Sunday Afternoon Fantasy Baseball Thoughts: Ryan Zimmerman, Anthony Rendon and Others

The Nationals, as expected, signed third baseman Ryan Zimmerman to a 6 year extension today, which will pay him $100 million over 6 years, which when added to the remaining two years of his existing contract, will keep Zimmerman with the Nationals through the 2019 season. The first thing that popped into my mind when hearing of the extension was where will Anthony Rendon play? ESPN and SiriusXM's Jim Bowden tweeted the following to help answer this question:

JimBowdenESPNxm JIM BOWDEN
Time for Nationals to make Anthony Rendon a second baseman

Earlier in spring training, Nationals manager Davey Johnson indicated he would play Rendon at second, short and third in spring training. I still see that happening, but imagine the Nationals want to see how healthy he is first. I see them playing him at his natural position of third base initially, then moving him around the diamond.

There is no official word from the Nationals that they plan to move Rendon to a different position......yet. I imagine if they decide to move him, it will come when spring training is over and they decide at what level he will start the season. I am curious if they do decide to move him to a different position, if they start him at a lower level than if he was not moving.

More Sunday afternoon fantasy baseball thoughts after the jump:

It appears more and more that Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton will become a free agent at the end of the season. The way he has been talking recently, it sounds like the two sides are not very close to agreeing on a contract. I wonder if I should have ranked him a little higher in my outfielder rankings that I published on Friday.

I met a guy yesterday at a neighborhood kids' birthday party who is in sports marketing and he indicated to me two of the nicest athletes he has ever met are the Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz and Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp. And he said Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is also one of the nicer athletes you want to meet as well. This guy told me he could get me tickets to the Dodgers-Phils games when they come to Philadelphia.

Ryan Howard had a little setback yesterday in his recovery from the torn achilles and will visit his doctor. This from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Howard will leave camp Sunday night for at least two days to see Mark Myerson, the surgeon who repaired the tendon, in Baltimore. Ruben Amaro Jr. called it a "routine check-up," but Howard was seen with a large bandage on the back of his ankle Saturday morning.

Charlie Manuel said Howard suffered "a little setback" because of an infection where the surgical incision was made.

GM Ruben Amaro stated Howard has a small cyst of fluid near the surgical wound, but did not label this a setback. Who do you believe?