Getting Rid of Some Gnats

Jim Bowden was obviously, in addition to being a pretty substandard person (compared the union to Al Queda, drunk driving, skimming off bonus money to players), a terrible general manager. He did however hoard some good players, the problem seems to be they all play the same position, better yet they're all easily replaceable positions, first base and corner outfield. It's safe to say that the Nats roster is a mess then. Today Buster Olney talked about the new Nationals management cleaning up that mess.

The Nationals are in no business to compete, and have a pretty horrid farm system, yet they traded infielder Emilio Bonifacio for Scott Olsen and Josh Willingham. Ok Olson can pitch, and Willingham can play the outfield right? Well that's kind of hard when you have Elijah Dukes, Lastings Millege, Willie Harris, Willy Mo Pena, Ryan Langerhans and Austin Kearns out there. Ok well he can play 1b right? Wrong. In addition to paying 1bs Nick Johnson and Dimitri Young, they decided to add on another 1b, Adam Dunn.

These guys aren't getting paid league minimum either. Dunn-$8m, Kearns- $8m, Johnson-$5.5m, Young-$5m, Willingham-$2.95m, Willy Mo Pena-$2m and Harris-$1.5m. That's $32.95m on 6 1b/Of that can't field and aren't models of good heatlh, and a decent utility guy. The Marlins payroll is less than 6 Nationals players, only one of which, Dunn, would get regular playing time on a good team.

Lastings Millege and Elijah Dukes were good cheap pickups by Bowden. Both have tons of potential and need to play everday. Adam Dunn wasn't signed for $8m so he can sit on the bench, he's gonna start in LF or 1b. Unless they want to stump the growth of Dukes and Millege (which would be the dumbest thing in the world as those 2 players basically are the the only bright spots of the Nationals) that means the Nationals have ONE starting spot, either 1b or LF, for SEVEN players. That's basically a $25m 1b that they are paying. But instead of having it be an actual good player like Mark Teixeira, it's a combo of Nick Johnson, Josh Willingham, Dimitri Young, Austin Kearns, Willie Harris...ugh yuck.

This is just atrocious. The worst team in the league shouldn't have the best and most expensive bench, but that is basically what the Nationals have here. These guys aren't likely to be moveable either, no team is eagerly waiting for Dimitri Young to get on the trading block. If they were bad but saving money that'd be one thing, but they're wasting a hefty amount of money on a team that doesn't look to be good in the near future. I hope the distant future looks better, maybe with this guy.