Rick Ankiel

Opening Day 2011 is less than a week away, and the Washington Nationals have yet to officially name their starting center fielder. Unofficially, the Washington Post is reporting that Rick Ankeil will get the nod, essentially banishing Nyjer Morgan to Syracuse to start the season.

This past year presented Atlanta Braves fans with plenty of moments to relish.

This was the first time the Braves had reached the playoffs since 2005 and was the final season for venerable manager Bobby Cox.

But, I'm staying away from those topics for this slideshow.

Instead, I'm focusing on singular moments over the course of the calendar year that Braves fans will be talking about for years to come rather than events that involved a culmination of years/months of dedicated work to draw their fanfare.

The Washington Nationals have agreed to terms with former Cardinals Starting Pitcher and OF Rick Ankiel, reports Sports Illustrated's John Heyman.  The deal is worth $1.25 million dollars for one year.  He can earn another $1.25MM in performance bonuses.

In my Atlanta Braves-San Francisco Giants NLDS preview, I thought the Giants bullpen would be the difference in this series. For the Giants, their bullpen was the difference in Game 2 of this series, but not in a good way.

Rick Ankiel knew it was gone off the crack of the bat, a blast that made his career.

The Atlanta Braves couldn't get anything started against the San Francisco Giants' vaunted pitching staff, so the home-standing Gents took an admittedly unorthodox approach.

They decided to start the Bravos' offense themselves—not the wisest thing to do for your World Series aspirations, but it sure makes for an exciting night of baseball.

And another significant challenge for emerging southpaw Jonathan Sanchez.

Although the Atlanta Braves have been leading the NL East for some time now, they made a number of trades to try and strengthen their team for the stretch run.

With the Phillies getting key players back in their lineup seemingly every day, the Braves were looking for guys like Rick Ankiel, Derek Lee, and Kyle Farnsworth to fill in some holes that the team had.

For Jesse Chavez, Gregor Blanco, and Tim Collins, the Braves acquired the now infamous converted-pitcher Rick Ankiel and an old friend (save the 2005 NLDS) in Kyle Farnsworth (as well as come cash from the Royals).

That's a right-handed reliever with a straight fastball, a AAAA outfielder (as much as we loved him in Atlanta), and a 5'7" lefty with a huge ceiling and awesome stuff (308 Ks in 202.2 career MiLB innings) for two more-than-serviceable Major Leaguers.

The Kansas City Royals got off to a very good start in 2009. After 46 games last season, they had a record of 23-23, placing them second in the ultra-competitive American League Central.

That success quickly came to an end, and the Royals went 42-74 the rest of the way to finish 65-97, tied for last in the division with the Indians.

Despite a horrible finish, the Royals were able to hang their hat on Zack Greinke. Greinke won the AL Cy Young Award going 16-8 with a 2.16 ERA. He struck out 242 hitters and walked only 51 in 229.1 innings pitched.

The Boston Red Sox are reportedly  interested in four different free agents who are represented by Scott Boras.

Two of them, Matt Holliday and Mike Gonzalez, have been rumored to go to the Red Sox numerous times. The other two, Adrian Beltre and Rick Ankiel, have never before been even thought as potential acquisitions.