Contract Clarification Not "Prior" to Last Post

Just saw this article up on ESPN with Prior's salary. MLB didn't have the info up yet. They're always slow, naturally, because they're only the guy's employer. Makes sense. Anyway, it looks like it's a $1 million base salary with a ton of incentives. He didn't want two years or an option, which were both offered to him by various teams, because he wants to prove himself this year and cash in as a 2008 free agent. Maybe if he's bad this year, and not worth much, we can sign him next year! Or maybe, if we're contenders, we could sign him even if he ends up being good for SD. That's called futuristic thinking.

Prior to Padres

We've lost out on one of our targeted starters-who-have-serious-injury-problems. Mark Prior, the former Chicago Cubs phenom, was signed by San Diego today. I'm wondering how much the Pads paid for him. After all, at the very best he'll be ready to pitch in mid-May. As far as I know, he hasn't even thrown off a mound since 2006. Eek! This pretty much narrows the field to Kris Benson, Jason Jennings, Jon Lieber, Freddy Garcia, and if we're really lucky, Bartolo Colon.

Side note/mini-rant: On mlb.com, they have a section on their Hot Stove Report screen listing the four "Top Free Agents." I find their choices of the top guys to be extremely disappointing. Mike Piazza? He's about 88 years old and will probably retire this year due to injuries. Why isn't Shannon Stewart, who hit .290 last year for the A's, on that list?

Jimenez and Fick are Picked Up---Glad to Get Rid of 'Em

As the headline suggests- Robert Fick and D'Angelo "E6" Jimenez were picked up by the Padres and Cardinals, respectively, within the last two days. If you read Barry Svrluga's blog on washingtonpost.com, you will know the origin of Jimenez's nickname. If not, here we go. Svrluga started calling him this in Spring Training this past year, because he was getting so used to writing "E6" into scorebooks when Jimenez was playing. When you're scoring, E stands for an error and 6 is the symbol for a shortstop. You can figure out the rest. Anyway, the name stuck. I don't really see why the Cardinals would want E6. He's really bad and they already have a bad starting shortstop, Cesar Izturis. Jimenez's not a backup really because he can't field (hence the name.) Fick played for the Padres in 2005 before he went to the Nats. He bad, but he is a backup catcher/first baseman after all. He's usable, and had a torrid September with more playing time because of Dmitri Young's injury. Also, Mark Prior seems to be a hot commodity. Generally, the Nats can't afford hot commodities, and especially shouldn't overpay for them when they have one win in the last two seasons combined.

So Elijah Denies It

Here's a quick link to Barry Svrluga's new article on the matter.

Sorry About the Link Error

Our apologies for the link error on the post from 4:17 this afternoon. It didn't actually go to the right page on washingtonpost.com. Here's the correct link for the schedule.

There's Interest in Kris Benson

The Nats are interested in Kris Benson. In my opinion, he's terrible even when he's as healthy as can be. if you want someone injured, at least go with someone who has a little bit of past. Anyway, I don't much like this injured starter shopping thing. I'd much rather put Tyler Clippard out on the mound than an injured Jason Jennings (he of the 6.45 ERA.) Any thoughts? By the way, last week charges were filed by a girlfriend of the Prophet against him for sending her a "chilling" message. Sounds familiar, eh? Anyway, she failed to even show up in court today. Some reliable couple.

Nats to Open Season on ESPN

It's official: The Nationals are to open the Major League Baseball season this year at the new ballpark on Sunday, March 30. The game will be played against the Braves and will be televised nationally on ESPN. Nice job Stan Kasten for convincing MLB and ESPN to get this thing done.
The schedule was released. I think it's interesting how we're playing the Angels again in interleague, while we've NEVER gotten to play the Royals or White Sox. I always thought they tried to spread it out as much as possible.

Welcome!

Welcome to Attack of the Nats, keeping you updated and opinionated on all matters Nationals. We're Julia and Aaron, longtime Nats supporters. Since before the Expos came to D.C. in 2005, we've cheered on the team. In fact, we went to an Expos game in 1999 and, ever hopefully, cheered for the Washington Senators. The few Expos fans at the game thought we were nuts. Although the first season was turbulent, we were thrilled to have a team. Hopefully, this blog can help get them over .500. So please read, comment, and share, and go Nats!

Why the Nats are the Best

On our team:

-2 saviors (Jesus Flores and Jesus Colome)
-1 prophet (Elijah Dukes)
-1 apostle (Paul Lo Duca, even though most apostles don't take steroids)
-1 religious leader (Cristian Guzman)
-The Chief
-The tallest guy ever
-3 Ryans (even after trading one away)