Who Wants To Play For the Washington Nationals?
While Washington was busy this afternoon, completing a 1-year/$2.6M dollar deal to bring free agent starter Daniel Cabrera to DC, (as MLB.com's Bill Ladson reported in an article entitled, "Nats ink Cabrera to one-year deal"), the Nationals' stated backup plan for adding a power bat to the lineup suffered a serious blow, as the Los Angeles Dodgers, perhaps frustrated by Manny Ramirez's reluctance to sign a deal to return to LA, emerged as another potential suitor for free agent outfielder Adam Dunn, the lefty home run hitter who has exactly 40 HR's in each of the last four seasons following a 46 homer '04 campaign, (all for the Cincinnati Reds)...
FOXSports.com writer Ken Rosenthal mentioned, for the first time I've heard anywhere, in an article entitled, "Angels standing pat on offense, for now", that the Nationals have shown interest in free agent outfielder Milton Bradley, and Mr. Rosenthal goes on to identify Washington as, (at the point he published), "the only known suitor" for Adam Dunn, after mentioning earlier in the post that the Los Angeles Angels, who had been rumored to be interested, had instead decided to find, "offensive solutions from within."
ESPN.com's Buster Olney brought Washington's search for a slugger up in an article entitled, "Manny solely to blame for his current plight", about Manny Ramirez's inability to find the deal he wants in the current market, mostly, in Mr. Olney's opinion, because of his own past actions, with Mr. Olney writing that:
"The Nationals apparently have money to spend, and in theory, if they were to sign Ramirez, it could be an interesting play. He would be a lure for fans and would give a reason for folks to tune in to watch the Nationals, something that very few people did last season."
Count me as one of the few, (and proud), or 1 of the 9,000 DC tv viewers, who took to calling ourselves by our assigned viewer numbers at some point last season...Also, You might remember, at the end of Washington Post writer Chico Harlan's Nationals Journal post this weekend entitled, "Boras: For Tex it just came down to winning", Mr. Harlan wrote, in the last paragraph, that he had asked Scott "Maximum" Boras, who represents both the new Yankees' First Baseman, and Manny Ramirez, "...twice...whether the Nats had expressed any interest in the 36-year-old slugger. Boras didn't want to comment. Either time." I'm just saying? Manny in DC?
I predict that Daniel Cabrera ends up being the Nationals' premier free agent signing. Notice I'm not ruling out trades...but excuse me, once again...
A note to Mr. Manny Ramirez, from federalbaseball.com:
I promise, (if the DC franchise will provide all financial backing)...DC will give you 2-Years/$50M? That's a serious offer, and $5M more than the Dodgers offered...Whatta ya think, Manny? Then the Nationals can trade Willingham and Kearns to some other team as a corner outfield package....and you, Dukes and Milledge can play left to right in Nationals Park...with Willie Harris as the fourth outfielder?
Dominican Winter League UPDATE...
The Tigres del Licey defeated Aguilas Cibaenas this afternoon by a score of 5-2, (though one run remains unaccounted for in the MiLB.com box score as of this moment.) Anderson Hernandez, who started at second for the Tigres, finished the day 3 for 4 with a double, his 3rd in 3 Dominican Winter League playoff games so far, and he's now hitting .462, for the 2-1 Tigres in Postseason play which started this past Friday. On the mound for Aguilas Cibaenas...our old friend Nelson Figueroa. Figueroa gave up 8 hits, 5 runs and a walk in 2.0 IP...former Nationals' favorite Ramon Ortiz got the start, and the "W" for Licey, which is fitting...