The Nats chat boards are all afire about the EJax signing (the Nats tried hard to acquire him 2 years ago from AZ for Dunn), and the Lannan arbitration win. Kinda amazing coincidence on that timing, as the obvious addendum to the EJax news is that
the Nats are now shopping Lannan. He's a quality #4-type LHSP with a 3.6 ERA (not a heavy K's guy though), and a reliable 190 IP/year horse. 2 years of team control remain. Also supposedsly a nice guy (good chemistry). The Nats could hang on to him, at least until ST as "injury insurance" and to see what the market looks like and who becomes desperate for LHSP's, but they really need a quality CF/lead-off hitter. Lots of fans from other teams coming over to check on what it'd take to get him. Especially from BOS, who had wanted EJax, but only for $5M. Amazingly, Lannan will make exactly that amount and is under control for 2 years still. Apparently Red Sox have a AAA SP almost ready for the majors and a former #1 prospect at 1B who Sox fans are suggesting might be a good trade - 1B Lars Anderson (#88 best prospect pre 2010) and Felix Doubront (23 year old big league ready LH SP).
(I agree, but I hope the Nats get a decent CF/OF instead - think Span, Upton, Bourjos - even if an extra body is required... or from BOS think Kalish even or Che-Hsuan Lin).
Some Nats links:
http://www.federalbaseball.com/ (my favorite for fan chatter)
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/washin...als/index.html
http://www.natsinsider.com/
http://www.masnsports.com/
http://www.csnwashington.com/
http://www.thenatsblog.com/
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=was
Interesting stuff. Boy is that going to be a tough starting rotation: Strasburg, J. Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, Ed Jackson and one of Wang/Lannan/Detwiler. They already have a very tough bullpen. Now, just if they could score some runs...
Looking forward to lots of 2-1 games at Nats Park this summer.