They mostly talked about HoF stuff since the ballots are due in two days. But, they did spend about ten minutes talking Nats.
Basic recap:
On Teixeira sweepstakes: The F.O. felt genuine disappointment. Felt as though their offer was the best and was willing to go higher had Tex given them the opportunity. They never envisioned themselves as a longshot and thought they did an excellent job selling Tex on the direction of the club but that Tex probably picked the Yankees for the chance to win it all in 2009. They honestly felt the team would be better with Tex going forward and would have given the Nats, "solid pieces at 3B and 1B for the next 8-10 years." I read this as, "Zimmerman isn't going anywhere and it would've been nice to get him a great complimentary player to hit behind him and play gold-glove calibre 1B."
On What's next: Desperately need to add a big bat but that player MUST fit into long-term plans. He was asked directly about Dunn and Manny. Boone said Dunn would make more sense long-term and Manny would be a quick-fix. The Front Office loves his "homeruns and on-base percentage," and thinks he'd be a decent fit in the lineup. They would plan on playing Dunn at 1B if they were to land him. When talking about Manny he said, "yes we have holes that need filling, but we can't do 'stop-gaps' anymore." I am encouraged by the "no need for stop-gaps" comment, but I am disappointed they think so highly of Dunn as a long-term solution.
On Free-Agent pitching: He said directly, "fans may disappointed, but we need to have patience in terms of our rotation. We have a lot of potentially great arms that just aren't ready yet and we aren't going to compromise the future for a quick fix in the pitching department." He said that was the way they did it in Atlanta and that's the approach they're taking here.
Pretty good information considering Boone probably isn't supposed to say much publicly.
