Author Topic: What I want for Christmas  (Read 2909 times)

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natslive

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What I want for Christmas
« Topic Start: August 21, 2005, 11:41:00 AM »
Just some thoughts

New owner with strong local roots

The best GM available

The best starting pitcher available

The best available; manager, coaches, front office staff, scouts, player development types, minor league managers and coaches and video staff.

A starting pitcher who can eat innings

A new shortstop

A setup man who can also start

Healthy players

Emphasis on youth baseball in the DC area

Offline rileyn

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #1: August 21, 2005, 11:54:09 AM »
Here are some more:

Lazik surgery or new contact lenses for Wilkerson.  I really think he has vision problems.

One more year in the minors for Zimmerman (so healthy knees for Castilla are also needed).

Not letting a .400 hitter waste away in the minors while we are the lowest scoring team in the majors (a real head scratcher there)

Better concessions/food at RFK.  (actually better everything at RFK).

Let the process of re-stocking the minors begin.

Breaking ground on the new stadium.

A pox on the Braves, Phillies, Mets and Marlins.  All of these teams have so much more talent than us that it's not even fair.

A better TV deal.

A better radio deal.

Lastly, since it's Christmas I will throw in a wish for a Redskins playoff game.

DelNatsFan

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #2: August 21, 2005, 02:38:23 PM »
I'm willing to give Bowden another year to see what he can do with better financial resources and a more settled environment than he came into with the team moving and trying to put it all together in 5 minutes.
Ok, so the Guzman signing backfired on him. 3 out of 4 ain't bad. He's not the first GM to have that happen to him. 2 years ago the Phils Ed Wade traded Johnny Estrada to the Braves for Kevin Millwood. Early on it looked like a great deal;Millwood pitched a no-hitter and Estrada wasn't really heard from. But then Millwood went in the tank the rest of the '03 season and was terrible in '04 and Estrada was an all-star. It ended up being a bum deal for Wade, but anyone would've made that deal at the time. Likewise, Guzman was a calculated gamble that any GM would've taken at the time; and by the way (this part is addressed to all) I know he's making big bucks for 4 years, but even the best players have a bad season somewhere in their careers and then more often than not, rebound strong the next year. there seems to be an epidemic this year of villifying usually solid players for a bad season; not just Guzman, but guys like Boone and Thome who have been solid for years and are suddenly getting thrown under the bus for bad 1/2 seasons. Come on already!!! Sorry if it sounds strong, but let's give Guz a shot to redeem himself next season. Also then begin to teach either Zim or Casto to play SS so that if Guzman still struggles next year, you have one of thse guys ready to plug in.

   How to restock the farm system?  Throw some money at the scouts working in the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians organizations.
When you stop laughing and ask "Scouts from an abyssmal team that lost 19 straight?" Here are just a few names of KC prospects that came through Wilmington from '93-'04...(Those of you who have followed Potomac/Prince William know what I mean)

Johnny Damon
Carlos Beltran
Mike Sweeney
Angel Berroa ('03 A.L. ROY)
Jon Lieber
Glendon Rusch

...and those names are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. There are many others that have been quality players or respectable journeyman players that always seem to find their way onto MLB rosters. KC's problem is disgraceful front-office management on the big league level. I suggest Cleveland, because again for those that follow the Carolina League at all, they always seem to steamroll and find themselves in the Mills Cup series.

As far as RFK logistics, I think now with a full year in town and a full offseason to prepare, the team can make some changes to the concession situation and maybe a few more cosmetic improvements to the stadium like removing all the weathered plywood in the upper deck facing and replace it with some ads or a few mini-scoreboards.  

I agree with the pox on at least the Braves and Marlins, The Braves have done it with mirrors the last 5 or 6 years. They've been vulnerable, but no other team has wanted it bad enough to hang in and knock them off.
The Marlins are paying back the devil for '03.  They were a woeful team who had absolutely no business in the playoffs, that got a few breaks from the Phillies, who were expected to win the East that year . Not one Marlin player thanked the Phils in their post-game comments after winning the series.

natslive

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #3: August 21, 2005, 05:04:29 PM »
Guzman must show that he can focus and do the job at the plate. If he can then do that keep him but the team needs results. AND if Guzman can hit then we don?t need to move Zimmerman but wait for Desmond to develop

I am inclined to give Bowden more time since he has done a very good job under tuff conditions. Having said that the move of Zimmerman to shortstop with the desire to bring him up to the majors ASAP is what I don?t understand and the reason I had a wish for a new GM.

I asked Ryan he could play short or second and he said he would play wherever they tell him to. He is a great kid with a lot of potential. The down side is that he does not have experience at short. Do we want to experiment with him and potentially mess him up? If we want him to play shortstop why not send him to the AFL as a shortstop and give him time next year in the minors.

Casto made some good throws the other night at third and seems to be improving as a fielder. He has had a good year with the P Nats and shows promise.

Yes agree, we need to spend money getting the best scouts and player development people so we can to sign players especially from Asia and South America and where ever else we can find them. Then we need to be like the Braves and get the maximum potential from each one.

Just some additional thoughts

Montcobaseball

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #4: August 21, 2005, 05:18:51 PM »
A radio network where you don't have to get into your car and drive around to hear a game.\


And btw we don't have to worry about better baseball programs in this area.  Most areas have so many teams that they have trouble scheduling due to lack of fields.

DelNatsFan

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #5: August 22, 2005, 01:41:44 AM »
Quote from: "Montcobaseball"
A radio network where you don't have to get into your car and drive around to hear a game.\


And btw we don't have to worry about better baseball programs in this area.  Most areas have so many teams that they have trouble scheduling due to lack of fields.


 We had the same problem playing little league in the Bronx in the late 70's and early 80's. The spring of '84 I think we could only play half our schedule because it rained every other day and the one field the Senior and Pony Divisions played on was literally under 3 inches of water for 2 1/2 months.

Montcobaseball

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #6: August 22, 2005, 08:21:09 AM »
Yep.  I am going to say I told you so but that boondoggle that they call the SoccerPlex in Montgomery County was built about ten years ago and they had to tear up two perfectly good baseball fields to build 40 soccer fields.  Now leagues are going elsewhere because they cost of renting a field is so high.  Think of how many baseball fields they could have built there along with the soccer fields.

exny

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #7: August 22, 2005, 11:06:52 AM »
. . . teaching our players how to hit a sacrifice fly.

DelNatsFan

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #8: August 22, 2005, 01:29:26 PM »
This Baseball program discussion is worth continuing, but I'll start it on a new thread later.

natslive

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #9: August 22, 2005, 04:58:57 PM »
Let me return to my original thought.

There are many neighborhoods where there are no ball fields or the ones that exist are poorly maintained and money and community spirit does not exist.

People like Bruce Adams and many many others have been hard at work bringing baseball back through the efforts of the Field of Dreams Foundation.
 
There has been a story or two in the papers about this.

Once the Senators left the money went away. Now many people are working to give the young kids the opportunity many of us had.

Speaking for me and not my wife my dad never did see baseball come back here. Hopefully the young kids of today will be able to share the joys of baseball with their folks.

Just some thoughts

DelNatsFan

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What I want for Christmas
« Reply #10: August 22, 2005, 07:00:19 PM »
I'll continue it here then since we're on a roll.  As I mentioned a few posts ago my last little league years were '83 and '84. The fields were poorly maintained and even when they weren't under water, it was all political. These fields were literally right in our backyard and were shared by every nearby high school and beer league as well as other Little leagues from all the way across the borough  Games had to be called after 4 or 5 innings because someone else had the permit to play on the field at that time. This, combined with all the constant league infighting, overbearing parents' bad behavior, unreliable managers/coaches, lack of funds for decent equipment just to name a few;it's no wonder it was near impossible to have a Pony or Senior Division season. We had to beg our friends to register and ultimately merge the upper two divisions with a league across town. By then most of the 13 and 14 year olds in our neighborhood were more interested in basketball and drinking 40's while listening to Iron Maiden. The core group of my friends who all played every conceivable form of baseball had either moved away or moved on to getting in with the wrong crowd by then and there was really nobody to even have a simple catch with.
  Enough rambling about my past. My Point in all this??? Why are kids interested more in playing basketball than baseball and even football?
Because they can play and practice by themselves and not have to rely on so-called friends who don't show up. All you need is a ball and a pair of sneakers and you can head to the local park or schoolyard and play by yourself.  There weren't and aren't many facilities where the individual can attempt to practice baseball skills. Batting cages are few and far between and the pitching/throwing screens and the HitAway you can buy in the stores leave a lot to be desired. For kids living in 4th floor city apartments, they're not very practical either.  I agree more properly maintained ballfields are needed, but when you have noone to pitch to or to pitch to you. Fathers can only do so much and the organized baseball leagues pretty much end play when school lets out for the summer save for LLWS tournament play .
  A better solution might be an affordable "athletic center" with lots of batting cages and pitching screens and whatever other training equipment might be out there.  The fact that there's a team in the city doesn't necessarily correlate to better facilities. The league and neighborhood I grew up in where all that took place is in the North Bronx--literally 20 minutes from Yankee Stadium and 40 minutes from Shea--and no funds were making their way to any promoting of youth baseball.  
  Hopefully that will change with the RBI program and with the new owners, but you've gotta get the kids interested in playing.

Online varoadking

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #11: December 15, 2013, 02:32:09 PM »
Funny how many things posted here came to pass, and how a number of them linger.

For Christmas, I want:

1.  Kurt Suzuki back on this team. 

2.  ALR off this team.

3.  World Peace...  ;)




Offline mitlen

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #12: December 15, 2013, 02:35:15 PM »
Funny how many things posted here came to pass, and how a number of them linger.

For Christmas, I want:

1.  Kurt Suzuki back on this team. 

2.  ALR off this team.

3.  World Peace...  ;)





Since the thread was only one page, I started with the first post.   Reading and wandering, "WTF is Natslive talking about?"    Looked at the time stamp.   Doh ...  :P

Online varoadking

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #13: December 15, 2013, 02:36:01 PM »
Since the thread was only one page, I started with the first post.   Reading and wandering, "WTF is Natslive talking about?"    Looked at the time stamp.   Doh ...  :P

Merry Christmas...  ;)

Offline mitlen

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #14: December 15, 2013, 02:37:16 PM »
Merry Christmas...  ;)

You too!    Hope I can remember.   :)

Offline imref

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #15: December 15, 2013, 10:19:30 PM »

Offline Kurt Studzuki

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #16: December 15, 2013, 10:44:30 PM »
1.  Kurt Suzuki back on this team. 


:gunz:

Online JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #17: December 16, 2013, 08:09:50 AM »
Yorvit Torrealba.  Just because it would be fun to listen to Charlie and Dave talk about Yorvit Torrealba.

Online Slateman

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #18: December 16, 2013, 09:00:28 AM »
Mike Trout and Yasil Puig

Offline CurlyW4lyfe

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #19: December 16, 2013, 09:57:32 AM »
freak it, top out the rotation with Jose Fernandez  :lmao:

Offline Mathguy

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #20: December 16, 2013, 10:00:42 AM »
Contract extensions for Strasburg, Zimmermann, Gio, and Harper

Online Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #21: December 16, 2013, 10:12:38 AM »
Korean BBQ at the ballpark

Oh, and Dogfish 120

Offline madj55

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #22: December 16, 2013, 11:01:45 AM »
freak it, top out the rotation with Jose Fernandez  :lmao:
While we're at it, get Giancarlo as well.

Offline PebbleBall

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #23: December 16, 2013, 11:36:08 AM »
A setup man who can also start

8 years later and we're still chasing this one down

Offline Mathguy

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Re: What I want for Christmas
« Reply #24: December 16, 2013, 01:20:26 PM »
I would be happy with the accidental return of the Dogfish 90 Minute

Korean BBQ at the ballpark

Oh, and Dogfish 120