More on the Nats

Julian Tavarez was signed to a minor league deal worth $500k if he makes the team. Signings like this are essential to baseball teams-he helps fill out AAA and will create competition for ML spots both in Spring Training and the regular season. And, as Svrluga mentions in Nats Journal, he had a 3.98 ERA against the NL last year, so his 5.10 overall ERA is a little misleading. What makes a bounceback more probable: a 4.16 FIP last year. Between Bill James, CHONE, Marcel and ZiPS, his expected ERA is about 4.64 next year. Pencil me in for 4.50, tops.

Ladson notes on his blog that McGeary is not dropping out of Stanford completely, but rather sitting out the Spring quarter so he can pitch for a pretty much full season. Smart move by McGeary, as he's already way ahead of his class load (wish I could say the same about myself, and I'm not a professional baseball player for my summer job). He's got 4-5 quarters left (needs 80 more credits, max credits able to be taken per semester=20...he says 4 but that seems too utopian for this Nats fan). Works for me.

And also on Ladson's blog, he puts out his "Dream Lineup":

Harris-8

Guzman-6

Zimmerman-5

Dunn-7

Johnson-3

Dukes-9

Flores-2

Hernandez-4

I like mine with Guzman and Johnson 1-2 and Harris at 8 at 2B...Come on, Bill, how can you leave Millz with Thrillz out of the lineup?