Those of you who get your Nationals news from blogs and feed readers may have not have noticed a big change in Nationals coverage over at the Washington Post.
Barry Svrugla, who had covered the Nationals beat since the team first moved to DC, recently moved on
to cover the Redskins.
Barry is great at what he does, and helped bring the
Post into the 21st century with his frequent and candid posts on the Nationals Journal blog. I was sad to see him move on from the Nats beat.
However, in just a few short weeks, Svrugla’s replacement Chico Harlan has proven to be razor sharp with the pen. In today’s Post Harlan paints a painful picture of pitcher Odalis Perez’s day, battling through 6+ innings just hours after undergoing an emergency root canal. Great stuff.
Some of the other memorable gems Harlan has given us in this short season:
On a 12-2 drubbing at the hands of the Phillies:
Certainly science has a name for this, the kind of implosion too vast for common math to quantify.
On the trials of starting young players:
Milledge and Dukes are both 23. Peña is 25. Whether they flourish or flounder, they will play. Sometimes, they will play games like this one.
On the anemic Nationals offense:
With the season 47 games old, they’re still waiting for the offense to break from its sleepwalk. They’re still waiting for a lineup to produce with runners in scoring position. They’re still waiting for results to catch up with logic, because an entire roster of hitters can only flounder below their career averages for so long, right?
On Manager Manny Acta’s shaved head:
With a razor, using the same technique that Carlos Delgado once taught him, Acta shaved the stubble from his head. He was ready for a clean start. Head fully Mr. Cleaned, Acta then turned to his next cleanup job — the team outside his office door.
Shea Stadium, decrepit and months from demolition, deserved a game like this one — filled with both trash and trash talk.
Yes, I think I’m going to like Chico Harlan.
LET TEDDY WIN 
Ok, I know this isn’t the right place to say this, but Lindsay Czarniak, you are obviously not a natural blonde, stop fighting the brown roots, they’ll look better on you anyway.