August, a month usually reserved for vacations and daydreaming at work, waiting for your vacation, has been a little less predictable on the field.

To wit….

The Nationals actually signed fireballing, flamethrowing, cliché-inducing Stephen Strasburg and his über-agent, Scott Boras, to a 4-year, $15.1 million deal.

You don't think Boras comes with that deal? Really? The guy was threatening to use Strasburg as the tactical nuke he's been lusting after for years so he could blow up the MLB draft and contracting system he finds so ludicrously offensive. Boras was seriously floating the notion that a $50 million deal was what it was going to take to sign the kid with the miracle arm.

Now, I'd never wish ill on anyone (well, maybe a couple people), but part of me seriously wants to see Strasburg have a very, very average career. No injuries, no tragedies, just another high baseball draft pick that quietly, consistently, doesn't come close to living up to the hype. And then I'd like to ask Scott Boras how much money he thinks his next "one-in-a-million" talent is worth.

Think it'd be less? Wrong. Boras would float $50 million again, and I guarantee he'd get more than he got for Strasburg. He's shameless, yes. But he also knows what he's doing, and he knows that he's better than all the people he's playing against, namely owners and GM's.

Don't believe me? Since Mark Teixeira, another Boras client, signed a $9.5 million rookie deal with Texas in 2001, Boras has driven the price of signing "once-in-a-lifetime" guys up 59%.

Wolf in sheep's clothing would be apt, but there's nothing sneaky about Boras; he just strolls brazenly through the front door, steals all your furniture, grabs a snack and leaves the refrigerator door open when he takes off.

The Nats also locked Mike Rizzo for the foreseeable future, which, frankly, is a better investment on the team's part than signing Strasburg. Rizzo is by all accounts a very, very smart baseball guy, and he's certainly done his best to make lemonade out of the lemons Jim Bowden was fond of stocking the pantry with. He brought in Nyjer Morgan, a legitimate leadoff guy who (bonus!) can actually play centerfield; he rebuilt a bullpen that was blown to pieces only weeks into the season; he jettisoned Lastings Milledge about as quickly as possible (Milledge, hate to remind everyone, was one of those one-in-a-million guys only a few year's ago, just for the Mets not the Nats); he got rid of Nick Johnson, a heckuva nice guy to have in your rec-league, but a total money-pit in the actual business of baseball (surprise, surprise Johnson racked up another injury shortly after landing in Florida; his latest malady, a balky hammie, has kept him out of the last seven games and will probably land him on the DL, again); and, most impressive, Rizzo apparently read Boras the riot act during the Strasburg negotiations, standing up on his hindlegs and showing a little spine.

So, a good run for the Nats. Bravo. They're not owned by a bunch of little old ladies fond of Thomas Kinkade prints and Hummel figurines.

On a somewhat less shocking front, Brett Favre decided he really was as bored as a dead man in Hattiesburg, MS, and made a break for the bright lights of Minnesota. That his decision somehow coincided with the completion of Vikings' training camp only reconfirmed that the NFL is the least predictable of all the major professional sports leagues.

Now what? The Vikings think they have what they want, Favre thinks he has what he wants, and the NFL thinks the whole thing is just better than sliced bread. Nothing, no player, no team has generated more media and fan jibber-jabberous flimflam over the past few years than Favre. So, woo-hoo: the circus is back in town!

If Favre wins the starting job (sorry, couldn't help myself) he should find himself with a very winnable schedule in the beginning part of the season. Even though the Vikings open with two on the road, the trips are short. Oh, and the teams they're playing, the Browns and the Lions, went a combined 4-28 last year. Then San Francisco comes to town in week 3. So when Green Bay comes a-calling for Monday Night Football in week 4, Favre and the Vikings could be 3-0.

What would make Commissioner Goodell even happier? Other than his most marketable players staying out of the clink, not much.

But the Vikings' season ends at Carolina, at Chicago and home against the Giants. By that point, Favre's arm, if it's still attached, may very well be held with coat-hangers and duct tape. And maybe that'll be fine; the Vikings weren't exactly the Lions last year. But, boy, another flameout in December and January for Favre, and the Vikings, really would be too bad. I'd be sad for everyone involved, but mostly for Favre.

And you know who wouldn't be happier? Packers' fans..