| Doug Benton. 13th June, 2005 - 6:22 pm
 With all of the off season talk of suspected steroid use, the continuous build-up of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, and the revolving door that has become free agency, the biggest event that got lost in the shuffle was a team was relocated and afforded the opportunity to play in front of people in one location. The Washington Nationals and their new fan base would have been quite pleased if attendance was at a consistent level and the Nationals continued to get better as the season progressed. However, the Nationals had another plan in mind.
Before the season, almost every prognosticator was boiling down the NL East race to the Braves and Marlins, with the Phillies and Mets staying close till the end. Some people even forgot that the Nationals were in the division. No one is forgetting now after the Nationals won their tenth straight game on Sunday, while moving farther ahead of preseason favorites Atlanta and Florida. This transformation did not happen over night and came to fruition with patience
and hard work.
This franchise has always been stacked with young talent, especially in the rotation with Vazquez and Armas Jr. Through shrewd development and trading savvy, the Expos/Nationals were able to bring young talent on their move to the nation's capital. They acquired Nick Johnson from the Yankees for Vazquez, stole Livan Hernandez from the Giants, and used the money not spent to keep Vladimir Guerrero to sign Vinny Castilla, Jose Guillen, and Christian Guzman. Teaming these new players with Jose Vidro and Brad Wilkerson makes this a winning combination.
While their offseason work over the last few years has paid great dividends, the work general manager Jim Bowden has done during the season might be the most important aspect to keeping this team in the race. Even though the pickups of Marlon Byrd, Ryan Drese, and Junior Spivey might only make a prick on the field, it made waves off of it. Bowden's predecessor, Omar Minaya, constantly was shut down when he tried to do such moves during the season to help the team over the hump. Now the players and the fans have faith in ownership that they will let the general manager fill needs during the year that will help the ballclub.
Granted, they have only played 63 games and might fall off of the pace as the season wears on. However, for the present time, they are playing winning baseball in front of good-sized crowds, and putting quite a scare into the supposed beast of the east and giving them all they can ask for and more. |
