Young Set to Win Second Comeback Award

Dmitri Young is evidentally set to join the Nationals’ 40-man roster, per a good old fashioned handshake agreement with the dearly departed Jim Bowden.

Young, of course, thrilled we lovers of optimism with his stirring 2007 season, earning himself all-star honors (and a subsequent snubbing) and a richly deserved Comeback Player of the Year Award.

While the 2008 season was essentially lost to Young because of various health problems, we at DCO are heartened by his return this year, which should ultimately earn him a Grover-Cleveland-like second non-consecutive Comeback Award. Look for Grover to be added to the Presidents’ Race next season in honor of this accomplishment.

Return of the Meaty Legend

It’s been nearly a year since His MeatHook-ness began his occasional-batting-title-chasing romp to Comeback Player of the Year honors, doing it in a fashion that brought well-deserved and accurate accolades from DCO. With Dmitri Young now set to return against the Orioles, the stage is set for defense of that Comeback award. And yes, we will call for Dmitri to be the first back-to-back winner of this award if he performs at the same high level. After all, it will be another comeback, right? It’s his award to lose.

Dmitri’s comeback is sure to be as successful as Jason Bergmann’s slightly unexpected return yesterday. After all, didn’t GM Bowden practically tell Bergmann he wasn’t coming back after that >10.00 ERA he posted early this season? Seems Bowden’s faith in Bergmann is as unflappable as Manny’s faith in Luis Ayala (what’s that Manny said? “I’m never going to give up on him.” Some might call it blind, stubborn, ill-conceived management. We call it ‘tism in action, and it is why ChairManny is so lauded in these pages). Both are currently being handsomely rewarded. Bergmann shut down the Mets while his teammates took 6+ innings to warm up and get their batting/baserunning down, and Ayala, for the second game in a row, earned a hold.

Given the constantly right decision-making going on since the seemingly traditional slow start to the season, it’s hard to see Dmitri hitting anything less than .325 from here on out. And even if he struggles, hitting, say .300, there is capable backup and derided-but-now-brilliant offseason pickup Aaron Boone, catalyst of two game-saving double plays yesterday, to pick up the slack.

Thus the Nationals leave New York after a wildly successful four game series. Looking past the loss of a starting first basemen, we saw three wins, one pitcher rattled then demoted, at least two gameday crowds loudly decrying their soon-to-be-described-as-“embattled” manager, and one non-playing closer profanely calling out his absent teammates in the losing locker room:



Consider the Mets knocked down a peg. The same must now be done to these on-the-verge-of-cockiness Orioles. Boz, you’re not helping.

More Potential Redemption Acquired

Somehow it doesn’t seem to be the moment for intricately dissecting the Redskins and all the reasons for positivity in their admittedly disappointing 17-16 loss to the Bills. Besides, it’s so obvious they’re going to go 9-7 and make the playoffs that it’s useless talking about it anyway. The stunning 4-0 run starts with the Bears on Thursday.

It is the moment, however, to celebrate the Nationals’ continuing transition from MLB-destroyed rebuilding team to fabulous-braintrust-restored team. Budding contender, even? The bringing in of huge-upside-laden Elijah Dukes (or "Troubled Outfielder Elijah Dukes" as the popular descriptor reads) shows that the Nats are, more than ever, interested in a team that can produce now and well into the future (as opposed to the building of a team that could maybe produce in the future only).

Of Dukes, Premiere Stan Kasten said, “"I would feel really good if we could make this a success story." In that vein, he brought last year’s stunning success story, Dmitri Young, along with Font of Optimism Manny Acta, to meet with Dukes. The same message that worked with Young (don’t screw up) was given to Dukes. With newly found depth in the outfield, the Nats are in a can’t-lose position here. If Dukes works out, increased productivity was acquired for nothing (player to be named later). If he regresses, he’s out and Milledge and/or Pena steps in for extra playing time. Win-win.

Speaking of winning, it’s amazing that there seems to be no lesson learned from last season, when the team won far more than they were “supposed” to, as the Nats may yet again be written off by the rest of baseball – well before the season begins and even before the meaty part of the off-season. Perhaps overly desperate and eager to atone for his and his fellow expert cronies’ bafflingly wrong prognostications about the Nats last year, Yahoo!’s Tim Brown writes “…it appears the Nats' lone option is to overachieve. Again” This snarky little quip after he almost embraced the ‘tism in the preceding paragraph. You disappoint us, Tim. Again.

So here we are, set to see yet another success story blossom in DC. Just as some cities/teams are burdened with the moniker “where careers go to die”, (Tampa Bay Rays?) the Nationals are well further on their way to becoming the place “where teams go to revive”. The list is growing: Belliard, Young, Redding, Milledge, Pena, Dukes. What other reclamation/imminent-success projects will come along this winter? We should know more after the big Meeting

Will He Stay?

The Plan could continue apace today as rumors abound about a contract extension for MVP candidate Dmitri Young (if MVPs were nominated according to the letter of the law that such candidates be those who are judged the most valuable to their teams. Who is more valuable to any team than this guy is to the Nats? He’s already been snubbed once; it must not happen again). Thus is nearly completed his journey from near death to key piece of a soon-to-be contender. Could Dmitri have been sending us all a message that it's a done deal with his RBI single in the first inning of this afternoon's game? Almost assuredly yes.

This may be yet another signal that The Plan is moving to the acquisition phase and is done with the relatively brief (yet somewhat painful) blowing-up and jettisoning phase. Or it may be a lesson learned from the Soriano affair of last summer.

There are of course naysayers and doubters who wonder where this pillar of inspiration fits in a lineup with a healthy Nick Johnson (scientists have been unable to definitively prove the existence of such a being) at first base. There’s the oft-proposed outfield, where Dmitri has briefly toiled before. Some decry this move as stupid, wondering how Dmitri could lumber after flyballs in the gap and corner. We understand, but we would like to point to another hefty-yet-talented hitter who played in the outfield to some distinction: George Herman Ruth. Yes, we are comparing Dmitri Young to Babe Ruth. And if the aforementioned Soriano could make the bizarre transition from second base to left field, surely Dmitri can slide back 150 feet or so from first base to play in right.

Speaking of the outfield, yes, it hurt us to see that debacle unfold in the Nats' outfield in the bottom of the ninth last night. But we are not spiraling into depression or anything else resembling the slightest bit of a blue mood because of it. Why? Because Chris Marrero plays outfield, he will be here soon enough, and he’s clearly going to be the second-greatest-hitter of all time. Second only to who? You know.

Self-Promotion Friday

The dearth of recent posts is not due to some sudden (and tragic) drop-off in optimism levels on this site. Such levels are, in fact, unmoved, and may even be higher, thanks to everyone's new favorite pinch hitter, D'Angelo Jimenez. With a simple stroke of his .040 bat, DA won last night's game and exacted a measure of revenge on drunk-with-power and optimism-hating homeplate umpire Rob Drake, who had the unprecedented gall to eject the inspirational Dmitri Young in the third inning. How is winning a game revenge against an umpire? It just is.

No, we've been relatively post-less because of our careful crafting of a guest post for master of the Bog Dan Steinberg. Head on over to the Bog and read the compelling evidence for cutting two local teams some slack in the record books. If, after reading, you'd rather chalk up our downturn in posting to utter laziness, feel free.

Averages

Sweet merciful crap! Is that Dmitri Young running away with the NL batting title (and making Gold-Glove-worthy defensive plays from first base)? Is that Ryan Zimmerman flirting with .260? Is that Austin Kearns increasing his RBI total by 6% in one game? Is that really a commercial for License to Wed on TV right now??? With all these questions and more answered in one day, what is a blindly optimistic Nats fan to do?

Let's start with the batting. The untradable and critical to the future of the Nationals (please be reading, Jim) Dmitri Young again improved his NL-leading average, this time all the way to the dizzying height of .342. Ryan Zimmerman, showing that getting a hit in a game doesn't prove anything or necessarily contribute to a winning effort, stayed withing spitting distance of .260, just another stop on the inevitable journey to .300. Every starting outfielder contributed: the aforementioned RBI-machine Kearns, the sneakily rising Ryan Church (average .262 and counting), and the power-hitting-monster-in-waiting Ryan Langerhans (halfway to double digits!).

Pitching. Six brilliant innings by Jason Bergmann (nothing of note happened after that). A pair of Holds and a Save later and we have a our 39th victory, again creeping up on these Houston Astros, the Reds, Pirates, Royals, Cardinals and, perhaps most importantly, cursed Orioles.

Not a bad initially rainy afternoon game. All of a sudden, the Nats have won five out of their last eight. Might we be returning to those glory days of May 11 - June 24?