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It is somewhat expected that after a rainy off-day on the last day of September there wouldn't be much news about the Washington Nationals. Stephen Strasburg has come and gone, and sometime towards the end of next season he will rise again. This has been the symmetry that isn't really symmetry that the Nationals have suffered through this season. I am going to write a fanpost that details all these thought and all my reflections back on the year that was. Of course it isn't really over, but it certainly feels over. It is as if these games against the Mets this weekend are some last gasp or muscle twitch of an already stilled corpse.
After depressing everyone let's have a little fun. My computer rebled against me when I tried to watch these ads, but if they are half as funny as the radio ads Zim did then you should watch them. --Dan Steinberg in The DC Sports Bog
New free agent rules were announced yesterday, and they will impact the Nats and Adam Dunn. --Mark Zuckerman from natsinsider.com
Rizzo has said he would like to add a number one starter*. A look at some that the Nationals could add. --Ben Goessling at masnsports.com
*I would also advise not to overlook guys like Pavano or De La Rosa. They aren't true aces, but if they can get hot and stay healthy they can be almost as good as a number one. Also I would have to believe Vazquez could be had for cheap and if he pitches well could be very tradeable mid-season.
Moving forward it is also important to start asking where some of the Nats own players fit in. Like Ross Detwiler, who has yet to show why he was a number one draft choice, but is still too young to give up on. --Mark Zuckerman from natsinsider.com
If Adam Dunn isn't back with the Nationals then who will be at first base. I want to interject my own quick thought here. Would you trade Espinosa for Greinke or Adrian Gonzalez? --Adam Kilgore at washingtonpost.com
Of course the best fit at first might just be signing Adam Dunn. --nationalsreview.com
And how does Adam Dunn feel about all this? He likes the fans, enjoys hitting walk-offs, and thinks Nyjer is funny. --Adam Dunn video blog at masnsports.com
What are your foundest memories of 2010. --Kristen Hudak at masnsports.com
Former MASN analyst, Don Baylor, interviews for Blue Jays managerial openning. --Aaron Gleeman from nbcsports.com
If a prospect does well and nobody is watching should they be ranked? --Sue Dinem from natsprospects.com
General Baseball
Cito Gaston probably deserves more credit for being a good manager. --Jon Paul Morosi at foxsports.com
What happens when the best baseball writer* writes about the best baseball announcer. Magic, and lots and lots of tweets**. --Joe Posnanski
I said this to someone last night and I fully believe it. This is a golden age of baseball writing. There are very talented independent bloggers pushing from the bottom, and some of them even move on to more mainstream avenues of journalism, and then there is Posnanski pulling from the top. His writing ability is the goal. I read a lot of books, and I fully believe that Posnanski isn't just the most talented baseball writer out there, he is one of the most talented writers period. He could write with McCarthy, McEwan, Russo, or Chabon if he decided to write fiction, but he doesn't he writes about baseball and he turns reality into a type of fiction that is somehow larger and greater than life while still being life.
**Seriously after Posnanski posted this there were a million and one tweets. I fully expected the stir about this column to summon the smiling whale.
That is all for today. I hope the Nationals beat the Mets although I might end up paying more attention to Clark Kent and Sam and Dean tonight. This is the fun time of year when I try to watch TV shows and baseball at the same time. I usually end up having the show on TV and baseball on my phone.