Sometime between now and early 2008, the new Nationals stadium naming rights will be awarded to some company willing to spend between $4 million to $10 million per year for several years.  With it, comes some hokey nickname for the park, great word-of-mouth advertising and instant ballpark recognition. Soon (sponsor) will be affiliated with Washington just like Safeco-Seattle, Minute Maid-Houston and Petco-San Diego. You get the idea

Check out who is quoted first in Tuesday’s Washington Post article about the stadium naming rights? Pretty random. I thought this guy was never quoted directly in the papers.

Under the Major League Baseball’s agreement with the city of Washington, the Nationals are entitled to all revenue from the naming rights.  Not only is the city government paying for a publicly-funded $611 stadium but it’s going to get zero money from the naming rights. Call it lose-lose for the city government.

Outgoing Mayor Anthony Williams said in the article the naming rights were an important incentive for persuading baseball to locate a franchise in Washington and attract a buyer.  Really?  I thought a publicly-funded stadium would’ve been the kicker. 

I’ll bring it back into the Nationals realm. I was thinking of new stadium names and came up the following bad ideas.

XMirius Field.  Just in case a merger happens.

AOL Field. A new version of the stadium will come out once a year or two.

Sprintel Field. DC has a law against drivers using hand-held cell phones. They should have a law against a stadium being named Sprint/Nextel. The Cell Tower nickname just can’t materialize

Capital One Stadium. Like I really need 100 signs in the park asking me what’s in my wallet. The answer: Not much after tickets and concessions in the new park. It’s coming. The 2007 season is the Nationals management’s gift to the fans. After that, watch out.

All kidding aside, I don’t care what they name the new stadium but I would like to make a slight suggestion. Could the name of the new stadium incorporate Washington’s baseball past somehow? Save the smart-aleck Bob Short and Calvin Griffith suggestions. There are three links to the past I would like to suggest.

A)     Grays Field at (sponsor) stadium.  The Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues played several “home” games a year in Washington. Homestead’s official home base was Pittsburgh so this might be a stretch.

B)     Walter Johnson Field at (sponsor) stadium. One of the game’s greatest pitchers and the best player to ever play for the Washington baseball franchise past or present.

C)    Clark Griffith Field at (sponsor) stadium. I was tempted to say Griffith Field only but I don’t want anyone thinking Calvin should be included. That’s like Baltimore naming a stadium after Robert Irsay. Again, Clark Griffith Field would be a nice tie to the past.

I admit B and C might be too old-school to consider. Sure, the name of the park would be a mouthful but it would be nice to have a historical Washington baseball tie to the new park. Do I think it will happen? Probably Not.

I bought an XM Inno Friday. I haven’t put it down much so I decided to name this column based on the song that came on when it was time to write the title. I hope I don’t have to pay any royalties to Steely Dan for naming this Deacon Blues.  My two favorite lines from the song:

A) I’ll make it this time, I’m ready to cross that fine line

B) I rise when the sun goes down, cover every game in town. A world of my own, I’ll make it my home sweet home

Saturday morning, I decided to drive into Washington to find the new Nationals team store. Traffic was light and I had no trouble finding parking downtown. After a short walk, I found the store.

So imagine my surprise when I walked in and saw a store that was about the size of my 2^nd bedroom. And I live in a 975 square foot condo. 

The selection was disappointing but it had the basics-hats, shirts, jackets, jerseys.  I was expecting some more options. There was a nice Nationals t-shirt that went for $43. Ouch! I ended up buying a red Nationals shirt with the logo and year established (1905) for $20.  Still, it’s good to see there’s a Nationals store outside of RFK Stadium. The prices on mlb.com and the local sporting goods stores are comparable, if not slightly cheaper than what I saw!  I should not be surprised, team merchandise isn’t cheap. Thankfully, Xmas is near so I can let my loved ones buy my much-needed gifts.

Zechry Zinicola.  Keep that name tucked away. Don’t be surprised if he’s on the Nationals 2007 Opening Day Roster. The right-handed reliever went 4-1 with 12 saves and a 1.65 ERA combined with Harrisburg, Potomac and Vermont. All he needs if a horrible nickname like Coca or ZZ Top!

Zinicola was named the Nationals Minor League Pitcher of the Year despite being a sixth-round selection in the June draft…as in the 2006 draft. During his short season, he was promoted twice and ended the season in AA Harrisburg. Only in the Nationals organization can someone who started in June become Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Unless he has an awful spring training, he’ll probably be in a Nats uniform on

4/2/07

!

Of course to Nationals fans/bloggers wiser than me, Zinicola’s rise is hardly breaking news.  If I am going to blog about the team and its players more, I might as well learn and write about everyone in the organization. I have a couple months to smooth out the rough edges.

He’s interested in coming back to the Nationals. Makes sense now that Frank isn’t here. He meets the following characteristics

-Major League Pitcher

-Has a pulse

-Has won big league games

-He’s available

-Has a pulse

-Nationals are a little short in the starting pitching department. And by a little, I mean a lot.

Ladson’s latest mailbag had four Soriano questions and two Church questions for a grand total of six questions about two players who won’t play left field for the Nationals in 2007.

Jimmy Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Happy Turkey Day and the official start of the holiday shopping season. I’ll be an mlb.com mark and link up to some fine gift ideas.

I was thinking about the baseball things I was thankful for in 2006. Here’s some of my list. Please feel free to add your own comments to the mix.

1)      The Detroit Tigers. The American League champions took the baseball world by storm and re-energized the Motown faithful and Tigers fans nationwide.

2)      Tony La Russa winning a World Series in an unLaRussa-like way. La Russa’s teams have been favorites going into all of his past WS (except for maybe 2004-The Red Sox had the momentum -another story, another time). I was impressed how La Russa’s squad won this WS despite 83 wins, it’s not what I expected from Mr. 3 Nights in August. Even the A’s fans who were bitter about 1988 and 1990 have to give La Russa credit on this one.

3)      The Washington Nationals have owners, real owners and not Major League Baseball. Sure, Soriano is gone and next season’s outlook doesn’t exactly include the postseason, but for me, it’s great to have a hometown team with local ownership. I was there during renovation weekend after the All-Star Break.  There were real food options, the RFK Stadium interior was powerwashed. It almost resembled a real baseball stadium. All joking aside, the Nationals finally having owners was a huge relief for all of us paranoid fans.  It seems like yesterday that Nationals fans were being told the ownership announcement was coming, and coming…..almost there.  Just a little more and announcement.

4)      Anibal Sanchez’ no-hitter. I slowed down my DVR on the final out and Eric Byrnes was out by a half step.  Enjoyable game to watch, the highlight of the Marlins season.

5)      Close voting in the postseason awards.  With the exception of the AL Cy Young and AL Manager of the Year, the remaining races were up in the air. While I don’t like these awards being awarded so close to Thanksgiving, it’s good to see the lively debates throughout the blogworld about the selections.

6)      Ryan Howard.  Great season, good guy. I was pleased to see him selected as the MVP. Cardinals fans can take some comfort in being world champions.

7)      My fantasy team, Devastation Inc, winning two of my three fantasy leagues. In my main league, I won with a starting rotation of Brett Myers, Estaban Loaiza, Chris Young, Anibal Sanchez and Randy Johnson. Myers and Young had their best games on the year in the final week.  Young’s near perfect game came during championship week. Offensively, you can’t go wrong with an outfield or Soriano, Jermaine Dye and Matt Holliday and an infield that has Delgado, Roberts, Jeter and ARod. Good times, good times. 

Please don’t trade Chad Cordero, please don’t trade Chad Cordero, please don’t trade Chad Cordero. When the Nationals talk about building around their young talent, Cordero and Zimmerman come to mind. It’s bad enough the starting pitching is a huge question mark entering next season so don’t trade the young anchor of your bullpen without a closer waiting in the wings. Who would take over? Ayala? I hope this is just a rumor. We have enough former Reds on the team as it is.

Nationals skipper Manny Acta filled out his coaching staff Tuesday by selecting two of his Houston mentors, a veteran major league coach and a former colleague from his Montreal days.

Barry

Acta followed the smart rule of hiring experienced coaches he felt comfortable around.  Pat Corrales was a Kasten hire all the way and getting him out of Atlanta was a nice pull on the Nationals part.  Corrales definitely brings the experience with 48 seasons in baseball not to mention having three MLB managerial stints under his belt which was three more than Acta had entering November.

Ladson

According to the Washington Post, GM Jim Bowden said Acta would have the most input on the coaching staff selection but with two conditions:  A) Acta needed a veteran bench coach (Corrales. Check) and Bowden reserves the right to change the coaches after a season if they don’t work out like 2005. In other words, if Bowden wants to bring more Reds coaches over, he can do so. Or if he wants to micromanage the heck out of Acta and tell him what to do and give him zippy freedom, he has that right too. Acta has been on the job for only a week and he already his guidelines like a high school junior with a curfew.

So Ryan Church didn’t go to Mexico and play in the Mexican League.  And the strange relationship between Church and the Nationals continues.  Like this situation doesn’t have trade written all over it. Bowden is declining comment on how this affects Church’s standing with the team. Cough, cough (trade bait), cough, cough!

The Church-Nationals relationship has been an awkward one.  Last year, Church, who was expected to make the 2006 Opening Day Roster, got sent to AAA New Orleans instead.  That did not go over too well with No. 19 but he did finish with a .276 average, 10 home runs and 35 RBIs in a half-season at the big-league level.

Would participating in the Mexican league really helped him in the long run?  The talent pool would’ve been a little different than customary MLB pitching but he might have picked up something useful. Church’s agent didn’t see it that way.

Jeff Borris, Church’s agent, told mlb.com Monday that he advised his client not to go because “he had nothing more to prove in Mexico and should be given a chance to start for the Nationals.”

Instead of Mexico, Church did work with a visualization specialist. The gentleman, Ty Webb, told Noonan, I mean, Church, to just be the ball.

In a related story, Church is going to the carry logs up mountains in Russia during the winter based on the advisement of Nationals management. He might grow a beard and eventually fight Ivan Drago while he’s there.

The Nationals request seemed like a simple one, go to the Mexican league and improve on the outside breaking pitches in preparation for the 2007 season. I don’t think the Nationals were doing this to jerk Church around. Borris was looking out for his client and I can appreciate that. But no matter how this spins, Church doesn’t come out of this one looking too good.

So, Alfonso Soriano! Did you leave for more money and/or the desire to win? Did you leave because the Nationals didn’t call you?  I love the part of the story that says Soriano and the Nationals had a meeting after the season that lasted from 30-45 minutes about a possible contract extension. In the story Soriano says the Nationals front office never called him and that prompted him to move on with his career. I’m confused.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the following events happened:

a)      The Nationals called but Soriano saw his Caller ID and didn’t answer the phone. Kasten left a message saying “Hey, Fonzie, it’s Stan. Give me a call when you get a chance, I want to talk to you about staying in DC for $12 million a year.”

b)      The Nationals called Soriano’s agents. They picked up the phone by accident, told Bowden they’d call him back after Thanksgiving and forgot to tell Soriano. Oops!

c)      During the meeting, these were the following points of discussion: the latest season of The Wire, Dancing With The Stars, the political future of the Republicans and the Washington Capitals. During the end of the meeting, the Nationals brass said they would like to sign him to a long-term deal which prompted Soriano to bust out laughing and ask where Ashton Kutcher was hiding.

d)      Soriano’s future was decided during a Jenga game against Kasten. Soriano wins, he walks. Kasten wins, he stays trade clause and all.

Random Observation: It seems Bowden has a lot of “could not be reached for comment” and “declined comments” in stories lately.  Maybe he’s in hiding after providing the world with “Acta-vate.”

I know Bloghoncho Mark won’t like this one so I’ll ask it rhetorically.  Who in the world would give Jeter a fourth place or a sixth place in the AL MVP balloting? Morneau is a deserving winner but a fourth and a sixth for Jeter? Wow!

Sayonara Soriano!

I have to stop taking those mid-afternoon naps.

I woke up from my mid-day rest to find that Alfonso Soriano is leaving the Nation’s Capital. Oh yeah and the Redskins lost! Shockers galore!

Soriano found a high-paying suitor in the Chicago Cubs, who offered the 40-40-40 man eight years and $136 million to bat leadoff and patrol left field. Here’s the ESPN link as well. All Soriano has to do now is pass the physical and he’ll be a Cubbie Monday. Soriano was looking for a long-term deal starting at $15 million per year. He got his wish. The addition of Soriano gives the Cubs a very formable offensive lineup joining Derrek Lee and the recently re-signed Aramis Ramirez.

As I’ve stated in past columns, Soriano wasn’t coming back to the Nationals despite fan requests/pleas to re-sign the converted left fielder. He wanted to go to a contender with a veteran lineup. He got that too and a new skipper in Lou Piniella thrown in as a bonus. The contender part remains to be seen if the Cubs can’t get some starting pitching contributions from someone who is not named Carlos Zambrano.

The Nationals should be a contender by 2014, when Soriano’s current deal ends, maybe they could win a World Series by that time. It would be hilarious if the Nationals win a World Series before the Cubs won one.  Might happen, who knows!

Washington gets two high picks in next year’s draft as a result of all of this, a first-round sandwich pick (hold the mayo) and a second-round pick. Two more chances to build its minor league systems; hopefully, these future picks won’t be busts as the Nationals need all the good draft choices that they get, even moreso now that they’ve increased their scouting department staff.

Obvious statement time: Soriano’s void can not be replaced.  Right now, the leadoff options look like Felipe Lopez or Nook Logan, neither of whom will hit 46 home runs combined in 2007 and 2008; although, both men could fill the stolen base void nicely.

Soriano’s plate discipline, while improved in 2006, still needs some work. His free-swinging ways, while productive no doubt, could be very frustrating to watch at times.  In the later stages of the season, Soriano was pressing often, a fact that could be contributed to his 40-40 chase and the Nationals exit from the playoff race. 

Soriano’s departure will be talked about topic in Washington, one in which a lot of blame/bitterness/resentment will be pointed toward Nationals management.

I don’t think Bowden had a good offer for Soriano at the trading deadline in July. As a Nationals fan, I would’ve been sour if the Nationals unloaded Soriano for pennies on the dollar especially when other teams weren’t offering up high quality young talent in return. Either way, the Nationals were dammed if they do, dammed if they don’t. The trade offer I had in mind for Soriano from late May to July 31 was shipping him to Detroit for Zach Miner and Humberto Sanchez.  I’ll leave the trades to the experts

I didn’t mind the Nationals standing pat.

It’s frustrating to know that the Nationals won’t be going after big-name talent in this off-season. My expectations for 2007 aren’t that high which should make watching the games less frustrating. I feel, though, that the big-name talent isn’t looking at Washington anyways so why waste time chasing after talent who won’t come here in the end.

In my conspiracy theory mind, I guess losing Soriano might have something to do with the team not raising ticket prices on 86% of the seats in the cavernous RFK Stadium.  I consider it an off-season present from the Nationals-their way of telling us they won’t raise prices next year especially since the chances of the Nationals doing well are remote.  They’ll wait until the new stadium opens to do that. So for the rest of the offseason, I’ll watch as other teams grab the talented names out there.  I’ll do some light reading on Kory Casto, who did quite well in the Arizona Fall League this year.  I’ll continue to work on my new reality show, National Idol, in which a panel of scouts and coaches audition the best pitchers for the prize of being in the National Starting Rotation in 2007.  Time to Acta-vate!

Jim Bowden has a great strategy relating to Mike Stanton. Twice, Bowden has traded Stanton for prospects. 

Could there be a third opportunity coming?  Call it the Boomerang theory. If this keeps up, Bowden can stock the whole minor league system by signing Stanton and trading him for prospects each year by 2011.

Stanton is receptive to the idea of returning to the Nationals and would give the squad a much-needed veteran left-hander coming out of the bullpen.
"I had a good time in Washington," the 39-year-old Stanton, who had a 4.47 ERA with the Nationals last season, told mlb.com Wednesday. "They have a good bunch of young kids there. It was fun playing there. At this point in my career, you don’t rule out anything or anyone. With the background that I have with the Nationals, and with Jim, anything is possible.”

Stanton was traded July 28 to San Francisco for pitching prospect Shairon Martis.  He did a solid job in the closer’s role filling in for an injured Armando Benitez saving eight games down the stretch.

Stanton credited his success with the Giants to getting ahead early in the count and the excitement of the Giants pennant race.

Another lefty in the bullpen for the Nationals would be nice. If he does come back to the Nationals, Stanton would join Micah Bowie as the lone lefties in the bullpen. New manager Manny Acta has said he would like to have at least two lefties in the bullpen coming into next season.

Great news for Nationals fans who were up in arms over Mitchell Page’s demotion/transfer to Minor League Hitting Coordinator. Page will return as the Nationals Hitting Coach next season thanks to new skipper Manny Acta.

Page was influential in increasing the team’s batting average to .262 in 2006, good for 9^th in the National League (it’s highest finish since 2002).

“Acta heard some good things about me, thanks to [assistant general manager Bob Boone]. So I decided to return” Page told mlb.com Wednesday night.

I didn’t get Page’s initial move to Minor League Hitting Coordinator to begin with after this past season. I think the Nationals management should’ve left Page’s in his current position until the new manager was selected. If the new manager wanted to make changes after the hiring, then let him do so. I mean, they kept pitching coach Randy St. Claire from the start so why not just keep Page and see if the new manager would’ve made a change? St. Claire was kept because of the progress he had made with the younger pitchers. Page made progress with the hitters as well. I don’t see any difference between the two. If the Nationals didn’t want to keep Page, they would’ve cut him loose outright so he could sign on with another team.

The end result, Page is in the same position he was in September and this whole saga has been an exercise in uselessness.