Nats get blown out, O'Connor embarresed

Well that didn’t work. That’s the thought currently going through Jim Bowden, Manny Acta, and yes even Mike O’Connor’s head right now. O’Connor made his first major league start since 2006 and was not able to shut up his critics who had only been defended by the fact idea he would be a better starter then a reliever. Usually I would just blame a bad outing on just having an off day, but O’Connor looked awful and completely outmatched. I’d give him one more shot and if he proves he doesn’t have major leagues stuff demote him or cut him and promote Bergman back to the bigs.

Containing Hanley Part 2

Hanley Ramirez, new contract in hand, was once again a major catalyst for the Marlins offense. In all his at bats that mattered (while the game was still a game) he did something important to produce runs for the Fish. Ramirez finished 1-2 with 2 walks and scored 2 runs. Getting on base 4/5 times is huge for a guy like Hanley who is one of the fastest guys in the majors.

Ramirez in the series: 2/5, 4 R, 3 BB, 1K,

Florida Marlins…a place for second chances

We spoke earlier this year about Wes Helms getting a second chance in Florida after the Phillies swallowed his salary and traded him to the Marlins for only one dollar. He’s not the only one finding new life in the sunshine state however, as former superstar Luis Gonzalez is regaining his youth as the oldest member of the young marlins.

Gonzalez got his start in Tampa, not with the Rays, but in high school graduating from Thomas Jefferson High in 1985. After a few years at Southern Alabama he was drafted in the fourth round by the Houston Astros.
It took Gonzalez longer then he would have liked to get to the majors. He kicked around for 5 years in the Houston system until he finally broke into the bigs in 1990. much of his career through the 1990’s was disappointing. He was a smaller corner outfielder who could hit for average but not much power. He bounced around from the Astros to the Cubs and to Detroit. Finally in 1999 though he found his break with the expansion Diamondbacks. From 1999-2003 Gonzalez put up all star level numbers and stapled himself as one of the best outfielders in baseball. In 1999 he led the National league in hits while batting .336 and driving in over 100 runs for the first time in his career. He managed to eclipse this performance the next two years by spiking his home run totals to 31 and 57 respectively.
However as Gonzo got older his stats declined. The Diamondbacks didn’t want him anymore, so he had one unsuccessful season with the Dodgers before being released again. Florida decided to give him one last chance in 2008 and so far the farewell tour has been a good experience for the grizzled vet. He has had a chance to pass his experience down onto a very young team that is coming into its own, and has hit pretty well too, batting .286 with three bombs this year.

Up next in the second chance marlins series: Matt Treanor
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GUZMAN WATCH

This is going to be a new addition to the Nats blog. Guzman is slow, poor in the field, and incredibly overrated. His contract expires at the end of this season and it would just be plain foolish to resign him. So I’m officially starting the rallying cry to ship him out so we can get something for him at the break as opposed to nothing at the end of the season. Some team will want a .300 hitting short stop at the break, even if its an empty .300. So here goes:

Well on a night where the Nationals only had 3 hits Guzman was able to get himself on the board and keep his draft stock up! He also led the Nats in runners left on base with three and his batting average is still at .308. Come on Boston…come on Cleveland…you know you want a piece.