I'm conflicted...I'm already looking forward to next year's MLB Draft and the chance to select a potential true ace in San Diego State's Stephen Strasburg, who enters the new year as the top prospect in the baseball world, since I've already accepted the fact that the Washington Nationals won't compete this season, and I'm left wondering only which of the team's young arms might earn a spot in the starting rotation or which prospect might win a job this Spring, but I'm certainly not worried about even a Wild Card run, let alone a Division title, my expectations for success having been lowered so, so why am I listening to the radio expectantly all day and wondering whether or not the Washington Nationals are going to sign the top free agent on the market (now that CC's in NY), first baseman Mark Teixeira, and why am I dreading the lengths to which the team might go in trying to acquire a marquee player who will enliven the third attempt to make baseball work in the nation's capital...

DC GM Jim Bowden had a live chat at mlb.com this morning, which I was unable to take part in, but both Dave at the Nationals News Network, in a post entitled, "If You're Interested...the Jim Bowden Chat Transcript", and Steven at Fire Jim Bowden, with his, "Jim Chat Transcript" took the time to transcribe the exchange in its entirety, with the highlight for me being what I can only imagine was an attempt at humor by the Nationals' General Manager, who ended the session by writing, as quoted widely by now:

" - j_bowden: 12:07 pm Thanks for being here today with me. Happy Holidays to you and your families... Scott Boras is on the phone, sorry gotta go."

Or maybe it wasn't a joke? At around noon, I heard the first Teixeira news on XM's Hot Stove: Home Plate Update, where it was reported that Mark Teixeira was VERY close to making a decision...That's it?...A little later, ESPN's Karl Ravech reports that Baltimore has the home-town-edge over Teixeira's other options because of the Orioles' proximity to his family home in Severna Park, Maryland, which unfortunately is located some twenty miles closer to Baltimore than it is to DC...

MLB.com writer Tom Singer confirmed the news that ESPN had reported in his article entitled, "Teixeira decision likely coming soon", which reminds everyone of the 28-year-old switch-hitter's comments earlier this winter about wanting to know where he'd play before Christmas, which is the 25th, I'm told, and Mr. Singer's article clarifies that ESPN's Karl Ravech's source was, "'someone very familiar with the negotiations'"...(ed. note - "Do you have to agree with the source on how you describe them, or do you spin a wheel of sobriquets?")...and the most interesting line in Mr. Singer's article, in my opinion, is the admission, at least according to anonymous sources, that the Red Sox:

"...have been reported as willing to go as high as $200 million for the man who has been their Most Wanted since the market opened."

The Yankees, by most people's thinking, are in it almost as an afterthought, as if they can't help but offer money to everyone on the market, while Baltimore's reportedly in the running with a, "seven-year contract for between $140 million and $150 million," according to "an industry source" quoted in Baltimore Sun writer Jeff Zrebiec's article entitled, "Orioles go big on offer to Teixeira"...Meanwhile, out in Los Angeles...(where I thought Teixeira would have landed after he was traded there from Atlanta just last July)...Angels' GM Tony Reagins is quoted stating, in an article entitled, "Reagins, Angels waiting on Teixeira", by MLB.com writer Rhett Bollinger, that he thinks Los Angeles' 8-year/$??-million-dollar offer is, "'...a strong offer and a fair offer, so the ball is in their court.'"

But I keep reading and hearing that Teixeira's desire to remain on the East Coast has narrowed the 6-year Major League veterans' choices to the four franchises located on the right side of the American baseball landscape...So, in the next few days, Washington, DC, (with its (supposedly) 8-year/$160M dollar offer), could be either welcoming its franchise's savior, or lamenting another lost opportunity to begin building the Nationals into a force in Major League Baseball the likes of which hasn't been seen in DC since 1933's AL Division champion Senators*, who were led by first baseman Joe Kuhel, outfielder Heine Manush and shortstop Joe Cronin...and before that the '24-25 Senators*, who were World Series winners and runners-up as American League Champions in consecutive seasons nearly a century ago, when Washington baseball legends Walter Johnson and Bucky Harris and the great Showboat Fisher** played hard ball in the nation's capital...

(ed. note - " - * = baseball-reference.com's Team Pages...** = Great name at least...Showboat only hit .220 in 25 games in '24.")