A Team "Built" for What?

We've heard a lot about how the Nationals are "built" for a certain type of play--good pitching, good defense, playing for individual runs, all for the purpose of winning low-scoring games. It's true that this accurately describes what is the only way the team that now occupies the Nationals' locker room can win. But saying that this is how the Nationals are "built" is misleading and gives the false impression that the Nationals can continue to win based on this purported grand design.

The Nationals basically are a team that was built in Montreal. As the Expos, they were once a very different team--young, talented, and cheap. The Expos had, among other things, one of the best players in the game--Vladimir Guerrero--and a host of good pitchers. Alas, much of what the Expos had was lost in a fire sale organized by Omar Minaya, now GM of the New York Mets. What was left was a team that looked somewhat like the Nationals do now--not a lot of power, not a lot of speed, and cheap.

Jim Bowden has done a pretty good job tinkering with the team that was bequethed to him. Most significantly, he picked up Jose Guillen for next to nothing from the Angels, and Guillen is now arguably the Nats' MVP. But this is still basically the team that left Montreal for the trip south to D.C.

Frank Robinson has done a magnificent job turning that team into a winner. He has found some way to get the most out of players who had unrealized promise--Jose Guillen, Nick Johnson, and John Patterson--and those who had above average skills--Brad Wilkerson and Livan Hernandez.

But this team is not "built" to win this way. We are watching a team that wasn't designed to look like this; rather, we are seeing a club that was destroyed by neglect and bad decisions and that is now trying to make its way back to the upper echelon of baseball teams. To put it bluntly, the Expos were built to be sold.

Robinson has done the best he could with what he had, and he has done the unimaginable--he has taken a team that most thought would be a basement dweller and made it into one of the best teams in the National League. What Jim Bowden must do now is "build" a team that is much more than it is now. To build a consistent winner, Bowden must acquire the talent the team's announcers are so proud to say the Nationals lack--power. The Nationals will never be a premier team when they are last in Major League Baseball in home runs.

Only after the transactions that precede the trade deadline and that follow the season will we be able to say anything about how the Nationals are "built." Until then, Bowden and Robinson must do the best with what they have, and they must capitalize on what is their first opportunity to acquire significant talent for the Washington Nationals--the impending trade deadline.