Washington Nationals

Wednesday was a very good day for the Washington Nationals.

Ryan Zimmerman, who former general manager Jim Bowden described as a “future Gold Glove winner” when he drafted him 4th overall in 2005, won his first Gold Glove award earlier this afternoon.

A few hours later, Jim Riggleman, who single-handedly skippered the Nationals away from the horror of becoming the latter-day ’62 Mets, was named the team’s permanent manager.

In a season of repeated failure, Ryan Zimmerman played up to expectations and in the midst of laughs from home and opposing fans. In turn, his defense has earned him his first N.L. Gold Glove.

NBC 4 in Washington D.C. is reporting the Don Mattingly, bench coach for the L.A. Dodgers, has decided not to interview for the vacant Nationals head coaching spot.

Honestly I'm not surprised. When I first heard that Mattingly was a candidate for the job I thought it was too good to be true.

However, as a Nats fan I can't help but feel a little offended that Mattingly won't even take the interview. 

I mean, I know this team is bad but with the right coaching they have enough young players to be competitive in the next few years.

By the time the 2009 baseball amateur draft concluded last June, the Washington Nationals had added 50 players to their minor league system.

But really, other than the first two—Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen—the other 48 were unknowns who would quietly slip into the anonymity of the low minor leagues, likely never to be heard from again.

Craig Stammen pitched pretty well as a rookie in 2009, though he had not looked nearly as crisp over the last month of the season. It seemed as though opposing hitters had begun to make their adjustments once they had seen him a few times.

Certainly, that happens to many rookie pitchers who, after looking very good the first time around the league is never heard from again.

So the guy that brought in Esmailyn “Smiley” Gonzalez was unjustifiably fired ?

A Dominican Republic tribunal has ordered the Washington Nationals to pay US$40,000 in damages to a scout who was fired after signing a prospect who lied about his age.

Jose Baez, the Nationals’ former director of operations in the Dominican Republic, sued the team for what he said was an unjustified firing. The court issued its order last week.

In 2007, John Lannan came out of nowhere.

An 11th-round afterthought in 2005, Lannan climbed the minor league ladder quickly, going a combined 12-3, 2.87 before finishing the season with the Nationals where the 22-year-old went 2-2, 4.15.

The 1971 Washington Senators were an embarrassingly bad baseball team.

After owner/general manager Bob Short traded the core of his team, pitcher Joe Coleman, third baseman Aurelio Rodriguez and shortstop Eddie Brinkman, to the Detroit Tigers for over-the-hill pitcher Denny McLain and a bunch of guys named Joe, there were more holes in the lineup than players to fill them.

The Washington Post and AOL Fanhouse are reporting that Los Angeles Dodgers bench coach and former Yankee great Don Mattingly is a candidate for the vacant manging spot for the Washington Nationals.

This past week, the Nats have asked and were granted permission by the Dodgers to court Mattingly.

He told Fanhouse that any interview would wait until after the World Series.

Personally, I think this is a great move for the Nats.  I thought when Joe Torre left the Yankees they should have tried to hire him.

Now they may just get the next best thing.