Hero: The Rays wouldn’t deal Evan Longoria straight up for Ryan Zimmerman, but they wouldn’t laugh at the offer …

Loserhead: There’s not enough space in this column. Hell, there’s not enough space on the Internet …

Key need: Credibility in the wake of the Bowden fiasco and several seasons of meandering effort. Bring in Bobby Valentine. Just do it …

Prognosis: Waiting on Strasburg.

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Not saying the Orioles haven’t taken steps in the right direction, but most of their prospect stockpiling has come in the way of pitching.  The Nats have a bunch of hitting and pitching prospects.  I’d say the O’s have the best overall prospect out of the two teams (Matt Wieters), but the depth that Washington has is much better.

Lets begin with hitting.  They have a ton of young guys, although some are troubled and may be held back because of that.  Lastings Milledge and Elijah Dukes are the guys that come to mind here.  Both have worlds of talent, but bad reputations (moreso Dukes).  If they can stay on the straight and narrow, those two along with Wily Mo Pena will arguably be the best outfield in baseball in terms of raw power and speed.

Lower down in the minors, they have two highly touted prospects, 1B Chris Marrero and OF Michael Burgess.  Marrero projects to be a slugging 1B with a decent eye, but not a fantastic average.  He’s only 19, but is currently blocked by Dmitri Young and Nick Johnson, both of whom I’d imagine will be gone by the time Marrero is ready.

They have a plethora of pitchers also.  Guys like Hanrahan and Lannan have already made it to D.C., and they have guys like Collin Balester and 2007 1st round pick Ross Detwiler knocking on the door.  Add in younger pitchers Glenn Gibson, Josh Smoker, and Jordan Zimmerman (no relation to Ryan), and they have one of the best minor league systems in baseball.

Unfortunately, the Nats are headed in the right direction and are set up to field a very competitive team for many, many years.  They’ll be up in the faces of the Mets, Phillies, and Braves before long.

Again, my condolences to the city of Montreal.