THE BELTWAY BOYS: RIOS IS BECOMING A POWER HITTER SUPREME

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RIOS IS BECOMING A POWER HITTER SUPREME

[June 27th] -- Keep an eye on the Blue Jays' Alex Rios during the Nats' series in Toronto. There was talk about a possible trade with Toronto last season involving Rios (I can't remember who was the Nationals' player involved), but the deal never materialized. Rios, 25 is 6'5" and 200 lbs, and the Blue Jays had always projected him as a slugger. When the Nats visited Toronto last season, about this time as I remember, he had one of the lowest slugging averages on the team and had exactly one home run. I figured that he was just another big guy who was never going to find his power. He began to hit with authority the second half of 2005, however, and ended the year with 10 homers in 481 atbats. He batted .262 with 10 home runs and a pretty lousy .307 on base percentage.

Times have changed for Alex Rios.

Going into tonight's game against Washington, Rios is batting .323 with 15 homers and 51 RBI's. He's raised his OBP to .376 and he sports a .553 SLG average. He even has 9 stolen bases, all tremendous numbers for late June.

It's always a great story when a player all of a sudden "gets it" and turns into a star. It would have been an even better story if the Nationals had made that trade last season, regardless of who they would have had to give up.

# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 3:20 PM

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Rasner Rocks For Yanks

What was it that Jim Bowden said when he lost Darrell Rasner to the Yankees through waivers last winter? Wasn't it something like, "C'mon, it wasn't like he was going to make an impact at the major league level?" Well Jimbo, it seems like some of your "minor" transactions are coming back to haunt you.

Rasner, a 6'3" righty from Carson City, Nevada, was waived February 11th by the Nationals, just a couple of weeks before the start of spring training. He was picked up and assigned to 'AAA' Columbus. He had some injuries this year, but it didn't effect his pitching. In 58 innings for the Clippers, Rasner went 4-0, 2.76. But wait. There's more.

Pitching on Sunday against the Twins, Rasner pitched 6 strong innings, allowing just 1 run on 6 hits. In two starts, he's now 1-0, 1.17.

What do you always like to say, Jim, something about "You can never have enough pitching?" Let's see, you waived Rasner, and he's starting for the Yankees. You waived Claudio Vargas, and he's starting for the Diamondbacks. You waived Byung Young Kim, and he's starting for the Rockies. You traded Tomo Ohka for a guy no longer in the major leagues, and he's starting for the Brewers.

Jim, if I were you, I'd stay away from the waiver wire. Seems like you haven't figured it that it's supposed to help the team, not hurt it.

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Big Changes, Little Names

Big happenings? Nah. Just happenings. Zach Day was designated for assignment by the Colorado Rockies and Capitol Punishment is reporting that the Nats have claimed him off the waiver wire. So we ended up getting Preston Wilson for nothing. That's nice. Billy Traber, he of the tight leash, was sent down to New Orleans and replaced by Mike O'Connor.

That's all well and good, but don't look to any of these moves making a difference in the play of the team. But hey, it's something to talk about. Right?