1. I guess I just don’t understand the point of open spots on a 40-man roster, nor do I really understand the National’s management of theirs sometimes. Why leave open spaces on the roster at all? Is it really necessary to leave an open spot for some future FA signing? How hard is it to designate someone if you need to sign someone else? I dunno. Also, sitting on the roster right now is Carlos Rivero, who has never played a game in the majors but has burned all three of his options and will have to be DFA’d off the roster at the end of spring training ANYWAY. Why is he possibly still on the roster at this point? Is Corey Brown really getting picked up anywhere? He already survived one assignment to AAA, why not another?

2. On the flip side … the requirements for a rule 5 draftee to stay with the team are so high (staying on an active 25-man roster for an entire season, no dl time allowed), that I sometimes wonder why we bother to protect anybody. Most rule5 draftees seem to be AA guys who took 4-5 years to arrive at AA, and its no surprise when they get up to the majors and hit .200/have a 6.00 era.

On Kobernus; yes totally agree that he’s a spare part/low on the 2B depth chart. But he’s also a 2nd rounder with a pretty significant bonus attached to him. Perhaps the Nats front office remembers their economic theory (specifically, the concept of a “sunk cost”) and doesn’t mind letting a guy like him (or McGeary for that matter, who they spent a lot more on) move on, despite past bonus monies paid. Rosenbaum seems like a gamble (same as leaving Brad Meyers unprotected), but a gamble that pays off. BUT, it goes to my #1 point above; why let Rosenbaum get picked at all if you value him?

Rosenbaum was a bit surprising they didn’t protect him but I think he will be back by June.

I don’t think McGeary made a bad choice; if someone offers you life changing bonus money (in his case $1.8M) out of HS you really have to take it; you can always go back to college if your baseball career doesn’t work out. In McGeary’s case, if he washes out of Boston’s organization in a year or two he still has a stanford education to fall back on. Not exactly the worst thing in the world. It reminds me of the Billy Beane scenario; he was offered a full ride to Stanford, instead took the NY Mets 1st round bonus money. In the movie that was played out as a poor decision (he “made a decision based on money” once, and never again as it was explained) but any baseball advisor would have told him to do the exact same thing.