{"id":3255,"date":"2011-12-09T09:33:26","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T13:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=3255"},"modified":"2013-08-29T13:51:26","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T17:51:26","slug":"nats-off-season-news-items-wrap-up-12911-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=3255","title":{"rendered":"Nats Off-season News Items Wrap-up 12\/9\/11 edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3309\" style=\"width: 284px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/buehrleMark_2007no_hitter-Peter-Christian-via-thesportsbank.net_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3309\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3309\" title=\"buehrleMark_2007no_hitter Peter Christian via thesportsbank.net\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/buehrleMark_2007no_hitter-Peter-Christian-via-thesportsbank.net_-274x300.jpg\" width=\"274\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/buehrleMark_2007no_hitter-Peter-Christian-via-thesportsbank.net_-274x300.jpg 274w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/buehrleMark_2007no_hitter-Peter-Christian-via-thesportsbank.net_.jpg 389w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 274px) 100vw, 274px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3309\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Probably the biggest Nats news of the week was who we DIDN&#8217;T get. Photo Peter Christian via thesportsbank.net<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Weekly wrap-up of Nats and other baseball news that caught my eye.\u00a0 With the absolute deluge of baseball news, rumors, and unbelievable FA signings this week I frankly got lost in the shuffle, so most of these items are from the weekend and early this week.\u00a0 Hopefully you know by now about <strong>Reyes<\/strong>, <strong>Buehrle<\/strong>, <strong>Wilson<\/strong>, <strong>Pujols <\/strong>and our Rule5 losses.\u00a0 If not, you&#8217;re just not a true baseball fan now are you?\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Nationals In General<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An excellent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masnsports.com\/the_goessling_game\/2011\/12\/farewell-and-thanks-natstown.html\">good-bye blog posting<\/a> from <strong>Ben Goessling<\/strong>, leaving the MASN Nats beat for his home-town paper.\u00a0 No permanent replacement has been hired, but MASN still has <strong>Byron Kerr<\/strong> putting out excellent prospect-focused posts, and <strong>Pete Kerzel<\/strong> temporarily filling in for Goessling during the Winter meetings (and perhaps beyond).<\/li>\n<li>Well, now we know what <strong>Stan Kasten<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.natsinsider.com\/2011\/12\/kasten-joins-magic-in-bid-for-dodgers.html\">plans on doing<\/a> in his post-Washington career.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Kasten, <strong>Bud Selig<\/strong> can&#8217;t just give him the Dodgers as has been his custom in &#8220;awarding&#8221; teams to new owners.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Byron Kerr re<\/strong>ports that <strong>Hector Nelo<\/strong>, our high-A reliever who is pitching in Venezuela, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masnsports.com\/byron_kerr\/2011\/12\/hector-nelo-impressing-nationals-with-stuff.html\">can now hit 100mph<\/a>.\u00a0 He always had a high velocity arm, but being a 25-yr old in high-A isn&#8217;t necessarily the most impressive feat.\u00a0 He was an April minor league free agent pick up, having been released by the Texas organization after putting up <a href=\"http:\/\/www.minorleaguebaseball.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?pos=P&amp;sid=milb&amp;t=p_pbp&amp;pid=519075\">pretty mediocre figures<\/a>.\u00a0 I&#8217;m projecting him in our AA bullpen for 2012.\u00a0 He may be able to hit those high figures, but its not being reflected in amazing k\/9 rates.\u00a0 I remain skeptical that he can be an impact arm for us in the future.<\/li>\n<li>As noted elsewhere, <strong>Keith Law<\/strong>&#8216;s posted his &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/insider.espn.go.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/7291374\/mlb-justin-upton-leads-top-50-list-mlb-players-age-25\">top 50 under 25<\/a>&#8221; list of players under 25 but who have already lost their rookie eligibility. \u00a0 Its insider-only but <strong>Amanda Comak<\/strong> at the Washington Times pretty much cut-n-pasted the entire list late last week.\u00a0 You can google it or search her archives.\u00a0 3 Nats made the list: <strong>Strasburg<\/strong>, <strong>Ramos<\/strong>, and <strong>Espinosa<\/strong>.\u00a0 No real quibbles about those Nats left off; <strong>Drew Storen<\/strong> would have qualified, as could have <strong>Desmond<\/strong> and some weaker members of the bullpen\/bench, but clearly Law doesn&#8217;t rate closers (nor do I, really).\u00a0 He has <strong>Craig Kimbrel<\/strong>, 2012&#8217;s ROY at #49.\u00a0 Law&#8217;s little dig at Desmond in his Espinosa write-up also indicates his opinion of the hitting capabilities of our current starting SS.\u00a0 I do question some of his rankings: I&#8217;d certainly have ranked <strong>Kershaw<\/strong> above one-year wonders such as <strong>Mike Stanton<\/strong>, but perhaps Law&#8217;s explanation of his ranking (he&#8217;s looking at projections for the next 6 years versus what they&#8217;ve already accomplished), explains it away.<\/li>\n<li>Well, there goes one OF option: <strong>Laynce Nix<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/hardballtalk.nbcsports.com\/2011\/12\/04\/phillies-sign-laynce-nix-to-two-year-contract\">has signed<\/a> with the rival Phillies.\u00a0 Most reports seemed to indicate that the 2-year guarantee solidified the deal for Nix, who faces at best a LF platoon in Philadelphia.\u00a0 Still, he could turn in a 20-homer season rather easily hitting in that bandbox.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jim Riggleman<\/strong> signed on to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/nationals-journal\/post\/jim-riggleman-will-manage-the-reds-class-aa-team-next-year\/2011\/12\/04\/gIQAnVoVTO_blog.html?wprss=nationals-journal\">manage the Cincinnati AA franchise<\/a>, a bit of a step down from a MLB manager job but at least he has on-field work.<\/li>\n<li>In what is sure to inspire a fire-storm of Natmosphere posts, <strong>Jim Bowden<\/strong> reports that <strong>Ryan Zimmerman<\/strong>&#8216;s agents have been &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2011\/12\/nationals-rumors-zimmerman-coffey-flores.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MlbTradeRumors+%28MLB+Trade+Rumors%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader\">rebuffed<\/a>&#8221; in opening contract extension talks.\u00a0 I can&#8217;t blame Rizzo here: you&#8217;ve got a franchise player who can&#8217;t stay healthy; he&#8217;s a risk to guarantee a bunch of years and a bunch of money.\u00a0 Yes, everyone&#8217;s a risk to give guaranteed contracts &#8230; perhaps why the team needs to think on it a bit more.<\/li>\n<li>Uh oh.\u00a0 <strong>Sammy Solis<\/strong> is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masnsports.com\/byron_kerr\/2011\/12\/solis-seeing-doctor-in-la-to-check-sore-elbow.html\">visiting Dr. Yocum to get his elbow looked at<\/a>.\u00a0 This is not a good sign.\u00a0 Can anyone say Tommy John surgery?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Free Agents\/Player Transaction News<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A month-old post, but somehow I missed it.\u00a0 <strong>Jeff Passan<\/strong>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/mlb\/news?slug=jp-passan_ultimate_free_agent_tracker_baseball_110211\">free agent tracker<\/a>, with some concise opinion on each of 181 free agents this off-season.\u00a0 No predictions but on-point analysis.<\/li>\n<li>Wow.\u00a0 <strong>Heath Bell<\/strong> gets <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/mlb\/news?slug=ap-marlins-bell\">3yrs\/$27M<\/a> from the Marlins.\u00a0 Not that I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s a good closer, and not that I really care that the Marlins just acquired a player being paid in AAV the equivalent of 1\/8th of their <a href=\"http:\/\/content.usatoday.com\/sportsdata\/baseball\/mlb\/salaries\/team\">2011 payroll<\/a>.\u00a0 Maybe this whole &#8220;Marlins are going to spend money&#8221; thing is for real.\u00a0 I agree with <strong>Neyer<\/strong>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.sbnation.com\/2011\/12\/2\/2604934\/heath-bell-contract-miami-marlins\">assessment here<\/a>: &#8220;that&#8217;s a lot for a guy who is going to throw 65 innings.&#8221;\u00a0 Predictably, Keith Law <a href=\"http:\/\/insider.espn.go.com\/mlb\/blog\/_\/name\/law_keith\/id\/7306421\/mlb-miami-marlins-make-mistake-heath-bell\">hates the deal<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Even more Wow: <strong>Jose Reyes<\/strong> signs for a reported <a href=\"http:\/\/sportsillustrated.cnn.com\/2011\/baseball\/mlb\/12\/04\/marlins.jose.reyes.ap\/\">6yr\/$106M deal<\/a> with these same Marlins.\u00a0 One has to wonder if we&#8217;re looking at another dynasty build-up\/epic team dismantling situation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jon Heyman<\/strong>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/sportsillustrated.cnn.com\/2011\/writers\/jon_heyman\/12\/02\/winter.meetings.preview\/index.html?eref=writers\">list of 10 busiest clubs<\/a> for the Winter meetings, and somehow the Nats, whose name is associated with practically every FA in some form or another, are not on the list.<\/li>\n<li>We could soon find out just how serious the Nats interest is in <strong>Yoenis Cespedes<\/strong>, with him <a href=\"http:\/\/hardballtalk.nbcsports.com\/2011\/12\/03\/yoenis-cespedes-could-be-declared-a-free-agent-as-soon-as-next-week\">possibly being declared a FA<\/a> within the next week or so.<\/li>\n<li>Despite some opinions that the Rule 5 draft is useless, there are active teams every year (The Nats included).\u00a0 Here&#8217;s one blog&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/baseballnewshound.com\/?p=1908&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BaseballNewsHound+%28Baseball+News+Hound%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader\">Top 25 available<\/a> Rule 5 draft potentials.\u00a0 He does list three Nationals: <strong>Brad Meyers<\/strong>, <strong>Sandy Leon<\/strong> and <strong>Erik Komatsu<\/strong>.\u00a0 He also lists the top other prospects by system.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a TON of research frankly, digging through rule5 eligibles from all 30 minor league systems.\u00a0 Of course, <strong>John Manuel<\/strong> did the same on Baseball America, posting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/online\/prospects\/prospect-pulse\/2011\/2612666.html\">part 2 of his review<\/a>, highlighting some favorites for role players (utility infielders, 4th outfielders, loogys and middle relievers).\u00a0 I&#8217;m guessing its from this group that the Nats may tempt fate and look to fill some bench spots.\u00a0 <strong>12\/7\/11 Update<\/strong>: sure enough we lost both Meyers and Komatsu.\u00a0 So irritated.<\/li>\n<li>Sometimes, star athletes just don&#8217;t know how to say good bye.\u00a0 <strong>Manny Ramirez <\/strong>has <a href=\"http:\/\/content.usatoday.com\/communities\/dailypitch\/post\/2011\/12\/manny-ramirez-comeback-retirement\/1?csp=34sports&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomSports-TopStories+%28Sports+-+Top+Stories%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader\">filed for re-instatement<\/a> and plans on playing in 2012 after serving his 2nd drug suspension.\u00a0 He&#8217;ll have to improve on his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/ramirma02.shtml\">1-17 outing<\/a> for Tampa Bay last season.<\/li>\n<li>Interesting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.masnsports.com\/nationals_buzz\/2011\/12\/red-sox-eyeing-pitching-could-offer-nats-kalish-reddick.html\">potential trade tidbit<\/a> posted by new Masn beat reporter <strong>Pete Kerzel<\/strong>: Boston possibly dangling either <strong>Josh Reddick<\/strong> or <strong>Ryan Kalish<\/strong> in trade for starting pitchers (names mentioned include <strong>Ross Detwiler<\/strong> and <strong>Collin Balester<\/strong>).\u00a0 I&#8217;d like any trade permutation here; both Detwiler and Balester are <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheet\/ccc?key=0Aoe2S6_m1TendHczVEdGOE43VzdHRVQ2VFZFb2tiREE&amp;hl=en_US\">out of options<\/a> and increasingly with every Buehrle\/Wilson\/Oswalt rumor Detwiler&#8217;s chances of making our 25-man roster diminish.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>General News; Baseball and other.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Just in time,&#8221; indeed.\u00a0 <strong>Rob Neyer<\/strong> reports that the <a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.sbnation.com\/2011\/12\/3\/2607409\/miami-marlins-ballpark-sec-investigation\">Feds are investigating<\/a> the incredibly shady Marlins stadium deal.\u00a0 <strong>Jeff Passan<\/strong> also mentions the <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/mlb\/news?slug=jp-passan_marlins_sec_stadium_malfeasance_120211\">SEC subpoenas<\/a> for financial records, meeting minutes, etc, looking for evidence of bribery of federal officials.\u00a0 Nothing would make me cackle more than to find out that the Marlin&#8217;s owners and management were to expect a federal indictment for corruption.\u00a0 Everything I&#8217;ve ever read about<strong> Jeffrey Loria<\/strong>, <strong>David Samson<\/strong>, and <strong>Larry Benifest<\/strong> and anything related to the Marlins as an organization and this stadium deal in particular has been negative, and this undoubtedly will be no different.\u00a0 I hope <strong>Selig<\/strong> is happy with himself for engineering Loria&#8217;s Expos sale and Marlins purchase, as well as watching his new buddy subsequently pocket millions and millions of dollars in revenue sharing whilst occupying the 6th largest market by MSA.<\/li>\n<li>Wow.\u00a0 <strong>Jon Heyman<\/strong> is <a href=\"http:\/\/thebiglead.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/03\/jon-heyman-is-leaving-sports-illustrated-for-cbs-sports\/\">leaving SI for CBS<\/a>.\u00a0 This prolific writer is well known for being ahead of the curve on baseball news, and leaves a pretty big hole in the baseball reporting department for cnnsi.com.<\/li>\n<li>Interesting precedent setting event: MLB has restored <strong>Mike Trout<\/strong>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/hardballtalk.nbcsports.com\/2011\/12\/02\/mlb-restores-mike-trouts-rookie-status\/\">rookie eligibility for 2012<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 He&#8217;ll certainly be a candidate .. if he can get on the field.\u00a0 <strong>Matt Moore<\/strong> may be a better candidate, based on what we saw in September and October though.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll put in just enough opinion to get into trouble on the BCS: LSU-Alabama repeat for the National Championship is an abomination of justice when looking at the Alabama season in basic comparison to Oklahoma State.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/7317107\/oklahoma-state-cowboys-settle-tostitos-fiesta-bowl-vs-stanford-cardinal\">OK State-Stanford<\/a> game will be 10x as enjoyable.\u00a0 I only wish the BCS could have had 100% egg on its face with LSU losing the SEC title game but still being pretty much guaranteed a match up in the Championship.\u00a0 I would have laughed.\u00a0 Call me when there&#8217;s a playoff.<\/li>\n<li>I didn&#8217;t realize they were nominated: legendary college coaches Mike Krzyzewski and Pat Summitt received <a href=\"http:\/\/sportsillustrated.cnn.com\/2011\/magazine\/12\/04\/sportsman.announcement\/index.html\">2011&#8217;s SI Sportsman of the\u00a0 Year award<\/a>.\u00a0 Clearly these were &#8220;career&#8221; awards, as opposed to anything specific to 2011.<\/li>\n<li>In case you were interested, or wanted to nit-pick every Hall of Fame ballot to death, here&#8217;s a blogger who tracks all the BBWAA voters and <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheet\/ccc?key=0Aqc4QTMoPrdtdDQxaDYzd1lLOGpOdUdrcnNNNWNXa2c&amp;authkey=CPyuwqIJ&amp;hl=en_US#gid=5\">finds their HoFame votes<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Not to get into too much politics here, but <strong>Mitt Romney<\/strong>&#8216;s reported dig on <strong>Barack Obama<\/strong>&#8216;s planned <a href=\"http:\/\/content.usatoday.com\/communities\/gameon\/post\/2011\/12\/romney-wants-obama-to-play-less-golf\/1?csp=34sports&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomSports-TopStories+%28Sports+-+Top+Stories%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader\">17-day vacation smacks<\/a> of hypocrisy.\u00a0 All he needs to do is check the record on <strong>George W. Bush<\/strong>&#8216;s days spent &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.factcheck.org\/2010\/01\/president-obamas-vacation-days\/\">on vacation<\/a>&#8221; while office and perhaps he&#8217;d wish he wasn&#8217;t casting stones.\u00a0 In fact, depending on how you <a href=\"http:\/\/wiki.answers.com\/Q\/How_many_vacation_days_did_george_w_bush_take_while_president\">interpret this research<\/a>, Bush spent nearly 32 PERCENT of his time in office actually back home at his ranch or at Camp David.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weekly wrap-up of Nats and other baseball news that caught my eye.\u00a0 With the absolute deluge of baseball news, rumors, and unbelievable FA signings this week I frankly got lost in the shuffle, so most of these items are from the weekend and early this week.\u00a0 Hopefully you know by now about Reyes, Buehrle, Wilson, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1390,5,534],"tags":[123,140,506,72,365,265,53,426,101,961,135,52,436,795,528,64,114,442,507,526,530,302,113,532,110,177,880,531,339,524,364,51,533,36,19,529,463,38,853,147,393],"class_list":["post-3255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonnatsbaseball","category-hall-of-fame","category-natsgeneral","category-weekly-news","tag-albert-pujols","tag-amanda-comak","tag-ben-goessling","tag-brad-meyers","tag-bud-selig","tag-byron-kerr","tag-cj-wilson","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-collin-balester","tag-craig-kimbrel","tag-danny-espinosa","tag-drew-storen","tag-erik-komatsu","tag-giancarlo-stanton","tag-heath-bell","tag-hector-nelo","tag-ian-desmond","tag-jeff-passan","tag-jim-bowden","tag-jim-riggleman","tag-john-manuel","tag-jon-heyman","tag-jose-reyes","tag-josh-reddick","tag-keith-law","tag-laynce-nix","tag-lewis-yocum","tag-manny-ramirez","tag-mark-buehrle","tag-pete-kerzel","tag-rob-neyer","tag-ross-detwiler","tag-ryan-kalish","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-sammy-solis","tag-sandy-leon","tag-stan-kasten","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-tommy-john","tag-wilson-ramos","tag-yoenis-cespedes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3255"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7558,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions\/7558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}