The Link Dump

Spring Training slowly slinks on, seducing you you with thoughts of summer and games that mean something. In the meantime, there's not a whole lot going on. The few positional battles we have are at the margins, mostly. And the players are still working their way into game shape.

I've been trying to get away from the link dump-style blurbs, but there are a few important things that aren't worth a full entry.

• And then there were three: the ubiquitous HKO, Miller-Park-Responsible Harwood K. Smith, and the non-baseball-experienced Skidmore Owings. C'mon down! They're the three finalists in the design competition for the new stadium. They survived the initial cuts and are interviewing with the city this week. A final decision is expected next week.
  
  
• In his never-ending quest to write about everyone associated with the team (next up, Eddie Yost's barber), Barry Svrluga profiles former Cardinals hitting coach, Mitchell Page, the Nats' new minor-league hitting instructor. Page, who's battling alcoholism, was fired from the Cardinals at the end of last season.
  
  Hopefully some of the Pujolsian magic rubbed off on him.
  
  
• The Times is apparently living on the same green-skied fantasy world Tom Boswell used to occupy.
  

  If Wednesday's exhibition opener was any indication, the Washington Nationals could have the makings of a formidable regular lineup this season.

  
  Yeah, they scratched out a few runs against the ass-end of the Mets pitching staff. Woohoo! Start designing the RinGzZ baby!
  
  Frank Robinson only drank half the Kool-Aid.
  

  "Does it match up with other teams in our [East] division or in the National League? Maybe not," Robinson said yesterday. "But it's still a vast improvement, I think, over what we had last year. And from top to bottom, it may be the best lineup we've had in the three years I've been here."

  
  Somewhere in Anaheim, Vlad Guerrero, and quite possibly, Orlando Cabrera are shaking their heads in disbelief.
  
  Actually, the rest of the article is pretty fair, looking at the lead-off question again. It also features a quote on Endy Chavez from an anonymous team source: "I want to see adjustments there," one club official said. "I haven't seen them."
  
  I wonder if the source's name is Bim Jowden? Tim Rowden? Kim Loudon? We can only hope.