How about Sanford "Sandy" Koufax? Won 27 games with a 1.73 ERA in his age 30 season and never played again.

I was at that game. It was a fun night, even if the O's lost.

Just wanted to point out that last year was Jordan Zimmermann's second season after the Tommy John surgery, and Zimmermann threw 195 2/3 innings and made 32 starts. I'd expect them to treat Strasburg pretty much the same way in 2013.

Best Starting pitchers of the 1980s... Wins: Morris (162), Stieb (140), Welch (137), Fernandomania and Charlie Hough (128), Blyleven (123), Nolan Ryan (122), Clancy (119) and Viola (117). Starts: Morris (332), Stieb (331), Clancy (317), Ryan (314), Bob Welch (311), Bob Knepper (306), Frank Tanana (304), Floyd Bannister (294), Doyle Alexander (289) and Blyleven (288) Strikouts: Ryan (2167), Valenzuela (1644), MOrris (1629), Blyleven (1480), Welch (1457), Carlton (1453), Stieb(1380), Hough (1363), and Mario Soto (1360). ERA (Min 1000 innings - it is a decade afterall): Gooden (2.64), Hershiser (2.69), Clemens (3.06), Righetti (3.08), John Tudor (3.13), Dave Dravecky (3.13), Nolan Ryan (3.14), Valenzuela (3.19), Welch (3.21), and Sid Fernandez (3.22). So, looking at the numbers, you could make the case for Jack Morris, Nolan Ryan, Bob Welch and Fernando.

Cray question, IIRC, he got some innings at SS in the 2012 spring training. Does he have the skills of an MLB SS?

Is Rendon's swing just regular "sexy" or is it "saxy as sh1t"?

If you go with the plan that you don't want to increase a "young" pitcher's innings by more than 50 in a year, Zimm'nn is OK for ~210 innings this season.

What I think is interesting is that many people are faulting the Nats for replacing Strasburg with Lannan in September while at the same time advocating that the Nats should have replaced Strasburg with Lannan in April... A win is a win. The Nats are in the position that they are in now because of the games that they won in April and May.

As a Nats fan, I also realize that pitching Strasburg until we make the playoffs, and then throughout the playoffs doesn't guarantee victory. We could ride him into the NLCS, have him get hurt, and we lose anyway - or not get hurt. Or get hurt and win. Or we lose, and he gets injured next Spring because of the workload. Taking Strasburg off the Nats isn't the same as taking Peyton off of the Colts for the playoffs.

How about this, to assuage the umpires union, hire another new, full, four man crew. Put them in the regular umpire ration, with a new stop. MLB HQ. All four umps are watching all the games, and are able to chime in when needed. Instead of having Joe West waddle across to the diamond to say that he had a better view, he doesn't. The four man crew in New York gets the replay from 7 angles and the super-slo-mo, and makes the right call.

Kennys hit a long, high home run to right center on Sunday as well.

My favorite Jason Parks piece yet.

Maury, you quoted that MASN would prefer that the "increase should be more like $35 million" - would that make the Nats rights be $64M? Or did you mean a tiny bump from $29 to $35? You didn't note that the ad hoc TV Committee included the Rays and the Mets. Don't both of those teams have an interest in keeping the Nats/O's TV money lower? Shouldn't MLB at least have picked teams out of the Nats/Os Divisions?

Would A.C. Power be better than A.D.?

Looking at who the Nationals have in camp, it looks to me that they are counting on Harper coming north - if not right out of Spring training - but very early on. They'll have Michael Morse and Jayson Werth at 2 of the OF spots. There are no other 1st division starters on the roster. Mark DeRosa, Mike Cameron, Roger Bernadina, Jason Michaels... meh.

I just want to throw in one more underrated (IMO) baseball movie - "Long Gone" with William Peterson.

Question for Maury - would Bud have the same problems as he has in LA if MLB just stayed out of the ownership transfer and let teams sell to the highest bidder(s)? Or could it be worse?

It would be a crime if Bud ended up in the Hall of Fame and Marvin Miller is still left out.

I'd love to get my hands on the early, early, late 1970's abstracts from Bill James. I've seen them online, but they were photocopies (not originals) and too expensive.

You can talk about Goose's troubles closing out the Bucky Dent game - but Gooose did get the ball with 8 outs to go. Looking at Goose vs Mariano and using only their appearances as relievers, Goose faced 6.64 batters per appearance. Mariano faced 4.44. Goose gace 1826 more batters in 65 fewer relief appearances. Plus, Goose had the better facial hair. To quote harry Doyle in Major League, "When this guy sneezes, he looks like a party favor."

You mean the late Jose Lima?

It would take longer to ask for: Romeo-Zulu-Echo-Papa-Charlie-Zulu-Yankee-November-Sierra-Kilo-India than for that guy to get warm.

No love for the "Mad Hungarian" - Al Hrabsoky? http://brettkiser.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/hrab.jpg That's iconic right there.

Batted .320 for a bad Nats team was was an All Star rep here.

Love the podcasts. Any chance that you could break them up into tracks? Rather than one, long 90 minute track?

A BP article with an error in the first sentence. Is that a first? The Nats Double-A affiliate is Harrisburg, PA. Strasburg made his rehab start in Hagerstown, MD - the Nats low-A affiliate.

I disagree on the Pujols call. On the replay angle I saw, it looked to me like it directly struck that small, concrete ledge behind the padding. It seemed to ricochet off that concrete as opposed to bouncing off the padding. My question, is why do stadiums (stadia?) have these quirks where the border between a homer and in-play is practically indiscernible?

Last August/September, Nyjer Morgan had a rough week. He cheap shotted the Cards' catcher, Bryan Anderson, but missed him mostly. Two days later he lays out Brett Hayes from the Marlins in a play at home that was mostly clean. But, I think the Marlins were aware of Nyjer's shot at Anderson. So, Riggleman sits Morgan for a game, and on Thursday, Chris Volstad plunks Morgna in a 10-1 game. Morgan steals 2nd and 3rd and does his hulk routine after each swipe - boasting and fist pumping kind of stuff. The Marlins didn't like it - not really baseball smart moves by Morgan running when down 10-1. Anyway, Morgan gets plunked again next time up. Morgan charges Volstad, but gets nailed by Gaby Sanchez before he canget to Volstad. Benches empty. Morgan ejected - still taunting the crowd.

Edit: Justin Upton was HBP 4 times in the series.

Ramos' homer was amidst a game where both managers and 2 pitchers were ejected for hitting batters. In the 8th, Esmerling Vasquez plunked Danny Espinosa (Nats Jason Marquis and Jim Riggleman were ejected in the 5th for plunking Upton). Ramos was the first batter after Espinosa. Jayson Werth was HBP 3 times in the series. Justin Upton was HBP 3 times in the series.

I think LaRoche still has a clue - but it's the labrum tear. And it's affecting his swing. He's long to the ball now, the tear is (likely) preventing him from exploding at the ball with a short, compact swing. As it is now, it's big and looping and looks to be compensating for the pain in his shoulder. I had my labrum repaired on March 2nd...

I wouldn't make it strictly illegal, but by having an "instant replay booth" you take much of the steam away from the argument. Basically, any time a manager comes out, he is backing his player, or thinking he or someone else had a better angle. But with a replay system, the manager comes out, the crew chief can say, "We looked at it upstairs. The call stands. You can view it after the game. No go back to the dugout." If the manager doesn't want to go back, then he can get himself rung. But again, then, he's arguing without a factual basis and getting tossed for the sake of getting tossed...

I don't dispute your contention that Bud perjured himslef to Congress, but what are the specifics of that statement?

Did Danny Espinosa burn through his rookie eligibility in 2010? If not: he's off to a good start, is expected to play the full season, and has been a reasonably well-regarded prospect...

Shouldn't Hagerstown, MD warrant a trip on Bryce Harper alone?

I think it was also the reason that Mitchell lasted only 1 year as the Nats hitting coach.

You start the article stating that Harper's Spring Stats have "fueled calls for him to break camp with the Nats" - as a DC resident and Nats season ticket holder, I haven't seen anyone in the local media making that statement. I don't mean to sound snarky, but can you share with us who has been saying that he should break camp with the Nats? Also, calling it "drab" - does this article need you to take a shot at the stadium? While the parking garages are drab, they are no less drab than what the developers were proposing to put there. Nationals Park is a fine stadium, callng it drab is unnecessary.

Ruben Rivera also is reported to have stolen Derek Jeter's glove and sold it to a collector. Rivera eventually returned the glove. And was subsequently shipped to the Padres. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E0D71439F931A25750C0A9649C8B63

Is there anyway to download this as a set - and not having to do it team by team?

So, this is saying that was an actual foul ball hit to Broderick?

hammel's splits for 2010: Home ERA: 4.08 Road ERA: 5.56 They were pretty much the opposite, I just don't have the confidence that Hammel will be better than any of the current options: Lannan, Livo, Zimmermann, Marquis, Maya... Sure, he's better than Stammen, Martin, Martis, Atilano... But I think Hammel's skills aren't that unique. Besides, he seems like the kind of pitcher that will blow up when he gets to Washington.

From the Nats perspective, is Hammel that much better than the rest of the #4/#5 starters that they have? I'm not overselling Desmond, but is a starter with a 4.57 ERA in his 2 seasons as a starter worth a young MI with upside?

I don't know the particulars of Dukes' legal trouble, but he is likely to be behind on his child support payments because the Nats cut him in spring training. Instead of making a little more than $400K as a 2nd year player, he was making peanuts playing Indy ball in Newark.

I love the Top 11 and the Four More that's been added to the list. But what I'd like is a more copy-friendly format. I take all of the top-11s and paste them into Excel where I can then manage all of the lists, sort by organization, position, # of stars, etc. However, the way that it's formatted makes for a good bit of formatting on this end. Any chance that the information could be presented in a nice looking, copy-friendly table?

Nice analysis, I'd be more than thrilled to see Dunn re-up here in DC.

I'm not even sure that he made a clear argument for his case.

I don't think that you have to "hate" Pete Rose to think the lifetime ban is warranted. I don't hate Pete Rose. But he accepted a lifetime ban for betting on baseball. That's bad enough - but then he spent 15 years denying and disparaging MLB for much of that time. Finally, when he decided that he could make money on a book, he admitted to the gambling and then released the book a few days before the HOF voting was announced. It's sad. Put me down for a "No" on the reinstate Pete Rose ballot.

So what if Venable/Rusell is better than what the Reds received. Just because the Reds got a bad deal, doesn't mean the Nats should take one. As for Venable and Russell, to me, they look like league average type players - Venable is pretty similar to Roger Bernadina and relievers with 4.91 ERAs are pretty easy to find. If I'm the Nats, I don't make that deal. I'd rather offer arbitration and take the draft picks for Dunn.

Baseball America posted a nice Q&A about Harper - where Harper had the chance to respond to some of those questions and thought he answered them well. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/draft-preview/2010/269976.html

What can we do to get the Lerners to sell the Nats? They are terrible, cheap, incompetent owners.

Last week, Lannan tweeted that he was golfing with 'jzim' which many (including myself) thought meant Jordan Zimmerman. Lannan tweeted later that 'jzim' was a friend and not the Nats rehabbing pitcher.

Is the arbitration clock a real concern? He has a Major League contract already. According to Cots, he'll get paid: - 2009:$0.4M (pro-rated), - 2010:$2M, - 2011:$2.5M, - 2012:$3M

I cannot see the value of trading picks - I know that McDaniel believes this will be rarely used - even if it is rarely used, it will be devestating. I can imagine plenty of players declining to sign for the Nats/Royal/Pirates. If those teams cannot draft and sign the Pedro Alvarez' and Stephen Strasburgs', they'll never improve. And if picks can be traded, those elite players will rarely choose to go to the Nats/Pirates/Royals. Why would they. The Yanks/Red Sox and Dodgers will continue to be strong and get stronger and the small market teams will never stand a chance.

This Nats draft will look REALLY ugly if they don't sign Strasburg. As for the comparisons to other pitching busts - they are just that, comparisons. You cannot compare him to High School pitchers like Clyde and Taylor. Clyde was in the mid-70s. I would not even compare major leaguers today to major leaguers from the 70s. It's a different game. Taylor got hurt in a non baseball injury - which could happen to anyone at anytime.

That's a fine idea, except.... MLB Teams are not allowed to trade draft picks and are also not allowed to trade drafted players for 1 year after they've been drafted. They are also not allowed to trade the rights to a draft but unsigned player.

At my church (St. Likes Episcopal), there's a small ad in the weekly bulletin to has an Amazon link to use. If you are going to buy stuff from Amazon anyway, why not go through a link that can benefit someone else in a small way. So, if a Nats blogger has an ad, and I'm in the market for something from MLB.com, why wouldn't I buy it through the blog. As long as it is the same cost to the shopper.

The Cruzados Sampler, 6 cigars for $51.95 - that's a pricy smoke.

Adam Dumm led MLB in Home Run distance last year - according to http://www.hittrackeronline.com/golden_sledgehammer.php - at 412.7 FT, they'll fly out of any park. And, Nats Park played to a slight (very) hitters park last year - compared to RFK the previous 3 seasons.

We have a minor league phase in my rotisserie league. I've already stashed him.

Would Stephen Strasburg fall into the "Second Half Studs" category?

Bishop, I\'m with Joe, a rule shouldn\'t be changed if it is accomplishing its original, stated goal and it would disparately effect different people. Why would you change a rule that was working? Especialy, if it will adversely effect those that played by the original rule. True, changing the rule now wouldn\'t take money from Varitek\'s pocket. But, maybe Varitek could have earned more from another team if the other team had been permitted to do a \"sign-and-trade.\"

I think there\'s something going on with him. He suffers freak injury after freak injury and takes at least 2X as long to recover. As a pro athlete, he should be able to recover faster. It makes me wonder what the rest of the story is?

Just an FYI on the Zimmerman comment - the new park couldn\'t help his power in 2007; it didn\'t open until March 2008.

IF you are using Nationals.mlb.com as your source for the 40 man roster, it\'s wrong. For some reason, it lists Odalis Perez and Aaron Boone on that instance of the 40 man. Perez and Boone are free agents, so, the Nats should be at 39 players.