Spring is in the air...

 

(Photo by Nationals Enquirer Staff. Nationals Park might have been buried under a blanket of snow yesterday, but you couldn't help but catch a whiff of spring in the arctic air.)

NatsFest 2010 is a wrap; everyone is saying all the right things.

"It's hard to lose 100 games. It's easy to say we're going to be better than we have been the last two years."
(Ryan Zimmerman, via Nationals Journal, 1/31/2010)

"I don't see why we can't shoot for the stars. Why do you want to limit yourself to 81 wins? Why do I want to limit myself to 15 wins? ... You shouldn't say, 'Oh, let's win 81 games,' because then you're putting a number and you're satisfied with 81 wins. I don't think you should ever be satisfied."
(Jason Marquis, via MASN Sports.com, 1/31/2010)

A few quick comments/observations...

Nationals Enquirer staff attended NatsFest, but didn't arrive in time to register for the Q&A sessions with Rizzo, Riggleman, Kasten, etc.:

(Photo by Nationals Enquirer staff. Oh well.)

*Note: if you bring your 3-year old to NatsFest, be prepared to be sucked into the vortex of the Kids Zone for 2+ hours. 

*To a man, every Nat loves the O-Dog. Let's hope those rumors that Hudson's willing to come down from that $9 million ledge are true.

*MissChatter has a bunch of great photos from NatsFest+ Nats Winter Caravan up. SBF has a bunch up over at Nats320, too. Nationals Pride has a few NF photos posted as well.

*Nationals Pride also has the $15 million quote that sort of but not really sheds some light on the team's plan (lowercase "p") for Strasburg -- but don't forget the giant caveat (in bold below):

"I would say that if he's our best pitcher in spring training -- if he's one of our best five pitchers in spring training -- and we feel he's ready to pitch in the major leagues, then he'll pitch in the major leagues."
(Mike Rizzo, via Nationals Pride, 1/31/2010)

How many days until pitchers and catchers report?

Befriend the Nationals Enquirer on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

Comments

[Hendo]

One wonders whether the team will charge for the Q&A sessions at next year's NatsFest.

[The Nationals Enquirer]

It's a good question. I would've paid yesterday...had to settle for 2 hours in the KidZone...

[Jerry Sparks]

I was able to attend both the Hot Stove Luncheon and the FanFest. Both were fun events. I've posted my pix at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36847584@N04/

[The Nationals Enquirer]

You need to get yourself a blog, Jerry -- nice work!

[Ian]

You're totally right about Rizzo's quote about Stasburg. You could tell even as he was saying it that he was trying to create some cover.

[The Nationals Enquirer]

CYA, baby, CYA!