Death by inaction

A baseball team paralyzed by organizational uncertainty can't do anything to improve itself. Such is the state of the Washington Nationals, who must sit and watch as other teams enter the free agent period ready to sign players and make trades. The Post reports:

The status of the Washington Nationals, with their general manager interviewing for another job and their manager unsure whether he'll be back, was already in a considerable degree of flux before yesterday. But Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig added to the uncertainty when he said that the Nationals will not have a new owner by next week's owners' meetings, preaching patience despite the fact that, last year at this time, baseball had an objective to sell the team by last January.

All this left the manager, Frank Robinson, to consider the team's plight.

"It's not fair to this ballclub and this organization to be put in this position for the coming season because we're behind on moves and things we can do and approaching players, the free agent market, either signing free agents or even really seriously talking to them," Robinson said. "Just overall, the feeling and the atmosphere around this ballclub is that we're at a disadvantage."

The period in which clubs are allowed to sign free agents begins tomorrow, and the Nationals don't have a clear idea of what their budget will be for player payroll in 2006.

Very sad and very frustrating.