Excellent night

Kudos to John Lannan for an excellent start tonight. While he didn't get the no-hittter, shutout or complete game, he still pitched 8+ innings of solid ball, holding a deadly lineup (in a deadly ballpark) to 5 baserunners. I don't want to jinx him or anything, but Lannan is showing signs of being more than just a future #3 pitcher.

Generally speaking, I am not a huge fan of Manny Acta's in-game management, but he did a good job tonight. I will never advocate starting Corey Patterson at all (don't even get me started...Endy Chavez has a better eye), but if he does, he is to be the CF and Elijah Dukes is to be the RF. Manny made the right move starting Lannan in the 9th and the right move taking him out when he did.

Well done, boys. Play tomorrow like you did tonight and Manny may survive for a while longer.

Holder signs, Patterson up, Acta out?

The overwhelming negativity of the rest of this post has nothing to do with the Nats signing their 3rd round pick, Georgia RHSP Trevor Holder (for $200k, I might add...a 60% discount over what similar picks got last year). It starts with the sad story of Josh Willingham losing his younger brother to a car accident. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Willingham family. Willingham is to be replaced by Corey Patterson while Josh on the bereavement list. Patterson is a terrible, awful, no-good baseball player and I am very upset the club is wasting a 40-man spot on him (cleared by moving Terrell Young to the 60-day DL, something they are apparently reluctant to do with Da Meat Hook). Did I mention Patterson is the worst baseball player ever?

Ken Rosenthal is reporting that Manny's out as the manager and will be replaced by Jim Riggleman as soon as Monday. It's truthiness has yet to be confirmed, but it wouldn't be a huge surprise. Acta does not stick up for his players, rarely goes out to argue (or even ask for an explanation by the umpire) and is a poor in-game manager. His encouragement is valuable, but the Nats need a good manager rather than Matt Foley. Manny's a great guy and someone I would probably trust my nonexistant kids with (of course, a lot easier to say since I don't have any), but he's just not a Major League manager at this point, even after two and a half seasons.

The roster, it is a changin'

As you've probably seen already, the Nats have made a plethora of moves and announcements today:

Dmitri officially has been placed on the 40-man roster, taking Wily Mo Pena's spot, as he was put on irrevocable waivers. [Nationals Journal]

Both Shairon Martis and Jordan Zimmermann will be parts of the ML rotation. Martis will start the year as #4 and Zimmermann will start the year in AAA and be called up when the #5 starter is needed.

Javier Valentin refused his assignment to AAA and became a free agent.

Jose Castillo and Corey Patterson were sent to AAA (thank God!!).

Collin Balester also was sent to AAA. [Nationals Journal]

What does this all mean? It means we are going in the right direction. We are going into Opening Day with the best pitchers we have in the rotation and the best position players at bat and in the field. Cutting deadweights like Wily Mo Pena is something Bowden was way too hesitant to do. Glad to see Rizzo's got the guts to do it.

ZOMG WE GOT HIM!!!

COREY PATTERSON IS A NATIONAL!!!!!!!! Ok, that was unneccesary. JORGE "SAMMY AIN'T GOT NOTHIN' ON ME" SOSA IS A NATIONAL!!!!! Ouch, the awful signings keep on coming. At least these are no-risk minor league signings. (EDIT-MLBTR says Sosa will earn $850k and Patterson will earn $800k. Goodness gracious, will somebody give me the dang GM job? At least I wouldn't go around signing awful players to contracts more than the league minimum).

And it looks like we lost out on the main prize of the offseason, Mark Teixeira. It will either be Nicky J/Da Meat Hook/Brad Eldred (can I just call him Breldred?) or Adam Dunn at 1B. It's ok, I'd rather have O-Dog at 2B and Adam Dunn than just Tex.

ANOTHER EDIT-the Nats signed 3 other guys to minor league deals: 

IF Jose Castillo

LHP-Gustavo Chacin

C-Gustavo Molina

And I'll put up Sosa/Patterson's BR pages too:

RHP Jorge Sosa

CF Corey Patterson

Initial thoughts: All are meh. Chacin, Sosa and Patterson have all had exactly 1 standout season (and by standout I mean OPS+ or ERA+ above 100....so really just 1 "above average" season).