It probably comes as a surprise to no one that the Washington Nationals have a pretty abominable team once again this season, and that they are tied with the Texas Rangers for the worst record in baseball at 8-17. That is exactly the sort of performance we have come to expect from the Expos/Nats after so many years of futility.

But need this have been the case? Today I got to thinking about some of the really great talent which has come into the hands of the franchise over the years, only to later slip through its fingers, and I got to wondering, what if the Expos/Nationals had had a real owner instead of being owned by the other 29 teams from 2002-2006? Or what if MLB had hired a competent general manager rather than Omar Minaya, who seemed more intent on padding his own resume for his next job with splashy deals rather than building for the future? What if the team had been able or willing to resign even just its most obvious stars? What kind of team could the Nationals have had today, and how much would it have costed?

Thus I set about on the following thought experiment to come up with the best possible Washington Nationals 25-man roster, out of all the players that have been firmly in the team’s control since 2002. This is what I came up with:

Starting Lineup

CF Grady Sizemore
SS Orlando Cabrera
RF Vladimir Guerrero
LF Jason Bay
2B Brandon Phillips
3B Ryan Zimmerman
1B Brad Wilkerson
C Greg Zaun

Starting Rotation

SP Javier Vazquez
SP Chris Young
SP Jake Westbrook
SP Cliff Lee
SP Ted Lilly

Bench

OF Lastings Milledge
IF Maicer Izturiz
OF/IF Marlon Anderson
C Jesus Flores
OF Endy Chavez

Bullpen

CL John Rauch
RP Chad Cordero
RP Luis Ayala
RP Jesus Colome
RP Saul Rivera
RP Ray King
RP Chris Schroeder

As you can see, this team would easily be the best team in the National League. The lineup is loaded with stars and superstars (the only real hole being at first base, where Javier Vazquez would not have been traded for Nick Johnson), the bench is full of extremely useful parts, and the rotation, while perhaps lacking a true ace, is filled with no. 2s and would easily be the best in baseball (especially the way Cliff Lee is pitching this year). In the lineup, rotation, and bench only third-basemen Ryan Zimmerman and backup catcher Jesus Flores survive from the current team.

As for the bullpen, I decided to keep the entire current Nationals bullpen, which is actually one of the best bullpens the franchise has had in years. The fact is, the Expos/Nats really haven’t let any great relievers slip through their hands, the way they have with the lineup and the rotation, so this pretty much is the best possible bullpen for them.

So looking at this team, it would have to cost a fortune right? Well actually, it’s not too bad. If you add up the current salaries of all of these players, you get a total payroll of only $93.8 million. While that is certainly more than the $55 million the Nationals are paying now, it would actually only be the 14th highest payroll in baseball today, for a team that would easily be one of baseball’s very best.

In my view it would be a team that could easily reach and win the World Series. Paying $94 million for that is a bargain, and sure beats paying $55 million to have the worst record in the game.

Maybe it’s because disgraced NBA ref Tim Donaghy grew up near my hometown (Go Cardinal O’Hara Lions!), but I’m totally intrigued by the whole NBA gambling scandal.

As the Sports Guy pointed out yesterday, there is nothing deadlier for a league than a gambling controversy:

For honest referees still working games, it doesn’t matter what happens from this point on — their collective integrity will always be questioned, their collective track record won’t matter, and that will be that.

Of course, the NBA has other problems than just the collective credibility of its refs being called into question, not the least of which is that the city of Phoenix has to live with the suspicion that it might have been the 2006-2007 NBA champ if not for one crooked official.

So I can’t help but smile when I remember that it was just a few months ago that the NBA held its All-Star Game in the biggest gambling mecca in the world, Las Vegas.

And it wasn’t so long before that that Bud Selig was thinking about moving the Expos to Sin City.

From USA Today, April 15, 2004:

Baseball’s relocation committee, determined to find a suitable home for the Expos before the 2005 season, discussed the six leading cities vying for the team during a two-hour conference call Thursday.

If you had to handicap the cities, the Washington, D.C., area, which includes Northern Virginia, remains the favorite. Portland, Ore., Norfolk, Va., and Monterrey, Mexico, also are in contention.

“Las Vegas is a serious candidate,” DuPuy says. “Very viable.”

Selig says, “Years ago you wouldn’t have thought about Las Vegas. I was raised in that era, but today gambling is legal everywhere. In Detroit, you can walk out of the ballpark and there’s a legal casino.”

Selig adds the promoters in Las Vegas “have been very aggressive, and it is one of the cities the relocation committee is considering.”

Now, you’ve got to think Selig woke up yesterday morning and read the headlines and thought, “I guess it could be worse. I guess there are worse problems than Barry Bonds.”

And you’ve got to think that, if Jeffery Loria came to Selig this afternoon and told him he wanted to move the Marlins to Las Vegas, Selig would tell him he was crazy.

Because there may be gambling in every city in America, but no city has gambling like Las Vegas has gambling. And leagues that locate a franchise in Vegas are just asking for a scandal like the NBA has on its hands now.

I think Selig dodged a bullet when he decided to send the Expos to D.C. instead of Vegas. Now he’s just gotta make it through this Barry Bonds thing and it’ll be smooth sailing.