Lack of enthusiasm greets promising Nats in Year 2

	Moving to left field hasn't hurt Alfonso Soriano at the plate, where he is batting .338 with six home runs. Howard Smith/US Presswire
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Crumbling, corroded RFK Stadium, built during John F. Kennedy's first year in the White House, is a modern-day ruin in a city of gleaming monuments. The Washington Nationals play here, in this bloodless multipurpose arena, a musty anachronism in which gusting springtime winds carry the aroma not of ballpark barbeque but of dust and concrete.

Last weekend the Atlanta Braves rolled into town for what should have been three rousing games. The Nats were coming home on the heels of an encouraging winning streak to face the kings of the NL East. But the old stadium was barely half full during the weekend series; John Lennon's séance was livelier than RFK Stadium during these games.

Dipping attendance -- the Nats couldn't even sell out their home opener and have seen season-ticket sales drop 15 to 20 percent from last season -- is just the start of the bad news in Year 2. The team is still ownerless. Unbelievably, more than a million D.C.-area fans still can't watch Nats games on TV because of an ongoing feud between Comcast and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. And the team's general manager, Jim Bowden, has had worse press in the Beltway this spring than Tom DeLay. Bowden did a miserable job of handling the Alfonso Soriano saga and was recently arrested for DUI.

Yet there is still reason for hope in the nation's capital: The ball club might actually be worth watching. Projected by many to struggle this season, Washington could surprise if its pitching can hold up. So far, John Patterson (32 Ks in 25 2/3 innings) looks like he's ready to become a top starter. It won't hurt him any that the Nationals are going to score runs. Nick Johnson is poised for an All-Star season, Jose Vidro looks healthy, Ryan Zimmerman is ready to bloom, Jose Guillen can still be a force, and Soriano is making RFK look like a New Age bandbox.

I checked in with Soriano last week, and it's clear that he's committed to playing left field for the rest of the season. "There's nothing I can do, just make the best out of this," he said. But what's in store for the future? "I'm not thinking about that," he says. "But I still feel like I'm a second baseman."

Around the League

• Is Brandon Phillips for real? Three years ago Phillips was a can't-miss prospect for the Indians who went by the nickname "the Franchise." I remember interviewing him one hot afternoon in Dodgertown in the spring of '03, when he was a supremely confident 22-year-old and had won the Indians' starting second base job out of camp. Back then, scouts drooled over his potential -- a five-tool talent, Phillips has big time home run power. When the Indians traded Bartolo Colon to Montreal in 2002, it was Phillips -- not Grady Sizemore or Cliff Lee -- who was considered the key to the deal. Phillips flopped in his big league debut in '03 and struggled badly in the minors, but now he's found new life in Cincy, where he has driven in 17 runs in his first 13 games. A change of scenery is exactly what the talented second baseman needed, because he's poised to be one of the season's biggest breakout players.