Speculations

Nationals Make a Splash

The Washington Nationals sent tremors through MLB yesterday with an earth-shaking, market-setting signing.  They sealed their position as the favorites in the NL East, adding to despair in their rivals on this continent and Down Under, by swooping in to pluck the most exciting 30-year-0ld free agent of the season: Kila Ka’aihue.

Sent over the last two years into exile in the Far East, where he honed his craft (.258, .358, .443), Ka’aihue will once again appear on the EFL Free Agent list.

“We Kansans have been resting our hopes on this guy for a decade,” said an owner from the flatter-than-a-pancake state.  “You’d never be able to sneak him in under the radar at the draft!”

“That settles it,” another EFL owner said. “I definitely won’t be using that first round rookie draft pre-emption.  I can’t afford to throw $11,000,000 away on an unproven rookie.  I need to conserve my resources to win the bidding on Kila. No one is more proven than he is.”

The signing, one of two completed yesterday by the Nationals (the other was for a pitcher), left the broader baseball world abuzz.

The redoubtable Jeff Sullivan buzzed about it.

The only question, really, was where he’d end up. People talked about the Tigers. People talked about the Cardinals. The actual team is the Nationals. And from the looks of things, that Nationals team might be a super-team.

I say “might”, not only because baseball is hard to predict, but also because the Nationals are hard to predict… All we know is what the Nationals have at this moment, and what they have is maybe the strongest roster in baseball…

But the next move isn’t clear, and there might not be a next move, if the Nationals decide to charge ahead with the current super-team they’ve constructed.

District on Deck buzzed, too:

(O)ne thing is for certain. Owner Ted Lerner is going for a World Series in 2015 and this could be one of those seasons where it’s championship or bust for fans in the Nation’s Capital…

So did Federal Baseball:

What the move signals, Sherman writes, is that Nationals’ owner Ted Lerner, 89, wants to see a World Series in D.C. in 2015, is “trying to win it all,” in his lifetime and is willing to spend what it takes to give Washington the best possible chance.

That last comment catches the eye, doesn’t it?  An elderly owner desperate to see his team win it all before he dies?  Mike Ilitch isn’t the only one.  Someday this could happen in the EFL, heralded by decisive moves like yesterday’s signing of Kila Ka’aihue and maybe a pitcher.