William World News William F. Yurasko's blog v.14 – Nats, Penn State, Redskins, greater DC , travel, more

Arbitration run-down: everybody eligible except John Lannan and Michael Morse (Nationals Journal, The Post) have agreed to contracts. Payroll is up above $70 million. Neither of those guys needs to be locked-up long-term in my mind.
Tyler Clippard returns with a one year deal. (Nats Insider)
Newly acquired Gio Gonzalez will get $42 million through 2016 with [...]

Does it figure that the day that overwhelmed sports radio host and occasional Post columnist for topics other than the NBA, Mike Wise, writes a column on how great Ryan Zimmerman is that the Washington Nationals third baseman commits the throwing error that cost the Nats the game? Of course it does!
I don’t argue Wise’s [...]

Since I last blogged about the Washington Nationals, they finished 6-5 on a western swing, splitting with the Arizona Diamondbacks (lots of HBP on both sides), losing 2 of 3 to the San Francisco Giants and taking 3 of 4 from the San Diego Padres. They are about halfway through an odd stretch of schedule [...]

I did not see or listen to the Washington Nationals at all this weekend — a young son who loves “CHOO CHOO TRAINS!” (more later) and attending a Kentucky Derby party took just about all of my attention. The good news is that without my attention, the Nats managed to take 2 of 3 against [...]

The Washington Nationals just had another interesting weekend, beating the reigning World Champion San Francisco Giants 3 out of 4 times in a wraparound series. DC got strong pitching every game of the series with Jason Marquis getting a complete game shutout on Friday night, John Lannan taking a hard-luck loss on Saturday because the [...]

Entering the sixth inning, there seemed to be a collective awareness of twitter that Washington Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmermann had not allowed a runner to reach base. So, two pitches later Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz reached all the bases when he homered. That would prove to be enough for the visitors, but two errors [...]

I have a problem with the Washington Nationals. Every time I watch them, they lose. I watched them Saturday night and they blew it, on Friday and Sunday, I just listened to them on the radio and MLB audio and they won. Obviously, the outcome of the game is dependent upon whether lay eyes on [...]

I’ve already covered Opening Day and the day after the day after opening day which was known as game 2 of the 2011 Washington Nationals season. Sort of, the latter there was mostly an anecdote about Larry King at embarrassing himself during an intermission of a Washington Capitals game before I was old enough to [...]

I have gone back and forth on the Washington Nationals this offseason. They improved 10 games in 2010, despite a disappointing starting rotation. This season, the best part of 2010’s rotation, Stephen Strasburg, is recovering from Tommy John surgery. However, I expect the rotation to improve even without Strasburg. I expect a bounce-back season from [...]

THOMAS BOSWELL: Are better days ahead for the Nationals? – The Post
After seeing Jordan Zimmermann pitch well against the Detroit Tigers (their Opening Day lineup), Bos is back on the Washington Nationals getting better bandwagon after panicking last week. Now, Bos of all people should know not to put too much faith in spring training [...]