The Washington Nationals, Prince Fielder Rumors And Bryce Harper And Gio Gonzalez On Twitter.

2010 no.1 overall pick and potential 2012 Nats' outfielder Bryce Harper (@BHarp3407) reacted the same way a lot of fans in NatsTown did when they heard about the Nationals' acquisition of now-former A's lefty Gio Gonzalez, writing on Twitter this past Thursday that, "Now all we need to do is get Prince! hah." Precocious kid! Twitter! Hah. So, then on Saturday, a day after Washington officially anounced the deal with Oakland for Gonzalez, the Nats' new pitcher (@GioGonzalez47) took to Twitter, writing to tell all of his followers, "Now that we are in the Nation('s) Capital, we need a Prince. Come on Fielder!"

When the details of the new social media guidelines in the CBA are announced, they might frown upon this sort of thing, but neither player has removed the Tweet from their profiles, and they're really just two voices among many clamoring for the Nationals to try to sign the 27-year-old '02 Brewers' 1st Round pick who's on the market this winter as a free agent after seven seasons in Milwaukee in which he posted a combined .282/.390/.540 slash with a 162-game average of 32 doubles and 37 HR's.

It's not just young and new Nats or fans in NatsTown talking about the possibility of Prince playing in the nation's capital in 2012. Washington Post writer Dave Sheinin considered the possibility recently in a Nationals Journal post entitled, "Some thoughts on Prince Fielder."...

The Gonzalez trade (which sent four Nats' prospects to Oakland, three of them from the last Baseball America Top 10 prospects list) was aggressive and signaled to some that the Nats were going for it now, so adding the best available bat to their middle of their order makes sense, Mr. Sheinin argues, plus the Nationals have the wealthiest owner in baseball and the franchise is expected to have a financial windfall from an expected increase in tv revenue...

But, the WaPost writer suggested, even if the Nats and Prince Fielder's agent Scott Boras, (who's no stranger to Washington with clients like Jayson Werth, Stephen Strasburg, Harper, 2011 1st Rounders Anthony Rendon, Alex Meyer and Brian Goodwin, etc.), were talking, "... it is unlikely to become public knowledge until the very end," just like the Werth talks stayed off the radar until just before the deal was announced. "Boras’s modus operandi when it comes to his biggest clients," the Washington Post's Mr. Sheinin wrote, "is to negotiate directly with ownership, bypassing the general manager." This also serves as a means of limiting potential leaks the WaPost writer notes in the article.

FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal was less kind in describing the relationship between the Nationals and Scott Boras as he wrote recently in an article entitled, "Fielder should be Cubs' player to lose", that, "Some executives still expect Fielder to hear from the Nationals," before adding that the Nats have been, "the preferred ATM of the Scott Boras Corporation in recent years." ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick (@JCrasnick) too wrote on Twitter recently that, "Baseball people waiting for Mike Rizzo to 'bail out'' Boras on 1 of his free agents. But $250M for Prince is an awful lot of bailing."

D.C. GM Mike Rizzo was asked again about the recurring rumors on Friday night in a conference call with reporters, and he once again stated that as things stand, 32-year-old Adam LaRoche is set to play first for the Nationals in 2012 in the second-year of the two-year/$16M dollar deal he signed with Washington last winter. "That is correct," Rizzo told reporters, but when asked later in the interview if the Nats were done making moves this winter, the general manager said Washington would be considering all possibilities for improvement and," ... looking at all aspects and if something bigger that's acquire-able is something that helps our ballclub and that fits for us in the long-term we'll certainly look into doing something like that..."

And that was enough to keep hope alive for some. And for those that believe, the Nationals don't have to have a deal with the hard-hitting first baseman done by Christmas morning, but Nats fans might appreciate a card with a picture of what was supposed to be under the tree...It doesn't matter what anyone says, this chatter won't stop until Prince Fielder signs...somewhere...