Photo gallery: Stephen Strasburg's major-league baseball debut  Tiger's troubles -- The talk lately has been Tiger poor golf is because he has a lot on his mind -- kids, divorce, etc. Of course, last year at this time and earlier he had a lot on his mind as well -- managing and keeping secret his extra-marital life. Assuming both are relatively difficult to do, it seems the biggest difference is one was secret and the current situation is fully public. The unmanageable change for him now is that he's not fully in control of things, wouldn't you agree? Thanks.  Tom Boswell: Well put. I do agree. Tiger has called himself a control freak in past years. Now, he's gradually seeing everything get out of his control __family, sponsors, public reaction, media response, inner-circe and, finally, a piece at a time, his golf game.  Usually, you see a great player have trouble with one part of his game, then work on it and fix it. Then get back to form. With Tiger, it's been the opposite. One part of his game gets broken, he can't fix it, then another part breaks. Everything from his short putting to his full swing to his distance control on irons to (finally) his confidence has gotten shot to hell.  I hate "morbid fascination" stories. That's what Tiger will be this week at the PGA, unless he can battle through and have a brilliant round or two, as he has twice this year to finish 4th at majors.  Looks like he's now "Just Another Player in the World Top 20." And one who's been in a particularly bad slump right now. I'm going to operate on the asumption that that's who he is now __"just another" very good player who can break out and win, but will have to prove all over that he can dominate.  This is one of the most unbelievable sports stories of my lifetime. The public is a little (or a lot) exhausted with the subject because the 24/7 news cycle can make you sick of anything. But in 10-20 years, we'll still look back at this in complete disbelief; the classic human sin that runs through every religion or philosophy __hubris, pride-goeth-before-a-fall, bad karma__ has gotten the (once) greatest athlete on earth. And he's so smart that if anybody should have seen it coming, he should have. But if it's a good enough theme for everybody from the Greeks through Shakespeare, it's good enough, and sad enough, for us, too.  Santa Clarita, Calif.: I feel that Tiger Woods poor performance is not emotional anymore. My gut feeling tells me that something must have happened in the way his neurons and nerve tracts are organized that they don't function the way they used to. Gone is the motor, sensory (visual and tactile) coordination needed to produce a dexterity of outstanding proportion as he used to exhibit before.  This is possible if he really developed significant brain concussion on that fateful day. Maybe he has to start from scratch again and retrain his nervous system.  Tom Boswell: Doubtful. Though no theory will go unexamined this week, especially if he keeps playing poorly.  I think this is actually something that all of us can understand. I didn't say "sympathize with," though some will be that generous. Few things are more dangerous than a run of good luck, r even hard=earned success, that makes you feel invincible, entitled. Think of the worst/dumbest mistakes you ever mae in your life and "I got carried away with myself" is often a root cause. But in Tiger's case, the punishments are hitting him from all directions. It's his family, his profession and, on top of that, there's the constant fovcus from the whole sports world on his self-infliced problems.  Germantown Md.: Orioles? Is Showwalter that good of a manager or does Brian Roberts make that big a difference or are there young players just starting to play now like a lot of people myself included thought they would play?  Tom Boswell: I think I've written five times in these chats that the O's aren't that bad, that their young pitching is promising and that, when they hit, they are respectable __and far from the worst team in baseball. But, of course, they're not this good __8-1 with a 48-33 run-differential either. They're 3-0 in one-run games, 2-1 in two-run games and have had three walk-off wins under Buck so far. When they blow a lead, they come back and win.  A couple of points. I was stunned at how much Showalter looks like Earl Weaver when he has on his O's uniform and hat in the dugout. (Of course, the hat has to stay on for the resemblance to stick! Earl had a lot more hair and was mighty proud of it.) lso, Showalter has that manic, fixed stare at the field and, like Earl, gives off __or perhaps wants to create the impression to his players__ that he sees more than anybody else.  This is a perfect example of why you change managers. Teams lose their self-belief in awful seasons and it feeds on itself. We saw it with the "Natinals" last year. Partly you're bad and partly you have the losing disease. Within a week of Riggleman arriving, the Nats had a 6-2 run, then, at exactly this time last year __Aug 2-10__ the Nats won EIGHT in a row! Wow, that Riggleman sure is a genius! And they even ended the year with a 7-0 streak. That still didn't keep them from having the worst record in baseball.  The Orioles have more talent now than the Nats did last year, imo, and I think they'll soon pass the Pirates and, eventually, maybe Seattle, too. I think that No. 1 overall pick in the '11 draft will be gone pretty soon.  That won't help Scott Boras in the Bryce Harper negotiations with the Nats. One of his points is that, if the Nats don't sign Harper this year, then the Orioles might get the No. 1 pick next year and draft Harper, producing a long PR nightmare for the Nats. I'd say the chances of that have gone under 5%.  Welcome Back, Boz!: Good morning, Tom. Welcome back. We've missed you. Can you please give us chatters your honest assessment of the Nats now as compared to earlier ones? In other words, are the Nats worse, same, or better than you thought they would be? Seems to me that we all thought they'd be better than their record and recent play indicate. Thanks.  Tom Boswell: Sometimes I actually get things right. I said I thought the Nats would be about a dozen wins better this year, but that we wouldn't see the real team until the second half of the season when Strasburg, Storen and, perhaps, Jordan Zimmermann were all pitching at Nats Park.  They've stunk for the last few days. But you have to have a bigger picture than that. I'd say th real news is quite good and that they're headed in the right direction. Marquis had as good stuff as I've seen him throw in his first start back. But he's a command/contact pitcher and he had no command. As he gets sharper, I think you'll see a solid starter __nothing special, but useful and a good athlete. Because of his contract, I assume he'll get every chance to join Strasburg, Maya and Zimmermann (11.2-2-0-0-3-7 with, obviously, a 0.00 ERA in his last three starts in the minors) in the '10 rotation.  Also, Olsen threw better last night than he has since he was with the Marlins. Touched 94. Never tought I'd see that this year. However, Florida is a right-handed hitting, free swinging powerr team that LOVES to face lefties who throw pretty hard __90-92___ but not hard enough__ to overpower them. Olsen, with poor command of his other pitches, was just their meat in the first inning. Speaking of Weaver, as I was, he taught me to look past one-game results and try to see what's really happening. The next 2-3-4 starts by Marquis and Olsen will really interest me. Can they keep their current arm strength and add command? Or will their confidence be shaken by bad results and they regain polish?  What's imporant is that: Stasburg is the real deal; Zimmermann is clearly completely healthy; Maya was a steal at $6.5-million: Marquis and Olsen have their arm strenfgth back and even Lannan hasn't been forgotten and will have another chance to re-establish himself.  More than anything else, baseball is starting pitching. By next year, both the Nats and O's may really surprise a lot of people with their rotations. Because of Strasburg, the Nats should be better.  Next subject, which I've written about in a column for tomorrow __sign Harper on Monday, then get moving fast to resign Dunn. All the guesses about his contract "deamnds" are wrong, imo. The deal can probably get done fairly sensibly __at three years, not four__ as you'll see in the column. But it should be completed this month, imo.  Palisades: Is there any chance we'll ever see Chien Ming Wang in a Nationals uniform? This years seems out, but next year?  Tom Boswell: Never believe a shoulder-surgery guy is all the way back until you see it in the flesh. Wang has had two surgeries. So I doubt he'll ever be a factor. But he's under contract for next year, too. So give it time.  It's very interesting that, last winter, the Nats had internal plans that showed Marquis, Wang and Chapman as big additions for '10. Instead, it's Livan, Wang and Maya who have amerialized in those slots. And the net effect is about the same.  So far, Livan has turned out to be better than Marquis has ever been in any season. At some point I'll write about how Hernandez pitching style has evolved and changed (a lot) in the last two years so that fewer hitters can pull the ball off him and his home runs have gone way down. Oh, and he's been lucky, too; a lot of balls have been hit at people with runners on base. Still, Riggleman and others are now saying "late-career Rick Reuschel" when they talk about Hernandez. I think I wrote that last September.  Olsen, not Wang, is the one who's (apparently) close to making it back from shoulder surgery. Wang has a lot more upside if he recovers, but...  And Maya (age 28, in his prime), not Chapman, is the Cuban defector who may be in their rotation for the next few years. Check out video of Maya. Throws 93-94 with command. Curveball is his best pitch. Good changeup. Mean and throws inside. Dominated Japan and Ichiro in the WBC. How much did the Cuban workload take out of him?  One reason the Nats signed El Duque was to mentor Maya who has so much respect for the original Cuban defectors __Livan and Duque__ who really did get out on fishing boats on the high seas. The Nats were scared to death for weeks that the rich teams, especially the Yanks, would know __after the Duque announcement__ that they had (or almost had) Maya. The Nats were always off the radar while the Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox were all open about wanting Maya. The Yanks get what they want. "Here's another million, son." But (Run Slent) Rizzo got him.  Vienna, Va.: If Tiger comes back in the next few years to again win 7-10 tournaments and multiple majors in a season, will there be any stopping his ego? My feeling is that some part of him wanted to destroy his life just so he had the challenge of overcoming it. He must have been bored with his dominance over the past 13 years.  Tom Boswell: As I've written, I think he was a child prodigy who never had any semblance of a normal youth __including the periodic rebellions that all parents are familiar with.  That's not anybody's fault. For those who are too perfect from 13-to-20-something, there's sometimes backlash __or just redefinition of self in their 30's. And when a rich, famous 30-something decides to act like a teenager who's going to show all the authorioty figures that they can't control him if he wants to "be bad," then you can get an out-sized explosion. I think Tiger felt trapped in a life and public personality that wasn't of his own making but was manufactured around him __with his complete complicity__ and he just totally blew it up. He didn't want to be who he was. He, and a lot of other people, are paying a big price. That's enough off-thecuff Tiger psycho-bable for one day. Like many people, I change my mind periodically on him. But this subject isn't going to go away for a long time.  Anonymous: Do baseball teams practice with all those games they have to play? If so, is there a reason the Nats aren't doing fielding drills? They're giving up way too many unearned runs. Do they keep stats on teams with the most unearned runs? The Nats have to be up there.  Tom Boswell: Since Riggleman arrived, no team pracitices defense __in season__ more than the Nats. That's where he thought he could make a big impact. It drives him nuts that it hasn't.  Still, an enormous part of the problem is just two players __Desmond and Zimmerman's skatter arm. Desmond doesn't have good hands __a pretty big flaw in a shortstop__ and shows terrible judgment in over-using his powerful arm to make the highlight play. They have combined for 39 werrors, 27 by Desmond. Cut that in half __which would be normal for the leftside of an infield__ and nobody would notice the Nats bad defense. They'd be erratic-but-normal.  Can Desmond relax enough so that he's not so overanxious and butterfingered? I don't know. His quadruple bobble of a line drive last night was not an example of a near-great play. It was an example of a hard hit ball that every good shortstop catches the first time __every time. With Desmond: "Clank" then two or three acrobatic attempts to atone. On these ridiculous botched DP attempts __when Desmond throws off-balance and wild when the runner is two steps from first base__ I wish Dunn would simply leave first base, stand a few feet in front of the bag with his hands up over his head and let Desmond know, "Dude, this play is over. I ain't even going to stay on the bag and encourage you to do something crazy." Just once, if Ian fires one into the dugout while Dunn is standing up waving like as traffic cop __"Don't throw it, kid"__ maybe he'll get the message.  On the other hand, Desmond should NEVER bat anywhere but No. 2. It's obvious. He's a classic big-talent young hitter who'll chase curves out of the strike zone. He loves pressure. But hitting him 7th or 8th just lets people tease him and tempt him. He has only one walk when hitting second. So what? He's hitting about .340 with power at No. 2. With Guzman goner and Kennedy a non-factor for the future, Desmond __who IS part of the future, either at SS or 2nd__ should bat No. 2 every game that he plays for the rest of the year. Bernadina-Desmond-Zimmerman-Dunn-Willingham-Morse in a row is a very entertaining order. Bernadina has had a fine rookie season, better than I thought. I underestimated him as a hitter. Though he has to keep proving it. But his production is what you'd project off his last year in AAA.  At some point the same old story gets old. At some point the Nats have to WIN....They can not be last in the league in Defense and last in one of the weaker divisions for 3 straight years and show progress can they?  Tom Boswell: Yes, they can.  Watch the last 48 games. They are healthy enough now that they should play close to .500 and end up with 71-72-73 wins. That would make them one of the most-improved teams in baseball this year.  It's odd. Career baseball people outside Washington have a much clearer view of the Nats imporvement than a lot of their own fans. Lots of expansion teams take 5-to-10 years to build a foundation. The ravaged Ex-Expos, after going 81-81 in '05, had four bad seasons after the Lerners took over. (The Wiz have stunk for 30+ years.) Things could have happened a year or so sooner. But, right now, if they sign Harper and Dunn, then are active in the off-season, I'd say the Nats aren't far from making perfectly reasonable progress in their time in town.  Granted, they got lucky. They wanted to be bad in '07 and get the No. 1 pick in '08, but they went 73-89. So, they missed a chance in '08 to draft Tim Beckham, Pedro Alvarez, Eric Hosmer or Brian Matusz, who went 1-2-3-4. In '08 and '09, they weren't trying to be bad, much less awful. And they stumble into Strasburg and Harper.  Better to be lucky than good, sometimes? They'll say, "See, the plan is finally working now." Well, sorta. Give credit. But some good fortune is working, too.  Can you give me a brief explanation of why the three major drafts (NFL, NBA, and MLB) work so differently?  With basketball, it seems like if a kid so much as watches an NBA game, he's tainted in the eyes of the NCAA. Declares or signs with an agent? No more eligibility.  But, with baseball, we hear about Boras and the kids he's already representing who might go into the draft, and then return to college, if they don't like what they get (how's that working out for you, Mr. Crowe?).  I assume that the NFL is more like the NBA, but it seems like the NCAA gives MLB a free pass.  Tom Boswell: They just do it to confuse us.  I have never met anyone who REALLY understood the draft in all three major sports. By that I mean really understood the history and evolution of the draft, how it came to be the way it is, which have salary slots, etc. And what strategies for drafting work best in each sport.  La Plata, Md.: What's the deal with the Nats starting pitchers lately? What does it say about a team when Livan Hernandez is your most reliable starting pitcher?  Tom Boswell: It means you should wrap up Livan for '10 before the last day of the season if he keeps pitching anything like this. The idea that he will always be available on Ground Hog Day as an insurance policy is no longer valid.  This year, he's 18th in MLB in ERA and has been every bit as good as Matt Cain (SF) and Johan Sanatna (NYM). Can he keep it up? "One or two bad years when you are hurt (knee) and they forget about you," Livan told me Tuesday. "Now I am healthy." And he's showin' em.  Maybe with a normal batting-average-on-balls-in-play, his ERA would be 3.50-to-3.75, not 3.03. But he's still had an amazing year. And he's never missed a start in his career. But, unlike Jim Bunning, Livan is a great guy, not a rockhead.  Baltimore MD: Showalter seems to have made it clear that if the current roster doesn't get the job done, there are guys in AA and AAA who would love a shot. Josh Bell said he was worried that he's not hitting because he's "pressing" and Showalter immediately said he should be concerned about his lack of production, that "everything can't be 'Que sera, sera.'" That' a marked departure from every O's manager since Davey Johnson, I think.  Tom Boswell: Almost every first-rate manager has intelligence, a big ego and sets very high demanding standards. Of course, that describes some managers who also drive people crazy and eventually "lose the team." But, yes, Davey, like Earl had a chip on his shoulder and a theory about everything. So does Buck. It's fun. Of course, Buck hasn't been to a World Series yet. I've got a feeling he figured some things out in the three years he was away and may be a little better manager this time around __and he was good before.  Silver Spring, Md.: What's your take on the Pavin-Gray incident? Seems to me that Jim Gray has a rep of being a little aggressive in his approach to talking to athletes. Agree?  Tom Boswell: The image of Jim towering over Pavin in an argument reminds me of skinny golfer Morris Hatalsky searching me out at a tournament many years ago to yell at me about something. After a while, I just started laughing. I said something like, "The last guy to get this mad at me was Albert Belle, and he was holding a bat. Do you really think you're worrying me?"  Reston, Va: Just wanted to say I enjoy your chats. They are terrifc.  Tom Boswell: Much appreciated. I actually missed them on vacation. (Okay, okay, not the days when I was on Grand Cayman.)  D.C.: You heard it here first. Strasburg is a bust. He's done. I"m calling him Prior Wood from now on.  Ha! Actually, I love that he got shelled. I'm pretty sure every single Hall of Fame pitcher has been shelled in their career. I'm looking forward to see how he responds in his next outing. To see what he's learned, how he has adjusted - and to see some of that anger in him we all know is there.  Tom Boswell: I'm looking forward to Sunday, too. How long will it take for him to get the "feel" of his pitches back? The D'backs strike out as much or more than any team in history. It would be interesting to see an annoyed Jeesus with good command against Arizona. But it may be a little too soon for that.  Burke, Va: Ian Desmond's on pace for 39 errors this year. Without using the words "Robin Yount", can you tell me why this shouldn't worry me?  Tom Boswell: He could cut that by 10-a-year with a little more common sense on when to eat the ball and not throw. And if he relaxes, his hands may improve by "bad" to adequate. But he'll be 25 next month. I'd give it another full year at SS. But if it turns out that "he is who he is," then he may be a 2nd baseman. I hope not. Because as a SS with his range, arm and power, he could be... Okay, not Yount. At 24, Robin had 82 extra-base hits and won the gold glove.  Solo, HR: It has bugging me for some time now that so many Nats' HRs are a solo shot. I started looking up the team stats on baseball-reference.com last night but was not familiar enough with pulling stats. I did see that 20 of Dunn's 31 HRs were solo. Are the 2010 Nats way off the charts in terms of % of HRs getting only 1 RBI? Are the players as frustrated about this as I am?  Tom Boswell: It ALWAYS evens out. But maybe not until next year.  What matters is that they have the talent to hit them.  Gotta go, glad to be back, see you next week.  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Washington Post Sports Columnist Tom Boswell will be online to take all your questions about Tiger Woods,the PGA Championship,Stephen Strasburg,the Nats and more.