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March 3, 2005

Team Health Reports

Washington Nationals

by Will Carroll

Hitters

C Brian Schneider: At some point, we're going to have to start looking at catchers differently than other players. The idea of durability in a player that by definition spends his time in an awkward position with fastballs blazing at him, bats swinging inches from his hands, and curves skipping off the dirt and into soft, fleshy areas of the anatomy is just silly. Yellow for one of these guys is a good thing. The truly durable catchers carry a value we're trying to better quantify.

1B Nick Johnson: At this point, every time Jim Bowden picks up the phone, he expects the call to be about some new injury to Nick Johnson. Johnson is proof that "injury prone" is a tag that does sometimes have meaning. Johnson is simply fragile. He's not old, he's not out of shape, yet there's something there that simply cannot hold up to the load that a baseball season puts on the body. I'd guess it's genetic. Johnson doesn't want to be injured, so instead of blaming him for what he can't help, accept him for what he is--a 100-game-limited, line-drive machine. He'd be a perfect platoon partner for a cheap lefty masher.

2B Jose Vidro: Vidro earns his yellow with a long history of patellar tendonitis, leading to late season surgery. J.D. Drew came back from similar but more extensive surgery, so the outlook is good for Vidro. Don't use the yellow as a reason to avoid him. (Both tend-i-nitis to tend-o-nitis are correct, FYI.)

SS Cristian Guzman: Let's see...aging and slowing shortstop with a questionable defensive reputation? Check. Bad back that's resulted in a couple DL stints and hurts his swing? Check. Various shoulder, hamstring, and knee problems? Check. Seventeen million bucks for this? Ugh.

3B Vinny Castilla: I'll leave the "Leaving Coors" talk for the performance guys. There should be no difference in Castilla's injury risk from a mile high to D.C. He's old, but reasonably durable.