5, 10, 15 no 20

The Nats are starting Spring Training finally. There isn't much news. Strasburg isn't ready - but no one thought he would be.  Outside of that... no Jackson Tetreault? Is that news?  No that isn't news.  Here's the NRIs, 

How does this compare to past Spring Trainings?  Well Barry covered that. You should read that! 

For more of a depth I go into the archives and see what I was talking about in Februarys past

5 years ago - 2018 

I said they should trade Soto for Realmuto. Oops! The Nats needed a catcher and it would be in 2018 where Soto went a 100 MPH from "Hmmm this guy might be something" to "Look out! There's a star-a-coming".  It's still the right bet to make in general.  Four out of 5 times it'll be the right move. But you don't care if "over time across all teams" the move makes sense do you?  Sports isn't macro, it's micro. Soto was the 1 in 5.  

The Nats needed a SP and C and it was obvious. But they didn't deal anyone for Realmuto (Marlins wanted Robles) Instead the Nats signed Miguel Montero. Surely Weiters will turn things around! Waa waaa. At SP I said neither Cole nor Fedde would make it but might as well try out Fedde and get that over with. Didn't know they'd "try out Fedde" for a half-decade. Hellickson would do a decent job but when Strasburg got hurt (SHOCKING) that meant more holes and young Ross, Fedde, and Jefry Rodriguez didn't work and it remained a hole. So the problems we all knew would be problems were problems. Really a failure year by Rizzo where if Soto didn't come up and become SOTO the team might have been under .500.

We actually argued about the OF. I worried Eaton/Robles/MAT/maybe Howie wouldn't work. You guys were more confident. It was kind of a push. MAT wasn't good enough but the rest were. However Eaton, Howie, and Robles all got hurt and Eaton and Howie getting hurt was certainly a concern because of history and age respectively. But this whole thing was rendered moot by SOTO. 

I didn't like the signing of Joaquin Benoit. He became a "mystery National" in that he got hurt in Spring Training and never appeared in a game in the majors or minors. Basically never heard from him again. 

And proving everything new is old, we talked about possible rule changes. 

10 years ago - 2013

The talk was about Bryce. I said don't worry, if you were worried, he'd break out by 2015.  He almost did in 2013 but injuries kept hobbling him until his 2015 MVP season.  I also noted don't worry Strasburg is great. You may have forgotten this as well but until the mold game in 2017 there was real split feelings on Strasburg. Don't make me go back into those comments to prove it!  Guys liked ZNN better - mainly bc he was a surprise doing better than expected whereas Stras was a disappointment doing worse than expected. Even though that really mean ZNN was an A- arm and Stras wasn't winning Cy Youngs.

There was some worry about Gio Gonzalez being linked to that PED-pushing trainer. Remember that? Biogenesis. Never could make anything stick for him unlike the 12 other guys so he was probably clear.

I noted the Nats had crazy pitcher health in 2012 and how impt that was and also how I didn't think they'd do it through 2014. The health held over through 2013 though Haren disappointed (for real not like the Strasburg one) and everyone was a little worse and almost 2014. Both Gio and Fister would get to 25 starts but not 30. 

I said don't worry about Espinosa (OOPS! - hey he was hurt) maybe worry about the pen not having depth - which was true but the back end basically stayed healthy making it moot.  The Danny thing came because everyone wanted Rendon up.  I said we should be patient and in 2013 Rendon was... fine.  He hung in there and proved he was ready for 2014.

15 years ago - 2008 

Nothing. Well actually I was over on something called MVN typing up stuff for no money because I didn't really care. Still don't! But that attempt at a conglomerated site went down like so many others. Shockingly despite intrusive and annoying ads. And I stayed here full time ever since. And blogs have taken off and I'm now a millionaire through... I don't know. Views? Just general payment through the air?