Review: BBTN Comes to Viera

Well, lets just say I'm not the biggest fan of ESPN and their baseball coverage, as it tends to be very focused on just Boston and New York. I sat down to watch the 30 in 30: Nats coverage of the very popular Baseball Tonight, originally broadcast at 3:30. And as I watched, I hoped to glean a new found respect for the program, considering I haven't watched it since the advent of MLBNetwork. Here is what I noticed.

Observations:
- Times Stephen Strasburg mentioned: 8

- Times Bryce Harper mentioned: 7

- Times Jayson Werth mentioned: 7

- Times Ryan Zimmerman mentioned: 2

- Times Adam LaRoche mentioned: 4

- Times the whole rest of the team was mentioned: 6

- Werth puns: 1

- To wrap up those numbers, Zimmerman and the rest of the team were mentioned just as much as a player who won't be heard from until September at the very earliest. Glad to see ESPN has their priorities straight.

- Turns out we were the very last stop on the "Goodyear (TM)" Express Tour. Shocker.

- Wow, ESPN just used WAR in their "analysis", I'm kind of impressed. Though they don't explain at all what it is or how it's used.

- Kurkjian's Three Questions - 1) Strasburg health (shocker) 2) Closer Situation 3) Bryce Harper (shocker)

- Kurkjian says our rotation will give us only 5 innings a night... I can't believe this to be true with Livo being Livo and having a healthy Jason Marquis.

- ESPN's projection of our lineup - Espi 4 - Desi 6 - Zim 5 - LaRoche 3 - Werth 9 - Morse 7 - Pudge 2 - Morgan 8 - Livo 1

- ESPN's projection of our rotation - Livo - Lannan - Marquis - Zimmermann - Gorzelanny

- Aaron Boone loves the middle infield combo of Desi-Espi. "Two really athletic guys with a lot of upside, especially on the offensive side of the ball."

- Lots of 2012 talk

- Ravech, "There's a chance LaRoche could be replaced next year by Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols"

- Boone, "(Strasburg) and (Zimmermann) give them two potential aces in the future"

- Boone, "Once they climb the mountain, this is a team I believe will stay relevant because they are gonna be able to afford to go out and compete with some of the big boys for elite free agencies [sic]"

- End of the show features Kurkjian and Kruk showing off their tour bus to Jayson Werth - who makes fun of it and Kruk. IE "this kinda smells like cheesesteaks".

- Recap - "Strasburg, Harper, Werth, some other guys - maybe next year"