"Baseball will start this week but will it? The Nats are a team in limbo in every way. They have no home station. They have no home coverage. Under new leadership they have no direction (yet). They have an ownership as stable as the next rumor that they are trying to sell. They are a baseball team this year because they were a baseball team last year and baseball teams just don't go away."
"This Spring will be an exercise in finding the bright spots. In again looking for what might be part of the next great Nats team and evaluating them. In again scouring the minors for any unexpected bright spot that can make you think tomorrow will be better than today because today should be very bad. In again trying to figure what the Nats can get for their tradeable assets."
"It'll be about staying out of the league cellar, the division cellar, and maybe sneaking into 4th. It'll be about being a feeder team in August and playing spoiler in September. It'll be about the baseball happening around the Nationals more than the baseball happening within. It'll be about Cade Cavalli and James Wood and Dylan Crews and Brad Lord and Daylen Lile and Brady House"
The Nationals face profound instability: no home station, no home coverage, uncertain leadership and ownership, yet they remain a baseball team by continuity. Spring will focus on identifying bright spots, evaluating young players, scouring the minors, and determining trade value for expendable assets. The realistic goals are avoiding league and division cellars and possibly finishing fourth, while acting as a feeder club in August and a spoiler in September. Attention centers more on surrounding baseball activity and prospect development than on immediate team success. Expectations lean toward a mostly poor but emotionally invested season anchored by hopeful prospects.
Read at Natsbaseball
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