Anyone who watched the Nationals fall to the San Diego Padres, 7-3 on Thursday night could tell you what ails the team — but it’s a long list: lack of timely hitting, too many strike outs and, most surprising, a great collapsing bullpen. This last is the most surprising, because for a while there the Nationals had one of the best bullpens in the majors. Now, they can’t get anyone out.

The problem starts with Sean Burnett (and does not include Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen or Todd Coffey), but it extends to Henry Rodriguez and Cole Kimball. Last night, Burnett came in for Livan Hernandez — and immediately walked rookie Anthony Rizzo. Cole Kimball followed him, and walked pinch hitter Kyle Phillips. Henry Rodriguez followed suit: he registered two quick outs in the seventh, but then walked the bases loaded and threw a wild pitch. The Friars won the game, but the final score veils what was (at least in baseball terms) a “romp.”

Is this the team’s low point? “It was not a good game,” Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman said after the loss. “The effort and intensity [was] there, but it was not a good game. We had a couple of things that happened on the bases. We walked people. It was not a pretty game. I don’t know how else to say it.” In the postgame interview with MASN analyst Ray Knight, Riggleman was even more blunt — saying that coming into a game and walking hitters was “unacceptable.” Clearly, changes are on the way, including demotions or even trades. (more…)

It’s always a pleasure listening to MASN analyst Ray Knight, and while he’s no F.P What’s-His-Name, his blunt talk is a welcome tonic to the “here’s what he’s throwing” cliches of most baseball announcers. “I mean, good golly,”  Knight said in the bottom of the 5th inning in Phoenix last night, “you can’t stay in this league if you’re going to walk the pitcher.”

The “good golly” comment followed an inning in which the Diamondbacks scored three runs on Yunesky Maya, leading to his departure from the game — and putting the Snakes in line for a 4-0 victory. Maya later confirmed Knight’s judgment, saying that his fifth inning stint was the key to the game: “When you walk the pitcher, a lot of things are going to happen.” Maya said, a comment that had followed his promise to “do better next time.” Right. If there is a next time.

The key for the Diamondbacks was the pitching of Josh Collmenter, a no-name rookie who has stymied N.L. bats. Last night the Nationals couldn’t touch him, racking up a measly three hits against the righty over seven innings. That was about ten hits fewer than they needed against a soft-touch righty with a ring-the-bell change-up and a knee-bending curve. “Getting back to basics, that’s the key to my game, is being able to spot the fastball and work the off-speed stuff off that — especially against these guys,” Collmenter said after the win. “They’re a pretty aggressive lineup, if you can get them to make outs early on off your pitches. Then you can have success.” Maya should take notes.

Where Have You Gone Ryan Zimmerman, Nats Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes To You: Ryan Zimmerman will make a rehab start with the Hagerstown Suns on Sunday, teaming up with uber-prospect Bryce Harper. Hitting in the same line-up as Harper should be entertaining, as the Nationals await Zimmerman’s return (scheduled for the next homestand, in mid-June) with anticipation. Harper is dominating in “low” Single-A, hitting .340 with 13 home runs.

Federal Baseball reminds us that Zimmerman started his career in Hagerstown, playing four games there after being selected fourth overall in 2005. Zimmerman was then promoted to Double-A Harrisburg, where he played 63 games before being called up to the big club. Hey, can’t you remember that summer of 2005. When the big club promoted Zimmerman, people screamed: “No, no, no. Don’t rush this kid, we don’t need him.” But the Nats’ front office waved off the complaints, saying that even though he’d only had a half-a-season in the minors, he had mastered the strike zone.

Well, the Nationals have learned their lesson. They’re going to bring Harper along slowly, because you never know: he could turn out just like Zimmerman. So we don’t want to rush Harper: the club is doing just fine without him. And what’s a hit here or there? Then too, Mike Rizzo says that he wants Harper to be “100 percent comfortable” before he brings him to the big league: unlike with Zim, who took at least a couple of weeks before he was “100 percent comfortable” with being the Nationals best hitter.

Any team can have a bad century, but the former White Stockings, Colts, Orphans and, now, Chicago Cubs are in line for a major league unprecedented 101st season without a championship. The Washington Nationals may well have put the final nail in the Cubs’ coffin for this season on Tuesday night with a 15-6 clobbering of the little bears at the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. The Nats’ onslaught was led by two home runs from Josh Willingham — including a touch-em-all that landed beyond the left field wall on Waveland Avenue — and a grand slam dinger from a struggling Elijah Dukes. After the game, the usually reticent Dukes said that he was “waiting for something that moved” from Cubs reliever Aaron Heilman, a Mets castoff with a suspiciously high ERA. And he got it. Dukes, who has been taking so much batting practice that he had to sit out two games after injuring his thumb in the batting cage, accounted for five RBIs while walking twice. Dukes, whose BA has been see-sawing all season, has a fairly hefty RBI total: it now stands at 51. And it’s true — Dukes has been hitting the ball with more confidence and authority (and to the opposite field), after being recalled from the minors.

Elijah Dukes Accounts for 5 RBIs (AP/Nam Y. Huh)

Washington righthander Garrett Mock pitched 5.2 innings for the win, his third of the season. Mock looked good, if not overpowering, with a snappy fastball, but was lifted by interim manager Jim Riggleman for reliever Tyler Clippard. Clippard and Saul Rivera closed out the game. Riggleman’s habit of pulling starters early was on prominent display at Wrigley — he has a history of pulling the trigger on his starters, a habit he developed when he managed in Chicago, his first managing job. Mock was clearly upset by the decision, showing his irritation on the bench. In fact, there’s no reason why the young righthander couldn’t have gotten the third out in the fifth, particularly with the Nats leading (at that point) 9-1. In all, Mock threw 89 pitches, 59 of them for strikes: hardly an elbow shattering experience.

Down On Half Street: Bill Ladson is reporting that the Nats have signed Livan Hernandez to a major league contract. The team has sent Collin Balester to the minors to make room for Hernandez. On MASN after the conclusion of the Nats-Cubs tilt, Ray Knight described the news as “a potential coup” by Nationals’ General Manager Mike Rizzo. Nationals pitchers can use the steadying influence of a veteran presence like Hernandez, Knight said. He added that the Nats also want to set a standard of winning, with important games coming, and Hernandez knows how to win. Hernandez was a fan favorite when he was with the Nats. The official release from the Nats reads, in part: “He will make his first start on Wednesday at Chicago (NL), while J.D. Martin (2-3, 4.76) will start Thursday’s series finale at Wrigley Field” . . .  Is ”ambitioned” a word? In a column in the Washington Post this week, I thought I read Chico Harlan say that a Nats’ pitcher had “ambitioned” to be a pitcher all his life. So is it? Is “ambitioned” a word? I admit, I have efforted to find out, but I’ll be damned if I can find it in the dictionary . . .

The horror; the horror: I have gotten sliced and diced from Chicago Cubs fans, dozens of whom have written (well, okay, three of whom have written) to say that the Cubs are still young and tough and plenty fast and that they don’t need to be totally rebuilt. They point out that the North Side Drama Queens are set at shortstop (with Ryan Theriot), at second (with Jeff Baker), in left field (with Jake Fox), at catcher (with Geovany Soto) and have some new former Ahoy pitchers on the mound that will be the new guns of the future — in Tom Gorzelanny and John Grabow. Yeah, okay. Gorzelanny looked particularly effective tonight, giving up only three runs in one inning of work . . . so I’ll stick with my two interlocking predictions, contradictory as they might seem: if the Cubs make the playoffs this year (and I don’t think they will) then they’ll win it all — since this will mark the first year after the end of the Merkle Curse (alright, that’s lame, but you never know) but if they don’t win it all, then the Nationals will win the world series before they do. And frankly, I think the second prediction is a pretty safe bet.

MASN commentator Rob Dibble was even more outspoken than usual during the second half of Houston’s pasting of the Nats last night. “I think some of these guys are mailing it in,” he said during the seventh inning of Washington’s 9-4 embarrassment. “It’s pathetic,” he said at another point. Dibble’s comments are now the talk of the blogosphere, including a long article on his comments on D.C. Sports Blog — which reviewed color analyst Ray Knight’s post-game response to some of Dibble’s charges. At first, it seemed, Knight was unwilling to associate himself with Dib’s criticisms but, after hearing him out, issued his own blistering attack. “You know what I would do? I’d clean house,” Knight said. “When guys don’t make plays defensively I’d sit ‘em on the bench. I’d give a guy a chance to play. And I’m talking about for a week, I don’t care if you’re hitting .320, I don’t care what you’re doing, I’m tired of seeing it too. We’re just two former players that busted our butts, and we’re here working for a company that you expect a fine product.”

Neither Dibble nor Knight blamed Manny Acta or the team’s coaches for the team’s weakness. ”I know Manny Acta and I know these coaches are busting their butts to get the most out of these guys, but the players, they don’t expect that out of each other in that locker room,” Dibble said. “That’s what I’m saying. Somebody needs to point a finger in there and say, ‘Enough’s enough. You guys are on my team, you’ve got to go out there and back me up.’ John Lannan deserved better out of his bullpen, he deserves better defensively, and he definitely damn well deserves better offensively after what he’s done the last six outings on a bad ballclub . . . So for me to watch a guy like John Lannan, who I think has a huge heart, and he goes out there, he never mails it in, I think there’s a lot of guys who should apologize to him.”

In retrospect, while Dibble’s and Knight’s comments seemed aimed at the entire team, they came in the aftermath of a yet another particularly sloppy game by Washington shortstop Cristian Guzman, whose year long indifferent fielding continues to hurt Nats’ starters. This is the second time that Dibble has focused his attention on the Nats’ shortstop — the first being in Colorado when Guzman booted a ground ball that hit his ankle. Knight didn’t need any more clues: “I don’t know who exactly you’re feeling it about,” Knight said. “I’m feeling it about certain people. But Manny has to make that decisions, or [Mike] Rizzo. If you think that there’s a player out there not defining the position . . . Take shortstop. Balls are going up the middle, knocked down, erratic type play. It looks like, to me, Goozie’s mind is somewhere else. He’s the guy I’m most disappointed in.”

Dibble and Knight’s comments are significant. Both men are not only former highly regarded ballplayers, both feel a part of the Nationals’ organization. Dibble regularly refers to himself as a part of the Nats’ team (“we’ve just got to do better”) and Knight has gone out of his way to get to know players and coaches. Unlike former MASN analyst Don Sutton (who departed when a broadcasting slot came open elsewhere), neither are looking at their MASN work as a launching pad to stardom. More specifically, while the new “nasty boys” tandem of Dibble and Knight have said that “Manny has to make that decision, or Rizzo” — their comments are a direct challenge to the Nats’ front office: if you’re going to get rid of lazy players, you might want to start with ”Goozie.”

It’s not hard to figure out who might need Guzman. The ten year veteran has a sharp bat and has been in the thick of a pennant race before — with Minnesota in ’02, ’03 and ’04, years in which the Twinkies reached the off-season. Guzman seemed to feed off the Twins’ success, registering just 12, 11, and 12 errors respectively during that time. Teams in contention and shopping for a shortstop are likely to see Guzman’s glove work in Washington (where he’s accumulated twelve errors already) as a result of playing for a last place team. A team like the Seattle Mariners, for instance, might find Guzman’s bat a plus in any run-to-the-division title. While the Mariners’ claim they’re satisfied with Ronny Cedeno’s play up-the-middle, the former Cub is hitting just .149. Cedeno would do better with full time work: he only saw action while subbing for regular shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, who was rehabbing a strained left hamstring.

Even if Cedeno stays in Seattle, Betancourt is available. After returning from his rehab, Betancourt was shifted to second (he had never played there before), before being put back on the bench — fueling rumors that he was headed out of town. A straight-up swap of dissatisfied shortstops might appeal to Seattle, whether the trade involved Cedeno or the 27-year old Betancourt. It is well-known that the Mariners’ have been discussing Betancourt with the Pirates, but given the Knight-Dibble rebellion, the Nats might think about getting into the mix. While Dibble thinks that Guzman should be benched in favor of Alberto Gonzalez, the young Venezuelan has not proven he’s a slick fielder, with six errors in 21 games this year. Either Cedeno or Betancourt would be a step up — even if the Nats had to fork over some extra dollars to swing the deal: Guzman is owed $8 million for 2010 while Betancourt (a better and younger player) is in the second year of a four year $13.75 million contract.