2012 Preview: Washington Nationals

Since the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, D.C after the 2004 season, the franchise has yet to finish above .500. The only other teams without a winning season during that period of time are the Kansas City Royals, the Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates. If any of those three teams get to 82 wins this year, management, the players, and their fans would almost certainly view the season as a success. Washington however, feels it turned that corner of respectability last year. While an unscheduled rain-out versus Cincinnati robbed the Nationals of a chance to finish at .500, Washington did finish in third place in the NL East, its best showing since 2002 and only the second time since moving to D.C. that the team didn’t finish in last place.

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2012 Preview: New York Mets

I can just hear you saying, “Tell me something I don’t know, Bud Fox.” O.K, how about this: Not only are the Mets not going to finish in the NL East cellar, thanks to the expanded Wild Card round, I had them in the playoffs until an arbitrator repealed Milwaukee Brewer Ryan Braun’s 50-game suspension. As it is, I think the Mets will be in a dogfight for that last playoff spot.

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2012 Preview: Miami Marlins

Even before the Miami (neé Florida) Marlins made a single off-season move, new manager Ozzie Guillen walked into a good situation expectations-wise. On the surface, Miami looked like a team in decline at the end of the 2011 season. After all, the Marlins finished the year in last place in the NL East, posting its worst record as a franchise since 2007. Miami played .444 ball last year and the cause of this below-average performance was clear: The Marlins only scored 625 runs in 2011, its lowest offensive output, by far, since the franchise’s sophomore campaign in 1994. Was Miami’s offense actually as bad as its run total indicated?

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2012 Preview: Philadelphia Phillies

My favorite baseball writer, Joe Sheehan, likes to say that from a fan’s perspective the ideal baseball team owner is one who values a marginal win more than a marginal dollar of profit. I really like that idea because it doesn’t endorse recklessness; it’s not a win-at-all-cost philosophy Rather, it recognizes the trade-off inherent in chasing wins but lauds the owner who puts a little more weight on obtaining the next win, even at the cost of short-term profit. Using that standard as a guideline, Philadelphia Phillies fans have had things pretty good the last three years.

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On Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball, Passions and Friendships

Fingerprints, facial shape, body type and other physical characteristics aren’t chosen by the recipient – but an individual’s passions are. The heartbreaking Portraits of Grief series the New York Times ran after 9/11 worked so beautifully because the snapshots were celebrations of each victim’s passions. Those passions were the thread that weaved together a tapestry of such astonishingly diverse men and women.

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