Super Bowl L is over at last. It's the unofficial start of baseball season. Grapefruit and Cactus League camps will be getting underway in less than ten days. There have been lots of changes since last year, with the Cubs now seen as having a legitimate chance to end their 108-year wait for a World Series Championship. Of course, 29 other teams will have a say in that, but I just want to say how great it feels to know that the Summer Game is back on the front burner again. Here's to an exciting 2016!

Hard to talk baseball when the mercury is plummeting and more snow is on the way. Tell those folks in Viera to send some warm stuff up our way.

Glad I was able to go get my Jayson Werth Walk-Off Bobblehead at last this past week. It's a little bit odd, but not as odd as the original version. Looking forward to a Trea Turner Bobblehead soon!

zzzzz...zzzzzzzzzz...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Baseball is the only sport I can really enjoy. I was never able to play other sports because I was too slow, too weak, & a little out of shape.

Baseball allowed me to get a letter in HS, so it was good to me.

I'll be at Nats Park downing wieners & golden liquid, after I leave the men's room, I might actually eat some hot dogs & drink beer too.

Football is an awful sport. The Super Bowl is like the end of a long hibernation. I'm glad that even workouts and practice baseball will be back in some places soon. It's a sign that life has meaning after all.

I think they should re-sign Ian Desmond. We might not really need him, but somebody will by August 1 and we can get a haul for him then.

I don't think we'll sign him before June, just out of hopes that someone else will and we get the extra draft pick. Otherwise, he's not a great bet at this point. The errors are not a problem actually, as his defense overall is pretty good. The strikeouts are a problem though. You can't strike out 180 times a year and have an everyday job in this league. It had looked like he'd figured things out a couple of years ago, but then there was a regression. Whatever his future is at this point, I'd say the odds are slim that it will be here.

I thought Desmond would end up in San Diego for sure, but they went in a different direction. Now it looks like the Rays are moving on, leaving the White Sox as the only team thought to have actual interest pending some other shortstop getting hurt. That's not how it was drawn up last Fall. And to think that he turned down the Nationals offer of 7 years and $107 million at this time just two years ago. That might have been a mistake!

A bird in the hand Wrote:
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> I thought Desmond would end up in San Diego for
> sure, but they went in a different direction. Now
> it looks like the Rays are moving on, leaving the
> White Sox as the only team thought to have actual
> interest pending some other shortstop getting hurt.

That's why I think the Nats should sign him. There may not be big interest in him right now, but there will be be the first time the starting SS for a contending team goes down. Having Desmond in the stable could put us in the driver's seat.

I would think that the hope/plan is that Trea Turner will play well enough to win the starting SS job out of Sprig Training. If he can do that, it would put Espinosa back on the bench and turn Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan into trade-bait or waiver candidates. If Turner needs some more Triple-A time, then those three guys (plus Wilmer Difo) hold down the fort until he's ready. Either way, having Desmond in the mix as well would just make everything messier.

Navy Yarder Wrote:
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> That's why I think the Nats should sign him. There may not
> be big interest in him right now, but there will be be the
> first time the starting SS for a contending team goes down.
> Having Desmond in the stable could put us in the driver's seat.

The Nats only get the extra draft pick if Desmond signs somewhere else by June 9. If it gets close to that date and he's still a free agent, it would seem to make
sense to try to sign him and later trade him. That way the Nats would get at least something for him. No telling how those negotiations would go however. I agree that he would take up playing time we need for others in Spring Training. Less than a week to go now until teams are back on the field.