Nationals Daily Evolutions 11/1/10

Watching the other local sports teams has made me realize how much I miss the Nationals. The Redskins once again attempted to fool everyone by adding one big name player at a skill position while failing to address serious issues at the offensive line, defensive line, wide receivers, secondary, and running back, and the one position that they did address is still an issue. McNabb might be better than Jason Campbell, but not by as much as people thought. The Capitals are good and will be fine. They have just looked slightly out of sync to begin their season. But it is an issue people should have seen coming. They are relying on three rookies to fill holes. Those rookies could be better than any veteran they brought in, but right now they are still growing and as Nationals fans we know all too well about growing pains. I don't even want to mention the Wizards. Aside from John Wall they don't have a single player that should be starting in the NBA. 

I think it is for this reason that I want to off-season to get kicked into gear, but until then we have stories of Bryce Harper's exploits in the AFLto keep us occupied. On Saturday Harper hit his first professional homerun. A no doubt line drive off of some red tin roofing in right field. --Ben Goessling from masnsports.com

Video evidence of aforementioned homerun. --nationalsenquirer.com     

And Bryce Harper is so impressive that even when he isn't going 3-5 and caving in red tin roofs he is making people verklempt. --Bryan Smith at fangraphs.com

Harper isn't the only National impressing people down or over in the AFL. As Burgess and Norris are showing people what they are made of. --Byron Kerr from masnsports.com

There was a time not that long ago when the Nationals weren't even semi-competent, and some think that was much more fun. --Harper at natsbaseball.com

With the Nationals announcing a redesign of the home jerseys and a 15% discount when trading in an old jersey (my wife can finally get rid of her Austin Kearns jersey) it might just be time to start planning on that new jersey purchase. --Jenn from natsfangirls.com

If teams could make draft picks on what is known now instead of what was known then things would always look different. The Nationals choose Detwiler over Bumgarner and right now that looks like a bad choice. I am not as eager as some though to label guys like Detwiler and others failures. Let's see what happens if he actually stays healthy and has some time to put up some stats. --David Lint from flotn.com

General Baseball

Bumgarner and Posey formed one of the youngest batteries in World Series history in route to a 4-0 win and 3-1 series lead over the Texas Rangers. I do not think Lee will have another off night tonight, and Wilson vs. Cain is a pretty even match-up while Sanchez vs. Lewis could be a mismatch in the Rangers favor. This series might not be as over as some people think. --Joe Lemire at si.com