Nats End Extended Spring Training in Florida, Haters Rampen Up the Snark

The Nats emerged from their first few early-regular season workouts with some strong contributions in the realm of hitting and bullpen work, two aspects of last year's team that were glaring weaknesses. Now that the Nats have started to realize the potential of their potent lineup and unmatched depth in the outfield reserves, and they have found reasonable bleeding stopping from the arms in the pen, the settling down of the starting pitching and the adequate playing of the starting defense ought to settle into place now that the team has left Florida. In fact, so different is this team from last year's squad that so far, only one starting fielder is on the disabled list, and instead of a false-hope-inducing 3-0 start, the team has already erased hope bypassed that by losing their first three in the barren stands of Miami. Simply put, this is a different Nationals squad from last year's last-in-the-majors team.

So why has this team already been buried by unfunny cynics and baseball writers alike despite only being three games into what will ultimately be a redeeming season? The genuine impatience is so palpable that Stan Kasten is heard traversing decrepit landscapes off of 95 North to invite cretins to don their XXXXXL Chase Utley jerseys in our stands, despite the fact that these people shouldn't be allowed to roam outside of their personal living-room tailgate. Even the newly unveiled statues at Nationals park bear snarky reviews that lamely reference the temporarily-troubled ways of the hometown team. The praise of the new punch in the lineup has been replaced with punchlines by often-reaching scribes looking for easy ways to rampen up the doom and gloom and make everyone avoid the nice little Southwest shrine that bears the team name instead of a corporate logo.

It would be lovely to have a brand-new team that never had its entire innards gutted during an unfortunate fire sale at the hands of 29 inept major league co-owners who served as the team's runners, but that is the legacy the Nats bear. As we have noted, the Nats are victims, and these tough rebuilding years serve only to erase the poor upbringing that plagued the team once the unit was adopted like a troubled puppy from Montreal. The patience that needs to be utilized when cultivating a genuine ballclub cannot be damped into hasty hatred so early in the season. One wonders whether the Nats simply tack an entire Washington Post to their bulletin board of motivation, because the paper (outside of our homeboy Boz) does little else than crush the team with every sentence (but of course they don't because no one buys newspapers anymore).

But through these hardships that have beset the team, glimmers of 'tism have emerged like a phoenix in the shape of the new screech rising from ashes. Adam Dunn has already crushed a homer and rallied the 'house toward winning ways. Elijah Dukes has shooken off a tough Spring to become a viable contributor. Austin Kearns has figured out how to hit in his first three starts. Jordan Zimmermann has yet to show off his impressive array of pitches. And despite the fact that the DCO wasn't invited to participate in their fantastic advertisements (we even have our own dance! C'mon!), MASN2 has debuted some truly awesome Nationals commercials. It might even be a bit too early in the season to bury this team and its stadium and its capacity for fan fullfillment and the viability of baseball in the district, etc. Nope.

In fact, we are so confident that this season will turn itself around soon because we now have the Master providing his special brand of 'tism to these snark-infested internet waters with his own(?) blog! And what nuggest of 'tism is the first to be noted from the master?

"we'll be fine."

Manny proves that he is a natural at posting as well as managing. Now can we get a link?