WASHINGTON The current baseball season was shaping up in straightforward fashion for the Washington Nationals until they added an element of the unexpected by winning a few games.

The Nats were (and may still be) scheduled to pull the rip cord in July, dumping salaries and adding prospects in an effort to field a youthful, winning, affordable club when their new stadium opens in 2008 or 2009.

Any Washington veteran with a contract expiring in 2006 or 2007 was probably in line to be relocated. Passengers on outbound flights thus would have included the team's three best experienced hitters -- Jose Guillen, Jose Vidro and Alfonso Soriano -- and rotation ace Livan Hernandez.

Discreet bidding on these players may have been under way as early as May 19, when the Nats dropped to 14-28. Since then, they've been almost buried in good news.

Soriano's second in the National League in home runs (23) and first in total bases (156). Vidro and Hernandez mounted major rallies after soft starts. Guillen, again off the disabled list, hasn't done anything yet, but the team's been winning without him, taking 15 of 20 games before Philadelphia hung a 6-2 loss on Hernandez yesterday.

All in all, maybe not the best time for new owner Ted Lerner to put a flunky in front of a microphone and have him say, "Even though we're still viable for the postseason, we're yanking out the plug."

Soriano and Guillen, for example, are eligible for free agency. Keeping Soriano sounds like a great idea, until you realize that it may take a five-year, $70 million contract to do it. The Nats have seen Guillen's bright and dark sides and may find the contrasts a little too sharp for a long-term commitment.

Asked if Guillen's absence from the clubhouse may have been a plus factor in the Nats' winning streak, manager Frank Robinson's response was that he couldn't say, which was saying quite a bit.

Hernandez, signed through 2007, and Vidro, who has a deal that balloons to $8.5 million in 2008, both are 31 years old, an age when most players are attempting to angle for that one last fat contract. It's also an age when most players begin to decline, meaning their trade values may never be higher.

Almost anyone in charge of the Nats would be tempted to sell off these assets -- until all this winning complicated matters. It's a potential remake of the script for "Major League," minus the animal sacrifices in the clubhouse, the female porn star owner and Bob Uecker in the radio booth.

Selling off the players would be a lot easier than selling the decision to the fans, who've been showing up in increasing numbers as the team's turned around.

"I don't manage with my eyes in the stands," said Robinson, "but, it would stand to reason, that, if we were playing better baseball, more people would come out to watch it."

Should the Nats elect to strip down, it may be a few years until they're worth watching again. The organization isn't well-stocked with prospects, and Washington went heavily for high school players in this week's draft, an undisguised long-term strategy.

"I like what we've got going on right now," said catcher Brian Schneider, who's signed through 2009. "When you're on one of these rolls, you usually just want to ride it while you can. Right now, we're hot."

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