Boswell's Honeymoon

Boswell shows that it's ok for sports columnists to do actual on-the-ground reporting--definitely a lost art in the business.

He writes about the honeymoon the team will have with the fans, and the leeway the people surrounding the team will have and how excited the people working for the team are to play in Washington.

Of particular interest was this little nugget at the end:

"We have the number four overall pick in the '05 draft. In all my years in Cincinnati, I never even sniffed a number four pick before," Bowden said, glad that the Nats had the sport's fourth-worst record last season. "The [small-market] teams that will pick before us may not have the money to sign the [real] number one player. But we probably will. If we get the best player in the draft and it's a starting pitcher, that may be our best acquisition this year."

I don't know what the prospects look like yet, but I hope that this is a sign that the Nats have been given clearance to start drafting players on talent and need, not just on signability. That will do wonders for fixing this farm system on the quick.