
hard and get right back on course. I never thought I wouldn’t get back.”
Garcia, 27, is back now. More than two years after his second elbow reconstruction, Garcia has become
the Washington Nationals’ best relief prospect and a possible September call-up. He is not on the Nationals’ 40man roster (which currently sits at 39 players), but his jet-fueled stuff and his absurd numbers warrant
consideration. In fact, Manager Davey Johnson hinted on Friday that Garcia could be called up once Syracuse’s
season ends.
In 501 / 3 innings between Class AAA Syracuse and Class AA Harrisburg, Garcia has allowed five earned runs
— 0.89 ERA — while striking out 64 and walking 17. He became the closer at Syracuse, where he has a 0.59
ERA and 36 strikeouts in 301 / 3 innings.
The Nationals signed Garcia last July, after he threw a bullpen session for a handful of their evaluators in Viera,
Fla. He had been a starting prospect for the New York Yankees, who chose him with their third-round pick in
2004. Pat Corrales, now a Nationals’ roving minor league instructor and a baseball man for more than half a
century, says three arms stood apart in the Nationals’ system this year: Alex Meyer, Nathan Karns and Garcia.
Greg Booker, the Syracuse pitching coach, said Garcia could “absolutely” get batters out in the majors right
now. Garcia throws his four-seam fastball 96 miles per hour consistently and touches 98, with a diving sinker
that zips around 94. He has a 12-to-6 curve and a high-80s change-up.
“He’s definitely throwing above-average major league stuff,” Booker said.
After eight years in professional baseball and an endless rehab schedule, Garcia may get to use it in the major
leagues. His first Tommy John surgery came in 2006, when he was 20, and he missed the entire 2007 season. It
was hard, but typical enough for a young pitcher. He came back in 2008 for a partial season, appearing in 14
games.
The next year, his right elbow began aching again, the same pain he felt before his first Tommy John surgery.
He made five starts, pitching through the pain, and punched up a 0.71 ERA with 24 strikeouts and 17 walks in
251 / 3 innings. “It was hurting so bad I couldn’t throw strikes,” Garcia said. “I would still get outs. I would walk
the bases loaded, and then get the next three out.”
Garcia could barely get the ball to the plate. He started bouncing fastballs five feet short. He told Yankees
officials and trainers he was positive he had torn his ligament again. They sent him to James Andrews, who
diagnosed a bone spur and decompression in his nerve. Andrews, Garcia said, shaved down the spur and
scraped scar tissue away.
He waited four months to throw again, but the pain felt the same — the spur had come from the back of his
elbow, but the throbbing came from the exact spot as the scar from his first Tommy John surgery. He decided
he would rehab and pitch through it.
On opening day in 2010, Class AA Trenton gave Garcia the ball. He made it into the sixth inning and threw a
95-mph fastball.
He knew immediately.
“I threw one pitch, and it popped. It was loud. I could hear it. I didn’t just feel it. I could hear it. When I grabbed
the ball, it felt like a bowling ball. I just said, ‘I can’t throw this thing.’ ”
“I was feeling pain throughout the whole time,” Garcia said. “I threw one pitch, and it popped. It was loud. I
could hear it. I didn’t just feel it. I could hear it. When I grabbed the ball, it felt like a bowling ball. I just said, ‘I
can’t throw this thing.’ ”
Tommy John surgery has been so refined it hardly poses a threat to a pitcher’s career. But two of them is a red
flag. Many pitchers are never the same, especially if they’ve had an additional elbow surgery like Garcia. He
never wavered. He had been drafted out of high school in Miami to play baseball, and that was his life, period.
“I got nothing else,” Garcia said. “This is it for me. This is my livelihood. This is what I live for. Nothing ever
crossed my mind to quit or anything like that. This is all I got. This is what I’m good at, and this is what I love.
People go to college and spend their time trying to figure out what they love and what they’re going to do. I
already know what I love, and I know what I want to do. Obviously, I’ve had some obstacles I have to
overcome.”
The fastball shredded his ulnar collateral ligament for the second time, and it would be the last pitch Garcia ever
threw for the Yankees.
“I was surprised, seeing that I was drafted by them, chose not to go to college,” Garcia said. “I was surprised,
but I also understood. It’s a business. I wasn’t performing for them. I kept getting hurt. So I understood that part
of it. I was kind of hurt by the way they did it. Nobody called me. I had my agent call me and tell me. I would
have thought [General Manager Brian] Cashman would have called me, since we have talked on the phone
several times. And he didn’t. But I don’t have any hate towards them. They’re a great organization. They’ve
given me a great base. I’m thankful for them. I was very lucky to be drafted by such a great organization.”
In June 2011, Garcia’s agent set up tryouts for several teams, including the Nationals, to prove he was healthy.
The Nationals wanted him to relieve, an idea he liked — starting, obviously, had not agreed with his right
arm. The Yankees had always wanted him to start because he had four quality pitches.
The Nationals started Garcia slowly, but have taken most reins off this year. Director of player development
Doug Harris told Booker he wanted to see how Garcia would respond to pitching multiple innings or on
consecutive days. He has passed both tests.
“I love it here,” Garcia said. “They have great coaches, farm directors, general managers. Everybody here has
been great. . . . They’ve treated me as though I was one of their guys they drafted. I’m fortunate to have signed
with a club that has treated me as well as they have.”
Booker has worked with Garcia to get him to pitch off his fastball more often, to save his secondary pitches
only for moments when he needs them. Though Booker raved about Garcia’s stuff, “that’s not to say that he’s
there or he’s polished or anything,” Booker said. “What he’s been through, if nothing else, the learning curve is
still — he’s got some things he needs to do.”
And he may have earned a call-up and a spot on the 40-man roster, maybe one of the most improbable stories of
September.
“You play this game to play in the big leagues, not to play in Triple A,” Garcia said. “It’s been a dream of mine
since I was a kid. I think about it, but I have no control over it. The only thing I can do is go out there and put
zeros up and do things I can control, and get better. But it would be an honor to get called up. I can’t dwell on it,
because I can’t control it.”
Article #36
Calm, confident Davey right man to lead Nationals
By Richard Justice, MLB.com, 9/5/12
WASHINGTON -- Davey Johnson hadn't managed a Major League Baseball game in 11 years when the
Washington Nationals turned their team over to him midway through the 2011 season. At 68, he wasn't a
conventional choice.
Like a lot of the decisions Nats general manager Mike Rizzo has made, it has worked out nicely. Johnson's calm
and confidence have been a perfect fit for a team with a bunch of young players still figuring things out.
"Basically, just let the players feel comfortable," Johnson said. "A lot of them are still in the learning process.
They're all gamers. All they need is a little coaching here and there. Players win ballgames. I've said it a
hundred times. They understand I'm going to try and give them the best situation to be as good as they can be."
Johnson had absolutely nothing to prove, and because he'd been through so much during 50 years in
professional baseball, he could relate equally well to rising young stars and established veterans.
"Nothing against managers we've had here in the past," Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said, "but
Davey came with accomplishments. He has done everything imaginable as a player, as a front-office person."
As a young player, Johnson played for -- and occasionally sparred with -- Orioles legend Earl Weaver. Weaver
once joked that Johnson had a habit of bringing suggested lineups into his office.
"And all of them had him hitting third," Weaver cackled.
As a manager, Johnson ushered Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry to the big leagues and celebrated a
championship with them as the manager of the 1986 Mets.
Johnson also led the Reds and Orioles to playoff appearances with a method that included a mixture of smarts,
humor and occasionally sarcasm. There are few managers better at running a game or filling out a lineup card.
Players know he'll be honest with them.
"He's old school," Zimmerman said. "Everyone uses that term. You show up, and if you're healthy, you'll play.
If you struggle for a week or two, he's not going to panic. He'll come talk to you and try and help you out and
talk about what he thinks is wrong. He's not going to jump ship on you. Because he's so loyal to us, everyone in
this room will run through a brick wall for this guy."
With so much of the focus on Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg this summer, Johnson has slipped under the
radar, his magical touch having gone unnoticed by some.
The Nats have baseball's best record at 84-52 and a 7 1/2-game lead in the National League East. They're
fundamentally sound, smart and efficient. In terms of communication and putting players in position to succeed,
no manager has done a better job.
"He has kept a steady hand and had a calming presence on the youngest team in the league," Rizzo said. "He
has really kind of guided us to the position we're in."
Rizzo has surrounded himself with experienced baseball men, including Bob Boone, Roy Clark and his dad,
Phil Rizzo, a respected talent evaluator.
That was the role the younger Rizzo envisioned for Johnson in November 2009. When Jim Riggleman resigned
18 months later, Rizzo asked Johnson to take over the club.
"He's a guy with extreme confidence," Rizzo said. "He has done everything you can do in this game. He has
been an All-Star player. He won the World Series as a player and as a manager. He hit 43 home runs and won
Gold Gloves. He can relate to these players. These players want to get where he has already been. He has the
respect of the room. They know when he says something, he's saying it for their betterment."
For his part, Johnson said he didn't join the Nationals with the idea of managing. But he has settled in nicely.
Johnson has reached out to players to communicate his thoughts and hear what they have to say. He has helped
Harper adjust to life in the big leagues as a 19-year-old. When Johnson called a team meeting the other day
during a five-game losing streak, he apparently told a few jokes and attempted to get his guys to relax.
"Am I having fun? Yeah," Johnson said. "I like seeing guys do well. I know people think it's the wins and
losses. Really, it's seeing guys establish themselves and become the players they can be. That's the joy of
managing or coaching."
Article #37
Chad Tracy has perfected the art of pinch-hitting
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 9/7/12
Chad Tracy spends a few moments on the field most nights, if he emerges from the Washington
Nationals dugout at all. Manager Davey Johnson holds him in reserve until a single swing may shift the
outcome. Tracy almost always enters the game for one at-bat, and one at-bat only. He usually does not play
defense. He sometimes does not run the bases. And at the end of the night, he leaves the ballpark completely
exhausted.
The apparent simplicity of Tracy’s job is a disguise. It belies the work he devotes to every pinch-hit chance, the
seven hours of preparation that produce two minutes of performance.
Tracy has become a valuable, unheralded piece of the first-place Nationals’ success not because of what he does
on the field, under the lights. He thrives because of his daily regimen in a batting cage under the stands, the
steady routine, careful study and intricate timing that lead into every precious at-bat.
“You’re mentally drained after the game,” Tracy said. “You may not be as physically drained as the guys
playing out there. Mentally, just trying to figure when you’re going to go in the game and make sure you peak
at the right time.”
Tracy signed a minor league contract with the Nationals this winter, after an injury-plagued season in Japan.
General Manager Mike Rizzo had drafted Tracy when he worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and he still
believed Tracy could help his bench. Last month, the Nationals rewarded him with a $1 million contract
extension for next season.
At this stage of his career, Tracy, 32, has embraced his role off the bench. For younger Nationals’ bench
players, such asTyler Moore and Steve Lombardozzi, he serves as something of a guru. “He just kind of gives
us a confidence,” Moore said. He shares with them his insight into pinch hitting, which he honed over several
seasons.
“It did not come naturally,” Tracy said. “Usually, when I was sitting the bench early on, I was not happy. It was
kind of like an angry at-bat — go up there and swing hard three times and see what happens.”
Intense preparation
Now, before a typical night game, Tracy will arrive in the Nationals clubhouse between 1 and 1:30 p.m. He eats
lunch, and if he feels good he heads to the weight room. The most important part of Tracy’s routine comes next.
He goes into the cage with hitting coach Rick Eckstein, an L-screen pulled to about 40 feet from the plate. First,
he hits soft pitches — or “flips” — using only his left hand, called the “top hand drill.”
After 15 or so one-handed swings, Tracy begins his most serious work. Eckstein fires pitches at him —
fastballs, sliders and curves — as hard as he can. The velocity mimics a 92- or 93-mph fastball, and Tracy treats
the practice like in-game at-bats.
“I hit more when I’m not playing,” Tracy said. “When I was an everyday player, I’d take it easy.”
After the session with Eckstein, Tracy leafs through the book Nationals scouts prepare on the opposing pitching
staff. Tracy places most of his focus on the opposing right-handed relievers, the pitchers he knows Johnson will
try to match him up against. Tracy only wants to know the velocity of each of their pitches, and in what counts
they tend to throw them.
Tracy goes through full batting practice with the rest of the Nationals, working up a sweat. Once the game
starts, Tracy finds a spot in the dugout and watches the first four or five innings. At that point, he knows he may
be called upon.
“You flip the switch,” Tracy said. “You’re cruising along, the game is cruising. That fourth or fifth comes
along, you try to flip on, ‘Okay, here we go.’ ”
Tracy takes some more light batting practice and gets stretched by a trainer. Then the nightly mental grind
begins. He constantly checks the pitch count of both starting pitchers – the opposition so he knows when a
right-handed reliever could enter, the Nationals’ so he knows when he may pinch-hit for the starter, his most
common deployment.
Tracy keeps in communication with pitching coach Steve McCatty and bench coach Randy Knorr. He wants to
know exactly their thinking on how long the Nationals’ starter can pitch.
Crucial moments
His attention goes deeper than pitch counts. Tracy studies which opposing batters have had the most success off
the Nationals’ starter, so he can be ready in case Johnson pulls the starter an inning early to avoid a difficult
match-up. He checks and double-checks the lineup.
“You don’t want to take too many swings and tire, or you’ve taken them, and then something sneaks up on you
and now you’re cold,” Tracy said. “You just never want that to happen. I just never want to get caught off
guard. I’m almost overly cautious about being loose.”
Tracy thinks along with Johnson. By this point in the year, he can figure out when he will pinch hit before
Johnson tells him. He knows he will be saved to hit with men on base, unless a solo home run can tie the game
to take the lead. “He’s pretty close to the other managers I’ve had, excluding Lou Piniella,” Tracy said. “You
never know what Lou was going to do.”
Tracy almost always hits in a crucial moment, against one of the other team’s best relievers. As an everyday
player, Tracy almost never swung at the first pitch. As a pinch hitter, he hunts for a first pitch fastball, wary of
falling behind in the count.
“These guys are one-inning guys,” Tracy said. “Their breaking balls are sharper. Their heaters are harder.
They’re coming in trying to strike you out or embarrass you. If you get a first-pitch fastball you can hit hard,
you’re not waiting around. You’d like to be able to see some pitches and get a little comfortable, but you can’t
afford to do it.”
The approach has made Tracy one of the top bench players in the league. Tracy is batting .281 with an .837 onbase plus slugging as a pinch hitter this year; the league average is .237 and .673. Despite the 55 games he
missed with a groin injury, Tracy is tied for third in the majors with 10 pinch-hit RBI.
The mental toll of pinch hitting wears down players. Tracy may go 0 for 3 and suddenly find himself hitless for
a week. “When I get out, I think about my last at-bat until my next at-bat,” Tracy said. “I want the at-bat the
next night. Even I don’t get a hit, at least I’m not thinking about that same at-bat.”
But it also has its rewards. Tracy frequently finds himself at-bat with the game on the line. In the moments
when it all comes together, his first swing of the day leading to a walk-off hit or game-winning RBI, it makes
the work worth it.
“You got a big knock,” Tracy said, “you go home and sleep a little better.”
Article #38
Gio deal turns fortues of both Nats, A’s
By Matthew Leach, MLB.com, 9/12/12
NEW YORK -- It's rare, but once in a long, long while, everybody does in fact win.
The A's radically remade their pitching staff with three major trades over the winter, leading to multiple
appearances of the word "rebuilding" in descriptions of Billy Beane's offseason. The Nationals were happy to
take advantage, shipping four prospects to Oakland in order to add high-upside but sometimes erratic lefty Gio
Gonzalez.
About 8 1/2 months later, it's quite clear that neither side should have any regrets. The Athletics' makeover bore
fruit much sooner than expected, as the pieces they received in the three deals have helped propel Oakland into
surprise Wild Card contention. And the Nats? They have the National League's best record, thanks in large part
to a breakthrough season by Gonzalez.
In fact, Gonzalez has emerged as a contender for the title of the Nationals' best starting pitcher, and not just in
the non-Stephen Strasburg division. And if you're the best pitcher on the Nats this year, you're in the running for
best pitcher in the league. Cy Young Award talk is starting to build for Gonzalez, who ranks in the top 10 in the
NL in ERA, strikeouts, WHIP and wins.
"He's been unbelievable all year long," said Washington shortstop Ian Desmond. "He's consistent. I think that's
one of the most important things for the Cy Young. You've got to be able to give your team a chance to win.
He's done that and beyond. He's nasty. I wouldn't want to face him. I'd give him the Cy Young right now."
Although the Nationals knew they were acquiring a quality pitcher, it's likely that even they didn't realize
exactly what they had on their hands. Gonzalez began harnessing his control and the results have been
remarkable.
Already a 200-inning workhorse with big strikeout numbers, Gonzalez has cut his walk rate significantly. He's
one of the biggest reasons why, even with Strasburg shut down, there's reason to believe the Nationals can go
deep in October.
"As far as I'm concerned, he's exceeded [expectations]," said manager Davey Johnson. "He's been very
consistent. Very few hits per nine innings. Just an outstanding job. Throw all right-handers up there or all lefthanders, it doesn't matter to him."
And while Oakland -- or any team -- would certainly benefit from having Gonzalez in the fold, the A's have
fared superbly in his absence. Tommy Milone and Derek Norris, two key pieces from the trade, have
contributed to the surge. So have Josh Reddick, acquired in the deal that sent Andrew Bailey to Boston, and
Jarrod Parker, who came from Arizona for Trevor Cahill.
It appeared the A's were, to some extent, punting on 2012 in order to be stronger sometime down the line. That
has not been the case.
"You obviously hope that they'll be able to help you sooner than later, but you never know," said Oakland
manager Bob Melvin. "You just put trust in your front office and know that they're making the right decisions
that will not only help your ballclub for the future but for the present, and that's what they've done."
One key, though, was that the A's weren't taking on long-shot projects. They wanted, and they got, players who
were close to the Majors or already there. Milone pitched for Washington in 2011. Norris was coming off a
successful year in Double-A.
"They've stepped right in and contributed," said A's shortstop Cliff Pennington. "That's what we needed. We
wanted big league-ready guys, and though a lot of people didn't see them as that, that's what we got. You can't
really ask for much more from them. We haven't missed a beat with the guys that have stepped in."
There's even been a ripple effect for both Oakland and Washington. Norris' arrival, along with the July
acquisition of George Kottaras from Milwaukee, allowed the A's to deal catcher Kurt Suzuki. The six-year
veteran was having a down year, so Oakland was willing to move him.
Conveniently, it's been a terrible year for injuries in the Nats' catching corps, so guess where Suzuki's landing
spot was? The Nationals shipped catcher/bat David Freitas to the A's for Suzuki, shoring up their catching
situation while the A's deepened their farm system yet again.
It's a deal that almost certainly wouldn't have happened if not for the previous trade. It's also yet another winwin move, with Oakland clearing some payroll space without compromising the short term too much, and
Washington getting better as it pursues the franchise's first World Series.
And make no mistake, that is the goal. The Nats are aiming high, with Gonzalez at the front of their likely
playoff rotation.
"I feel that this is a great team," Gonzalez said when asked if he expected this degree of team success so soon.
"Bullpen, offense, defense, I think why not? We've been playing hard and we deserve it."
Article #39
Nationals’ Christian Garcia proving that talent was never a question
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 9/12/12
NEW YORK — Maybe it was the two Tommy John surgeries. Or the nine years Christian Garcia spent
traversing the minor leagues, either developing or rehabbing. But the Washington Nationals right-hander’s
major league career has lasted just more than a week, and pitching in a one-run game in the eighth inning of a
pennant race doesn’t faze him.
Tuesday night, Garcia used the New York Mets as his latest canvas to show that it wasn’t talent denying him a
major league career, only injury. He threw 1⅓ innings, sometimes overpowering, other times devastating, to
prove that, in the words of Jordan Zimmermann, “He’s nasty.”
“He has an outstanding repertoire of stuff,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said of the former starter. “The
sinker he threw [David Wright], they were raving about it on the mound. They said, ‘That big donkey’s got a
better sinker than [Ryan Mattheus].’ I guess when you’re 6-foot-7 and throwing downhill, it might have a little
sink to it.”
Garcia’s brief performance has been so impressive he could put pressure on the Nationals to consider including
him on their postseason roster. Johnson brushed off the suggestion but didn’t totally dismiss it.
“It’s too early for that,” he said. “I’m not going there.”
But Garcia has weapons the Nationals could use in their already-solid bullpen. He possesses a mid-to-upper-90s
fastball, a strong curveball and what coaches called a “plus-plus” change-up that he can throw to right-handers
and left-handers with equally impressive effectiveness.
He doesn’t lack for confidence, either. When pitching coach Steve McCatty informed Garcia after a spotless
seventh inning that he’d be going out to begin the eighth, Garcia looked him in the eye and told him, “Don’t
worry, I got it.” McCatty nearly fainted.
“I said, ‘I’m going to give you 10 seconds to take that back,’” McCatty said, having flashbacks to the time he
told then-Athletics manager Billy Martin the same thing, only to surrender three home runs the next half-inning.
” ‘Don’t ever tell me you’ve got it. Take it back right now. Tell me you’ll pound the zone. Tell me something
else.’ He said, ‘OK, OK, I’ll pound the zone.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I don’t ever want to hear “I’ve got him.’ … You
don’t challenge the baseball gods — but he’s very confident.”
Garcia has pitched in five games for the Nationals. Two have featured more than one inning, and all but one
have been spotless efforts.
His demeanor rarely wavers, and he’s yet to be intimidated by the moment. Asked if he felt the pressure
facing Wright in a one-run game, Garcia only shrugged.
“If you ask me who I faced tonight, I know I faced big-league hitters,” he said. “That’s who I faced. I’m going
to go in there and do what I can. I’m not going to change my approach for the guy who is standing in there. I’m
going to go in there and go after him.”
The Nationals have plenty to get through before they can focus on their postseason roster. There’s the matter of
clinching a playoff spot first. But if and when they do, Garcia’s name is almost certain to be in the conversation,
which could make for a difficult decision.
He’s game.
“Without a doubt,” Garcia said. “It’s the kind of person I am. I like being in spots where there’s pressure. I tend
to do better when those opportunities arise. … I want to show them what I have to offer and help the team any
way I can.
“But that’s not something I can control, so I don’t really think about it. Any way I can get this team a scoreless
inning is what I’m trying to do.”
Article #40
Why Class AAA Syracuse coaches are with the Nationals now
By James Wagner, Washington Post, 9/14/12
Since last Friday, Class AAA Syracuse Manager Tony Beasley, hitting coach Troy Gingrich and pitching coach
Greg Booker have been with the Nationals. They wear uniforms, travel with the team and, like normal, coach.
It’s standard practice that when the minor league season ends, the Class AAA coaches spend the final month of
the season with the big league club.
It allows the Class AAA coaches to serve as a fresh fountain of advice for Nationals coaches and players,
especially the ones who were called up to the majors for the first time.
“The team is in a pennant race, we could be in the way, extra bodies, just crowding up the clubhouse and
things,” said Beasley, who served as a Nationals third base coach in 2006. “I try to stay out of everybody’s way
and try not to disrupt what guys do on a daily basis. If there’s anything I can do to add or help or be available
just to be a staff member or player.”
The coaches, so far, have lent a hand by hitting ground balls or throwing batting practice. They look for signs
and watch opposing pitchers and share thoughts on anything they see. Mostly, they’ve served as a fresh set of
eyes for players.
When Jayson Werth was playing in Syracuse on a rehab assignment for his broken wrist, he worked with hitting
coach Troy Gingrich to find his timing. And when Werth wanted a refresher Saturday during a long rain delay,
he was in the Nationals video room with Gingrich. (Werth, after going 0 for 4 until then, hit a dramatic gametying home run in the first at-bat following the rain delay.)
Beasley, Gingrich and Booker are also comforting voices for players called up in September, such as catcher
Sandy Leon, reliever Christian Garcia and outfielders Eury Perez and Corey Brown. Of those three, Perez and
Garcia made their major league debuts this month.
“It’s good, especially for the guys that came up from AAA, to be with those guys,” Beasley said. “The big
league routine is a little different, yes. But I’ve been here before. It’s just an honor. I’ve never been in the
scenario where the team is in first place and really fighting to get into the playoffs.”
The Class AAA coaches are also sounding boards for rookies who have been with the team for most or all of
the season, such as Steve Lombardozzi, Tyler Moore and Ryan Mattheus. Beasley was the manager of Class
AA Harrisburg in 2011 before being promoted to Syracuse.
“I haven’t gotten a chance to see them since spring training,” Lombardozzi said. “Just being able to see them
and hang out and catch up and also I’ve played for both of them — [Tony] Beasley and Troy [Gringrich] — so
they know me as a player and as a person. They’ll see some things here and there, or throw some things out
there because they remember me. It’s awesome. It’s just another couple bodies to pick brains and to get some
more information out of.”
Article #41
In Nationals clubhouse, thick skin required
By James Wagner, Washington Post, 9/15/12
It’s unclear exactly when Washington Nationals reliever Sean Burnett turned a white sheet into a makeshift toga
and served his teammates on a flight. He did it earlier this season, likely on the team’s flight from Philadelphia
to Atlanta in late May. He ambled up and down the aisle of the charter plane, passing out food and drinks to the
team like a flight attendant for the entire trip wearing only the sheet and underpants.
“Every time he’d walk by, we’d yank on it,” first baseman Adam LaRoche said. “Eventually it got stretched out
to be 48 inches in the waist and he couldn’t keep them up anymore.” By then, the players were consumed with
laughter.
The Nationals carry the best record in baseball on the field, but they’re also a vibrant and jovial group of players
off it. They smile and laugh in the dugout, the bullpen and behind the scenes — enlivened by winning. But few
of the players have ever been in a pennant race, and the light-hearted tone set by veterans is as important now as
ever.
“We’re delving into waters a lot of guys in this clubhouse have never been in before,” said Mark DeRosa,
considered one of the team’s most vocal leaders. “And I think the last thing you want to do is not be loose and
not play up to your capabilities.”
Winning makes it easier to relax. Players say coaches cut them more slack when they’re churning out victories.
And so far, they’ve found a good balance. “It makes it easier to come to the field every day when you’re friends
with your teammates,” said third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who endured seven losing seasons in Washington
until now.
If the Nationals were a comedy show, DeRosa would be the main act, many say. The 15-year major league
veteran won a World Series ring with the San Francisco Giants in 2010 and has played in the postseason six
times. And though DeRosa has played little this season, his impact behind closed doors is vital. He is part team
dad and part team comedian.
Perhaps the most vital piece of equipment in the Nationals clubhouse is a suitcase-sized black speaker that sits
in an empty locker between DeRosa and Michael Morse’s lockers. During a series in New York in late July,
music aficionado Morse saw the speaker system with a microphone and iPod hookup, loved it and paid the
clubhouse attendant about $500 to buy one.
DeRosa puts it to good use. With the delivery of a seasoned standup comedian and tinges of his New Jersey
accent, DeRosa rags on anyone in the line of sight: in the clubhouse, plane and bus rides. He calls himself “a
verbal assault machine.”
One quiet Sunday morning in August before a day game against the New York Mets, a reporter wanted to
interview Ian Desmond. While singing intermittently over the Beatles’ “Let It Be,” DeRosa suggested that the
reporter ask his questions over the microphone. On Kurt Suzuki’s first day in the clubhouse after arriving in an
August trade, DeRosa read the new arrival’s Wikipedia page over the portable speaker for all to hear. Line by
line.
“If you don’t have thick skin, you can’t come in this clubhouse,” DeRosa said. “Including staff.”
Everyone does their part to keep the team’s spirits high. In the bullpen, during games, relief pitchers talk and
joke about anything from fantasy football to what pitch the opposing batter swung at. On flights, bus rides and
in the clubhouse, Morse is the team DJ. He has an expansive music collection, anything from ’80s classics to
Notorious B.I.G. to modern hits, and plays it for all to hear.
“He has so many things on his iPod,” rookie Bryce Harper said. “And he finds the funniest videos on
YouTube.” Morse described plane rides as “a club in the air.”
Jordan Zimmermann is the team’s unexpected witty one-line jokester. Gio Gonzalez is incessantly bouncing
around and talking with everyone at once. Morse is perhaps the second-most cited comedian of the clubhouse.
Some teammates point to LaRoche as a quiet prankster. LaRoche, a veteran who mixes humor with sage advice,
sent Miami Marlins Manager Ozzie Guillen an autographed Harper bat smeared in pine tar after Guillen
accused Harper of using too much pine tar during a game. “He’s the silent assassin,” Chad Tracy said of
LaRoche.
Some even said a teammate, possibly LaRoche, slipped bananas and sunflower seeds in the equipment bag of
then-teammate Xavier Nady before he went to Class A Potomac on his minor league rehab assignment.
LaRoche wouldn’t admit to being the author of the prank.
“It’s classified,” he said with a broad grin across his face. “That’s why I wear my camo around the clubhouse,
slide in and out, go hit somebody, get out and nobody ever knows I was there.”
Other popular pranks among the team are putting Hot Stuff ointment in clothes, dumping baby powder on
someone in the bathroom stall or putting shaving cream in the bathroom towels. Some players were reluctant to
reveal some of the funniest moments because they’re private, and those likely wouldn’t be suitable to be
repeated here.
Sometimes, however, their fun leaks out. Last week, the veterans performed the embarrassing annual tradition
of rookie hazing. The first-year players donned red skin-tight leotards on the train ride to New York, posing as
members of the women’s gymnastics team with gold medals around their necks and a USA Olympics flag to
carry. Gonzalez shared the moment with all by tweeting out photos.
With less than three weeks left in the regular season, the Nationals are in prime position to lock up their first
playoff berth and the National League East division crown. Their talent has become readily apparent to their
opponents. Their personality has, too.
“You know you’re having fun when guys from the other teams are saying, ‘Man, you guys are having fun.’ ”
Morse said. “. . . When all of this so-called pressure and other stuff starts coming along, we just keep
maintaining what we’re doing.”
Article #42
Davey Johnson: Nationals’ pleasure
By Steve Wulf, ESPN.com, 9/17/12
His is one of the great faces in baseball, as comfortable as a broken-in mitt. There are timelines on it dating
back at least 50 years, crow's feet from 200,000 suns, wrinkles etched by the cost of victory and the acceptance
of loss. The eyes belong to a 69-year-old maestro who has seen everything, but they twinkle like they did when
he was a 19-year-old bonus baby seeing things for the first time. That flattened nose tells you he'll fight like
hell, and the bright smile tells you he'll fight for you.
When the Nationals pulled that old glove down from the attic last year, people scratched their heads, wondering
if the club had picked someone the game had passed by. As it turns out, they needn't have worried. Davey
Johnson is right where he's always belonged, sitting on the bench of a dugout, managing a first-place club,
bridging a generation gap and having the time of his Gumpian life.
As a player, he got the last hit off Sandy Koufax (1966), congratulated Hank Aaron at home plate after he broke
Babe Ruth's career home run record ('74) and batted behind the man, Sadaharu Oh, who passed Aaron's record
('75-76). As a manager, he jumped for joy in the dugout when the ball went through Bill Buckner's legs ('86)
and ran from the dugout in outrage when Jeffrey Maier turned Derek Jeter's fly out into a home run ('96).
Where was he when Washington general manager Mike Rizzo called his special advisor to ask him to replace
Jim Riggleman, who quit after 75 games last year?
"I was on a fishing trip with John Havlicek on Martha's Vineyard," Johnson said.
It's not just that Johnson has been there, done that. He's been everywhere from Atlanta to Zuiderzee, and done
everything from batboy for the old Washington Senators to skipper of the first baseball team to (likely) win
anything in the capital since the Senators in 1933. Along the way, he had to pick up the poop that Schottzie left
behind on the Riverfront Stadium turf, but that's another story.
"I'm a happy man," he said. "Happy to be involved in a game that I love, and lucky to be pretty good at what I
do. Heck, I could've found a talent that wasn't so good for society, like robbing banks."
He's good at managing, all right. He's won with power teams, racehorse teams, old teams, young teams. He's
won with lunatics in the clubhouse (Mets) and the owner's box (Marge Schott with the Reds, Peter Angelos with
the Orioles).
"Oh, Marge was something," Johnson said. "I used to get these little notes from the St. Bernard before a game:
'Better pull this one out tonight -- Woofs and licks, Schottzie.' One night, she invited Sue and I up to her dining
room for some wine -- screw-top Gallo, by the way. All of a sudden, the dog jumps on the table and starts
licking the bowl of mayonnaise. Marge just says, 'Oh, that's OK,' and stirs the bowl up with a spoon as if
nothing had happened."
This time around, Johnson loves working for the Nats' 86-year-old owner, Ted Lerner, alongside Rizzo -"We're both second basemen, you know" -- and with the youngest team in baseball.
Despite his store of anecdotes, he is not a codger stuck in the past. In fact, the other day, Johnson mentioned on
a radio show that 19-year-old Bryce Harper might be his favorite player … ever. (This is a guy who's managed
five Hall of Famers -- six, counting Deion Sanders.) "He's a Pete Rose guy," he said about Harper on The Fan
(106.7). "He's just a dandy. My guys love watching him play; and the umpires, and people around the league,
they like to see it. This is old-time, hard-nosed baseball."
"That was very nice of him to say," Harper said. "He's been my only big league manager, so I can't tell you he's
my favorite, but he's been perfect for me. I first met him when I was 14, and he came to speak at a showcase in
St. Pete. You could just tell he loved the game. He brings a fire and a passion to the game that I really respect."
He also brings a résumé that the players respect.
"I've Googled him," said shortstop Ian Desmond. "In 1973, he hit 43 homers, three more than his teammate,
Hank Aaron."
A lot of pieces go into the making of a good manager, just as they do a baseball glove. For one thing, you have
to be indefatigable; and if there are concerns that a 69-year-old body that has undergone life-saving heart and
stomach surgeries might not be up to the task, Johnson alleviates them on a daily basis.
Take Sept. 11, the second day of the Nats' swing through New York to play the Mets last week. Early in the
morning, Johnson and his wife Sue went down to the financial district to participate in Cantor Fitzgerald's Day
For Charity -- Davey, along with such celebrities as Eli Manning and Mark Sanchez, manned the phones to
trade bonds, with the profits going to Homes For Heroes. Then it was back to Citi Field by 3 p.m. to prepare for
a game against 18-time winner R.A. Dickey that would last three-plus hours and push his bedtime into Sept. 12.
There's the patience piece, and Johnson is right up there with Job. Said first baseman Adam LaRoche, who is
having one of the best seasons of his nine-year career (30 homers, 94 RBIs): "He is a true player's manager. He
puts us in a position to succeed, and there's something about his wisdom and patience that makes us believe in
ourselves."
His lineup for that 9/11 game is a good example. Harper had gone for 0-for-10 in three games against Dickey
this season, and another manager might have chosen to give the kid the night off. But Johnson put him in his
usual second spot in the order, telling reporters, "He swings hard enough -- maybe he'll find the ball with one of
them." Harper responded with three hits off Dickey and four for the night to raise his average to .265. That
made him the first teen with a four-hit game since Andruw Jones in 1996.
Johnson also carries a certain perspective that comes down to what he recently told Paul White of USA Today:
"I manage the way I live: today with an eye on tomorrow." That comes in handy when, say, Stephen
Strasburghas to be shut down. While the fans and the media are second-guessing the Nats for putting a halt to
the phenom's season on the eve of the playoffs, Johnson and Rizzo have been steadfast and of one mind in their
decision. Indeed, the kid's velocity and ERA had been going in the wrong direction in his last few starts, and
they are not willing to jeopardize his career for the short-term gratification of the fans. Besides, John Lannan,
the pitcher who took Strasburg's spot in the rotation on Sept. 12, got the win in a 2-0 victory over the Mets.
Johnson's eye for today is still as sharp as ever. "He doesn't miss a thing," said Desmond, who has come into his
own (23 HRs, .847 OPS) under Johnson. "If I go oh-for-two or oh-for-three, I'll wander over to him in the
dugout and ask him, 'What do you see, skip?' Even though he's got a game to manage, he'll still give me just the
right batting tip."
No one has ever questioned Johnson's intelligence -- at least since his playing days in Baltimore, where he won
two World Series rings. A math major in college, he was a numbers and computer geek long before
sabermetrics, a disciple of Earnshaw Cook, the author of the seminal "Percentage Baseball." When he was a
young second baseman for the Orioles, he would tell pitchers like Jim Palmer and Dave McNally that they were
in an "unfavorable chance deviation," and as such, they were better off throwing for the heart of the plate rather
than the corners because the ball would hit the corner anyway. Which is how he earned the name "Dum Dum."
Similarly, he would offer Earl Weaver printouts entitled "Optimize the Orioles Lineup," proving that Johnson
should bat fourth, and "Earl would throw them in the garbage."
Howie Rose, the Mets' radio play-by-play man, worked with Johnson closely when Davey was managing at
Shea, and Rose said, "[Johnson] was my baseball professor. Every day we would do a pregame show, and I
would pick his brain. I learned so much about the game from those sessions that I can actually say I wouldn't be
where I am today without his help."
Rizzo thinks of Johnson as his own mentor. "I've been in the game 30 years," said the GM, "and he's taught me
so much. Just as a for instance, Davey has what we call an A/B bullpen. Instead of being locked into one guy as
your closer, or your seventh- or eighth-inning guy, he makes sure he has a B guy who can step into that role in
case the A guy can't go. He combines new-school, out-of-the-box thinking with old-school values."
It's a long season, so it also helps to have a manager who's enthusiastic. When a Nats player goes deep, Johnson
will often greet him with "Wack-o!" a word that has become something of a rallying cry for the club. It all
started when Johnson was demonstrating to the players how to turn on a pitch -- Wack-o! -- because he thought
they had been trying to go the other way too much.
When asked the biggest difference between managing in 2012 and managing in his previous stints, Johnson
said, "Social media. Word gets out so quickly now that you don't have a chance to properly inform a player of a
decision. You don't want him hearing of a move before he hears it from you."
As for the regular media, Johnson has always been adept at handling us. It's another prerequisite for the modern
manager -- ask the Red Sox. Johnson is honest and sociable and quotable. And it doesn't take much to get him
going on a long story. The other day, he was shown a stat sheet from his very first minor league team, the 1962
Stockton Ports of the California League, which at the time was Class C. He had joined them in June of that year
after one year at Texas A&M. "I signed for $25,000, which I used to buy a waterfront lot, a new car and a new
set of Haig golf clubs -- I was set for life at 19," he said. "Hey, is Bill St. Peter on that sheet? He is. OK, here's a
story.
"My girlfriend came in from Houston to stay with me. When she shows up, she tells me she wants to get
engaged, so I take one of my roommates, Darold Knowles, to a jewelry store because his father was a jeweler.
Turned out Darold didn't know anything about jewels -- he held that eyeglass upside down. Anyway, I buy a
ring for $100. But then I find out that Bill St. Peter, one of our pitchers, had been hitting on her down by the
pool. Now I have to fight him, he's trying to steal my fiancée, right? Before we square off, though, Bill says,
'Davey, I was only trying to see if she really loved you.' And I go, 'Oh.' Well, she took the bus back to Houston,
broke up with me and I never got the ring back."
Johnson didn't fight then, but he's not one to back down. He's certainly not afraid to challenge authority. "One of
the very first shows I did with him in '87," Howie Rose said, "he wasn't happy about the way Frank Cashen, the
general manager, had dealt with an injury to pitcher Roger McDowell. So right there, he says, 'And Frank
Cashen did a dumb thing today.' At the end of the interview, I ask him if he wants to take it back, and he says,
'Hell, no, I said it for a f------ reason.'"
That combativeness would cost him in New York (fired after 42 games in '90), Cincinnati (Schott told him in
the middle of the '95 season, when the Reds won the NL Central title, that he wouldn't be coming back),
Baltimore (Angelos fired him on the day he won the '97 AL Manager of the Year award) and Los Angeles (fired
by GM Kevin Malone, with whom he did not get along, after finishing second in 2000). Nationals bullpen
coach Jim Lett, who was the Reds' minor league field coordinator when Johnson was the major league manager
in Cincinnati, says, "Davey's mellowed … a little."
Earlier this season, he got Rays pitcherJoel Peralta ejected for having too much pine tar on his glove and called
manager Joe Maddon "a weird wuss." On Aug. 23, after a fourth consecutive Nationals loss, reporters overheard
Johnson shouting on the phone at Rizzo, "Why don't you come down here and manage this team!" Said Rizzo,
"Forgotten right away. Just two honest guys talking to one another after being swept."
The Nats have been in first place of the NL East since May 22, and despite being swept by the second-place
Braves over the weekend, their lead is at five-and-a-half games games and their magic number for clinching the
division, which Johnson has begun to watch, is down to 11. Even without Strasburg, their rotation is set up well
for the postseason with 19-game winner Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, Edwin Jackson and Ross
Detwiler. The bullpen is deep, their lineup is strong and their manager, well, he's been there and done that -only one living manager with at least 1,000 wins has a better winning percentage than Johnson, and that's his
old skipper, Earl Weaver. Johnson doesn't really want to think about it, but this is the season that might put him
in the company of his contemporaries who are already in the Hall of Fame, namely Sparky Anderson, Dick
Williams, Tommy Lasorda and Whitey Herzog.
"I've worked with some great managers," said Rick Eckstein, the Nationals' batting coach. "Tom Kelly, Tony
LaRussa. But Davey is truly the best. He knows pitching, he knows hitting, he knows fielding, he manages a
game brilliantly and a season wisely. Even after 50 years, he's got so much to offer."
If Eckstein, the older brother of infielder Dave, sounds effusive in his praise, well, he and Johnson have shared
a lot over the past decade. He was with Johnson in the wilderness of international baseball, first when Davey
managed the Dutch national team in 2003 and later the U.S. national team (2005 and 2008). They've both seen
the inside of an operating room: Johnson had to have five stomach surgeries after a ruptured appendix went
undiagnosed in 2004, and a heart operation in early 2011, while Eckstein donated a kidney to his other brother
Ken. He's known the pain Johnson suffered, first when his 32-year-old daughter, surfing champion Andrea Lyn
Johnson, died in 2005 from complications during her treatment for schizophrenia, and then last year, when his
blind and deaf stepson Jake succumbed to pneumonia at the age of 34.
"You know what really makes Davey a great manager?" Eckstein asked. "It's that he cares. He cares about his
players, about his coaches, about baseball, about people."
In the dugout where he belongs, before the last game in New York last week, Johnson repeated a question:
"What do I see when I look in the mirror? First of all, I'm shocked. Some part of me still thinks I'm 19. How did
I get to be so old? But I see a happy man. Not happy like when we won the World Series in 1966 -- that was all
about me. Happy like I was in '86, when we brought joy to a city. It's much better when you share it."
Left unsaid was the thought that he could do the same for Washington in 2012. "Have to go do my job now," he
said, excusing himself. But just as he hit the top step, he turned around.
"One more story," he said. "Offseason after 1987, I think. Whitey Herzog, Mel Stottlemyre and I had gone in on
this fish camp near Cape Canaveral. One morning, Whitey and I are in a boat, being filmed for an outdoor
show, when all of a sudden, one of those huge rockets takes off from the Cape. Whitey and I look at it, and he
says, 'You know, come July or August, a lot of people are gonna wish we were on that son of a b----.'
"Gotta go."
Article #43
Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth make a potent 1-2 punch
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 9/17/12
ATLANTA — Bryce Harper and Jayson Werth form a disparate, atypical pairing atop the Washington
Nationals lineup. Werth does not fit the standard mold of a leadoff hitter — a 6-foot-5 veteran on a $126 million
contract who once slugged 36 home runs. Harper does not fit the standard mold of anything — a 19-year-old
force of nature helping carry his team toward the postseason.
Big-ticket free agents are supposed to bat in the middle of the order, and teenagers are supposed to attend prom.
Werth, 33, is the second-oldest position player on the team; Harper is easily the youngest. They cut an
unconventional 1-2 figure, but still, together, they have been a perfect fit.
Werth shatters stereotypes about batting first and excels at reaching base, the one thing that truly matters.
Harper pulled out of a wicked slump, showed renewed patience and again started battering pitchers. They push
each other and they make the rest of the Nationals’ lineup as potent as possible.
“It’s not an orthodox type thing,” Werth said. “It’s not standard. It just makes sense to me.”
Harper and Werth, the Nationals’ punchless weekend in Atlanta notwithstanding, have helped give Washington
one of the deepest, most dangerous lineups in the National League. In games Werth has led off, the Nationals
are 15-8 while scoring five runs per game, even after the sweep in which they scored six total runs. Manager
Davey Johnson put two of his best on-base hitters 1-2, and those hitters happen to be able to bang the ball off or
over the wall, too.
“There’s no easy outs anywhere,” Braves Manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Two athletic guys at the top of the
order. They can run the ball out of the ballpark at you, too. You don’t see that very often.”
Werth began the season hitting fifth or sixth most games, with Ian Desmond leading off. Werth broke his wrist
in early May and missed three months, which pressed Johnson to move Desmond down in the order to add
thump in the middle. In his place, Johnson moved Steve Lombardozzi to the leadoff spot.
Lombardozzi reached base more frequently than Desmond, and as he watched the Nationals play without him,
Werth thought, “That’s the type of leadoff hitter we need.” In the middle of the lineup, Desmond could swing
away and fulfill his potential as a power hitter — he has mashed 23 homers, one more than his previous career
total over two-plus seasons.
Werth knew Lombardozzi would be relegated to the bench upon his return. Shortly before he returned in early
August, Werth had a discussion with Johnson. “Just insert me in right there, at the top of the lineup,” he
suggested. “I think we’re good.” Johnson — as he dubbed Werth, “a 6-foot-6 donkey who wants to lead off” —
agreed.
“It just works,” Werth said. “Our lineup is really balanced. I always like guys to lead off that have high OBPs
[on-base percentages]. It doesn’t make sense to me to put a guy at the top of the lineup just because he’s fast. Be
fast at the bottom of the lineup. You don’t get on base, but you’re fast?”
As advertised, Werth has worked pitchers and reached base. Since he returned, Werth has punched up a .407
on-base percentage, eighth-best in baseball since the all-star break. He has seen 4.38 pitches per plate
appearance this year, sixth in the majors.
At the time Werth came back, Harper had become mired in the first slump of his career. From the day after the
all-star break through Aug. 1, Harper hit .189 with one home run. He had become less selective and prone to
breaking pitches on the outside edge of the plate.
“He’s probably never had to make adjustments,” Johnson said. “But here, I mean, everybody since day one has
been respecting his ability. They’ve tried to pitch him harder than anybody.”
Harper began to exaggerate his on-deck routine. Rather than swing his bat, he pushes it toward the ground, as if
yanking on a rope, at three slightly different angles. “I don’t have any idea what he’s doing,” Johnson said. “But
it’s working.”
The move reminds Harper to keep his hands tight to his body and bring the barrel of the bat to the zone in the
most efficient path.
Once at the plate, one piece of Harper’s routine became more noticeable: He literally bites the part of his jersey
covering his right shoulder. The mouthful of uniform forces him to keep his front shoulder square to the pitcher
longer, which preserves more power in his swing and lets him reach pitches on the outer half of the plate.
“I’ve been doing that my whole life,” Harper said. “If I fly open, that’s when I struggle. If I keep in, that’s when
I do well. I just try to keep that front side in and keep the knob to the baseball and drive through it.”
Since Aug. 2, Harper has terrorized opposing pitchers. He has hit .266, and 10 of his 19 home runs have come
in those 41 games.
“Being able to control his over-aggressiveness and make adjustments,” Johnson said. “He learns if it’s not there,
I can’t try to make it there. That’s part of him being overly aggressive and wanting to do something.”
Along with his own adjustments, Harper began playing alongside Werth again, usually batting behind him.
When he arrived in the majors, Harper often cited Werth as a helpful influence. Now, he had a direct impact on
Harper’s at-bats.
“Having a guy six or seven pitches every A-B lets me go through my routine on the deck circle, lets me see that
guy a little bit more,” Harper said. “It just lets me calm down a little bit.”
Harper and Werth first met during spring training in 2011. Their interaction then was limited. Harper spent only
a few weeks with the major leaguers before the Nationals sent him for a full year in the minors. Werth had just
arrived after signing as a free agent. “He was kind of quiet the first year, I guess you could say. Not trying to do
much,” Harper said. “He was trying to fit in with that kind of group.”
In spring this year, their relationship changed. Werth gave Harper tips on base running and playing the outfield,
sharing secrets about opposing pitchers. They chat almost every inning as they run to their positions in the
outfield. Late Friday night, in neighboring lockers, they were still breaking down the game as reporters entered
the clubhouse.
“It’s always a lot of fun being around him,” Harper said. “He’s been an important role with this team, and
important role with me.”
“He’s just trying to make me fit in with everybody else,” Harper added. “Really try to stay within myself, not
get too big-headed or not get above the game or anything like that. He knows I’m going to go out there and bust
my butt every single day, no matter what. I think that’s what he loves.”
From the start of this season, Werth has also given Harper a gentle initiation. In spring, he “rented” the vacant
locker next to Harper’s, so Harper would not have any more space than a typical rookie. If Harper has felt more
at ease because of Werth, it has not been his intention.
“I think I’ve been trying to do the opposite — not let him get too comfortable,” Werth said. “Not let him get
comfortable at all. I want him uncomfortable. He plays better.
“I don’t know. I think we all, in our careers, have had older players that have helped us. It’s not like it’s a
burden or anything. You’ve got a kid that’s got a lot of talent and has very little time in the minor leagues, no
time in the big leagues, doesn’t know much about anything. But he can play. So anything I can do to be help
him is going to help us.”
Werth spoke at his locker this weekend in the visitors’ clubhouse at Turner Field. As he finished his thought,
Harper arrived in the clubhouse and walked to his locker, right next to Werth’s. He was wearing deep royal blue
jeans. “Nice pants,” Werth said.
“Like I said,” Werth said, breaking into a smile, “I don’t know if making him comfortable is accurate.”
Article #44
Could Adam LaRoche’s impressive year price him out of Nationals’ plans?
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 9/17/12
A few days ago, Jayson Werth found himself in a conversation with teammates about Jim Thome. A 22-year
veteran and five-time All-Star, Thome is one of the most well-liked players in the majors, in large part due to
his genuine enjoyment for other players’ success.
Saturday, Werth watched as Adam LaRoche’s 30th home run cleared the right-field wall at Turner Field. He
watched the Nationals’ first baseman, who missed 118 games in 2011 with a torn labrum and suffered through
its effects for the 43 games he did play in, reach a milestone he had only once surpassed in his nine-year career.
Werth thought of Thome.
“Rochey, he’s such a good guy and such a big part of the team,” Werth said Sunday. “When he does get hits
and does do good you’re even more happy for him, because you want to see a guy like that succeed.”
The Nationals missed that LaRoche his first season in Washington. His injured shoulder rid him of so much of
the on-field talent he’s shown this season, hitting .269 with a .340 on-base percentage and a .503 slugging
percentage. The lineup sorely lacked the left-handed presence that he brings in 2012, and the infield defense is
immeasurably improved because of him.
Werth called him the “glue,” and manager Davey Johnson opined that he’s “one of the best infielders in the
league.”
LaRoche only shrugged.
“I don’t look at [30 home runs] like I reached a goal,” he said. “I’ll always look back and think I need to cut
down on the strikeouts, should’ve walked more, should’ve hit more doubles, driven in more runs, whatever it is.
It just never seems to be good enough. That’s part of the drive.
“I look at it like if I end the year at 30, I should’ve had 40. Those two months where I [stunk], I should’ve
driven in 20 more runs. I’m not saying it’s a positive trait to have, it’s just how I look at it.”
Less than a year ago, fans were clamoring for the Nationals to spend lavishly on Prince Fielder and to forget the
rest of LaRoche’s contract. Now, whether LaRoche will return for 2013 has become one of the Nationals’ most
pressing questions. He and the team hold a mutual $10 million option, and the recruiting process for him to stay
has begun.
“We need him back more than we need me back,” quipped Johnson, who said he would push both sides
for LaRoche to return and figured he’d sweeten the deal by promising LaRoche that he won’t have to give the
69-year-old manager shots on the golf course next year.
“I thought it was a club option rather than mutual. I was unhappy to hear that he could test the free agent
market.”
LaRoche, for his part, would love to remain with the Nationals, and the Nationals find the option year to be a
good value. But at 32 and with his fifth major league organization, LaRoche is looking for something more
long-term.
“They’ve got to probably make some decisions on what they need and what direction they want to go
in,” LaRoche said, with talks likely shelved until the offseason. “I’d love to stay. If possible I’d like to commit
to something for more than a year, preferably here if possible, it’s just not my call. Nothing I can do but make it
hard on them.”
The Nationals’ decision will involve questions elsewhere more so than anything regarding LaRoche. Is Bryce
Harper their center fielder for another year? Is Tyler Moore ready to play every day? Are they going to pursue
someone such as Atlanta’s Michael Bourn on the free agent market? It all factors into whether they
view LaRoche as part of their long-term plans.
All things being equal, no one would appear upset to see him back.
“We’ve talked about it,” Werth said of perhaps convincing LaRoche to stay. “But when you start talking
contracts, that’s business. Obviously, we want to have him. He’s a big part of our lineup, and the age thing is, I
don’t think it’s as big a deal as people make it. I think he’s got a lot of good years ahead of him.”
Article #45
Evolution of Ian Desmond a key part of Nationals’ success
By Greg Rosenstein, Sports Illustrated, 9/27/12
WASHINGTON -- Ian Desmond waited in the on-deck circle for his first at-bat on Aug. 20, wondering if this
could be the day things turned around. He was riding an 0-for-11 drought since returning to the Nationals lineup
from a left oblique injury a few days earlier.
In years past, the struggles would have gotten to him. He'd spend the day thinking about ways to break out and
intensely watching film of the opposing pitcher. Oftentimes this resulted in him being too aggressive at the
plate.
Not anymore. Desmond no longer treats every at-bat like it's a life-or-death situation, and it's paid dividends this
year. Despite missing more than 30 games, he's set career-highs in almost every category, including home runs
(25), RBIs (72), doubles (32), batting average (.297), on-base percentage (.339) and slugging percentage (524).
"I'm trying to compete for my team every single at-bat, but if I do get out, it's not the end of the world," he said.
"I'm going up there with much less stress. I'm a little bit more free and allowing my athletic ability to show
through."
Desmond wasted no time doing so that day against the Braves. On the very first pitch in his first at-bat, he
crushed a cutter from Atlanta's Tim Hudson to leftfield for a two-run homer that put the Nationals ahead 4-0 in
a game they'd win 5-4.
It was his first home run in six weeks, but for Desmond, the result was only the latest byproduct of his
newfound confidence that has made him one of the best young players in baseball and a vital part of the
postseason-bound Nationals.
***
Desmond was selected by the Montreal Expos out of Sarasota (Fla.) High School in the third round of the 2004
draft. His ability was seen quickly in the minor leagues, enough to consistently draw comparisons to a
young Derek Jeter and hear him labeled a five-tool player.
While the expectations placed on him were high, they were eventually reachable, he thought, with the right
amount of work. The problem was that he wanted to rush the process.
He recalls then-manager Frank Robinson telling him at his first spring training camp in 2005 that he'd be a big
league player by 22 or 23 years old. Desmond, 19 at the time, believed that was too long a wait.
"I always felt I would make it before that," he said. "I wanted to get there earlier."
Doing so called for a more intense approach than ever before. He spent long hours on the diamond and in the
batting cages. He thought about the game nonstop, especially when he wasn't playing. Desmond said if he went
0-for-4 he wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
The pressure he placed on himself was evident when he played for Double-A Harrisburg in 2006, as he hit .182
with a .214 on-base percentage and one strike out every 3.7 at-bats.
That confidence he exuded early in his career diminished and remained scarce when he was sent back down to
Class A Potomac in 2007.
"I remember a time when he had a bad game and I come out after and he's the only one in the clubhouse," thenPotomac manager Randy Knorr said. "He had his head down. He'd been struggling for about three or four
days."
"What's going on with you?" Knorr asked.
"I just don't got it, man. I'm struggling," Desmond responded.
"Alright, just keep playing hard and you'll make it to the big leagues."
Desmond shot Knorr a puzzled look and said, "You're crazy."
Except he wasn't. By season's end, Desmond had fashioned the best year of his career, earning a promotion to
Double-A for 2008. In '09, he reached Triple-A Syracuse, where he hit .354 in 55 games before being called up
to Washington on September 10, 2009, 10 days before his 24th birthday.
***
Desmond won the starting shortstop job the next spring over former All-Star Christian Guzman and vowed to
never return to the minors. No more long bus rides, no more 5,000-seat stadiums. This was his time and he
wasn't going back.
To make that a reality, he continued pushing himself.
"I wanted it so badly early on that I lost sight of the process of the plan," Desmond said. "I wanted to outwork,
outplay, outperform. I wanted to do everything, to speed everything up. I was in a rush.
"I think that correlated to some of the errors and mistakes I made, trying so hard to be the player that I thought I
could be or eventually will be."
In that first full big league season, Desmond was solid at the plate (.267 batting average, 65 RBIs) but labeled as
a poor defender. His speed and length allowed him to get to balls many other shortstops couldn't. The problem
was what happened after.
Sometimes he tried making a play when he should have just let the runner reach base. Other times he thought he
had to hurry when he didn't need to, causing him to bobble the ball or make an inaccurate throw to first. It
culminated with Desmond leading the major leagues with 34 errors.
According to a former National League East infield coach, who asked not to be identified, Desmond "had a
narrow fielding base. His feet were too close together. He had a different arm angle every time he threw the
ball."
The next year those issues were addressed, and Desmond made 11 fewer errors despite playing 109 additional
innings. He's been just as solid this season and is on pace for a career-low in miscues. The improvement, he
said, stems largely from better knowledge of his pitching staff, discussions with mentor Larry Bowa and
thousands of offseason short-hop drills.
But while his defense was better in 2011, he struggled offensively, hitting .253 with a .358 slugging percentage
and 139 strikeouts.
Desmond took time in the offseason to reflect and determined overthinking at the plate was once again a main
reason for his lackluster performance. As a result, he completely eliminated watching film -- "I was trying to be
a scientist instead of a baseball player" -- and focused more on relaxing in the on-deck circle.
Desmond also benefited from time training "in a little warehouse."
Owned by his former high school baseball coach, Dwayne Strong, "Sandlot at Five-Tools Baseball" is an indoor
training facility located in Bradenton, Fla. Desmond had spent the last few years preparing for the season at the
local IMG Academy. Last offseason, however he decided, was time for a change.
He and Strong worked together from October until March, typically three or four days a week. They started
with core work -- flipping tires, pull-ups, hitting a punching bag -- and always jumped rope, a routine
recommended by Reds Hall of Famer Barry Larkin.
Desmond would next take swings in front of a mirror in hopes of catching any mechanical problems and then
hit 50 to 75 balls off a tee. He'd end by spending, on average, 45 minutes in a machine-pitched batting cage.
The schedule was made to improve his overall hitting ability, but Strong believed there was one staggering issue
Desmond had to correct.
"He was just getting beat," Strong said. "The pitcher was attacking him and he was waiting for the ball to be
released before making a move. We really worked on him getting a good start this offseason so that he's
prepared when the ball comes out of his hand."
In the past, Strong said, Desmond's hands and feet weren't set until the ball was about 7-to-8 feet from home
plate, giving him "no opportunity to read anything." His reaffirmed focus on starting earlier now allows him to
analyze the pitcher and be set 10-to-15 feet beforehand.
Desmond's patience is still a problem (he sees only 3.38 pitches a plate appearance), but he has demonstrated a
better sense for when to swing. He's also able to jump on pitches earlier, which helps explain why he's hit 25
home runs this year after hitting just 22 in his career before this season.
--Such success has helped Desmond's once-fragile confidence, but an even bigger boost came from Nationals
manager Davey Johnson. Earlier in his career, Desmond says, "everything felt like an audition to me." But the
70-year-old Johnson, who took over as manager in the middle of the 2011 season, made sure Desmond knew
that he would be assured a spot in the lineup each game.
"He told Ian 'You're my everyday shortstop. Now just go out there and play,'" said Knorr, who is now the
Nationals' bench coach. "In the past, he felt like he should be, but he's not getting the same feedback. People in
the organization are saying that he's 'looking like a shortstop, maybe not a shortstop.' That weighs on him."
"I always wanted to prove to people," says Desmond. "I never wanted to get out. Every time I'd come out, I'd be
mad. I'd let it get the best of me. Now I realize there's a process of playing. I know I'm going to have another
opportunity -- whether it's today, tomorrow or the next day -- to impact the game. I put less stock into every atbats performance and more stock into realizing that this is a long season -- a marathon, not a sprint -- and
whatever happens is meant to be."
Desmond, who made his first All-Star team this year, now seems destined to be a fixture for the Nationals for
years to come. "We're just touching the surface of things that he's going to be able to do," says Washington
hitting coach Rick Eckstein.
Earlier this summer a player came over and told Eckstein -- he who wouldn't identify the player or his team -"Ian Desmond's going to be, if not already, the best player in the big leagues."
Hearing this prediction, Desmond just smiles. On a club with big names such as Stephen Strasburg, Bryce
Harper, Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche, he may not be the most well-known player but the buzz around him
is growing. And similar to his ascension, it doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon.
Article #46
Mike Rizzo, the man who built the Washington Nationals
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 9/29/12
Mike Rizzo’s view hasn’t changed. He does not watch the Washington Nationals from a suite high above the
field. He sits next to the dugout or a few rows behind it, where he gauges the players’ reactions and hears what
they say. He can see the movement of the pitches and how a fielder’s feet flutter. His players can see he is there
with them, behind them, for them. He watches the game up close. The scout seats are still best.
During his lifelong immersion in baseball, Rizzo held two dreams. The first ended at a kitchen table in a
Chicago bungalow, where his baseball scout father gave it to him straight, the way Rizzos do: He would not be
a big league ballplayer. The second began during the years he traversed the vast expanses of the Upper Midwest
alone, looking at prospects.
“Twelve years of driving the highways as an area scout,” Rizzo said earlier this month. “Not many GMs have
done that. I know that for a fact.”
The man who built the Nationals wasn’t born with some innate gift for judging baseball talent; he has no secret
formula. Everything Rizzo knows — everything that helped him build the Nationals from hapless doormat to
World Series contender — he learned on those highway odysseys, staring at the spot where the road met the
dull, gray horizon.
In the spring of 2009, Rizzo took over as interim general manager of a team that went on to win 59 games that
season, fewest in the major leagues. After Saturday night’s victory, the Nationals have won 96, the most in the
big leagues. Of the 25 players on the Nationals’ projected playoff roster, Rizzo signed, drafted or traded for 20
of them since arriving as assistant general manager in 2006.
”You’re either a baseball man or not,” Nationals Manager Davey Johnson said. “To me, Pat Gillick is a Hall of
Fame GM. I think Rizzo can be that good, if not better. He has all the same attributes.”
Rizzo built Washington’s first playoff team in 79 years with the methods ingrained over all 51 years of his life:
hard work, acquired wisdom, fierce loyalty. In the modern game, the rise of advanced metrics and MBA-laden
front offices came to dominate how teams constructed their rosters. Rizzo will not watch the movie
“Moneyball” because he believes it disrespects scouts.
The Nationals employ a staff devoted to statistical analysis, but Rizzo prefers information from the scouts he
handpicked — men he trusts, men who work like he does. He embraces analytics, but he feels they have
become so widespread that they can offer only a marginal edge. The advantage, he believes, lies in people.
“We go with the eye,” Rizzo said. “I don’t know if you weigh it 65-35 or 70-30, but we’ll lean toward the
human element.”
Driven and focused
Rizzo grew up on sports in a lower-middle class Chicago neighborhood, where he and his three siblings
scrapped with kids from other neighborhoods and protected each other.
“It was a neighborhood where you either stood up for yourself or you got run over,” Mike said.
They played baseball on the corner of Waveland and Mobile, sewer covers as bases. When the ball got stuck in
a gutter, Rizzo shimmied up to retrieve it, his left foot on one bungalow and his right foot on another.
To make ends meet after his minor league career ended, his father, Phil, drove a truck for the city while he
scouted baseball on the side. He worked his way up to foreman, but the players he picked kept making the
majors so the California Angels kept giving him more work. He turned into a full-time scout.
Phil sensed Mike, the second-youngest of three sons and a daughter, loved baseball most. He would sprint 90
feet down an alley, Phil timing him with a stopwatch. Every Saturday, Rizzo fielded 250 groundballs, and his
little brother, Bernie, caught his throws at first base until his hand was red and bleeding.
One Saturday, Rizzo fired a ball high, over Bernie’s head. The ball bounced off a pole, smacked Bernie in the
forehead, knocking him out. Rizzo and his father splashed cold water on Bernie to revive him. “Come on,”
Mike told him. “We got 150 more balls to go.”
“He’s not very complex,” says Greg Mayor, Rizzo’s best friend from Chicago. “He’s driven and he’s focused.
This one-dimension he’s on, he’s going to outwork everybody.”
In 1982, the Angles drafted him in the 22nd round. “He was a baseball rat,” said Bill Bavasi, then the Angels’
farm director. “He knew how to play the game.”
The Angels sent him to their Class A affiliate in Salem, Ore., where Rizzo met a tall infielder named Kris Kline.
They shared an apartment and they stayed up late, talking baseball, evaluating their teammates and drinking
cold beer. They woke up in time to watch Harry Caray’s pregame show and the Chicago Cubs.
“Greatest years of my life,” Rizzo says. “Every day you get to play baseball, then stay up late, sleep in late, get
up and do it again. The camaraderie of the guys and the friends that you make. Those minor league dog days,
they weren’t dog days to me.”
In 1983, a center fielder named Devon White joined Rizzo and Kline’s Class A team in Peoria, Ill. They saw
him as athletic but raw. One night late in the season, White chased down a flyball in the gap, and Rizzo, whose
baseball knowledge grew with every play he witnessed, experienced an epiphany: “He’s better than the rest of
us.”
White would pass through Peoria like a comet, on his way to 17 years in the majors and seven Gold Gloves.
Rizzo’s path to the sport’s highest level took a slower lane.
A tough conversation
In the winter of 1984, Bavasi called to inform Rizzo the Angels were releasing him. Rizzo screamed into the
phone. He planned to keep playing and make the major leagues, until the night his father called him into the
kitchen in the bungalow where he grew up. As a scout, Phil gave himself one rule: Never lie to a kid.
“Mike, let me tell you something,” Phil Rizzo told his son, while Mike’s mother stood at the stove cooking.
“You can play in the minor leagues until you become a baseball bum. Mike, you’re a smart kid. Your mother
wanted you to go to school and finish.”
Mike believed in his father’s judgment. Through a family friend, he landed a graduate assistant coaching job at
the University of Illinois. He instructed kids barely as old as him, and he received an education.
By the time Rizzo finished his year at Illinois, Larry Himes, the scouting director who drafted him with the
Angels, had become the White Sox general manager. Himes remembered Rizzo’s feel for the sport and his work
ethic, and he hired him as an area scout in the Upper Midwest.
“When I was a beginning scout, I was with the all the old-time scouts,” Rizzo said. “Your ears are open, your
mouth is shut. You make sure you beat them to the ballpark, and you make sure you stay later at the ballpark.”
He started his scouting trips by packing the car for a month. Cellphones did not exist in 1986, so he brought
enough quarters to make a thousand phone calls from a thousand pay phones off a thousand desolate highway
exits. He called coaches to make sure the weather would hold. He drove 500 miles to scout a baseball game, and
then drove 200 more miles, freezing cold and alone, so he could hunt down more prospects the next day. He
made carbon copies of his reports: one for the office, one for the scouting director, one for himself. The job
tempted him to say, “the hell with it” and take one night off, one night of HBO and sleep in a motel room. He
let the other guy do that.
His life in baseball — playing, coaching, scouting, thinking, talking — melded into a singular database. He
noticed how a player swung or moved his feet to field a groundball or ran the bases. He remembered what those
players became. The accumulation of his experiences, the quality commonly called wisdom, shaped his
judgments.
“I like to call it knowledge more so than gut,” Rizzo said. “Gut implies that I’m taking a chance: ‘I’ve got a
feeling here; I’m taking a chance.’ I think, when you evaluate, you’re not taking a chance. I feel better when I
see it than when I read it.”
His transition from scout to executive began in 1998, when the Arizona Diamondbacks hired him as their
scouting director. He wore a tie to work, gave input on free agent signings and trades and negotiated major draft
contracts.
“This is not going to a 40th-round pick’s house and giving him $1,000 and a plane ticket,” said Joe Garagiola,
then the Arizona general manager. “This is going to Newport Beach and sitting in Scott Boras’s conference
room and all that entails.”
As the Diamondbacks’ farm system became one of the league’s best, Rizzo started to believe himself ready to
become a GM. When the Diamondbacks chose Josh Byrnes to replace Garagiola, Rizzo searched for a new
team. He saw an opportunity with the Nationals, and he became Jim Bowden’s top assistant in 2006.
Rizzo has been in Washington for six years, four as the general manager. He was the first new hire after the
Lerner family bought the team, and now they are the only people he answers to.
“Anyone who thinks that earning Ted Lerner’s trust is easy is on another planet,” said Nationals Special
Assistant Harolyn Cardozo, one of Rizzo’s closest confidants in the organization. “But he sees the faith that
Mike has in his own judgment. It really is contagious. Mike’s also been proven right. They still debate. I think
that Mr. Lerner trusts Mike because Mike trusts himself.”
‘Nothing handed to me’
Success has done little to smooth Rizzo’s Chicago edge. “I don’t care how many tuxedos Mike wears to work,”
said former Nationals team president Stan Kasten. “You’re never going to confuse him with an upper-crust
guy.”
Rizzo surrounds himself with men whose judgment he trusts — Kline, Bill Singer, Kasey McKeon, Roy Clark,
so many more — and then defends everyone within his circle.
“He treats that family like he would treat us,” his brother Bernie said. “He always had my back.”
Major League Baseball has levied a fine to only one current general manager. Rizzo has been fined twice: last
season for screaming at umpires in defense of catcher Ivan Rodriguez and this season for calling Philadelphia
Phillies ace Cole Hamels “fake tough” after Hamels admitted to purposely hitting 19-year-old rookie Bryce
Harper with a pitch.
“I’ve been called a bull in a china shop by an executive or two,” Rizzo said. “I wear that like a badge of honor.”
Shortly after Rizzo became the Nationals’ general manager, he and Kasten put together contracts for their
employees. Rizzo found one of the salaries insulting; Kasten insisted he would accept. They argued. Rizzo
leaned close, his nose inches from Kasten’s.
“You better take care of your people,” Rizzo screamed. “Or you won’t have any people.”
When Rizzo became the Diamondbacks’ scouting director, he hired Kline, his old minor league teammate.
When he moved to the Nationals, Rizzo was allowed to bring two people with him, and one of them was Kline,
who is now the Nationals’ scouting director.
“He would do anything for you,” Kline said. “Everything that he said that he would do as far as my baseball
career has gone, he’s done it.”
When Rizzo thinks about his staff, he never forgets his days in the car, the time he spent alone. He thinks about
the men on his staff doing what he once did, skipping anniversaries and their son’s first games. When younger
scouts ask Rizzo for advice, he tells them, “You better like yourself in this game.”
“I’ve been lucky in this game, very, very fortunate,” Rizzo said. “But nothing was handed to me. I say it straight
out: There was nothing handed to me.”
Last Sunday morning, Rizzo walked from the home dugout to shallow center field in Nationals Park. He
stopped to sip coffee and peck on his cellphone. He heard the popping leather of pitchers playing catch behind
him and smelled the fresh-cut grass. Maybe he thought about his dad, 83 years young and scouting for the team
Mike runs. He walked back off the field and readied to watch the playoff team he assembled.
He later thought about that moment and said, “I’ve been in enough [dumpy] parks to appreciate this one.”
Article #47
Washington Nationals clinch NL East crown as D.C. celebrates its first first-place baseball team since
1933
By Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 10/1/12
His shirt already soaked through, Ryan Zimmerman grabbed a bottle of Dom Perignon 2002 and plodded
forward on the squishy carpet of the Washington Nationals clubhouse. Behind him, teammates pushed Wilson
Ramos in a laundry cart. Gio Gonzalez grabbed Jordan Zimmermann’s face and screamed. Sean Burnett fell on
the floor, rolling with laughter. Suds pooled on coolers. “Where’s Davey?” Zimmerman asked, cutting through
the scene, looking for his 69-year-old manager.
They had reached this point together, from the sun-splashed February diamonds in Viera, Fla., through the
sweltering summer months to Monday night, when the simple, feverish roar from 35,387 souls at Nationals
Park let them know: At 9:45 p.m., when the Atlanta Braves suffered a 2-1 defeat in Pittsburgh. In minutes, their
2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies would become moot. They were the champions of the National League
East, set to begin a five-game NL Division Series either Saturday or Sunday.
That they had clinched on a loss could not stifle the cheers or quell the party. And why should it have?
“We won 96 games,” owner Theodore N. Lerner said, standing on the infield grass in a quieting stadium. “So
we’ll take it.”
In the middle of the ninth inning, Manager Davey Johnson climbed the steps of the dugout and waved to the
crowd. The lights of the Capitol Dome glowed in the distance. The city, with three meaningless outs to go, had
witnessed its first clinching of first place since the Washington Senators won the pennant in 1933.
No one could quite point their finger to when it hit them. But during a season sprinkled with pixie dust they all
reached the same conclusion.
“The boys thought we were the team to beat,” first baseman Adam LaRoche said.
The Nationals had lost the clincher, but they had earned their way to the top of the division. They gathered in
spring training as an upstart separating themselves from a dismal past. They sprinted out of the gate. They
weathered injuries that would have obliterated their season if not for minor league reinforcements, particularly
their 19-year-old shock of energy. They emerged in late summer as the best team in the major leagues, good
enough to lose nine of 17 games and preserve their first division title.
“We put ourselves in that position,” said Zimmerman, the franchise third baseman who signed a $100 million
contract to play here the rest of his career. “We made these other teams play perfect baseball to catch us. The
way we played all year is really what got us in this position.”
The Nationals snatched the crown off the collective head of the Phillies, who had celebrated three of their five
consecutive division titles — 2007, ’08 and ’10 — with victories over Washington. This year, the Phillies will
watch the playoffs from home, and Monday night they had to watch the Nationals slip on T-shirts and hats,
even after a win.
“That’s the first time I ever won and got beat,” Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said.
After the final out, the players lingered on the steps of the dugout and received the hats and T-shirts before
retreating to their clubhouse. The Nationals had shipped their unopened champagne, Korbel and a few bottles of
higher-shelf stuff, back from St. Louis. “There’s enough,” clubhouse manager Mike Wallace said before the
game, smiling.
Players popped the champagne and soaked each other. They circled Mike Rizzo, the general manager who
drafted Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper and overhauled the baseball operations department.
“It was amazing,” Rizzo said. “The camaraderie of the guys. We were soaked together. As a group, they know
where we all came from.”
In another corner of the clubhouse, Harper stood with LaRoche’s 9-year-old son, Drake. They were the only
underage participants, and so they shared a bottle of apple cider. “Me and Drake were pouring that on top of
each other,” Harper said.
Harper joined the Nationals in Los Angeles in late April, both a needed left-hander for practical purposes and
also a metaphorical embodiment of the Nationals’ arrival.
“I didn’t want to come here and screw things up,” Harper said. “We were already in first place.”
For the next five months, fighting and conquering slumps, Harper energized his awestruck veteran teammates.
He clobbered baseballs like few 19-year-olds in history, patrolled center field with powerful grace and ran the
bases like a freight train.
“I’m just so happy to be here at this moment, with these guys, this team,” Harper said. “Being able to enjoy this
is the best experience I’ve ever been apart of.”
When the Nationals brought Harper to the majors, they said it may be a temporary arrangement. It private, they
knew better. “We kind of saw this guy being a big part of this team,” Rizzo said. “I’ve been scouting a long
time, and it’s not so tough to say he’s different than the rest of us.”
Harper had started the year in Class AAA Syracuse with John Lannan, twice the Nationals’ opening day starter,
exiled to the minors because of the team’s influx of power arms. They handed Lannan the ball Monday night,
back in the rotation. They couldn’t recover from the two runs he allowed in the second inning, but he soaked in
the moment.
“It’s unbelievable,” Lannan said. “I never really thought much about what was going on when I was down
there. I never really knew why it was happening. Now it’s kind of all making sense.”
In the ninth inning, after the Braves had lost, Jayson Werth looked across the diamond at his old manager,
Manuel. He nodded as a way to say thanks. Werth had come to Washington last year on a seven-year, $126
million contract, trading first place for last. He had a vision, and it came to life sooner than he expected.
“It’s gratifying,” Werth said. “It’s quite an accomplishment. We’ve come a long way in a short time. We’ve got
a young club. I think we should do this every year.”
In the late afternoon, as the Nationals took batting practice, Mark Lerner greeted players and hobbled around
the cage with a cane. He still wore a cast on his lower leg and foot as he recovers from a late-summer operation.
“A little champagne will cure it, I’ll tell you that,” Lerner said.
Later, after the dawning of a new era in Washington baseball, Lerner celebrated with his father. “It was
fortunate to draft Steve Strasburg. And then Harper,” Theodore Lerner said. “Building an organization. Building
a scouting system. Building a player development system. And then hoping it will all come together eventually.
We never knew when it would occur. It came together a little earlier than we expected.”
Article #48
Nationals end decades of baseball futility for Washington baseball fans
By Barry Svrluga, Washington Post, 10/2/12
The scoreboard, for nearly the entirety of Monday night at Nationals Park, displayed the home team trailing, no
matter how badly a crowd of 35,387 wanted it to do otherwise. With every Washington Nationals hit — and
there were few — the fans who gathered to watch a championship be nailed down screamed and cajoled. It was
a scene unlike any other in the District for not a generation, but two or three.
But in the bottom of the eighth, with the Nationals trailing the Philadelphia Phillies, another piece of salient
information appeared on the massive scoreboard to the left of center field. There, the crowd learned that the
Pittsburgh Pirates were beating the Atlanta Braves. So the cheers that couldn’t be directed at the Nationals
themselves instead went out to the Nationals’ situation, because if Atlanta lost, the Nationals would win the
National League East, regardless. The players, in between pitches, began sneaking peeks at the out-of-town
scoreboard.
“I’m surprised we still have nails right now,” left-hander Gio Gonzalez said.
It might seem an odd way to make history, but such history is earned over the grind of a season, not in one
night. So when Nationals pitcher Drew Storen opened the ninth inning, a chant of, “Let’s Go Pirates!” built in
portions of Washington’s ballpark. The Nationals’ celebration began not because of what happened on their
own diamond, but because of what happened 250 miles away in Pittsburgh.
Word, though, travels fast nowadays. And at 9:45 p.m., as the Nationals came off the field to bat in the bottom
of the ninth, Nationals Park erupted.
“Everybody started going nuts,” right fielder Jayson Werth said. “So we started going nuts. I don’t even know if
we knew.”
But it was apparent. The Braves lost. And in turn, the Nationals won.
So with half an inning remaining, a celebration exploded. Ryan Zimmerman pumped his fist and began
embracing teammates as he worked his way down the dugout steps. The crowd, which in another situation
would have endured the tension and frustration of a 2-0 loss to the Phillies, stood, full-throated. The scoreboard
lights danced: “NL East Division Champs.”
In the front row near the Nationals’ dugout, members of the Lerner family, which bought the team in 2006 from
Major League Baseball, hugged each other long and hard. The board then showed the patriarch, Theodore N.
Lerner, watching and cheering in a suite just two weeks shy of his 87th birthday.
“A miracle!” Lerner’s wife, Annette, said later.
“A great organization has been put together,” Ted Lerner said. “We’re delighted they can enjoy it, and the city
of Washington can enjoy it.”
As a native Washingtonian, a self-made real estate mogul, he must have dreamed of such a moment.
“No,” Lerner said. “Looked forward to it.”
“Since he was a little boy!” Annette Lerner added.
It is something other Washingtonians have looked forward to for just as long, but perhaps without Lerner’s
confidence. This city has as star-crossed a history with the national pastime as any in the country. The players
who authored this season, from rookie sensation Bryce Harper to Cy Young award candidate Gonzalez to
mainstay Zimmerman, were only privy to the most recent misery here, teams that lost more than 100 games in
2008 and 2009.
“You know how we got this team,” said Lerner’s son Mark, the public face of ownership. “It was below sea
level, to say the least. Deeper than the Dead Sea.
“My dad said we’re going to build this thing the right way for the long-term. He was the most patient of all of
us. Look what you’ve got now. And it’s going to be like this for years to come.”
But there were more immediate issues Monday night. What Atlanta’s loss ensured for this year’s Nationals: a
best-of-five National League Division Series starting on Saturday or Sunday, Washington’s first postseason
baseball game in 79 years. What the victory ensured for Washington’s fans, some of whom have long memories
of the bad baseball played by the Senators — who departed once in 1961, were replaced, then left again in 1971
— and the no-baseball period before the Nationals arrived, was the chance to put that sorry past behind and
replace it, for perhaps the next month, with the playoffs.
“I know a lot of guys have been through a lot here,” said Werth, whose signing as a free agent before 2011
signaled that, internally, the Nationals believed they were close to contending. “It’s great for all of them, for
everyone in there.”
Not long after, Zimmerman stood on the field, ski goggles draped around his neck to protect his eyes from the
sting of champagne, worn at the advice of Werth. He is the kid the Nationals made their first-ever draft
selection, back in 2005 out of the University of Virginia. He is the one who signed not one, but two contract
extensions to stay with what looked to be a hapless franchise. He is the player whose picture adorns the back of
the mammoth scoreboard.
“I love this town, obviously,” Zimmerman said. “They gave me a chance, took a chance on me at a young age,
and they let me come right in and put me right in the middle of it.”
The middle of it Monday night was bedlam. After the players retreated to the home clubhouse, where they first
started dousing each other, they came back out on the field, and the true celebration began. Gonzalez sprinted
into the outfield. A whole crew headed down the left field line, high-fiving the crowd and each other, unbridled
joy all around.
“What a journey,” Mark Lerner said.
There is pain in Washington’s baseball past. But Monday night showed there is both possibility and pleasure in
its present, and its future.
Article #49
Kurt Suzuki validates Nats’ trade with clutch hitting, catching
By Barry Svrluga, Washington Post, 9/30/12
ST. LOUIS — Trades that happen in August are supposed to be secondary, the kind that unload unwanted
contracts, unwanted players or both. They can go unnoticed, and baseball just churns on.
On Aug. 3, three days after baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline, Washington Nationals General Manager Mike
Rizzo sent a minor league catcher few Nationals fans had heard of, David Freitas, and shipped him to Oakland.
In return, the Nationals got 28-year-old Kurt Suzuki. A blip of a deal? Their catching situation, their lineup, and
in some ways their club haven’t been the same since.
Saturday night, Suzuki caught starter Jordan Zimmermann, helped reliever Ryan Mattheus work out of a jam,
coaxed a bounce-back inning out of Tyler Clippard and hung in as Drew Storen gave up the tying run in the
ninth. And in the 10th inning, when St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny elected to walk the struggling
Danny Espinosa to face Suzuki, he won the Nationals a game.
Suzuki’s low liner of a double to left-center scored the winning runs in the Nationals’ 6-4 victory, and was just
the latest bit of his handiwork. Since taking over from the worn-down, beleaguered Jesus Flores as the
Nationals’ every-day catcher, Suzuki has added to and served to emphasize the depth in Washington’s lineup.
He might hit eighth, but in his 40 games with Washington, he now has 25 RBI.
“He added a pretty good spark,” Zimmermann said.
“That’s what he does,” Storen said.
What he has done is complete what is now a surprisingly potent Nationals’ lineup. Though he was hitting just
.218 at the time of the trade, “I think we all knew his track record was better,” said third baseman Ryan
Zimmerman. From 2009 to 2011, Suzuki hit at least 13 homers a year, and he once drove in 88 runs. Once he
found his stroke in Washington, the Nationals became better.
“That’s a pretty long lineup to face,” Zimmerman said.
The situation Saturday night — with the Nationals inching closer to clinching the National League East — was
as predictable as it was perplexing. Adam LaRoche opened the 10th by drawing a four-pitch walk off reliever
Sam Freeman. After Roger Bernadina bunted LaRoche to second, Fernando Salas came on to relieve Freeman.
Salas got Ian Desmond to fly out. And then the strange strategy. Yes, Salas is a right-hander, and Espinsoa hits
right-handed.
“I understand it,” Washington Manager Davey Johnson said.
But Espinosa has been flailing. He came into the at-bat 1 for his past 16. Suzuki was among the Nationals’
hottest hitters.
“You definitely want to be in those situations,” he said. “To tell you the truth, I was excited that they walked
Espi. That kind of lights a fire under you. . . . You want to go up there and make them pay.”
So Suzuki did. His counterpart, Cardinals all-star Yadier Molina, helped matters when he allowed a passed ball,
putting LaRoche at third and Espinosa at second. And then Suzuki unloaded on Salas, a line drive that hit the
base of the wall in left-center. The tie was broken, and what might have been a devastating loss became a win.
“I really like his approach,” Johnson said. “He’s a gamer. He likes those situations. That was huge.”
So a throwaway August trade? Not at all.
“To have a good defensive catcher, it seems like they always know or have a sense of what the pitcher’s going
to do to him,” Zimmerman said. “He’s been huge. That’s kind of an under-the-radar acquisition as far as
compared to other teams and what they’ve got.”
Suzuki finished his night by watching college football and eating a postgame meal with some of the Nationals’
pitchers in the visitors clubhouse. He laughed with Stephen Strasburg and asked Gio Gonzalez about something.
Mid-season trades can be jarring for players and teams alike. But here was Suzuki Saturday night, fitting into
the lineup and the clubhouse, helping the Nationals win a game.
“I was really excited,” he said. “Coming to the best team in baseball, how can you complain?”
Article #50
Ryan Zimmerman’s spirit persisted over the years
By Amanda Comak, Washington Times, 10/5/12
Ryan Zimmerman draped his arms over the railing of the dugout. He looked to his left, and then to his right, at
the frenzied fans dancing in the aisles at Nationals Park. Behind him, his teammates continued dispensing the
hugs and high-fives that began with fervor seconds earlier.
He let the pandemonium wash over him. He let the words displayed on the center field scoreboard sink in.
The Washington Nationals — his Washington Nationals from the very moment he was drafted — were the
National League East champions.
"The odds were in my favor that I was going to win at some point here, right?" Zimmerman said later, soaked
from head to toe in celebratory beer and champagne.
Three seasons ago, Zimmerman's team lost 103 games. The year before that, it lost 102. The Nationals were not
just doormats but often laughingstocks, with Zimmerman as the light they hoped would someday guide them
out of those dark days.
Before the 2012 season began, Zimmerman had witnessed 573 of the Nationals' 640 losses. He spent his
formative years in the major leagues around plenty of players who saw winning as a lower priority than filling
their coffers and were beaten down by years of mediocrity or worse.
And yet there he was Monday, the man those closest to him say is largely unchanged from the day he reached
the majors in September 2005 as a baby-faced 20-year-old, enjoying the moment he'd only seen in his vague
visions of the future.
"It was, without question, the most satisfied and content he's ever been in my time knowing him," said Brodie
Van Wagenen, Zimmerman's agent and co-head of CAA baseball.
His even-keeled demeanor finally gave way to pure joy. He'd never let the losing beat him. He'd never let
himself fall victim to those around him with lower aspirations.
"A few years ago, I even heard a few guys say the only times they're happy are on the first and 15th of every
month," said left-hander Ross Detwiler, who made his major league debut with the Nationals in 2007. "I'm
going out there and trying my hardest, and you've got a guy who doesn't care about anything but a paycheck?
Those people obviously broke.
"I'm glad Zim never got to that point."
Never too high, never too low
When the Nationals' regular season ended Wednesday, Zimmerman appeared in his 990th major league game.
As a member of a team awaiting its Division Series opponent, he will fall just shy of reaching 1,000 games
without a playoff appearance.
Former National Adam Dunn is the active leader in that department at 1,721 games.
So for figures such as Zimmerman, who spend much of their careers as the best player on a bad team, the line
they walk is a thin one. Submit to the losing and be labeled a "losing player," or hope the day will come when
the current shifts. Keeping one's head above the fray becomes a Herculean task.
"It's frustrating when you're losing," said outfielder Nick Markakis, whose Baltimore Orioles are playoff-bound
for the first time in 15 years. "But we play baseball for a living, and it's great to be able to do what we love
doing and get paid for it. You want to win, and losing's tough. Whether you're up or down, you still have to
keep your composure and be the same person."
Zimmerman, who even his fiancee, Heather Downen, said rarely breaks from his steady demeanor, is not unlike
many of his homegrown Nationals teammates: When he arrived, he was stunned by some of the players that
surrounded him.
He remembers once witnessing a jovial scene in the showers after a loss and asking a reporter, "Aren't you
supposed to care for 10 minutes that we lost again?"
"At the beginning, you're in the big leagues so it doesn't really matter," Zimmerman said. "You're just excited to
be there. But then, as you get older and you get going, some of my friends have been to the playoffs and been
on winning teams and you're like, 'Well, hopefully, you know? Hopefully, one day I'll get there.'
"You start to want that more and more, and the happiness from being in the big leagues and being able to play
rubs off a little bit. You're happy when you do things for your career, you take that next step, become a better
player, but after that, ultimately everyone wants a team that wins."
But as the Nationals went through this season, frequently reaching new high-water marks, teammates never saw
a change in Zimmerman.
Even as he struggled through some of the most trying weeks of his career, when inflammation in his right AC
joint made his shoulder ache and robbed his bat of strength, he never snapped.
His approach, which everyone uses the words "never too high" and "never too low" to describe, was the same as
it had been for the previous seven years.
"Zim doesn't really wear his heart on his sleeve," said shortstop Ian Desmond, one of the few players whose
tenure predates Zimmerman's in the organization. "He's not only the face of the franchise, but he's like the
heartbeat. He's the same guy all the time. You can't ever tell if he's upset, if he's frustrated, if he's happy, if he's
sad. It's just Zim."
"Even when the team was bad, he never broke character," said right fielder Jayson Werth. "He stayed himself.
He kind of hovered above it. You can see why he made it through it OK, and why he played so well on such bad
teams. It's just who he is. He's just a really good player with a really good mindset. Sure it wore on him. It had
to. But it didn't affect him."
At a crossroads
There were times, though, when Zimmerman wondered if he'd ever get to celebrate the way he did Monday
night. Or, if he did, if it would be in the District.
"That was such a cool moment for him," said Downen, a Washington native who's known Zimmerman since
2006. "He's worked so hard and every year he'd just get kind of disappointed."
Zimmerman never publicly questioned the Nationals' plans or their path to this point, but there were times he
evaluated the situation and knew he'd have to decide whether to continue to be a part of it.
When Dunn left as a free agent after the 2010 season, which featured 93 losses, Zimmerman pondered his
future.
"I think from Ryan's perspective the Nationals were at a crossroads at that point in time," Van Wagenen said,
pointing to conversations that fall with ownership and general manager Mike Rizzo that reassured Zimmerman.
"They were coming off of another difficult season, another losing season, and one of the productive, veteran,
high-paid major league players was up for free agency and signed elsewhere. Ryan had to really look around
and begin to question whether or not this franchise was going to go down a positive road or whether it was
going to continue to repeat the status quo."
Two days after Dunn joined the Chicago White Sox, the Nationals signed Werth. They won 80 games in 2011
with a largely homegrown roster. They traded for pitcher Gio Gonzalez in the winter. In February, Zimmerman
agreed to a six-year, $100 million contract extension that could keep him in a Nationals uniform through 2020.
In April, he proposed to Downen and they set a January wedding date. In September, the Nationals, a team now
filled with players who truly believed they were good enough to be the best, clinched the first playoff berth for a
D.C. team since the 1948 Homestead Grays.
October brings new possibilities
"This year has been so surreal," Downen said. "I feel like sometimes this isn't happening, or I'm in 'The Truman
Show' and I'm like, 'Is this all being set up?' Because this has been the most perfect year. Everything has been
happening exactly the way you envision it to happen in your best possible expectations."
Savoring the experience
Examining the reasons why Zimmerman became an exception, and not the rule, during all of the losing years,
often leads one back to the same truth: It's the person he is that enabled the Nationals to build around his talent.
"I think that's where he fought the label," Desmond said. "He was part of [the team's improvement every year].
It wasn't like he was just staying idle. He continued to get better, the team continued to get better. I think if he
would've not panned out, everything might have gone in a different direction."
The 2012 Nationals are a lot of things, and they get contributions from all of their parts, but in many ways they
are a team made in Zimmerman's image. They've taken their success in stride, with quiet — and sometimes notso-quiet — confidence.
"There are losing players, even with good statistics, and there are winning players even with good or bad
statistics," Rizzo said. "And Zim has been a winner since we signed him. He's shown a steady professionalism
each and every year. A guy who could've really been a malcontent and never let it affect him. He's been a
dream."
The Nationals will open the playoffs Sunday, either in St. Louis or Atlanta. Zimmerman, who quipped when the
Nationals clinched a playoff spot that it was the first time he'd won anything since "friggin' Little League," will
finally be on the game's biggest stage.
The advice from others is to savor it because "it's much more difficult to accept mediocrity once you're at the
pinnacle," Rizzo said. "And that's something we have to, as an organization, really guard against."
"You never know when the next time's going to be," said New York Mets third baseman David Wright, who
grew up with Zimmerman in Virginia Beach. "It's been nine years for me, and I've been to the playoffs once."
Said Zimmerman: "People always ask me what it feels like, and it feels the exact same as the other years, except
we're winning instead of losing.
"If you can play and be professional and continue to do your job when you've lost 100 games, this is a lot easier.
We've had to learn how to win over the last few years. We obviously lost a lot. And losing all those games, you
kind of learn why you were losing and what you did wrong. I think all of that helped us get to where we are
now."
Article #51
Nationals deliver a DC winner
By Paul White, USA Today, 10/5/12
WASHINGTON --- The Washington Nationals did their best to douse themselves, their ballpark and their
euphoric fans with champagne this week. It was a scene unprecedented in the nation's capital.
After all, the only other times a major league franchise had finished first here, prohibition was in effect.
Now, Washington is home to baseball's best record, and the Nationals will open the city's first postseason since
1933 on Sunday in a National League Division Series against the St.Louis Cardinals or Atlanta Braves.
Getting to this point was historic in many ways, with a team built by a first-time general manager, run by an
out-of-retirement bench mastermind and fueled in part by a once-in-a-generation talent for whom prohibition
might as well still be in effect.
Outfielder Bryce Harper, 19, isn't old enough to share in the champagne, but he's advanced enough on the field
to be a catalyst for a team that has a wunderkind pitcher to match in Stephen Strasburg.
Oh, wait, he won't be active.
There's story line No.1, the shutdown of Strasburg during the first week of September that often overshadowed
a team that spent all but 10 days of the season in first place.
When Harper calls the Nationals' 98-win season, "The best experience I've ever been part of," well, he's still a
teenager.
When manager Davey Johnson, who joins Billy Martin as the only men to take four franchises to the playoffs,
says, "I knew (last) August we could win the pennant this year," well, we should have paid attention.
Strasburg and Harper, the first overall draft picks in 2009-10, get the attention, but it's the collection of talent
assembled by GM Mike Rizzo that put the Nationals in first place.
Even Rizzo admitted next year was the target to unseat the five-time division champion Philadelphia Phillies.
"This is huge," Rizzo crowed after Monday's clinching. "The National League East champs — are you kidding
me?"
No joke, not any more.
"Four short years ago, we weren't very good," says Rizzo, 51, who took over from Jim Bowden in 2009. "We're
scratching the surface. It's a young athletic team. We'll be back and doing this a couple more times."
***
It all comes back to Rizzo
Bred as the architect of the Arizona Diamondbacks farm system, Rizzo came to Washington in 2006 as an
assistant to Bowden at the same time the franchise morphed from wandering ward of Major League Baseball to
an ownership group led by Ted Lerner that has bought into Rizzo's team-building philosophy.
"We drafted and developed nearly all our players or acquired them in trades with guys we developed," he says.
"Of the 25 guys on the team, 21 have come in during the last three years."
He drafted, he traded, he built. But Rizzo — and the Nationals' season — is still destined to be defined by when
he stood firm. Strasburg's season ended Sept.7 when, according to a plan announced in spring training, Rizzo
imposed an innings limit for long-term health reasons on the 15-game winner's first full season after Tommy
John elbow surgery in 2010.
"Whatever heat we take for that, I'll gladly shoulder it," Rizzo says. "I heard the comment that the landscape has
changed because you're expected to win this year. We're expected to win because we did the right thing with
Jordan Zimmermann (who had the same surgery in 2009) last year and into this year, just like we'll do the right
thing with Stephen Strasburg, and he'll be part of it this year and next year and beyond."
Thus, the Strasburg decision will be revisited one more time — that's a guarantee. And the only way Rizzo gets
to nod smugly and triumphantly — for this year at least — is if the Nationals win the World Series. Otherwise,
regardless of how the team's season ends, the speculation will be about how it would have been different if
Strasburg still were pitching. For now, Rizzo reminds, "We've got a pretty darned good team with him and a
pretty darned good team without him."
Even without Strasburg, the Nationals have the hardest-throwing starting rotation in the major leagues. Gio
Gonzalez led the majors with 21 victories. He and Zimmermann, who will follow him in the playoff rotation,
both had better ERAs (2.89 and 2.94) than Strasburg (3.16) this season.
"Power arms, power arms — that's what translates in the postseason," says Chipper Jones, whose Braves play
the Cardinals today in a one-game wild card to face the Nationals. "It's cold, guys are all wrapped up, it's hard to
center the ball when a guy throws it 100 miles an hour. And these guys have a bunch of 'em."
***
Johnson was missing link
Washington's only previous postseason experience were the World Series played by the 1924, '25 and '33
Senators.
This year's team won 98 games, one short of the '33 team's Washington record. But those Senators slipped to
seventh the next year, missing by one spot in the standings of fulfilling the city's long-time description of, "First
in war, first in peace and last in the American League."
Washington, in fact, finished last or next-to-last 18 of the next 39 seasons.
It was more of the same during the Nationals' first six years in town — until a third-place finish in the NL East
last season, when Johnson took over as interim manager after Jim Riggleman abruptly quit on June23, 2011.
Johnson, already on the payroll as an advisor to Rizzo, hadn't managed in the majors since 2000, but he had one
more bit of advice for Rizzo — to make him the permanent manager.
"In my mind's eye, I was the perfect fit," says Johnson, 69. Rizzo agreed. "He's been the perfect fit for every
team he's been with," he says.
Players noticed. Left-hander John Lannan, called up from the minors to replace Strasburg, has been with the
Nationals for all or part of the past six seasons. "The whole mentality of the club is different," he says.
***
Harper a hype machine
Though first baseman Adam LaRoche, 32, has matched a career high with 100 RBI and he and the rest of the
infield — under 30s Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa — combined for 100 homers, the
buzz revolves around Harper and Strasburg. And the best measure of their place on the team is how veterans
react to young players who have been hyped since — in Harper's case — before they were in high school.
"Harper has guys who care about him, maybe even protect him," Gonzalez says. "Those guys see that shining
star and want him to stay that way."
His power, speed and all-out play creates expectations in Nationals Park that something special could happen at
any moment.
"This is very fresh," Johnson says. "The persona on this team — they're all good-looking, they're all athletic,
their makeup is all off the charts. They work too hard. They try too hard. I haven't had to be fatherly with any of
them. I have (elsewhere) in the past."
Johnson has seen this phenom phenomenon before, managing teen protégés Dwight Gooden and Darryl
Strawberry with the New York Mets in the 1980s, both of whom later damaged their careers with sub-stanceabuse issues.
His current emerging stars, Johnson says, "Had great upbringings. They're very driven. Strawberry wasn't that
driven. One year, we had two weeks to go in the season, he had 39 home runs. He could care less if he hit 40.
Harper would squeeze every inch out of it."
And it's a different time, when video or tweets about Harper go viral, whether it be blowing a kiss at an
opposing pitcher after hitting a homer in the minor leagues or telling a news reporter in Toronto, "That's a
clown question, bro."
"People have this perception of (Harper) that social media and everyone who doesn't know him have created,"
Zimmerman says. "He's the first one to go through that in our sport."
But he also is generating the type of attention reserved in the past for the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Alex
Rodriguez or Mickey Mantle.
Winning is a big part of it, says Zimmerman, who joined the Nationals in September2005.
"I don't think it'd be as elevated as it is if we weren't 30 games over .500," he says. "If we're 20 games under
.500, I don't think they'd come out to see Strasburg pitch, to see Bryce play."
Zimmerman knows everybody's watching now that the Nationals' season will be defined in a matter of days or
weeks.
"It's unbelievable, better than I expected," Zimmerman says, sporting the T-shirt he wears nearly every day:
"Don't be a clown, bro."