[MrEndshiftresign]

GM Log - 8/1/10

51-53, .490, 16 GB

Just came back from the Philippines, took a two-week vacation and let Riggleman run things while I'm gone. To be honest, I just wanted to let the heat die down after the whole Harper/Flores debacle, not to mention all those fans pissed off because I traded for the likes of Gary Sheffield and Russ Branyan, and refuse to call Stephen Strasburg up to the majors. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a very veteran-oriented guy, and I'd rather cast my lot with someone who's spent some time in the majors rather than some unproven talent. Ryan, Ian and Jesus, when he was still with the team, should consider themselves lucky. Ryan's our best player and regardless of age, he should be starting. I would've wanted Adam Kennedy to start, but he wanted out, so I granted him his wish, therefore Ian's starting. Pudge was in a bad slump, so I thought having Jesus at catcher could shake things up, and it did. But eventually, I had to give him up because we needed pitching.

Anyway, time to look at my lineup. I greeted Jim quite warmly upon returning to the office. "Hi, Jim! How's everything been going when I was gone?", I said. "Oh, you'll be glad to know that I made some trades I know you'll like. Lots of them." Jim seemed ecstatic to announce the trades he had approved in my absence.

I totally hit the roof when I found out what he just did. He had traded away Pudge and Ryan in separate deals. He put Gary Sheffield, whom I acquired for two minor league pitchers, on the bench. He had tried to soothe me by saying he got two solid vets in the whirlwind of trades he had executed, but I refused to sit still. How could he send Ryan to the Angels? HOW COULD HE?!?!? I told him to trade for more vets, but he traded the wrong youngster off. And I wanted Pudge to finish his career with the Nats.

And Jim let me down by INSISTING that he had to call Stephen up to the majors. "But he throws that fastball at a hundred plus," insisted Jim while I was dressing him down. "I don't give a (profanity) if he throws TWO HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR, when I say he's not ready, I say HE IS NOT READY," I replied angrily.

Again, the operative word is "Oh, well." Let's take a look at the drastically-revamped Washington Nationals:

CF - Nyjer Morgan (30)
SS - Cristian Guzman (32)
C - Mike Napoli (28) - AI's trade
LF - Adam Dunn (30)
RF - Josh Willingham (31)
3B - Casey Blake (36) - AI's trade
2B - Ian Desmond (24)
1B - Russ Branyan (34) - my trade
Utility OF - Gary Sheffield (41) - my trade, Hideki Matsui (36) - AI's trade
Utility IF - Pete Orr (31)

SP1 - Justin Masterson (25) - my trade
SP2 - Chien-Ming Wang (30)
SP3 - John Lannan (25)
SP4 - Scott Olsen (26)
SP5 - Livan Hernandez (35)
Spot starter - Ramon Ortiz (37) - AI's trade
Middle relievers - Jason Bergmann (28), Garrett Mock (27), B.J. Ryan (34), Tyler Walker (34)
Closer - Kerry Wood (32) - my trade

Key players on DL - Jason Marquis (31)

(NOTE - Following the whole Bryce Harper thing, I decided to go the George Allen route and see where it takes me...so I'm deliberately trading away a lot of youngsters for oldsters. Unfortunately, I went on vacation mode to speed things up, and the damn AI traded Ryan Zimmerman, who, together with Stephen Strasburg, is probably the only youngster I won't trade away.)