Nov 14th 2008 11:00AM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)

You have to search pretty far and pretty wide these days to find a corner of Major League Baseball where there is virtually no hope. Parity is a reality. The Rays reign in the AL. There have been seven different champions in the last eight seasons and 23 different teams have qualified for the postseason since the beginning of the decade.

Heck, even Pirates fans have hope. Just ask Pat Lackey.

Enter the Washington Nationals, one of those few dark corners in the baseball world where it’s hard to find anything to feel good about. They have a shiny new stadium in D.C., but it had one of the poorest first-year attendances of any ballpark in the post-Camden Yards era. The broadcast ratings haven’t been much better either.

Of course, most of that trouble is related to the product on the field, and what an abysmal product it is. MLB’s role as caretaker of the franchise during its last days in Montreal and its first days in Washington has buried it in a deep hole, and general manager Jim Bowden seems to have exacerbated the problem.

No matter what happens this winter, the Nationals have a long way to go.Continue Reading