Nationals Inquisition

This is just a heads up to all our loyal readers who might find the content lacking here at the Inquisition over the next couple of days. No, don’t celebrate, we are not closing down like Capitol Punishment (A tip of the hat to that blog. Thanks for the good times). The Natosphere isn’t imploding, although the team seems like it is sometimes on the verge.

No, the NQ is simply going on vacation for a few days. Taking a little R&R and eating a little PB&J. Going camping in Virginia. We will try to do some postings if we can. The NQ will be back at full speed next Wednesday.

And since we will be in Virginia and the Nats will be out of town, this gives us an opportunity to catch up with the next best thing: The Potomac Nationals.

The NQ will be hitting a Potomac Nationals home game on Monday, May 12th @ 7:05pm as the P-Nats take on the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. I’ll be wearing an NQ shirt so if you are there and you see it, say hi. There is no reason not to come out. It’s Dollar Ticket Night. Tickets are a dollar.

BLING!

Lastings Milledge in centerfield, originally uploaded by Capitolshots.

It’s sad to say that Bush League play has resumed for the Washington Nationals. Some absolutely horrid play and mistakes have been made the past two games against the Astros. Just as much blame can be placed on play calling as much as crappy play by the players.

The Nats fall to the Houston Astros tonight, 4-3. Another winnable game decided by one run which went to the other team thanks to lack of fundamentals.

Tonight also saw TOAST injure his finger and then get into a verbal barrage with two Houston fans who later got ejected from the park. I really can’t wait to hear what was said. It provided the most exciting part of the game and I am sure it was a performance worthy of the Academy.

Lastings Milledge still has a lot to learn and unfortunately, his lack of experience is costing the Nats in center field. Dropping balls, horrible angles and routes to fly balls, misreading fly balls, bad base running, no instincts, swings at garbage…rubs his butt to stinkpalm the ball on camera; a definite work in progress that is not as far along as the Nats would like to admit. He could of possibly saved the scoring run from coming into tonight, debatable, but trying is better than just letting it happen.

Manny Acta going with Jesus Colome pitching instead of Jon Rauch during the 9th was also a bad call. Acta really has been making questionable calls over the past few weeks and has remained calmer than a Hindu Cow when they blow up in his face. It’s like going off on your spouse and when they reply they give you that “soft, mature, stable” voice which only pisses you off further.

Bad game against a bad team in a bad park. We should be beating the Astros, but we are not.

Instead we are nightly on a blog complaining about it and watching Lastings Milledge rub his butt through his pants.

My life is complete.

Every other week or so, Washington Post Nats beat writer Barry Svrluga has an online chat with fans and Internet surfers about the state of the Washington Nationals and tries his best to answer questions. Sometimes you get valuable inside information, sometimes you get the same old questions answered in the same old way, and sometimes you get things like Barry’s obsession with Panera Bread or Nick Johnson’s socks. Overall, it is an interesting experience and if you ask enough questions, he’ll usually answer at least one. This all takes place on the Nationals Journal blog.

Today, the NQ was fortunate enough to have two answered. These questions go hand in hand with what we posted on Matt Chico and his posse. So let’s get some insight from Barry. Keep in mind, the NQ headquarters is located in Wilmington, NC and it is labeled as such:

Wilmington, N.C.: Jason Bergmann seems to have started to pitch pretty well down in Columbus. Any word on what he has been working on or any adjustments he has been making?

Bergmann has always been inconsistent so even though he was IL Pitcher of the Week and has pitched some pretty good innings, its hard to get excited about the guy anymore.

Barry Svrluga: Adjustments for Bergmann are not physical. They are mental. He must trust his stuff, because it is good enough to work in the majors. Bergmann can be his own worst enemy sometimes when he starts overthinking. If he doesn’t do that, he’s a major league pitcher.

I gotta agree with Barry on this one. Bergmann’s problems are mental and I think that is worse than having the problems be physical– unless the physical problem is having another arm growing out of your forehead. If Bergmann screws his head back on straight, he will be back up. If not, we move on. His destiny is in his own hands or mind or where ever.

Wilmington, N.C.: Collin Balester: MLB ready or not?

Barry Svrluga: He is 2-2 with a 4.13 ERA. I simply haven’t seen him pitch enough live to know, but the Nationals remain excited about him. They say his velocity is up to 94 this year. But I believe they don’t want to rush him. When he comes up, they’d like it to be for good.

I confess: Nats fans have me excited about this kid. But like Barry, I haven’t seen him throw down although a lot of reports coming out of the minors say he is the real deal. If Barry is correct, that means we will have to wait a little longer for Balester’s MLB debut. Which means if Chico goes down, we’ll have to settle on the likes of Bergmann or even Mike O’Connor filling the hole.

That’s sort of like someone plugging up a crack in the Hoover Dam with their finger.

But weirder things have happened.

UPDATE: O’Connor moved to rotation, Chico to bullpen. Damn, we are good!

Luis Ayala, originally uploaded by angela n..

The Nationals dropped a tough one to the Houston Astros tonight 6-5 in Houston. If you don’t know where that is, and most don’t, it’s somewhere in the country of Texas.

One could possibly blame the efforts of Shawn Hill who gave up three earned runs and walked four in only 5.1 innings of work. Not horrible, but not good either. Then one might blame Austin Kearns who dove for a ball and missed therefore allowing a Carlos Lee go-ahead two run double. There is even rumblings on the message boards that Manny Acta was too soft, the umps made horrid calls all night and got away with it, and the Ghost of the Hopefully-Not-Passing-Anytime-Soon Frank Robinson has possessed Manny Acta.

But I vote for none of those things although that last one is tempting because of how absolutely weird that would be. My vote goes to: we got jinxed by Gene Duffey.

Who is Gene Duffey? I’m not sure but apparently he (or she, Gene tends to work for both sexes) is “Special to MLB.com” and wrote a positive puff piece on Luis Ayala and how he has returned to “vintage form” like he was a pair of bell bottoms or a smoker jacket you find in a thrift store.

Boy, Ayala surely made the “It” known as Gene Duffey eat those words tonight as he blew it and gave up that double to Carlos Lee. Someone from the MLB finally gives press to a Nats player and it has to be tonight and it has to be Luis Ayala.

Thanks, Duffey. Thanks for having something nice to say. Next time I see an article by you about a Nats player pop up I don’t know if I should read your article or go break a mirror.

Of course, the Nats gaining and losing the lead four times during the game might also have something to do with it, but it’s more fun to single out a scapegoat and stone them to death with blog words like “hex” and “flying saucer.”

What the hell was that last posting all about? Wow, that was a trip. I mean really…the staff is going in for a round of the Headcrusher tonight for that.

It is no secret that currently the worst starter on the Nats is southpaw Matt Chico. He is 0-5 with a 6.87 ERA and has had a troubling last couple of games. This has caused some to question his abilities and for some to call for him to be sent down to the minors to get things worked out. However, recently several coaches and players have come out of the woodwork and supported Chico during his trying time. Manny Acta, Randy St. Claire, and Shawn Hill all have voiced patience about Chico and given him words of encouragement.

And they make up “The Matt Chico Posse.”

Haze, induct, and add pitcher Tim Redding to that fraternity. Nationals.com:

“I think he has earned his stripes from last year, being a Double-A prospect,” Redding said. “He never threw above Double-A, and he comes right to The Show. He leads the team in innings. I don’t think he is throwing all that poorly this year. I’m trying to reiterate to him that he doesn’t have to go out there and prove anything. He doesn’t need to go out there and do better than John Lannan or throw better than Odalis Perez. He needs to go out there and throw like Matt Chico.

“He should have the knowledge and the confidence that he had last year. He can do it again. He is working hard, he is a battler and he’s a grinder. He is always trying to get better. He is working hard between starts.”

You might as well add the NQ to the Chico Posse roster. We are down. We are cool with our man Chico. Nothing to be ashamed of there. He is a good pitcher who has some issues to work out. We would love for him to work out of his funk at the major league level, but we also have no problem with the idea of sending him down to the minors for a little seasoning. The kid is 25 years old and was thrown prematurely into a MLB rotation. He has worked wonders without that maturing process most snot-nosed kids get in the minors. Now it looks like it might be coming back to hurt him a bit. We have his back, but who do you send up to replace him?

Jason Bergmann? Ha. That guy has had three seasons to get himself pulled together and it just isn’t working. People are wowed by his recent performances in Columbus, but we need to remember he got nailed in Columbus as well. Same old, up and down Bergmann. Don’t let him winning the IL Pitcher of the Week fool you either. It is the same old Jason Bergmann: undependable, inconsistent.

Hot shot prospect Collin Balester has been mentioned a bunch, but the jury is still out on if he can handle the MLB life. You know, big money, big prizes, thin women, and tossing a ball around for a few innings. Slavery, I am telling you.

For now, it looks like Chico is going to be staying whether fans are down with his crew or not. So next time you see Chico at a game, if your down and know what’s the word, throw up the Chico Posse hand sign and represent.

Fo shizzle.

And now for something completely different…

Commentary between a Bob Walk Bobblehead and a Dmitri Young Bobblehead about the Nats/Pirates series and the Nats upcoming series against the Houston Astros:

Bob Walk: Hey, thanks to the NQ for having us. I am Robert Vernon Walk, you can call me Bob. I was a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 90s.

PimpMeat69: Hey, Hey, I’m Dmitri Young! I hit ball with stick.

Bob Walk: Hey, Young. Good to see you. So, how about that last series between the Bucs and Nats?

PimpMeat69: I wouldn’t know anything bout it. I wasn’t there.

Bob Walk: Yeah, I hear your having back problems. How is that coming along?

PimpMeat69: Man, I jabba-flabba-doo. Then this wooman come and touch me in da shaft and I feel fine in Florida.

Bob Walk: Ha, ha, you sound like you need to lay off the Energy Drinks, Dmitri. But I thought the series was a good one, a good battle between two young and evenly matched teams. It could of gone either way.

PimpMeat69: Like a door.

Bob Walk: Uh, yeah. So now the Nats go to Houston to play the Astros. Both teams are going hot. What do you think the Nats are going to have to do to cool off the Stros?

PimpMeat69: My smile is worth 20 more wins!

Bob Walk: What?

PimpMeat69: Why yo head bobbin’ white mullet boy?

Bob Walk: Young, I don’t think that is proper….

PimpMeat69: This is why I Comeback Player of Forever….

Bob Walk: Oh Jesus, Dmitri, that is disgusting. Put that away!

PimpMeat69: Sweet Sardines in Hot Sauce!

Bob Walk: Okay, that’s it. This is over. I can’t believe I got talked into this.

PimpMeat69: Where you going?

Bob Walk: You are a disgusting man.

PimpMeat69: Come here. Watch the bobble of my belly! ALMOND JOY!

*The NQ would like to thank both Bob Walk Bobblehead and Dmitri Young Bobblehead for their valuable insight into the game.

I’ll tell you why the rum is gone: it is because the Nats drank it all.

The Nats bucked the Bucs 5-2 at Nationals Park on Sunday. This completes the team’s longest homestand of the season where they went 8-3 and were able to all but rebound from a nine game losing streak earlier in the season. Currently the boys in red are 14-18. They should be enjoying a little celebration.

Tuesday the Nats are in Houston playing the Astros. With liquor and luck, they should be able to take advantage of the Astros and gain more ground in the standings.

I really don’t have much to say so I decided to post a picture of pretty fireworks to take your attention away from the lack of writing.

Ha, Ha, like moths to an electric bug zapper hanging outside a double wide, it always works!

Ryan Zimmerman Scores, originally uploaded by Scott Ableman.

Unfortunately, I don’t mean five RBIs.

ESPN.com reports that Nats third baseman Ryan Zimmerman requested a day off from work today. If Manny Acta does not use him in a pinch hit or pinch run situation during today’s game against the Pirates, then Zimmerman’s 205 game streak dating to Sept. 19, 2006 comes to an end which would be the second longest currently in the MLB behind Jeff Francoeur who sits at 355.

Zimmerman denies that this day off has anything to do with his less than stellar performance at the plate this past month.

Streak, sheik, meek, whatever. The only streak anyone should be concerned about right now is the ones in your pants. That would mean you better go change into a fresh pair.

This is no big deal, it’s not like he is near that Ripken guy’s record or anything. It’s not like he on the cusp of retirement. He has plenty of career left to worry about things such as streaks and all that nonsense.

Let him sit in the locker room with a margarita listening to Jimmy Buffet. Maybe then he’ll get a little tipsy and “streak” across the field for all those concerned about it.

Me and Mets Catcher Paul Lo Duca, originally uploaded by Julie Rubes.

TOAST is back in the Nationals line-up and he had one hit and one walk during today’s game against the Pirates. No one really cares because he isn’t kept around to play baseball, he is kept around because he is entertaining and no one gives a more interesting interview.

Now, as most of you know, Captain Red Ass has a thing for women and somehow this guy just keeps getting them. Not just any women either, I’m talking college girls and Playboy Bunnies. This guy? Yeah, I know. I’m thinking the same exact thing.

How does he do it? Well, over on the Nationals Journal, TOAST talked about his second passion, horse racing, and now I completely understand how he gets all these chicks when he says things like:

“I like Big Brown, Colonel John, Z Humor and Visionaire,” he said. “Those are my four horsees.”

Why?: “I think Big Brown is the most talented. I think the post position inexperience is going to hurt him. I think Col. John is an unknown, but I do like him. I think Z Humor will like an off track, and is the kind of horse that can hit the board. And I think Dennis of Cork is looking great.”

But you beat Dennis of Cork at the Illinois Derby?: “Yeah, he ran fifth there. But he looked good as a 2-year-old, and he hadn’t run in a while. So you can excuse that.”

Lo Duca also has an emotional pull for Gayego because his good buddy Mike Smith is the jockey there.”

Dennis of Cork? Gayego? Emotional pull for a horse? A grown man who says, “horsees?”

I sense that at least 10 pairs of panties dropped to their ankles upon reading this post.

How does he do it?!

At the Nationals Inquisition, it is all about the Nationals. And you. Definitely about me too.

We are always happy to report about fan experiences and will do our best between posts about Nick Johnson’s hair and the latest TOAST rant to accommodate that experience. And here, we have another one. This one comes from BucNat and Natty-Gramps who took in the Nationals/Pirates game on May 1st when the Nats won 3-2.

A little info on these gentlemen: BucNat is a long time Pirate fan, but loves all of baseball. He is also well known for his accomplishments, such as he sired DangerNat. Natty-Gramps is a Buc fan too, but he throws down and supports the Nats every chance he gets. He is Grandfather to DangerNat and is all powerful.

Natty-Gramps donated a lot of pictures to this blog, a Dmitri Young bobblehead, and this e-mail describing his first experience at Nationals Park:

Your Dad and I really enjoyed ourselves last night. The ballpark is outstanding. There doesn’t appear to be a bad seat (or standing room area) in the park. The scoreboard was working fine after (I hear) they worked out the kinks from the earlier part of the season. Lots of color on the scoreboard and for us seniors, the numbers and statistics were large and easy to see. Seats are padded and comfortable and the cup holders prevented a lot of spills. Quite a contrast to RFK where you have to put the drinks under the seats.

We were on the club level which you can see in the pictures is quite comfortable. There were flat screen TV’s all over the place. So no matter where you were in the club area, you could see what was happening on the field. Some of the TV’s had the Penguins/Rangers game on so people could see what was happening in the hockey playoffs.

All the attendants were quite friendly, I guess, owing to the newness of the experience. I hope they stay that way. At the club level, there weren’t any long lines at the food stations. I couldn’t believe the variety of foods and restaurants. Unfortunately, I’m watching my calories, so I couldn’t try all of them. However, when your Dad went to get food, I told him to get me a chili dog if he could find the station that sells them. He couldn’t, so he got me a regular hot dog. Then, Laurie and Ed said that I had to try the chili dog because they are delicious. So, about the 6th inning, I went out to take some pictures for you and I got a chili dog (of which, you have the picture). Ed was right. You can’t pass up the chili dogs from Ben’s Chili. It has a little spicy kick to it.

Our experience with taking the metro also was relatively pleasant. We caught the blue line at the Franconia-Springfield station and changed to the green line at L’Enfant Plaza to the Navy Yard station. From there it’s only about 100 yards to the ball park. We only had to stand on the green line.

Crowds getting into the station after the game were shoulder to shoulder for about a block but the hoard moved well. Once into the station it spread out. The only hitch (if you want to call it a hitch) was we had to wait for 18 minutes for the blue line at L’Enfant Plaza. It seems that there is more of a demand for the orange and yellow lines, so there were more of those trains. The saving grace was that we didn’t have to stand on the blue line both going to and leaving the park.

We noticed that a lot of people took the blue line to King Street and transferred to the yellow line. That eliminated the blue line loop around Arlington Cemetery and Rosslyn. It probably saved some time, but you had to transfer twice and on the way home it was probably standing room only on the yellow and orange lines. Metro does a great job in giving directions and handling the crowds. There were a lot of attendants all over the stations. They too, were friendly and very helpful.

As for the game, it wasn’t that exciting because there were very few hits and not a lot of base runners. It was a fast game. It was over in 2 hours, 4 minutes. It took me longer to get home that it took them to play the game.

Needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

An excellent, in depth report that rivals even my own. This blog has been in the family since the Civil War and passed down generation to generation. I shall not shame the family and will continue the quality reporting. BucNat also sent me some pictures and an e-mail:

Great Stadium. I really enjoyed the game despite the outcome.

Our family is full of John Updikes.

Thanks to you both for your contributions. I also wanted to give a shout out to Ed and Laurie Shoemaker [pictured and mentioned] who provided tickets to those two blokes. They are big Nationals supporters, and most importantly, I am told are big fans of the NQ. So much so, I see Ed is sporting one of the NQ buttons we pass out to people when we are in town. Fantastic. I opened that photo up and I felt like I just opened a Christmas present. Thanks guys!

Damn, this blog is cool. I wish I was featured on a blog.