That's interesting, Kasten was president of the Braves while they were on their current division titles run so I had thought he'd want to win with his new team.

Poor Nats fans, they finally get a team back in DC and it's doomed to suck for a while.

Kasten understands that he is in the entertainment business. This will be very entertaining.

Wow does this seem like a bad idea. Trading Soriano is the next big move the Nats need to make and Bowden seems like the GM in baseball most likely to overvalue him. That's going to make it hard for him to actually reach any deal.

If the Brewers decide to trade Carlos Lee, that will also probably hurt/complicate the market for Soriano.

What reason is there really to fire him during the season, though? Yeah, you'd like someone better to trade Soriano, but I don't think they feel like they can justify it to the media. I still think in the offseason they'll go in a different direction.

The Nats 33-48 record + new ownership makes him fireable if they wanted to. That doesn't mean they can get somebody better in place before the deadline though.

Hopefully for the Nats sake, Kasten will make sure Bowden doesn't overprice Soriano and miss the market.

I haven't rooted for any particular team since roughly 1993. The Nats had a prime opportunity to make a lifetime devoted fan out of me, since I'm living in DC and would love to get in "on the ground floor," so to speak. They just lost that opportunity. I completely, flatly, utterly refuse to make any investment (fiscal, temporal, emotional, or otherwise) in a team run by Jim Bowden, or a team run by people stupid enough to employ Jim Bowden. He is simply and obviously incompetent to hold this job.

Since I don't want to root for a team with an established and reasonably recent tradition of winning (it would feel like jumping into a book at chapter 25), and certain teams (ex: Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Colorado) have to be eliminated for chronic bad management, that leaves me with the following options:

Tampa Bay
Kansas City (if one believes that Moore will actually get a free hand)
Texas
Toronto
San Francisco (once Bonds leaves)
Milwaukee
Cincinnati
Philadelphia

I'm leery of choosing Tampa, since they will always be handicapped playing in the back room with a tight chip limit, but I like what the new management is doing there. The post-Bonds Giants could be interesting, except that Sabean will be doing the rebuilding, and I can't stand his philosophy. Texas, Cinci, and Philly don't excite me.

Decisions, decisions...

Texas seems like a fair choice, if you can stand rooting for a team from Texas. Cincinnati has the same situation; decent team, decent GM, deplorable demographics. Milwaukee has what the other two have, but is also inhabited by more reasonable people. I'd choose the Brewers. Toronto is the best choice in vaccuum, but I don't think they'll ever win a division with Boston and New York in it. Philadelphia will just make you mad all the time.

Decisions, decisions...

Buy really low on the Cubs.

Grunthos, what about the D'backs?

In terms of prospects, the D'backs and Devil Rays (or maybe, maybe the Royals) have the most to offer you.

If Dayton Moore can develop pitching in Kansas City like he was mainly responsible for in Atlanta, I would feel comfortable taking away the "maybe, maybe" before the Royals. I truly think that David Glass is a good owner, and has mentioned (and backed up his words) several times to increase funds/support for a winning team, much to the peril of Royals fans (re-signed Sweeney, signed Juan Gonzalez, Benito Santiago, Reggie Sanders, Mark Grudzielanek, Tony Graffanino, etc. to improve teams, but they often backfired... bad luck, and bad decisions by Allard Baird), which is made all the more easier by revenue sharing.

I'd go Royals, but I'm biased. Join the good side. Join the light side.

"Cincinnati has the same situation; decent team, decent GM, deplorable demographics."

What the heck do you mean by deplorable demographics? Jerk.

Where do you live, Mr. Insane Musicologist? Maybe I might know one or two unintelligent people who live there and then I could paint that entire town with a broad brush.

Believe me, there are plenty of unintelligent people where I live.

But I'm talking about politics, which alas isn't so much a matter of intelligence as which side does the better job of brainwashing the populace.

I suppose there are universities in Cincinnati, though, so I could probably stand living there for a little while. Try southwestern Missouri for a while, where I went trick-or-treating in my early teens and half the "treats" I got were anti-gay pamphlets.

Try southwestern Missouri for a while, where I went trick-or-treating in my early teens and half the "treats" I got were anti-gay pamphlets.

Those were tricks.

Heh-heh. They also threw rocks at my house, which as far as I can tell was because I had a beard (a stupid little one, but I figured there was no point in shaving yet). I must have looked middle-eastern to them or something.

Arizona won a World Series recently. I know they're almost completely turned over from that particular team, but it's still too close for comfort where I'm coming from, psychologically.

Buying low on the Cubs did cross my mind - you certainly couldn't call it "bandwagoning" at this stage - but that would really be a case of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

And yes, Toronto and Tampa would both be leading, excellent options if not for the 600- and 800-pound gorillas residing in their division. If Tampa ever actually won anything, it would be all the more supremely enjoyable given the stacking of odds against them, but I don't think they'll manage it unless Roman Abramovich gets bored with soccer and moves to Florida.

I think I'll have to narrow down the list, perhaps to (Milwaukee, KC, Texas, Cincinnati), and pay closer attention to those teams through the rest of this season and the offseason. Then, make a choice, order MLB.TV, and enjoy. No sense in rushing, here... I want to treat this choice like a marriage, and take it seriously for a lifetime. No guarantee the team I choose won't end up like the Orioles, but you gotta take the risk to get the reward. I'm just happy that modern technology will allow me to make a free choice across the entire league, instead of being stuck with a (DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh) option set, as would have been true last century.

All hail the internet!

Grunthos, the Tigers don't have a reasonably recent tradition of winning. They have a very old, and an extremely recent tradition of winning. You could try them.

Arizona won a World Series recently. I know they're almost completely turned over from that particular team, but it's still too close for comfort where I'm coming from, psychologically.

Remember 2004? They signed Russ Ortiz, traded Randy Johnson, and traded for Shawn Green right after that. Payroll is capped at ~$70 million next year, too. The last-place team in baseball's worst division welcomes you!

We'll see if the Tigers win the WS this year and invalidate themselves.

The last-place team in baseball's worst division welcomes you!

Given their farm system, their GM (who seems quite effective to me), and the pool of mediocrity in which they are swimming, I don't believe Arizona is going to be in last place for long. Unless the Dodgers spend their money more wisely this offseason, I fully expect the Diamondbacks to win the division next year, and possibly start an extended streak. But they're not my cup of tea. Picky, I know.

The last-place team in baseball's worst division welcomes you!

That division, collectively, is two games over .500 as of right now.

That division, collectively, is two games over .500 as of right now.

Yeah, but the leader of the division is just six games over .500 coming off a year in which that same team won the division with only 82 wins. I'd call it the worst division in baseball (although the AL West isn't much better).

#6
look left and look right before you get your chow mein sandwich at peking palace
there's a bus comin'
i thought the soriano trade was the uber faux
and i couldn't have been more wrong