Fire Rizzo

[Bloo]

I'd rather have Peacock and Wang in the rotation then some over priced FA.

I mentioned them in my post due to their names, not due to my skepticism as them as pitchers. Thus me underlining the word "come".

[PANatsFan]

He ahab chasing the white whale

I Braveheart

[wpa2629]

Yoda am I

[Slateman]

Keep on making jokes.  We'll see how much you're laughing come April.

I'd love to see Orakpo go, it'd be great for the team. Guy never shows up in the NFC East games, which he finds acceptable because he "gets his sacks in other games," ie; the ones that do not matter.

He also has shown he isn't as effective in the 3-4. He has one pass rush move and that's it. Still doesn't want to use his hands, let alone can't cover. Trade him, get something out of him and move on.

Yep with Wang and Peacock in the rotation.

I'd rather have Peacock and Wang in the rotation then some over priced FA.

It's obvious to me that the majority of fans expect the Nationals to continue to overlay for underwhelming free agents. Yet these are the same fans who complain about Werth.

CJ Wilson was the only pitcher with paying big money to this year. He's a natural number two and would have been a great lefty to sandwich between  Strasburg and Zimmermann. But he went somewhere else despite being offered more by the Marlins.

We didn't bite on Buehrle and I'm glad. 15 million a year for his overrated arm? No thanks.

Rizzo hasn't done a lot but he hasn't done anything stupid yet. I'm perfectly fine with a rotation that we have. I can't wait to see if Detwiler improves off how he ended this past season. I want to see Wang regain much of the form he had before.

The only failure I can see on Rizzo's part is still having Ian Desmond on the team.

[PANatsFan]

Wilson will lay a #2 in Anaheim - the cycle of overpaid FA's there continues.

[Slateman]

Damnit ... I lol'd

[Bloo]

Let make one thing clear: I LIKE Peacock and Wang. I made a very obvious pun by categorically putting them together. Jeez.

[Minty Fresh]

I'd rather have Peacock and Wang in the rotation then some over priced FA.

I'd rather have a better pitcher in the rotation than Wang or Peacock - regardless of contract.

[Gleason2]

I'd rather have a better pitcher in the rotation than Wang or Peacock - regardless of contract.

Well, unfortunately, that's not our reality as Nats fans.  I'd love to come home to Jessica Alba every night.  Ain't gonna happen.

[Minty Fresh]

Well, unfortunately, that's not our reality as Nats fans.  I'd love to come home to Jessica Alba every night.  Ain't gonna happen.

So then the way to deal with it is to nag about not getting Jessica Alba every night?   

[MarquisDeSade]

Well, unfortunately, that's not our reality as Nats fans.

Two things:

1) nag, I said Super Size those fries
2) Are you implying that the Nats don't have the budget to sign an overpriced free agent?

[Gleason2]

Two things:

1) nag, I said Super Size those fries
2) Are you implying that the Nats don't have the budget to sign an overpriced free agent?

I'm not implying that at all.  I'm saying that their decisions about spending are unrelated to the amount of money that the Lerners have available. 

[Smithian]

Keep on making jokes.  We'll see how much you're laughing come April.

This board has become progressively angrier, pessimistic, and argumentative even as the win totals have slowly crept up.

I'm pretty optimistic. We've improved by 21 games past two seasons. We have a young improving staff and a pretty good core of position players with big young bats like Rendon and BRYCE HARPER in the minors. We're about to get Strasburg for a large part of the season, Jordan Zimmermann for most if not all the season, and guys like Peacock, Milone, and Detwiler will be a year older(mentioning that, I'm the one person on here who think Detwiler could still be a good starter this season). Jayson Werth can't be worse than last year. I'm mindfacting Zimmerman will have a really good season. And legit above all, we won't have Matt Stairs for the first half of the season be an automatic out in every big situation. I honestly can see a 2 or 3 game improvement from cutting Stairs.

We will win 85+ this year contend for the wild card for a good portion of the season.

This is not even counting a trade I feel that is upcoming. Won't be a big one, but something to either pick up another arm or decent OF.

[The Chief]

This board has become progressively angrier, pessimistic, and argumentative even as the win totals have slowly crept up.

Failure by a lot is easier to tune out than failure by a little.

[HalfSmokes]

Failure by a lot is easier to tune out than failure by a little.

When you know the team is a joke, there is humor, but once Stras comes up Werth is signed, Zimmermann starts producing, our rookies start getting national attention, the loosing starts to grate. With
Werth in particular, I took that signing as ownership signaling the cheapness was over and it was time to win- that make subsequent failures to sign or trade for upgrades disheartening

[Tyler Durden]

This board has become progressively angrier, pessimistic, and argumentative even as the win totals have slowly crept up.

I'm pretty optimistic. We've improved by 21 games past two seasons. We have a young improving staff and a pretty good core of position players with big young bats like Rendon and BRYCE HARPER in the minors. We're about to get Strasburg for a large part of the season, Jordan Zimmermann for most if not all the season, and guys like Peacock, Milone, and Detwiler will be a year older(mentioning that, I'm the one person on here who think Detwiler could still be a good starter this season). Jayson Werth can't be worse than last year. I'm mindfacting Zimmerman will have a really good season. And legit above all, we won't have Matt Stairs for the first half of the season be an automatic out in every big situation. I honestly can see a 2 or 3 game improvement from cutting Stairs.

We will win 85+ this year contend for the wild card for a good portion of the season.

This is not even counting a trade I feel that is upcoming. Won't be a big one, but something to either pick up another arm or decent OF.

I agree with this and support your avatar.

Even if the Lerners are cheap, that doesn't mean this upcoming season won't be a fun one where we creep up another 5 or 7 games towards contention.  I'm thinking 85-89 wins this year. 

[The Chief]

Even if the Lerners are cheap, that doesn't mean this upcoming season won't be a fun one where we creep up another 5 or 7 games towards contention.  I'm thinking 85-89 wins this year. 

Fun?  I'm not sure you'll get a consensus on that, though it's certainly a good possibility, and I'm sure we all look forward to finding out.  But I think "interesting" is a better word.  It's almost certain to be that much, no matter how things turn out.

[Tyler Durden]

If that's the kind of season we're looking at, I'll definitely have fun following the team.  Though I'm sure it will still be viewed as failure by some. 

[Smithian]

I agree with this and support your avatar.

Even if the Lerners are cheap, that doesn't mean this upcoming season won't be a fun one where we creep up another 5 or 7 games towards contention.  I'm thinking 85-89 wins this year. 

Seriously. The spaz/freak out level is way too damn high. Rizzo has done a good job here.

"OMFG, we need pitching, we suck!" = Our pitching has improved by leaps and bounds past couple seasons. Strasburg has superstar potential at the top and Z'mann is a legit ace. Strasburg this season will be on a limited pitch count but look at the massive contribution we got last season from ZNN on a limited pitch count. They're going to be as good as any #1/2 in the majors come 2013. Peacock will end probably up being a solid rotation piece, Lannan may end up being our long term #5 inning eater. CMW may have some life in him  After those guys we have tons of arms in the minors trying to push through. Sure I wanted Buerhle or CJ Wilson, but why vastly overpay for a guy when you may have players better than them soon?

"Our lineup is the worst ever! Rizzo is a moron!" = Yeah, we have issues no doubt. I wanted Jose Reyes but he had a hard on for Miami and I think he and Ozzie like eachother. I can see us thinking we already have one big contract around our necks and this guy has injury problems so we aren't paying him the king's ransom. I personally would have ponied up the money for him but I understand why we wouldn't. After that, how much needs to be done? 3B is Z's forever, middle infield is set in the team's mind(with Lombo/Rendon maybe kicking out Ian if his bat continues to be spotty), JWerth and Harper will be long term starters in OF, catcher is a position of organization strength; what does that leave? CF and 1B. At 1B they may move for Prince, but Michael Morse is a masher who will eventually move to 1B after LaRoche is gone. he doesn't have Prince's homers, but he will be a third of the price, hit 20+ homers, and give you really good defense. At center field there simply haven't been many good options(other than Bourn) lately. I think the organization is pretty sold on Werth moving there short term with Eury Perez or another option entering the picture in time for Morse to drop to 1B and Werth/Harper moving to corners.

This team has the potential to be really special come as early as 2013. This season we should hang around .500 with the potential to make a Wild Card push. I know some people can't see two steps ahead, but there truly is no reason to panic. The pieces are most definitely in place to continue a solid upward trend of success.

[The Chief]

I think you're greatly overstating and oversimplifying people's reactions, aside from a handful of well-known posters prone to histrionics.  It always feels like the rose-colored-glasses-wearing crowd around here wants to crucify anyone who dares voice a negative thought.  I'm not suggesting we should all slit our wrists halfway through the offseason just because Rizzo didn't make a splash at the Winter meetings, but it'd be nice if we could all stop whining about each other's opinions and talk about the team instead.  Seems that the "angry" crowd is at least doing that much.

[DPMOmaha]

I think you're greatly overstating and oversimplifying people's reactions, aside from a handful of well-known posters prone to histrionics.  It always feels like the rose-colored-glasses-wearing crowd around here wants to crucify anyone who dares voice a negative thougth.

Sorry Chief, I feel the opposite.  I like to think I'm somewhat in the middle of the two camps, but to me it seems like someone who dares to speak optimistically gets shouted down with air horns.

[The Chief]

Sorry Chief, I feel the opposite.  I like to think I'm somewhat in the middle of the two camps, but to me it seems like someone who dares to speak optimistically gets shouted down with air horns.

But is it by the same group of well-known posters prone to histrionics?

I realize I'm doing my own brand of whining here, but seriously, I just get tired of everybody whining about everybody being too angry/cheerful.  The ignore button is there for a reason.

[Smithian]

Sorry Chief, I feel the opposite.  I like to think I'm somewhat in the middle of the two camps, but to me it seems like someone who dares to speak optimistically gets shouted down with air horns.

Almost every time I post something positive I have a couple particular posters going crazy that I didn't advocate handing out a big contract, but otherwise it is 50/50. I think Slate gets a lot more crap than he deserves for what are quality posts. Most of the negative people on here have a shtick they have to stick with out of fear if they break it even once it'll get brought back up later.

[Smithian]

But is it by the same group of well-known posters prone to histrionics?

I realize I'm doing my own brand of whining here, but seriously, I just get tired of everybody whining about everybody being too angry/cheerful.  The ignore button is there for a reason.

Let me advocate I think all message boards are full of nages. WNFF isn't too bad at all and is out right better than most. I love me some WNFF

[The Chief]

Well I can't argue with your avatar, so I concede your point, whatever it was