It’s over, Strasburg has made his debut, and he’ll never do that again. Except possibly in 2 or 3 stops in the minors as well as in the majors at some point this year. At each stop the debut will may not get bigger, but certainly if he goes to the minors, his first start [...]

Here we go. Stephen Strasburg pitches today, and how he does will dictate forever the fortunes of the free world. Or America, or the Nationals. Or probably none of the above, judging by what 2 innings usually can tell you about a person. There’s quite a bit we’ve heard about this young man, and for [...]

Today could be interesting as well. Yeah, Strasburg goes tomorrow, but Scott Olsen pitches today. I don’t expect the 95 mph fastball from 3 years ago, but I want to see a healthy guy who can throw the ball. So even if he gets rocked, or strikes out the side, I’m really interested in seeing [...]

Remember, spring training is not regular season baseball. If Ryan Zimmerman has a bad month, it doesn’t mean he can’t hit anymore. It may indicate a slow start, but he didn’t forget how to do it. If Jason Marquis dominates, mowing down starting cleanup hitters and lifelong quadruple-A players alike, it doesn’t trump what he’s [...]

Baseball starts in a few days – in the meantime, we get used to having these personalities back in front of us. Not just the GM and the manager, but the younger guys who actually get to play the game. Some of them are boring, say the “right” thing all the time, and some are [...]

Baseball Prospectus came out with their list of the Nationals Top 11 prospects. They did it over the weekend, thinking nobody would notice, but I saw it. Suckers. You can check out the actual list on the link, or look below this line: Five-Star Prospects 1. Stephen Strasburg, RHP 2. Derek Norris, C Four-Star Prospects 3. Drew Storen, RHP 4. Danny [...]

Do you know that spring training games start next week? First game is on Thursday. It’s a little less exciting when you’re one of the half a dozen teams that knows it aint making the playoffs. But when you have a legitimately great prospect playing, at least you know what the sportswriters will be talking [...]

If it was anyone else with his numbers, I’d be surprised the Nats signed him. What do the Nats need from a 35 year old starting pitcher who had a 5.44 ERA last year, a 6.05 ERA the year before? It’s not like he’s a recovery-from-injury project, someone with upside to do something much better. [...]

Seriously, I am. I’ll get by. Ian Desmond is, in my opinion, the best position prospect this team is going to have this year. He looked good in the fall and he had a great year in the minors. Meanwhile, they have a shortstop on his way out the door in Cristian Guzman. So it [...]

I’m not going to go into a long diatribe about how our neck of the woods never gets any love, that we’re often ignored by national sports media, and the maybe sometimes good reasons for this. Just thought it was interesting to see ESPN.com, the granddaddy of national sports coverage, and their Washington area focus [...]

Pitchers and catchers are in, position players are starting to show up. Meanwhile, some young prospect threw down in Viera this weekend. Teammates were calling him Jesus, people were talking about how he’s the best thing they’ve ever seen, and there was a general feeling of optimism for the future. So let’s get on the [...]

Ross Detwiler just had surgery on his hip, which means unfortunately he will miss Spring Training, miss his chance to win a rotation spot, and miss a chance to continue his dominating performance from September. It basically pushed his start time to end of April, which means he’s going to miss at least the first [...]

Yesterday, the Nationals agreed to terms with pitcher Chien-Ming Wang. Glad to see Mike Rizzo is finally listening to me. Not to go too cheapy here, but I’ve already covered the basics with him. I mentioned his strong overall numbers: From 2005-2008 he started 95 games, with a 3.79 ERA, 117 ERA+, and went 52-20 [...]

Over the weekend, the Nats signed former NL stolen base champ and occasional member of my fantasy baseball teams Willy Taveras to a minor league deal. Some people are going to get very excited about the fact that they signed someone who stole 68 bases in 2008. Some people will moan and gripe about the [...]

It’s almost upon us. Pitcher and catchers report in a matter of days rather weeks, although many are down there now already. Spring training games begin in a few weeks, and the Nats are semi-set at many places to begin the season. But that doesn’t mean there still aren’t many many questions that need to [...]

Despite poor attendance, and TV ratings that make people mock the team; despite poor records and a lowly farm system, there is a feel good story about the Nationals. The FANS have elected to have more coverage of the team, not less. They have shown that they believe it is important to have an objective [...]

As I have mentioned here, the loss of the baseball coverage in the Washington Times is something of a sports tragedy. Sure, it’s not real-life tragedy, but it still sucks. And it doesn’t just hurt our ability to have better Nats coverage, it also has put a few people out of work. One such peoples [...]

Along with blizzard conditions outside, folks in the Washington, DC area also are being greeted by a new addition to the family – a second baseman. They signed Adam Kennedy which means everyone is going to make “Kennedy goes to Washington” jokes all year. So get ready for that. Maybe they could also sign Dave [...]

The Nationals signed Kench Mench to a minor league deal this week, and he’ll attempt to win a spot on the major league roster. They have their starting outfield pretty much set going in to the spring, but Elijah Dukes is still a bit of a question mark. So if he isn’t performing, they’re gonna [...]

Sure it’s not the regular season. It’s not even Spring Training. But just like last year when we were treated to the World Baseball Classic to get us ready for the spring, this year we can follow the Caribbean Series. And they’re actually going to televise this stuff. The wonderful MLB Network is airing this [...]