I know who Matt Purke is, but probably it's because I've lived in Fort Worth the past two years than anything related to the Nationals.

You buried the lead!

they don't get a deal done andZim sticks to his won't-sign-in-season (which I believe) then a Ryan Zimmerman trade at the July 31st deadline becomes a very real possibility, according to my sources. If you wait longer, you get little value and even with 1 1/2 seasons left, you don't get 100 cents on the dollar or anywhere near it.

So now you have to trade your unsignable players a year and a half before they are FA rather than just half a year?

It’s not easy or quick to be a baseball town, especially when only a very few on TV or radio could even tell you off the top of their head who Matt Purke is, where he went to college or (hint) what arm he throws with.

Maybe they will when he actually plays with the big league club or throws an actual professional pitch (other than the AFL).

At any rate, if the Nats want attention, they should either win (working on that, still) or create a sideshow (should've hired Ozzie, or signed Manny, or something).

At any rate, if the Nats want attention, they should either win (working on that, still) or create a sideshow (should've hired Ozzie, or signed Manny, or something).

Washington is still a sports town that's 90% Redskins and 10% everything else. At least with the Capitals tanking and the Wizards dead and buried, the Nats have a shot at taking up much of the remaining 10%, but if they're ever going to rise above that they're going to have to contend into September with either Strasburg or Harper (preferably both) leading the way.

And if they're ever going to be able to compete with the Redskins, they're probably going to have to make the playoffs on a fairly regular basis. Doing it once or twice may get the local media's attention, but unless you're the Redskins, "what have you done lately?" is always going to be the question.

5: I get all that. I'm just tired of the same old point by Boswell over and over again. At least he's not as condescending as he was in '05, when he believed that he had to teach the whole ignorant area what a baseball was.

Now that he's a pro, does Matt Purke wear his cap straight?

The Nats had better win, because they're never going to be able to compete with Dan Snyder in the sideshow creation business. He is the undisputed unified reigning King of the Sideshow.

He is the undisputed unified reigning King of the Sideshow.

He's got his own fiefdom, to be sure, but he falls short of the sideshow legacies of JerryWorld or Just Win Baby (R.I.P.), to say nothing of the T.O.s or OchoCincos of the world. And, not to lump these guys into it, but he's neither Tebowlicious nor Linsane.

Most folks in the Metroplex are now more interested in the Rangers (and Mavs) than in JerryWorld (though they like Cowboys Stadium and all the events it's brought to the area). Once the Nationals contend, then make a few postseason appearances, interest in the Redskins -- aside from the train-wreck sensibility -- will diminish a bit