Nationals Daily Evolutions 11/2/10

Seeing as there won't be any Major League baseball until the most beautiful words are uttered at the end of winter, and pitchers and catchers report to Florida and Arizona. I think starting with the non-Nats news today is just fine, as the Giants are your 2010 World Series champs on an Edgar Renteria homer. This Giants team winning just seems unusual, but it is also telling. When looking at a team pitching is often ignored and the offense is the focus. --Joe Posnanski from si.com 

Now to the Nats news. With Pat Listach leaving for the Cubs is Adam Dunn soon to follow? --nationalsenquirer.com

The Nats say they already have the replacement and as soon as Listach leaving was announced it was announced that former Nats first base coach and now former Phillies coach Davy Lopes was a free agent. --Aaron Gleeman from nbcsports.com

With the McNabb controversy in Ashburn a fun look back at when the Nationals had fights between management and players. --Mark Zuckerman from natsinsider.com

Daily AFL news is that Derek Norris continues to mash top pitching prospects in the desert. Remember when the Twins were trying to get Cliff Lee Ramos was the centerpiece. Obviously it wasn't enough, but I don't think there is a pitcher with the talent of Lee out there to be traded for. --Robert Emrich at mlb.com

Instructs have also been going on this whole time, but with no Bryce Harper no one has paid attention to notice that some of the Nationals infielders are continuing to do well and develop. --Byron Kerr from masnsports.com

More on the minor leagues as the first half was nothing special for the P-Nats, but with the influx of young talent from Hagerstown they were able to make the playoffs based on their second half record and eventually win the title. --Sue Dinem at nationalsprospects.com

Zimmerman almost wins another award and more after the jump.      

Zimmerman finishes second to Evan Longoria for the fielding bible award in an extremely close vote. --actasports.com

Break down of the voting, and it can be seen that Zimmerman received more first place votes, but the fans voted him 4th and he received no second place votes. --billjamesonline.net

The Nationals were slightly better than the Giants in the Bowden years, but for some reason didn't draft as well. --Ben Goessling from masnsports.com

General Baseball

If a T.V. show were to receive a 1.4 rating it would be canceled. Meaning it is rather insignificant. So, I am not sure why some people think it is so a big deal that a football game barely beat the World Series. More people like football than baseball, but baseball isn't hurting. It is basically people trying to make an issue where there is none. --Barry Petchesky from deadspin.com

Certain players walk around with a target on their back from the stat community (John Lannan) and when they fail for brief periods of time that community is more than happy to point out that they told you so, but when a player is liked by that community and fails for a brief period of time it is a small sample size. Andres Torres recent struggles in the playoffs are proof of nothing, but perhaps a persons own bias. --Dave Cameron at fangraphs.com

I am never one to mind saying something that could be wrong, but with five days to go until free agency opens I actually expect a few stories today on what the teams should do in the off-season. Of course nothing ever happens until the Winter Meetings. So be prepared for a lot of stories about how team x is dumb for not doing this only for it to happen two months later.