‘R.C. Beadle, A.H. Brown (LOC)’
courtesy of ‘The Library of Congress’

The trade deadline is a nebulous and crazy thing. Everyone seems to know someone who knows something about a AA prospect who heard from the trainer that he’s being traded to play at Tulsa for a guy whose name ended in A. or was it Y? Either way, sure thing.

This is the time of the baseball season where everyone can play armchair general manager, saying that the team should trade for this guy, or for that one, or for the love of God get player X off the roster, because he’s a bum. Today has been no different than the usual.

Yesterday, the Nationals made a pair of solid trades that sent Jason Marquis to the Arizona Diamondbacks for shortstop Zachery Walters, and Jerry Hairston Jr. to the Milwaukee Brewers for outfielder Erik Komatsu.  Both were to be free agents at the end of this season, and neither would have granted a compensatory pick, and coupled with the fact that Arizona is assuming $2.5M of Marquis’ salary, and we got two strong minor leaguers, I’m going to call this one an unmitigated success.

As I write this, with an hour left to go before the trade deadline, the Nats’ closer Drew Storen is still involved in rumors swirling around a trade with the Minnesota Twins for CF Denard Span. Also rumored to be included in that trade are minor leaguer Steve Lombardozzi Jr, and AAAA player Roger “The Shark” Bernadina.  As with everything at trade deadline time, the unvarnished truth is nowhere to be found, and that has everyone just looking for whatever solid sources can be found as none of the primary sources are talking to the media.

Storen-for-Span straight up doesn’t read like a bad deal. The addition of some prospects, and the Nats day-to-day CF in Bernadina, makes it a bit of an off trade to me. Couple that with Span’s stint on the DL for a concussion, I can’t see the Nationals giving in to that scenario. While they need someone line Span in center, I can’t see Span as their guy if Storen is the price. Storen has every desire to be in Washington, and every chance to be an A-list closer. When I see Storen, in many regards, he reminds me of powerhouse closer Dennis Eckersley.

Along bloggers’ row at Nationals Park today the word is, “Not this closer for not that position player.”

With under an hour to go before deadline, we’ll find out what the Nats do.