The Rule 5 protection deadline is next week, and Mr. Boss over at NationalsArmsRace has broken it down as he has every year since 2010 (fun fact*: his site started the same day I assumed full control of this site). I won’t steal his thunder, but I would agree that it won’t be very many, and probably less than most of us think.* Narrator: It’s actually just coincidence.
The better news is that once we find out who’s added, we can start the offseason agenda. I know many of you are champing at the bit to start, but this year the marathon is three miles weeks longer. You can’t sprint through Framingham and expect to get past Newton at the same pace.
Baseball America didn’t put up a free agent tracker last year and probably won’t this year. But if you have a thing for park factors, they’ve got you covered.
I know many of you are going straight to Fresno – the number to look at is the percentile: That’s in relation to all the ballparks while the factor is in relation to the league. For example, relative to the PCL Chukchanski Park is below-average for runs (0.963 vs. 1.000) but in the 94th percentile against all parks. But in general, most of the Nats affiliates play in pitcher-friendly parks (below 50th percentile for runs).
Today, the F-Nats will unveil their new uniforms. Fearless prediction: they will be red, white, and blue with “FredNats” in the since-2009 Washington-style script for the home jerseys and “Fredericksburg” for the road jerseys. Grey jerseys have become less popular for road uniforms, so if they don’t have one I don’t think that qualifies as a surprise.
Finally, both Fresno and Harrisburg will be taking part in MiLB’s Copa de la Diversión. It’s hard not to like something that acknowledges and celebrates the culture of a significant portion of both the fanbase and the players. And if nothing else, teams usually expand their menu, too.