This is not to say that I think Jesus Flores should be batting third.  This is not to flip out about a small mistake.

The thing is - there are very few interesting stories about this 2008 Washington Nationals team.  There are even fewer interesting players to pay attention to, simply because they might be around for years to come.

As such, I would think that even if a beat reporter doesn’t know how some long lost reliever’s rehab is going, any story or question involving Lastings Milledge, Jesus Flores, Ryan Zimmerman, Elijah Dukes or John Lannan should be fair game.

In today’s Washington Post chat, Chico Harlan said the following regarding a question about switching Flores and Milledge in the lineup:

I can only guess with respect to Milledge and Flores. I know Manny subscribes to some of the baseball-by-numbers theory, but I doubt he crafts his lineup based purely on adjusted run numerics. Putting a 23-year-old rookie, who last year was playing in Class A ball, as your No. 3 hitter probably places unnecessary pressure on Flores. Yeah, Milledge is no vet, but he’s shown an ability to at least fill the No. 3 hole by necessity. Plus, sometimes if you have a guy who’s thriving in a spot in the batting order — as Flores has done — there’s more to lose by switching things. If Milledge likes batting third and Flores is fine batting fifth, just stick with it. The lineup has far bigger problems. Namely, what happens after Flores. 

Fine, well and good.  But no, not really.  Jesus Flores isn’t a rookie.  He was a Rule 5 pick that played in the big leagues all last season (79 games).  He made the jump from A ball a full season ago.  Milledge, on the other hand, is actually 23 too.  He only played 59 games with a Major League Club last season, spending part of his season at AAA. 

The comment stuck with me throughout the day as a red flag.  Flores the rookie, Milledge the vet?  Really?  Though I’d like the Post to get things right, simple mistakes can be forgiven.  And this one will too. 

But remember this.  Fans and bloggers said Jesus Flores was ready to be the everyday catcher…at the end of last season, after the Schneider trade, after the Lo Duca signing, after the Estrada signing, during spring training and throughout this entire season.  Maybe they (the media, but hey let’s add Jim Bowden too) truly missed his rookie year?

Our Washington Nationals are terrible, poised for potentially 100 losses.  We’re still paying top dollar to watch debacle after debacle.  It would be great for the Post to at least accurately reflect on the sorry state of baseball in DC.   Chico is forgiven.  He’s still learning, just like Milledge and Flores, but we can’t get satisfied with sloppy coverage (even if we have to be satisfied with sloppy baseball).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.