As much as I whine and moan and complain, I figure I ought to be fair and say "nice job" when a nice job is done.
The Nats did a nice job last night. Not on the field, of course. No runs after loading the bases in the first, couldn't get Detwiler a victory despite a solid effort. The usual there as the team tries to get to 50 losses before it gets to 20 victories.
No, the nice job was getting the game started quickly after the rain.
This was a spur-of-the-moment trip. The tickets were part of my plan but I didn't think I'd be able to make it to my first T-Shirt Tuesday. Worked it out, rode up with a friend, we got there at 5:30 just in time for it to open up on us. It rained hard, for a long time. We were preparing to bail when it stopped. We figured it would take at least an hour to get the field ready.
Nope. They did it in 35 minutes. So we stayed. They sprung into action at the first chance and got it done.
We went to the Red Loft along with 10,000 or so others to watch the draft. My bud is a Royals' fan - and not terribly happy about the choice of Aaron Crow. Not to be petty, but it didn't disappoint me that he fell three slots lower than where he went last year.
My friend posed an interesting question - suppose he is available at the Nats' second slot (which turned out to be the case). Not sure if he signed that deal giving the team permission to take him. Let's say he did. You take him? Moot point now, of course, but it killed a little time. My thought was sure, if the team was still convinced he could help. If he's a real live player, put the past in the past and get it done. That said, I'm not disappointed he's going elsewhere.
Someone tell me something about this Storen kid. Should we like that pick?
We were also convinced, for no real rational reason, that Strasburg was in the house last night. We figured they'd trot him out to his future fans, get us something to be excited about since what's out there now isn't getting much done. OK, so we were wrong.
One other thing while I'm being all happy pappy today - I love the whole T-Shirt Tuesday thing. I'm still trying to get my hands on some of the older ones, especially the Cinco de Mayo Teddy shirt. Love the sombrero hanging off the W on the back.
6 comments:
I'm willing to be the spiteful one and say that I hope the Aaron Crow signs for less than the Nats offered last year. I'm not saying it's all on him, but at the end of the day he turned down a pretty nice offer.
He turned down an exceptional offer - 1.4 million over slot. I'm on record as saying I don't blame the Nats on that one. Not one bit.
For the record, the Nats did not have Crow's permission to be redrafted by them last night. There were stories a few weeks ago saying they would be asking him for that permission, but Rizzo said in his press conference after the #10 pick last night that they did not have it. So presumably Crow was asked and Crow declined.
Yeah, I saw the reports a few weeks ago that such permission was needed. Odd rule? Never saw a follow-up before this a.m. whether it was granted.
So as I noted, moot point. But it made for some interesting discussion during the wait between picks 1-10. We could only ask, "Are they going to play tonight?" so many times.
Wonder how much the slip from 9 to 12 will cost him. 1.5 million?
I think the rule requiring teams to get permission to re-draft players they don't sign the first time around is for the protection of the player. Otherwise, teams could draft players with the intent of not signing them, perhaps to keep them out of the hands of other teams or to spite an agent, knowing that they could draft them again the next year if they were still available and wanted. Or, repeat the process even. Without this rule, a vengeful team could really screw up a young kid's career.
I get that - but a team would be screwing itself, too. Badly. So I'd worry a lot about a team with that kind of mindset.
Storen already signed. Hmmmm. Seems singability WAS a factor with later picks, not that there's anything wrong with that.
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