The Beltway Boys: WILY MO? I DON'T KNOW

WILY MO? I DON'T KNOW

[August 17th] -- The Nationals just announced that they have traded for Red Sox outfielder Wily Mo Pena for the proverbial player to be named later.

As usual, I don't know how I feel when Jimbo brings in another one of his old Reds' pieces form the old days. No doubt, a focused and healthy Wily Mo Pena can do a lot for the Nationals.

I'm just not entirely sure the team still needs to be collecting talented players who are not performing.

Manny Acta has announced that Pena will platoon with Ryan Church in left field, at least for the time being. At first blush, this move makes sense. Pena has a career .248 batting average vs. lefties, .271 vs. righties. Though Ryan Church has hit both well during his career, he's having trouble this year against lefties. I think Church has proven that he's not an everyday player, I'd rather see him platoon with Austin Kearns than Pena. Kearns hits .253 vs righties, .295 against lefties.

Kearns has proven he's not the electric bat all of us thought he would be in the outfield. Church has proven the same thing. Pena, on the other hand, has proven nothing yet. Why not platoon Church and Kearns, leave Nook Logan in center (until the end of the year at least) and let Pena do his thing in left for the last six weeks of the year.

# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 11:35 AM

Comments:

Personally, I would platoon Kearns and Pena rather than Kearns and Church. Sure, Church isn't the big power bat we would like to see in the OF, but he IS the best OF hitter we have. Kearns is just horrible, as far as I can tell. It really bums me out that we keep signing these Cincinnati guys with their Great American SmallPark statistics. A two year old could hit a homerun every three at bats there! Jeez!

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:48 PM

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Orlando Hudson To Nationals?

MLB Traderumors is predicting that second baseman Orlando Hudson will likely end up in Washington.

I think they are right.

The Nationals have no one in-house who can play second and no one wants to see Cristian Guzman next to Adam Dunn.

The Nationals still have enough money remaining in the till to pay Hudson $5 million or so for 2010.

The Nationals have enough back of the rotation starters (Scott Olsen, Ross Detwiler, J.D. Martin and Craig Stammen) to spend the remaining resources on Hudson.

Big Changes, Little Names

Big happenings? Nah. Just happenings. Zach Day was designated for assignment by the Colorado Rockies and Capitol Punishment is reporting that the Nats have claimed him off the waiver wire. So we ended up getting Preston Wilson for nothing. That's nice. Billy Traber, he of the tight leash, was sent down to New Orleans and replaced by Mike O'Connor.

Rasner Rocks For Yanks

What was it that Jim Bowden said when he lost Darrell Rasner to the Yankees through waivers last winter? Wasn't it something like, "C'mon, it wasn't like he was going to make an impact at the major league level?" Well Jimbo, it seems like some of your "minor" transactions are coming back to haunt you.

Rasner, a 6'3" righty from Carson City, Nevada, was waived February 11th by the Nationals, just a couple of weeks before the start of spring training. He was picked up and assigned to 'AAA' Columbus. He had some injuries this year, but it didn't effect his pitching. In 58 innings for the Clippers, Rasner went 4-0, 2.76. But wait. There's more.

Pitching on Sunday against the Twins, Rasner pitched 6 strong innings, allowing just 1 run on 6 hits. In two starts, he's now 1-0, 1.17.

What do you always like to say, Jim, something about "You can never have enough pitching?" Let's see, you waived Rasner, and he's starting for the Yankees. You waived Claudio Vargas, and he's starting for the Diamondbacks. You waived Byung Young Kim, and he's starting for the Rockies. You traded Tomo Ohka for a guy no longer in the major leagues, and he's starting for the Brewers.

Jim, if I were you, I'd stay away from the waiver wire. Seems like you haven't figured it that it's supposed to help the team, not hurt it.

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