General Sports Water Cooler

Dont' care or like it. If he's a Cowboys fan be a Cowboys fan...

Wouldn't be fair to the rest of baseball.

If two of these three come up semi-big this season, it will be a season to remember even after the Nationals lose in the 2012 WS: Ramos, Espi or Desmond...

From Klaw:

The Washington Nationals really jumped the gun in signing Ryan Zimmerman to a six-year, $100 million contract extension over the weekend, since he wasn't due to hit free agency for two more years and is coming off a disappointing, injury-plagued season.

Absurd "face of the franchise" arguments notwithstanding -- fans root for laundry, not faces -- Zimmerman should have had to demonstrate his ability to stay on the field and recapture his old value on defense before Washington made a long-term commitment to him. Even though the salaries on the deal are reasonable if he stays healthy and declines at a normal rate, there's too much risk here for the team given what we've seen from Zimmerman in the last 18 months.

When healthy, Zimmerman is an MVP-caliber player thanks to solid offense and plus-plus defense that helped him produce back-to-back 7-WAR seasons (per Fangraphs; Baseball Reference rates his defense quite a bit lower). But Zimmerman wasn't healthy last year, which was the second time in the last four seasons he failed to qualify for the batting title, on top of a September 2010 rib strain that ended his season. Players do not typically become less prone to injury as they age, and injuries tend to force players to move to easier positions on the defensive spectrum; in Zimmerman's case, a position switch, likely to first base, chews up an enormous chunk of his value. Waiting to see if Zimmerman, who set an artificial "deadline" that would have been best ignored by the Nationals as the fan-trolling maneuver it actually was, could have a full, healthy 2012 before paying him would have been a much more prudent strategy. And since he wasn't due to become a free agent until after 2013, the Nationals had time to defer a decision here -- or to trade him next offseason if his demands became unreasonable.

That said, this isn't the Ryan Howard fiasco all over again. Zimmerman has injury issues, but plays a skill position, plays it very well, and will be 29 in the first year of the extension, so the Nationals get the tail end of his peak plus his early decline years. Howard was already a poor defensive first baseman with platoon issues when Philadelphia gave him the keys to the vault, and he'll be 32 this year in the first year of his new contract. He'll also receive substantially more money per year despite a history of less production than Zimmerman, and his deal only includes decline years rather than peak. Zimmerman's deal was premature, but Howard's was crazy.

The most common question I got after word of the extension leaked out was what this means for Nationals prospect Anthony Rendon, and the answer is ... nothing.

Rendon, a gifted defensive third baseman with plenty of potential to hit and get on base, has yet to take his first pro at bat, yet fans are already clamoring for him to change positions or hit the trade block. For one thing, he's probably two years away from the big leagues, by which point Zimmerman might be heading off third base for age or injury reasons. For another, Rendon himself is hardly the picture of health, with two major ankle injuries and a shoulder problem just in the last three year. And those ankle injuries make suggestions that he should go to second base seem particularly misguided. (When a player has already shown a propensity to blow out his ankles, do you really want runners plowing into him as he learns to turn the pivot on double plays?)

"Storen and Rendon"

"There's absolutely no reason for the Angels to trade Peter Bourjos. The fact that other teams are interested in him just tells me that he's probably going to get even better."

"Maybe for a super-prospect like Bryce Harper..."

"I'd take Rendon from the Nats. Moustakas from the Royals."

"Matt Moore, straight up"

i think law's assessment is fair and bourjos should command something pretty valuable in return

well it was just announced today that Bourjos thinks he needs hip surgery next offseason. Says he's 100% now, but he is going to need to get it corrected.

Question of the Day:

If you could guarantee one National making the All-Star team this year, who is it? And you can't say anything stupid like Bryce Harper.

Werth since it makes his contract look less LOL ridiculous

Morse is a close second for me.

Boner