• This one goes to the local writers who cover the Washington Nationals, or at least to their sources, who predicted, (when writers from out of town said otherwise), that Chien-Ming Wang would sign precisely when he did, within a 7-10 day window after rumors of a deal with the Nats first surfaced, in the middle of the week pitchers and catchers begin to report to Spring Training in either Florida or Arizona. The Nationals inked the 29-year-old right-hander, according to MLB.com's Bill Ladson, to a one-year/$2 million dollar deal, though the team wasn't talking when Mr. Ladson contacted them for his article entitled, "Wang agrees to deal with Nationals".
• Someone in the Nationals' marketing department knew a deal was imminent. I received an email from a member of the DC Faithful who first noticed on Monday morning that Washington's MLB.com Team Store had added Wang and his trademark #40 to the list of names available to fans buying name and # t-shirts. Dan Steinberg, who writes the Washington Post's D.C. Sports Bog, pointed to the customizable shirts and jerseys this morning in a post entitled, "Nats website selling Wang jerseys", which went up just hours before the announcement that Wang had signed came out in the press.
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• MASN "Defining Moment Auditions Tomorrow In DC."
• DC Pro Sports Reports Nationals Blog Review 2010.
• So Long, Doug Slaten.
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• MASN "Defining Moment Auditions Tomorrow In DC."
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• MASN's casting this year's round of Defining Moments Wednesday February 17th, as in tomorrow Wednesday. Cheryl Nichols of the Nats News Network's: Off the Field blog has all the info on locations and times of the casting calls. If anyone from Federal Baseball makes it, I'll design some FB gear for you to sport on TV!!! Click the link in the previous sentence, or if you're not someone who looks back right HERE.
• The DC Pro Sports Report's Mark Buterbaugh published their Nationals Blog Review (2010) yesterday. If anyone new to the online media covering the nation's capital's favorite MLB team is looking for the best sources of news on the Nationals, this is a pretty thorough list.
• In order to add second baseman Adam Kennedy, who officially signed with Washington last Friday, to the 40 Man Roster, the Nationals outrighted reliever Doug Slaten to Triple-A Syracuse this afternoon. DC GM Mike Rizzo claimed Slaten off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks in November. Kennedy flew into DC last week to put his name on a 1-year/$1.25M dollar deal to become the Nats' starting second baseman.