Posted by Cheryl Nichols

Photos of the 2011 Nationals Uniforms and Fashion Show can be found here.

Tyler Clippard, Ian Desmond, Drew Storen and Jordan Zimmermann are signing autographs at the Nationals Park Team Store today, Thursday, November 11. Autograph session will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and doors open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

o Ian Desmond 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
o Tyler Clippard 12:10 p.m. to 12:40 p.m.
o Drew Storen 12:50 p.m. to 1:20 p.m.
o Jordan Zimmermann 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m

Find out how to get the new jerseys here.

New Nationals Primary Logo

Posted by Cheryl:

While fans wait on word about Adam Dunn, the Washington Nationals made a couple of decisions this week. 

Right handed reliever Tyler Walker has been unconditionally released.  Tyler went on the DL in June and then had season-ending surgery on his shoulder.  Walker went 1-0 with a 3.57 ERA in 35.1 innings with eight walks and 30 Ks.

The Nationals declined a club option for 2011 on 2B Adam Kennedy.  Kennedy had 342 at bats with a .275 AVG, 85 hits, 3 home runs, 31 RBIs, 37 walks and 44 strikeouts. 

The Nationals today secured outright waivers on LHP Scott Olsen and he elected to become a free agent.

The Nationals also secured outright waivers on LHP Jesse English. English was outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse, although he became a minor-league free agent at 5 pm today.

Photos 2010 © Cheryl Nichols Photography/

Nats News Network. All Rights Reserved.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT DUNN?

I wrote yesterday about how the Nats are on the fence with free agent first baseman Adam Dunn and how he can start entertaining offers from any club after midnight Saturday night. 

Let me say this:  I think the Nats have no intention of signing Adam Dunn, unless he fails to garner a four-year offer elsewhere and he lands in their laps much as he did two years ago, hat in hand.  If they did, he'd already be under contract and NatsTown could be worried about something else right now.  But let me add:  If Dunn really wanted to stay in D.C. as he has proclaimed all along, he could be signed already as well.

This was inevitable.  Dunn's camp knows this is his last chance to lock up a big money, mulit-year contract.  There was no way they weren't going to free agency once they learned (very early on this year) that the Nats would not go to four years under any scenario. 

And once Stephen Strasburg got hurt, the Nats' need to invest heavily in players that could be part of a contending team in 2011 went right down the drain.  Without Strasburg, the Nationals simply need too many players to compete, especially at starting pitcher.

If Strasburg had finished last season healthy, the team could have probably convinced themselves that they just needed to plug in a bona fide Major League starter in right field (coughJaysonWerthcough) and find a platoon partner for Nyjer Morgan in center (hell-o Cody Ross) and they could field a .500 team in 2011 and really compete in 2012.

Now?  They'll be patching together a pitching staff all season long, just like every year since they arrived in 2005.  It would be financially foolish to throw money at a select one or two free agents knowing that your team isn't going to compete anyway.  They'd be better off looking for younger, cheaper talent that can grow with the the rest of the core players in the franchise.

Because with the state of the team right now, the Nats would have to re-sign Dunn, AND sign Cliff Lee and Jayson Werth just to have that shot at being a .500 team in 2011.  Then, next off-season they'll have to pay or replace Josh Willingham and Nyjer Morgan and probably bring in another pitcher to truly be a contending team.

So watch this off-season as the Nats bring in another innings-eating starting pitcher and Carlos Pena (or Aubrey Huff) to play first base.  Maybe they'll upgrade a couple spots on the bench.  But if they don't spend the money it would take to re-sign Dunn in the first place and pocket it instead, don't say I didn't warn you.

NEW THIRD BASE COACH HIRED

The Nats brought in Bo Porter, fromerly Arizona Diamondbacks bench coach, as their new third base coach, replacing Pat Listach at the position.  Listach left the Nats to take the bench coach job with the Chicago Cubs.

Porter was a candidate for at least one managerial position this off-season.  He has extensive experience as a third base coach, having manned the position with the Florida Marlins and the D-backs before graduating to the bench last season after their mangerial shake-up.

Porter also will coach the outfielders and base runners, and has worked with Josh Willingham when both were with the Marlins.

"Bo was at the top of the list of the people that I had in mind," Riggleman told The Washington Post's Nationals Insider. "Definitely, I think it's a great hire."

BUILDING A WINNER?

We saw with the recently concluded World Series how the San Francisco Giants caught lightning in a bottle and won on the strength of three really terrific arms (Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner), a young phenom  (Buster Posey) and a few veterans contributing at the right time.  Don't think all of baseball didn't see it and want to emulate their "formula", especially the Nationals.

Bottom line though is the Giants were extremely fortunate that the cast of postion players they surrounded their young and extremely talented pitching staff with came through when needed, because other than Posey, there probably isn't a single hitter on the Giants you'd take over their counterpart on the Nationals.  And that's pretty damning.

Congratulations to them, of course.  They have the hardware and no one can take their names off this year's trophy.  But I'll be shocked if the Giants are much better than .500 next season, even with that great pitching.

SPRING TRAINING SCHEDULE SET

The Washington Nationals released their 2011 spring training schedule yesterday, some four weeks earlier than last year. Awesome, gives more time to plan for our annual trek for Florida for springtime baseball. Looking at the list of opponents though, it's hard to not to lament the Dodgers and Orioles exodus from Florida's east coast, with L.A. moving to Arizona and the O's off to Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast.

The Nats have 30 spring training games scheduled this season, against just seven teams. Worse, three of the seven are division opponents (New York Mets (seven games), Atlanta Braves (four games) and Florida (soon to be Miami) Marlins (four games)). As if it isn't bad enough we nave to sit though 19 Marlins games a year?

Adam Dunn hitting his 300th career home run at Nats Park in 2009.
 (Cheryl Nichols/Nats News Network)

With the conclusion of the World Series, several Nationals filed for free agency late last night according to accounts.  They naturally include Adam Dunn, the powerful but defensively challenged first baseman, along with utilityman Willie Harris, outfielder Kevin Mench and relief pitcher Miguel Batista.  Adam Kennedy can file once the Nats decline his $2 million option for 2011.

Dunn obviously is the big name there, and his fortunes are tied up in his prodigious bat.  The Nats have five days to negotiate with him exclusively before he can start fielding offers from around baseball.  His case is going to be very interesting to watch, as the Nats were really the only team that gave him a credible offer the last time he was a free agent. 

His camp fully expects to receive four-year offers to counter the two- or three-year deals the Nats might have discussed with him.  There are several teams rumored to be in the mix, including the Chicago Cubs, the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox, where the Nats almost traded him last summer.  But it remains to be seen if another National League team will be willing to go that long on a contract considering Dunn's defensive deficiencies.

Dunn hit .260/.356/.536 in 2010 with 38 home runs and 103 RBIs.  It was his seventh consecutive season with at least 38 home runs.  However, 2010 also marked his lowest OBP season in any season he's qualified for the batting title and he drastically wore down as the season went along, hitting .228/.342/.545 in August and .227/.333/.432 in Sept./Oct. with just five home runs the last five weeks of the season.

GM Mike Rizzo must decide how much -- and for how long -- Dunn might be worth to the Nationals.  Should Dunn depart, it would leave a gaping hole in the batting order without any serious in-house candidates for replacement.  Looking at available free agents in the market, there really aren't any players of Dunn's offensive caliber either.

But is locking up $15 million per year for three or four years on one player a luxury the Nationals can afford?  With so many places to upgrade on the roster, and with the core of this team's talent still under the age of 26, should the Nats be tying up long-term money on a player that might not be around by the time their core reaches their peak? 

If Rizzo thinks Dunn can produce at or near his historic levels, and maintain those levels into his mid-late 30's, he should wrap him up and pencil in their cleanup hitter.  But it's a big call to have to make, especially with a player that provides negative value on defense.

Over at MASN.com last week, Ben Goessling had some interesting ideas about improving Major League Baseball's playofffs and bettering the game as a whole. You should definitely check out his thoughts and the comments to his post in conjunction with this column.

Ben's inspiration for his post was the fact that the cruddy Monday Night Football game between Tennessee and Jacksonville outdrew the Cliff Lee playoff masterpiece.

And yesterday, a radio host in San Diego threw out a little nugget about realignment in Major League Baseball.  I haven't seen or heard this anywhere else, nor has anyone I've been able to talk to.  But it's still interesting to think about.

Man, I love this debate.

I wrote my college senior thesis (remember, that was in 1989) for my sport and society class on expansion, relocation and the business of baseball. The two things I enjoy most in life are baseball and telling people how they should do things. It's the perfect combination.

So since the dialogue has been started, here are my ideas for improving baseball and restoring its prominence on America's sporting landscape.

Are all these ideas the best in the world? Maybe not. Too much of baseball is run by dollar signs and not common sense. The rest is run by traditionalists and close-minded thinkers. But it would be a much more fair place to watch baseball if these ideas were adopted.

_________________________________________

1) Eliminate divisions and return to the two-league format. Divisions were created because of expensive travel costs and the need to gin up rivalries for commerce. Neither is a factor anymore.

There are time-honored traditional rivalries that will withstand the elimination of the division format, and if the rivals continue to play in the same league they'll still play those rivals -- only a few times less than they do now -- making those games that much more special.

We all know the unbalanced schedule is in place so that MLB can feature 19 Yankees-Red Sox games a season spread out over four networks all season long. Eliminating a couple of those series isn't going to do any damage. In fact, under my plan more teams will get a chance to play and host the two biggest revenue-drivers in the league.

Returning to the league format does a couple of beneficial things. First, it allows for balanced scheduling (which I'll address below). It's the only way of ensuring a regular season produces the best teams to go to the playoffs.

Also, we'll have to move an N.L. team (back) to the A.L. so that we have an equal number of teams in each league, which is necessary for playoff implications. It's not fair that a 14-team league gets the same number of playoff teams a 16 team league does.

Next, it mitigates the financial advantage that the teams with the largest payrolls have.

Right now, the Yankees and Red Sox get to play non-contenders Baltimore and Toronto 19 times a season; Philly gets to play the Nats that many times. By spreading the competition out and expanding the playoffs (see below), it gives the traditional cellar dwellars in divisions dominated by large-payroll teams more of an opportunity to compete, and allows us to find out if the Yankees and Red Sox (and Rays, for that matter) are really that good or are feasting on poorly run ballclubs unfairly based simply on geography.

In addition, teams in the N.L. Central have to fight it out with five other teams in their division, while the A.L. West only has three division competitors. It's just not set up fairly. Leveling the playing field, by creating more competition and lessening the impact of unbridaled spending, should be the primary goal in any discussion about bettering Major League Baseball.

2) Institute true balanced schedules. Now that we have an uneven number of teams in each league, we'll have to change the way interleague play is factored in. My idea: Play each team in your league (14 others) ten games for a total of 140 games. That leaves 22 games for interleague (Nats played 18 interleague games last season).

Play a three- and four-game series against a "Geographic Rival" (Yankees-Mets, Cubs-White Sox, Nats-O's, etc.) for seven games, which leaves 15 games (five three-games series) to spread out among teams in the other league in an every-third-year cyclical, similar to how it is now.

With an uneven number of teams in each league, we'll have to have an interleague series going on at all times. Outrageous, you say? Eh, I'm numb to it by now.

The schedule-makers will all have ulcers, but that's why they invented computers.

3) Expand the number of playoff teams. Now that we have two 15-team leagues, we can send six teams in each league to the playoffs. That number is still right in line with the other sports without cheesing off the traditionalists.

Well, except Joe Morgan. His head will explode.

The teams that finish first and second in each league get a bye, teams three through six play a best of three at the higher seeds' park the Tuesday-Thursday immediately after the season. Then start the second round on Saturday, giving the top two teams five days off after the regular season, conveniently skipping each starter just once, and giving the survivor of the three-game series a day (or two) off as well.

Then compact the second and third rounds with one off day for each series. That's all you get in the regular season generally.

Reducing the off-days that much further forces teams, especially in the League Championship Series, to use their full rotation, one of my big pet peeves about the current playoff format. Let's make the playoffs about which teams are better, not who has the best three starters.

To take a week off the regular season because of the expanded playoffs, mandate Sunday double-headers once a month.

4) Start World Series games no later than 7:00 pm eastern time. Unless you want the league to die a slow, horrible death since no one under the age of 16 can stay up late enough to watch the end of a World Series game now. Sorry West Coasters.

5) Either eliminate or adopt the DH in both leagues. I don't really care which, but it's silly that in this day and age half of the teams in the Majors play with different rules than the other. It also adds to the competitive fairness come World Series time.

6) Base World Series home field advantage on regular season record. Even a dummy knows this is a good idea.

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"Sometimes when the same person keeps giving the message, it starts to fall on deaf ears." -- Jim Riggleman, on his post-game meeting after a 6-5 loss to the Marlins on Sept. 11.

Photo by Cheryl Nichols/Nats News Network

In the grand scheme of things, does it matter?

The Washington Nationals officially announced yesterday that field manager Jim Riggleman would be retained for the 2011 season, fulfilling the final year of his two-year contract.  Basically, the Nats announced that they were not exercising their contractual option to buy out the second year of Riggleman's contract for a measly $100,000.

They are sticking with Riggs, at least to start next season.  There was no mention (nor even any whispers) of an extension, no organizational "vote of confidence" -- the press release didn't have a single quote in it at all.

Nothing.

Cheryl Nichols/Nats News Network

You know what else it didn't include?  Riggleman's record as a manager.

It mentions that he has managed parts of 11 Major League seasons, but no mention of his performance in those 11 seasons.

Let me lay it out for you:  In the past 100 years, no one has managed more games with a lower winning percentage than Nationals manager Jim Riggleman.  In 11 years, his winning percentage is .442.  How bad is that?  Based on a 162 game schedule, it's 71-91.

But how much does it really matter?

Nobody in their right mind thinks the Nats can contend next season.  There are still too many holes in the roster, not enough talent coming out of the minor leagues yet, not enough money from ownership to invest in multiple Major League players in positions of need.

Would a different manager be able to coax a few more wins out of the talent on hand next season?  Run differential said the Nats should have won 72 games last season instead of the 69 they ended up with.  Is Riggleman a three-win difference-maker?  Those types of things are very difficult to measure.

What we do know is that the Nats continue to be one of the worst defensive teams in the majors.  They are also one of the worst base running teams in the majors. 

And the team had discipline problems all season long, particularly from their center fielder, who started his melt-down with a glove-throwing incident turning a tough catch into an inside-the-park home run in June and ended with an eight game suspension for initiating contact with an unsuspecting catcher, inciting a brawl in Florida, and taunting fans on his way off the field WWE-style in September.

Cheryl Nichols/Nats News Network

Could some of Nyjer Morgan's antics been curbed early if Riggleman had disciplined him for the glove-spiking against the Orioles, as so many fans wished had happened?  Who knows?  But the Morgan drama was one that was allowed to linger all season long.  Do you think Tony LaRussa, who Riggleman respects so much, would have put up with that stuff?  Hardly.  He's running one of his best players out of town because he thinks he doesn't try hard enough.

Morgan once again led the league in caught stealing, yet Riggleman never put up a stop sign.  "That's Nyjer's game, I can't take that away from him," Riggs said after a loss to Florida when Morgan attempted to steal with two outs and the pitcher hitting behind him.

If the player has that little situational awareness, it is absolutely the manager's duty to make those decisions for him.

And what about the now-forgotten trip to the radio booth for Adam Dunn -- DURING a game?  Forget about potentially needing Dunn off the bench in the fourth inning or whatever it was.  Isn't it at least a little disrespectful to not even notify your manager that you're leaving the bench and riding up a public elevator during a game to talk to the opposing team's radio guy -- a conversation much more suited for around the batting cages during batting practice, than during the middle of a game?

Think Joe Torre would have let that fly?  Think if Matt Kemp left the bench to go say "hi" to Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, Torre wouldn't have benched Kemp for a month?

Cheryl Nichols/Nats News Network

How about the way Riggleman yanked Drew Storen around at the end of the season?  Complaints from starting pitchers about being lifted too early?  The constant tipping of the cap to opposing pitchers shutting down the vaunted Nationals offense?  The unnecessary double-swithcing, sacrificing and hit-and running?

If you want to look hard enough, there are things to quibble about with every manager; they all have their quirks.  Riggleman's stand out though because they feed into what are prolonged perceived problems with this organization:  poor fielding, poor base running and lack of accountability.

In the long run though, it really doesn't matter that much if Riggleman is manager for 2011.  They are a team that isn't going to compete for anything meaningful.  If the GM is the one that's ultimately in charge of young players getting playing time, there's no harm done.

But if the talent alone shows the progress that GM Mike Rizzo thinks it will, the team would do well to examine their options at the end of next season when Riggleman's contract expires.

Earlier this summer, GM Mike Rizzo defended his manager, saying he expected to retain Jim Riggleman as manager for next season.  But the Washington Nationals organization had failed to formalize it during the season. 

Today, they took that necessary step, issuing a press release announcing that Riggleman will indeed return to manage the Washington Nationals for 2011.  The entirety of the release is below:

The Washington Nationals today announced that field manager Jim Riggleman will return in 2011. Nationals Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement.

In 2010 under Riggleman, the Nationals increased their win total from 59 to 69. Washington’s 10-game improvement tied for the fourth-best in MLB this season and trailed only San Diego (+15), Cincinnati (+13) and Tampa Bay (+12).

Riggleman’s third season as Nationals skipper will be his 19th as a big league manager or coach, 17th in the National League. He has managed parts of 11 Major League seasons with Washington (2009-present), Seattle (2008), Chicago-NL (1995-99) and San Diego (1992-94).

The 57 year-old Riggleman was named the Nationals’ third field manager on Nov. 12, 2009. He first assumed the helm of the Nationals as interim manager on July 14, 2009.

Riggleman grew up in nearby Rockville, MD and is a graduate of Frostburg (MD) State University and Richard Montgomery (MD) High School.

Riggleman, who took over as interim manager in July 2009, was given a two-year deal when he was made permanent manager last fall, though the Nats had a very inexpensive buy-out of Riggleman's contract this season if they wanted to go in a different direction. 

There was no mention of the length of his contract at all, other than to simply say Riggleman would return for the upcoming season.  The Nats essentially decided that Riggleman should be the man to lead this team in 2011, without any sort of vote of confidence that past this season he would still be the appropriate manager.

Riggleman has compiled a 624-787 record in 11 seasons as a big league manager.  His career winning percentage of .442 placed him fifth worst among active managers at the start of the season and is among the worst in history of managers with more than 500 games.

According to baseball sources, Riggleman's entire staff will return in 2011, including third base coach Pat Listach, who interviewed for the manager's position with Milwaukee, but was informed that he would not get the job.