The Nationals and Dunn's agent have said they have been talking all season. Is it still possible a deal could be reached before Dunn hits free agency? Not likely. --Bill Ladson from nationals.com
The Cubs aren't the only team in a central division that could be after Dunn's services as he appears to be a top target of the Tigers. --Tom Gage at detnews.com
Bryce Harper has arrived in Arizona. --Adam Kilgore from washingtonpost.com
Every interview I read from Harper he sounds like a confident, but down to earth person. It does seem a little weird to me though that he claims to not mind long bus rides. --Byron Kerr at masnsports.com
I never liked the idea of players wanting to play for winners instead of making a team into a winner. There is a name for that and it is Robert Horry. I am glad Bryce Harper would rather be a Kobe Bryant or Tim Duncan than a Robert Horry. An examination of Bryce Harper's confidence and how he thinks he can help turn the Nationals into the Yankees of the NL East. --Dan Steinberg in The D.C. Sports Bog
A look ahead to 2011 and how much payroll the Nats might have to work with. --Mark Zuckerman at natsinsider.com
One off-season dream might have already come to an end. Darvish says he will stay in Japan. one question I have on this is if the Ham Fighters still post him and an MLB team wins the posting what happens? Of course this also could be posturing by Darvish to raise his price once the posting is won. --Craig Calcaterra from nbcsports.com
The Giants are winning with home grown talent and castoffs. Could the Nats be built the same way? --nationalsarmrace.com
Zimmerman and Strasburg are two of D.C.'s power 30 under 30. --Kristen Hudak from masnsports.com
Cliff Lee and the playoffs discussed after the jump, and some fascinating Mets news.
Around the NL East
Woman sues Mets after a large drunken man falls on her. --Aaron Gleeman from nbcsports.com
General Baseball
Cody Ross has been a surprise to a lot of people so far in the playoffs. --Jen Royal at masnsports.com
Cliff Lee was very good last night, but he might not be aware of the history surrounding what he has done. --Jon Paul Morosi from foxsports.com
With the Ranger's T.V. deal, the fact that people seem to keep forgetting the Red Sox have money and would like to beat the Yankees, and not to mention the out of left field clubs that might go crazy in an overspend (Nats included) I wouldn't put Cliff Lee in pinstripes just yet. That doesn't stop other people from claiming every time he beats the Yankees it only makes the Yankees want him more. --Thomas Boswell in The Washington Post
And how do the Yankees feel about all this? It doesn't seem to be the warm and fuzzy feelingpeople might expect when they are watching their alleged future left hander beat their current left hander. --Ben Shpigel from nytimes.com
I have a feeling the Philliesare going to cream the Giants tonight, and not even Cody Ross can stop them. Also does anyone else get tired of hearing about pitchers going on double digit days of rest. It isn't like baseball is played every night at 7:00 PM during the regular season or anything like that. I really wonder what would happen if they shortened the series breaks to one day, started the games at a normal time, enforced the 12 seconds between pitch rule, and didn't lengthen commercial breaks. I would be willing to bet more people would watch the games. At this point playoff baseball is almost a different game. One that borders on unwatchable. Of course I am not sure making the games watchable is the goal. Last night with the biggest team in MLB vs. a pitcher that has been their nemesis the game was relegated to TBS while Fox viewers got to watch new episodes of House and Lie to Me, which I am sure make more money for Fox than baseball.