With nine Scott Boras clients on the Nationals it is hard to not think that the future of the franchise is somehow tied in with the future of Boras Corp. With that being said it should be important to Nationals fans to understand what makes the man tick, and how he is able to keep getting such good deals for his clients. --Jordan Kobritz at bizofbaseball.com
Yesterday was arbitration day and the Nationals agreed with their two remaining arb eligible players, Slaten and Morse, and the Cubs agreed with Gorzelanny. --Adam Kilgore from washingtonpost.com
The two wins that Gorzelanny might be worth in 2011 won't help the Nationals much, but if the goal is still 2012 he could help then, and let's face it if the Nationals had gotten a couple 2 WAR players last season and had a mid-70s win total Zack Greinke might be here instead of Milwaukee. --Enno Sarris from fangraphs.com
The Gorzelanny trade won't make much of a difference in the standings in 2011 and that might be all that matters in judging the trade. --Dave Nichols at natsnewsnetwork.com
One thing that will be interesting to see in 2011 is how much Pudge plays. As of right now Riggleman says it will be a dead even split, but Ramos or Flores will get more at bats in the second half of the season and Pudge more in the early part of the season. --Byron Kerr at masnsports.com
My favorite all-time weird clause in a contract is when the Cardinals would give Sidney Ponson a bonus for being the NLDS MVP. No such award exists. Current odd contract clauses on the Nationals include Jayson Werth being guranteed number 28 and Wang getting a bonus if he wins the Silver Slugger. --Joe Drugan at section409.com
Prospect rankings are rolling in and these are not that much different than the others we have seen. Bryce Harper continues to be listed as the best prospect in the organization. --Marc Hulet from fangraphs.com
The Nationals haven't announced who will come off the 40 man for LaRoche or Gorzelanny. --nationalsarmrace.com
The Nationals dodged a bullet in not signing Aaron Heilman as a reliever, but the Diamondbacks signed him to be a starter. Anyone out there want to keep saying the Nationals have the worst pitching staff in baseball? --Aaron Gleeman from nbcsports.com
Some people think Ryan Zimmerman is slight better than Evan Longoria, others think Longoria is slightly better, and others still think they might be clones. Either way Zimmerman is not in the top three of most valuable players in baseball. My guess: 1. Pujols, 2. Hanley, 3. Longo. --Jonah Keri at fangraphs.com
Around the NL East
I know a Braves season preview isn't what everyone wants to see, but my friend wrote it so deal with it. --Danny Hong at seatgeek.com
General Baseball
Milton Bradley arrested. --Geoff Baker at seattletimes.com
Gil Meche's lasting legacy will be as a very average pitcher that got a huge contract. --Barry Petchesky from deadspin.com
But he might have been exactly what the Royals paid him to be. --Joe Posnanski at si.com