“The Plan” usurped by “The Core”
Sweet. I was getting tired of that old hackneyed talking point. Time for a new hackneyed talking point!
Anyway Boz has a column about identifying the core players for the Nats today. I’ll summarize for you
“2010: Zimmerman and the Question Marks. Maybe they should sign some free agents. ”
I could rip apart the article for some obvious flaws, say like “Soriano was a core player in 2006? When did the team ever consider keeping Soriano, ya moron?” but the gist of it is correct. If the Nats want a winner sooner rather than later (and 2010 has always kind of been the sticking point), they may not be able to do it through the farm alone.
It’s not a surprise, but it’s the last sticking point for the ownership. Will they, when the time comes, spend the cash to compete? Or is the goal always going to be to compete with as small a budget as possible?
You might say “But the farm looks so good! Why can’t we just wait until that pans out?” but you can’t count on that. You just can’t. The transition to the majors is the hardest one to make and project. At every level you are facing mostly people of a similar skill set. Those not good enough didn’t make it, those better moved on. The majors are top heavy. There is no other place for players to move onto. No “Super Majors” for Albert Pujols and Johan Santana and Alex Rodriguez. It’s much more a guessing game who’s going to pan out or not. You hope, but you can’t depend.
It’s an interesting column for Boswell, who usually is blindly supportive but you’ve got to remember he’s not a sunny-eyed optimist because that’s his nature, he’s that way because he wants to do everything he can to make baseball work in DC. He realizes that they can’t just keep trotting out 75 win teams and build a solid fanbase. Do the Lerner’s? Probably. The bigger question is if they can keep making money doing it this way, Do they care? We’ll find out in the next two offseasons.
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3 Responses to ““The Plan” usurped by “The Core””
May 6th, 2008 at 10:21 am
I’ve been in the stands for two of Zimmerman’s Walk-Offs and I love watching him play 3B…. but why is Boz so absolutely convinced he’s part of the core? What if his 2007 numbers are his real numbers, as opposed to his 2006 figures? And what if his 2008 hitting stats don’t improve?
Zimmerman seems like a super person, a great teammate and a steady fielder, but I don’t think we should be reserving a place on the Washington Sports Hall of Stars just yet.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Being part of “the core” means being around the Nats heading into 2010-2012 and it’s hard to not see Zimmerman as part of that, star or otherwise.
The 2007 Zimmerman is at least better than average at third, especially when you factor in the defense. With no one beating down the door behind himyou’d keep him on as long as he was under a reasonable contract. I believe Zimmerman is under team control through 2012.
Now if he doesn’t perk up in 2008…then the situation changes, but the assumption now is he’s no worse than an average 3rd baseman going into the future.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I’d add there are three situations you got going:
(1) Zimmerman is a star, like we all hope. He’s the player the Nats build around and the first possible franchise Nat. He’s part of that 2010-2012 core
(2) Zimmerman is just ok. The Nats keep him around because he’s cheap and could get better. They evaluate him again when he might make the big bucks. He’s part of that 2010-2012 core.
(3) Injuries or Suckiness derail Zimmerman. The Nats probalby give him a year to see if he can get his act together, given his potential and his cost.He doesn’t come thorugh - they jettison him. He’s not part of that 2010-2012 core
I think the likely track for Zimm falls somewhere between 1 or 2. Either way he’s in DC for the next 3-4 years or so.
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