Baseball Historians

I’ve already talked about how the Nationals rotation is pretty much a wide open contest.  One of the men who will be throwing his name into the hat and fighting for a spot in the rotation is left hander Matt Chico.  Matt Chico was eighth on the list of top Nationals prospects but he’s the top […]

The Nationals signed Dmitri Young to a minor league contract.  This is an interesting deal because I believe it was Jim Bowden who drafted Dmitri Young way back when he was with the Reds.  Young had a breakout season in 2003 for a poor Tiger team and then had decent but injury filled seasons in […]

The Nationals kicked off the beginning of their spring training season today and they did it under new management and new ownership.  This MLB.com column takes a nice look at manager Manny Acta and what went down in the first day of camp.  Talk about a power meeting.  His day opened with a 3 1/2 […]

At this point, when it comes to the Nationals 2007 starting rotation, anything goes.  John Patterson is probably a lock, but after that it’s a crap shoot.  One of the guys who will be fighting for one of those spots is left hander Billy Traber, who’s the highlight of this MLB.com story.
Traber was busy in […]

Nationals president Stan Kasten recently fielded questions by MLB.com.  There’s a lot of good stuff in here, including some nice words about Manny Acta along with spring training plans for the team.  They also ask him about how the Nationals are picked to finish dead last and he answers it as best he can (although […]

How many ways can you hear about a team building for the future?  This time it’s at NBCsports.com and once again, it’s encouraging that they think the Nationals are making some right moves for the future yet it seems like a forgone conclusion that the Nationals will be out of the race by the end […]

Beyond the Box Score recently unveiled their 2007 Nationals team preview.  He actually has some nice things to say about Jim Bowden in a back handed kind of way but the bottom line is, the Nationals have no rotation to speak of BUT, they’re saving money by not going with more established, low end starters […]

The Nationals locked up Austin Kearns for three years and in the process, they’ll avoid arbitration with the oufielder.  Kearns will make $17.5 million over the three years and there’s team option in 2010.
I like this signing.  Kearns has never quite lived up to his reputation (at one time, he was the top prospect in […]

This news about John Patterson is encouraging.  He’s saying his forearm is 100% and that he’s all set to go for spring training.  If the Nationals can get anything close to what they got from him in 2005, I’d be pretty happy.  Even in 2006 he was pretty good until he got shutdown so there’s a […]

The Nationals came to an agreement with outfielder Alex Escobar yesterday.  They’ll pay him $530,000 and in the process, they’ll avoid arbitration with the outfielder.  Escobar has an outside chance of getting a starting job although it’s probably more likely that he’ll start the season as the fourth outfielder with all of the talk of […]

Nationals shortstop Felipe Lopez, who came to the Nationals from the Reds in the awesome trade made last year that also netted Austin Kearns, signed a one year deal for $3.9 million.  Lopez was an All Star in 2005 after his numbers dropped a bit in 2006.  He still scored 98 runs and stole 44 […]