Fouled-Off Bunts: Addition By Subtraction Edition

The NL Central continues raiding the Nationals for their mediocre free agents. First they came for Gary Bennett and Deivi Cruz. Then they came for Junior Spivey. And now, the kindest cut of all, Preston Wilson. He signs a bizarre one-year, $4 million contract with three separate team options with the Astros. Presumably he'd play left, but if a rumored Wily Tavares deal goes through, Preston will get plenty of time in Enron Field's spacious centerfield. At least he won't have to worry about ranging far enough back to actually have to contend with the hill in center.

So let's see... of the two biggest in-season trades that Bowden made, we gave up Tomo Ohka, Zach Day, and JJ Davis and have zippo to show for it? Isn't baseball grand?

Yesterday's op-ed from Bob DuPuy was just greasing the skids for today's move: bringing the stadium deal to arbitration.

I'll have more on the arbitration process later -- and why MLB might not really want to actually go down that route. If anything, it creates another artificial deadline, which they might be able to use for negotiating leverage.

I hope that Marc Tuohey's not too busy.

Continuing the addition by subtraction theme, Ron Darling's leaving for the Mets. If he's the third man in the booth, he could work. But as a lead analyst he ummmm.... was..... welll.... [15-second pause] not ummmm... very good.

Whether you hate unions or are commie pinko scum who should be locked up and flogged with your beloved Karl Marx, you'll be interested in this completely unbiased, impartial letter in the WaPo blaming unions for cost overruns in many of the recent stadiums.

The Times reports something we already knew: That Z-104 would like to carry all Nationals games last year, even the day ones which could be heard only if you lived in one of those aluminum sheds your Grandpa bought at Sears (and assuming it was located withing three or four yards of the WFED transmission tower). They also note that WJFK is interested, but that they haven't actually started talks yet.

Still no news on Comcast....