The Nationals look to have improved in several areas while getting weaker at a few, and depending on the moves they have left that level of weakness might not be as dire as some think. Overall it looks as if the Nationals have a chance to improve on their record from the 2010 season. --Mark Zuckerman at natsinsider.com
Extremely early calculations show that the Nationals have improved and with a real 1B that might improve more. --rlyw.net
The bullpen is listed as getting weaker, but I am not so sure that is the case. While Clippard, Burnett, and others might not have as strong of seasons as they did in 2010 guys like Ramirez, Rodriguez, and Kimball are ready to step in and add depth to what was already a deep bullpen. --Byron Kerr from masnsports.com
Carlos Baerga would easily make the baseball hair wing of the Hall of Fame, but as a baseball player he is an easy no, but that doesn't mean his contributions to the game should be forgotten. --Joe Posnanski at si.com
Those with minimalistic taste might like the new Nationals jersey shirts, but others feel that something else needs to be going on. --Cheryl Nichols at natsnewsnetwork.com
Adrian Beltre is the only impact free agent left on the market. --Dayn Perry from foxsports.com
The rest of the free agents are of the bargain variety, but that doesn't mean they can't be useful to a club, and Penny, Eckstein, Rauch, Sheets, and Branyan might be a good fit for the Nationals. --William Yoder at thenatsblog.com
Reportedly Derrek Lee wants to go to a contender* and neither the Nationals or Orioles fit that description. --Ken Rosenthal from yardbarker.com
*I do not like players that want to go to contenders. I would rather have players that want to make a team into a contender and are confident in their own abilities instead of feeling the need to be a Robert Horry. I also feel that if the Twins miss out on Pavano that a guy like Lee could help them in case Morneau isn't healthy.
If the Nationals do end up with Derrek Lee they will have a very right-handed line-up. This won't be an issue if the right-handers can hit right-handed pitching well. --Ben Goessling at masnsports.com
New Nat Matt Antonelli and I should play golf together it seems we would have the same way to fix the issues with the clubs that insist on hitting the ball in the wrong direction. --Matt Antonelli from matthewatonelli.com
It may not come down to the Nats settling for Nick Johnson or Casey Kotchman as Troy Glaus could be a one year stopgap at first. --Ben Nicholson-Smith at mlbtraderumors.com
The Nationals are going to need all the help they can get offensively as they didn't do a good job in getting guys on base and when they did they didn't do a good job of getting them in. In 2011 the Nationals are hoping for impacts from several young players in order to have a deeper line-up that isn't the 3-4-5 and pray of last season. --Jesse Wolfersberger from fangraphs.com
The 2010 rookie class has the chance to go down as one of the best ever. --Ian Browne at mlb.com
Yunesky Maya missed an entire year of baseball because of his defection to the Dominican and while Cuba has a plan to share in the profits of Cuban ballplayers it might not be a feasible plan due to the US embargo against the Cuban government. --Jeff Passan from yahoosports.com
One overlooked aspect of baseball teams is how they added payroll throughout the season. Looking at the end of year payrolls is one way to see how things have changed. --Maury Brown at fangraphs.com
Rob Dibble being Rob Dibble is one of the best sports media moments of 2010. --Richard Deitsch at si.com
Adam Dunn leaving the Nationals and Strasburg's TJS are two of the worst moments of the year in D.C. sports. --Daniel Victor from tbd.com
The arrival of Harper and Werth and the debut of Strasburg are some of the best moments of the year in D.C. sports. --Dan Steinberg in The D.C. Sports Bog