May 13-a night of endings rather than beginnings

I'm a little upset about the Caps' loss (even though I didn't see any of the game). I'm not mad at the Penguins or the referees, but instead the Caps. They simply relied on Simeon Varlamov too much-without him, there would have been no game 7, 6 or 5. The Caps (and Bruce Boudreau) have a lot of adjustments to make next year. But, as my Facebook says, the Caps have a bright future ahead and nothing to be ashamed of. The sky is the limit, and in 2010, look for them to once again compete in the playoffs.

Zimmerman's streak ended at 30 as well. Not that much of a surprise-luck and skill don't always coincide.  FJB has a ridiculously awesome, in-depth discussion of Zim being intentionally walked in the 7th inning.

And I took my last final exam of the semester, finishing my second year at Tech. We'll skip further discussion here...

I will be road-tripping from Las Vegas back to the DC area starting Saturday. Feel free to follow my new Twitter to see where I am (assuming I can figure it out): http://twitter.com/seanhoganVT

Nats, Future Nats, ex-Nats, etc.

First off, congrats to Stephen Strasburg on an incredible ending to an amazing career at San Diego State. Although he's not done for the season, it was his final home game, and boy did he go out in style, with his first collegiate no-hitter.

As many of you have seen, the Diamondbacks had 3 former Nats in their starting infield tonight: Josh Wilson, Felipe Lopez and Josh Whitesell. The Nats had 1 former Diamondback in their starting lineup: Adam Dunn. Advantage, Nationals.

Caps couldn't pull it out tonight unfortunately. They need to come out hard against the Penguins tomorrow if they want a chance of winning the series. Disappointing effort all-around, and you can't ask the 21-year-old goalie to carry you every single game.

2 Nice Wins

The Caps beat the Pens tonight. Nothing here you can't get elsewhere, but it was a pretty fun/difficult game to watch. Ovie and Cindy Crysby both had hat tricks, but Ovie's domination of most of the last 10 minutes was the real story. David Steckel wins the Lunch Pail for mucking up his second playoff goal. I vow to root for Ohio State one time for every goal he scores. So far, I'm pulling for the Buckeyes over Navy and Toledo (I would have cheered for them over USC anyways).

Now on to my niche, the Nats. They had a nice 9-4 win tonight over Houston. Lannan wasn't particularly sharp it looks like, but the Nats got 15 hits and drew 8 walks (and 1 HBP) while Hanrahan and Mock closed the door. Would have liked more than 2 runs off of Brian Moehler, but you take what you can get I guess.

Good day to be a DC sports fan, and we are!

3 Game Sweep

DC teams took New York City by storm today, with the Caps dominating the Rags, the Nats crushing the Mets and DC United scoring 2 goals in the 90th minute to pull out a 3-2 victory.

In terms of the Caps, they've stolen all momentum from the series. They have a huge advantage in game 7 in terms of mojo and home field advantage. They have to win it.

The Nats looked good (on GameDay) today, with 5 and 1/3 strong innings from ZNN, homers by Flores and Kearns and a nice day by Justin Maxwell out of the leadoff spot. Also, I think it's safe to punch Cintron's ticket to Syracuse when Guz is back.

Such a good ending to a pretty fun weekend, with the NFL draft and such. Hopefully the DC teams can keep it up in the near future.

EDIT-Like clockwork, Shawn Hill to the DL.

Impressed

This is going to be a quick post, but I just wanted to give a quick anecdote:

Today, my sister and I went to the Caps' practice at Kettler and hung around afterwards to get some autographs and pictures and stuff. And I see this kid in a wheelchair with a big green cast on his leg (I think I overheard his dad saying he had knee surgery of some sort). There were a few signatures, but big spaces because the kid wanted to get his cast signed by the Caps. He picked a bad day in sorts to get signatures, because only 5 Caps by my count came out of the front door. 3 of them-Nylander, Erskine and Poti were already gone by the time he got there.

Bruce Boudreau came outside (with a Sidney Crosby stick, no less..."for charity." We told him to scrape it up on the sidewalk a little bit) and chatted for a minute with the kid, signed his cast, then continued to sign autographs and take pictures with everyone (including myself). Then Mike Green came outside, signed the kid's cast and every single thing put in front of him (and took pictures with anyone who asked, as well). Finally, Ovechkin came out and looked like he was in a rush to get to his car. He didn't look like he saw the kid in the wheelchair at first, but I guess saw him out of the corner of his eye and diverted his course to go sign his cast. In a rush, Ovie said "only for kids" and signed anything belonging to the under-5-feet crowd, but I was very impressed with the Caps' biggest players' availability. Bravo, Capitals.

Here's the best picture I could get of Ovie signing the kid's cast:

Thursday late night odds and ends

Well, I finally have enough fodder to constitute a whole post.

First off, the Caps beat the Flyers tonight. Good. I hate the Flyers.

Second, the Hokies beat Miami today. Also good. I also hate Miami. They need to do work tomorrow, though.

Next, the Rangers are getting a compensation pick for their prospect, Alexei Cherepanov, that died of heart faliure in a KHL game in Russia back in October. To be honest, this makes no sense to me and sets a terrible precedent for the NHL. Where do you draw the line? Players have died before and their teams were not given draft pick compensation (Len Bias, anyone?). Is a career-ending injury sustained in the minors not enough to get a compensation pick but death is? It is a subject that shouldn't really be questioned for respect reasons, but I don't see why the NHL would do this.

In other news, did anyone else (besides Kenny G) watch the Syracuse-UConn game tonight? Epic. 6 overtimes! Here's a link to the boxscore-the replay of the game should be up by tomorrow and it is definitely worth watching. Total tallies-244 points, 66 fouls, 82/208 shots, 16/59 3-pointers, 70 minutes of game time. Wow.

Last but not least, some Nats thoughts:

Good: Cabrera's 1st hit, Kip Wells signing (couldn't hurt).

Bad: Thinking about signing Duaner "Right-handed Odalis" Sanchez, Kory Casto's chances of making the Opening Day roster (and also his chances of getting claimed on waivers), Chad Cordero signing with the Mariners. Farewell, Chief!

Wednesday evening thoughts: Dukes, Caps, Draft

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Elijah Dukes is not stupid enough to go to jail for not paying child support. It will be taken care of, ESPN will add it to his list of "transgressions" and we'll be done with it. That's all I have to say. 

If you care to hear an informed person's opinion, check out FJB's take on the media-created "mess" that is Elijah Dukes' past. For those who don't feel like taking that extra click, or for those of you who are Jim Bowden and refuse to visit FJB, here is his two cents:

"Whenever these stories get written, I wonder why the media is so bent on casting Dukes in the worst possible light. Why go so far out of your way to omit mitigating circumstances? Why present information in a way that it implies more than actually happened? Why is the word "JAIL" screaming in every headline when he obviously isn't going to jail? It's slanted, sensationalistic journalism."

Well said, Steven.

Next in the order of business is the Caps. Since they made ESPN's front page with their win over Pittsburgh, I figured it necessitated at least a blurb. I went to Tuesday night's game (if you can even call it that, a pathetic 5-2 loss to the Oilers). Tonight's game was much more impressive-we still have issues, but they beat the Penguins, and that's all that matters. A nice game by Ovechkin and Tomas "Fire Ant" Fleischmann now has goals in his last 2 games. One other note-we're sick of the Ovechkin-Crosby "rivalry." Just because they're the two best players in the world doesn't mean they are rivals. I'm so sick of the attempted storylines both there and with the Crosby-Semin deal. And I'm sick of Evgeni Malkin because he looks like a horse. A very very ugly horse.

Last, I randomly came across some 2009 MLB Mock Drafts. Here are some guys the Nats could grab:

#1 Pick-Stephen Strasburg. No debate here. If Strasburg's stock falls dramatically (presumably only if a major injury occured), the Nats would probably choose between Southern Cal SS Grant Green, HS LHP Matt Purke, UNC 1B/OF Dustin Ackley or UNC RHP Alex White. If any of these guys slip to #10, we've hit the lottery.

#10 Pick-popular names have been Independent League RHP Tanner Scheppers, HS OF Donovan Tate, Mizzou RHP Kyle Gibson, Miami SS Ryan Jackson, HS LHP Tyler Matzek, Tennessee OF Kentrail Davis and Oklahoma State LHP Andy Oliver. Of these guys, I would say we need to absolutely stay away from Tate-he has bust written all over him. Scheppers has injury concerns (the only reason he wasn't taken in the top 10 last year), so I'd avoid him until the second round at the earliest. Out of these guys, I like Gibson a lot...but then you're drafting a Mizzou RHP with the pick the team gets from not signing a Mizzou RHP last year. Whatever works.

I won't go into the 2nd/3rd rounds because that's just too far along to project. One prospect to watch who is usually near the end of the compensation rounds/beginning of the 2nd round in mock drafts, though, is SS Deven Marrero, the cousin of Nats' top prospect Chris Marrero. I would be very happy if he fell to us.

Thanks a lot to DC Pro Sports Report for their MLB Mock Draft Database. Only 4 2009 mock drafts up so far, but most don't start going up until the high school/college seasons have at least begun. Also thanks to Orioles Hangout and BrewerFan.net, from which I linked most of the scouting reports.

What to strive for

I'm going to admit, this is much more of a Nats blog than the name suggests. I don't give the Caps nearly enough love, so here goes.

In July of 2001, the Caps traded for Jaromir Jagr and things were looking up. Peter Bondra was still in his prime, Adam Oates was an assist machine, Olie the Goalie was a beast and there was going to be plenty of secondary scoring from the likes of Sergei Gonchar, Ulf Dahlen, Chris Simon, etc. But they missed the playoffs by 2 points. Something wasn't clicking. 

The simple solution was to buy more, so they bought more. In the summer of 2002, they signed Jagr's ex-line mate Robert Lang. They fired their coach Ron Wilson, who just couldn't get the team over the hump and hired the supposed-phenom Bruce Cassidy. Early on in the season, they traded draft picks for Mike Grier. Later on, they traded veterans Andrei Nikolishin and Chris Simon for Michael Nylander and a draft pick. Things got a little better, as they at least made the playoffs in the 2002-03 season.

Then the wheels really fell off. Fan favorite defenseman Calle Johansson retired over the summer and a string of cast-offs, including Joel Kwiatkowski, Josef Boumedienne, Todd Rohloff and Jason Doig simply couldn't replace him. After a 6-1 victory over the Islanders to start the 2003-04 campaign, the Caps went into a tailspin, with an 8 game winless streak (0-7-1). They reached the 8-18-1-1 point and finally had enough with the Butch Cassidy's idiot non-brother. Glen Hanlon was hired as the new coach, and this is where the story really begins.

The "spend money" plan failed. The team was finally willing to admit it. And better yet, the team was willing to take a publicity hit to fix it.

First to go was Steve Konowalchuk, Captain and a fan favorite. He was dealt to Colorado for Bates Battaglia and prospect Jonas Johansson. Result: Jonas was no Calle and Bates was no Kono. Guys like Konowalchuk just haven't appeared in the Caps organization much since, which is sad.

Next was the big kahuna: Jaromir Jagr's salary dumped to the Rangers for Anson Carter. Now Carter was a nice player to have, don't get me wrong, but this was a step almost few teams would have been willing to make: trading a superstar player away just a few years after he was first acquired, thus "giving up" on things so to speak. Result: Jagr was, is, and will always be a better hockey player than Anson Carter, but the move wasn't about that. Probably the best move the Caps will ever make.

A little less than a month later, fan favorite Peter Bondra was traded to Ottawa for a mid-level prospect and a 2nd round pick. Oh yeah, that mid-level prospect turned out to be Brooks Laich, a key cog in last year's playoff run. As much as it hurt to lose Bondra (who is, no doubt, my favorite player ever in any sport), the move was in the best interest of the club. It's a business. Sometimes it's time for your favorites to move on. It's hard (and trust me, at the time my childhood hero was traded for what seemed like a pile of scraps, it SUCKED), but it's life. Result: Laich is 7th on the team in points this year and was 6th last year. The 2nd rounder was dealt to Colorado to move up in the draft to select D Joe Finley, who is still regarded as a good prospect. Good deal.

Next came another great deal: Robert Lang to the Red Wings for prospect Tomas Fleischmann and 1st and 6th round picks. Now keep in mind that Robert Lang was leading the league in points when he was traded, marking it the only time in league history where the current points leader was dealt. But I think the Caps got a pretty good return in Fleischmann, who (despite being one of the more frustrating players on the team) can make you say "WOW." Oh yeah, and they used that 1st round pick to pick some defenseman named Mike Green. I heard he's alright. Result: AWESOME!

Within a week came the Caps' last 2 deals of the season, both (separately) to Boston: Sergei Gonchar for Shaone Morrisonn and 1st and 2nd round picks (the 1st rounder was used to pick Jeff Schultz and the 2nd was used to choose Russian prospect Mikhail Yunkov) and Michael Nylander for a 2nd rounder (used to pick Francois Bouchard). Result: The Caps got a 1st, 2 2nds and a good prospect for two veterans, always a good idea.

The Caps didn't have much left to trade in 2005-06, so it was almost 2 years before they made any more moves (remember the lockout), but there were still a few left to be made:
Jeff Friesen was traded to Anaheim for a 2nd round pick (used to pick Keith Seabrook)

Brendan Witt was traded to Nashville for former uber-prospect Kris Beech (the centerpiece of the original Jaromir Jagr deal, ironically) and a 1st round pick (used to pick current uber-prospect goaltender Simeon Varlamov). Both deals were great successes.

Then in 2006-07 they shook things up some more:

They acquired Richard Zednik from Montreal for a 3rd round pick (used to pick Olivier Fortier). Zednik's value improved over the year, and he was exchanged for a 2nd round pick (used to pick Ted Ruth-more on him later).

They traded Dainius Zubrus (and some guy named Timo Helbling) to Buffalo for Jiri Novotny and a 1st round pick (later traded to San Jose for 2 2nd round picks, 1 used to pick and Eric Mestery and the other traded to Philly for a 2nd and a 3rd rounder, used to pick Russian blogging phenom Dmitri Kugryshev and Phil de Simone). Both moves were well-made.

This put the Caps in a great position in the 2007 offseason: the promising youngsters of their first few trades (Green, Laich, Fleischmann, etc.) were beginning to blossom, there was money to spend (hello, Tom Poti and Viktor Kozlov, and welcome back Nyles!), and there was an NHL-ready player still on the draft board when pick #5 came up, Nicklas Backstrom. Early on in the 2007-08 campaign, the Caps made what ended up being 1 more move-former 1st rounder Brian Sutherby to the Ducks for a 2nd round pick. And the turnaround began, notably with coach Bruce Boudreau's Jack Adams Award-winning tutoring, plus some shrewd deadline moves by George McPhee: the 2nd rounder acquired from Anaheim to Montreal for Cristobal Huet, Ted Ruth, the pick from the Zednik upgrade to Columbus for Sergei Federov and underachieving forward Matt Pettinger to Vancouver for Matt Cooke. 

The Caps simply built their system the right way. Look at their current roster's breakdown:

Via Draft (9/29): Alzner, Backstrom, Fehr, Gordon, Green, Ovechkin, Semin, Schultz, Varlamov

Via trade/FA as prospect (6/29): Collins, Fleischmann, Giroux, Laich, Sloan, Steckel

FA Signing (9/29): Bradley, Brashear, Erskine, Helmer, Kozlov, Nylander, Pothier, Poti, Theodore

Trade (3/29): Clark, Federov, Morrisonn (debatable)

Waivers (2/29): Johnson, Jurcina

So a little more than 50% of the roster was built from the ground up pretty much. And then you have guys like Federov, who was acquired from a home-grown guy and Morrisonn, who was still a prospect when acquired (but listed with the regular trade guys b/c he had NHL experience). 

So there you have it: The Washington Capitals. Think of them as the Washington team with the plan before "The Plan." The Nats need to aggressively shop their Belliards, Youngs, Guzmans, etc. in the future if they ever want to keep up with the Joneses. It may not look like much on the surface, but look what the Caps did with their Zedniks, Sutherbys and Friesens.

(I will add player links so those of you who were not Caps fans in the early-to-mid-2000s will kinda understand who I'm talking about)

Sources: 

Washington Capitals Media Guide (pages 99-100)

ESPN Transaction History

Hockey-Reference

Still Alive

Me, that is.

There hasn't been much Nats news lately, so I wanted to post up something quick on the Caps. It's been almost 3 months since I've mentioned them, which is surprising, considering the fact that I hold them in as high (if not higher) esteem than the Nats. I don't really know why I don't blog about them, I guess when you have a well put-together team there is less to gripe about.

But anyways, the Caps won game number 9 of 10 tonight, defeating Buffalo 4-2. They did this without any Alex Ovechkin points, which is promising. Buffalo is a good team. When you can beat them even when the best player in the league is a non-factor and many other key players are out (Semin, Poti, Fleischmann, Federov, etc.), you are a good team.

But anyways, I'm proud of my 2nd-place Caps. They're the only of my favorite pro teams that I really have much to hope for in the coming few years.


On a side note, everyone have a safe and happy New Year!

Wednesday Wrapup

Just a few things:

Hokies QB Tyrod Taylor will play on Saturday. Not that it really matters against Furman, but he'll get into game rhythm with his receivers (well....with Greg Boone) and hopefully be ready for Georgia Tech in 10 days. Thank God.

The Nats are lowering season ticket prices significantly. I still bet they will sell 20% fewer season tickets next year at least (unless they go big in FA...I'll wait for your laughter to cease).

Chico shows his Pittsburgh Penguins fanboy side in his chat today. BOOO CROSBY! YAYYY OVECHKIN!

Don't think I ever passed this link along. Go and rate your favorite team's players defensively when you get a chance.

Not a whole lot else going on. Hopefully Odalis sends Utley a message tonight. Regardless of whether or not he intended to hurt Flores, he did. I view baseball as an eye-for-an-eye sport. Utley needs to get chin music tonight.

Whatever Wednesday

I realized last night that I missed week 2 of Whatever Wednesday/Tumbleweed Thursday last week. Then I realized how bad I am with having series on my blog (Unsubstantiated Trade Rumor of the Week anyone?). I'll try my best to do this every week, because it's kinda fun to do this...especially considering I spent the last two hours moving my whole life into my dorm room. So without further ado, I present to you Whatever Wednesday!

Baseball Links of the Day
My roommate really enjoys this game. I'm still getting the hang of it (and haven't had a mouse to use since I'm on my laptop), but it looks like fun to me. You have to throw a perfect game, in case you couldn't figure that out.

Here's another fun one: Batting Stance Guy. Nothing fancy here, just a guy in jorts with a baseball bat standing in front of a camera. But then his cameraman shouts out "Andre Dawson" and he jumps into The Hawk's batting stance. The Nats/Expos episode (I guess they're called episodes?) only includes Zimmerman and Guz from the current lineup, but it's still worth a look.

Jason Bergmann could be the first baseball player ever (with 30 or more atbats) to post an OBP of .000.

My last baseball link of the day is something I didn't quite expect out of Brian Oliver of Nats Farm Authority. Instead of paraphrasing, I'll just quote part of it:

This is has been something that I have been thinking about since the signing deadline passed. I’m going to break from the mold that I typically have here where I attempt to be as even-keeled as I can when it comes to the happenings with the Nationals farm system. and leave you to check out the rest.

They need to show a commitment to the farm system if they are going to forgo the present for the future. And, $5 million is simply not enough of a commitment when other teams are out there spending double that.

Hockey Links of the Day
Kenny Gartner (of The Musings of Kenny G) has started up another blog, called "A Capitals Affair." He promises interviews with Chris Clark and Matt Bradley soon, so make sure to watch out for those.

It's also interesting to follow the KHL saga. Basically, the Continental Hockey League is gearing up in Russia and there are rumors that they're going to start trying to draft NHL players under contract. This article says that the KHL is denying that, but when was the last time you trusted a Russian?

Football Links of the Day
Former Virginia Tech jack-of-all-trades Justin Hamilton is fighting for a spot on the Redskins at safety and on special teams. Hamilton played WR, RB and S for the Hokies.

I found this on StumbleUpon and it's kinda cool: a map of where FBS schools are. Pretty self-explanatory there.

Here are some cool videos: "The Greatest Trick Plays in Football." The video of the Boise State plays from the 2007 Fiesta Bowl doesn't work, so here's a separate link to a different video of it.

Curran Update
Since my interview with 2008 Nationals draft pick Chris Curran a few weeks ago, he's still been awesome, hitting .338 (23/68) with 4 2B, 4 3B, 1 HR, 20 R, 11 RBI, 7 BB/12 K and 2/3 SB over 16 games. Glad to see Chris smacking the GCL around. He's looking like a solid prospect.

Last Few Links of the Day
Here are two fun games I found last night on StumbleUpon.

That's all I've got for now. Now on to unpacking and job interviews!

Whatever Wednesday/Tumbleweed Thursday

I've been thinking of having a new semi-series that comes out once a week. It doesn't serve a huge purpose, mostly just to keep the blog updated as the year turns, I head back to school and the baseball season winds down (no, I won't stop blogging, there just won't be as much to blog about). The series will probably come out on Wednesdays and Thursdays and will contain basically anything, both sports and non-sports related.

So, without further ado, here's your first Tumbleweed Thursday, fresh from Panera, where I'm stuck for 2-3 hours every day this week (Barry Svrluga-style).

Baseball Links of the Day
Check out the on-going list of players who have reportedly passed through waivers on MLBTradeRumors.com (continuously updated).

Also, if you have time and want to feel like you should feel sorry for someone (without actually feeling bad for them), read yet another article about Mike Bacsik. My favorite quote: "One of the things I think about is, do the Nationals not want me there because I'm popular there because of that?" [Bacsik] said. No, Mike, it's because you suck. You suck so much your name should be Mike Bacsuck. I do like the Nats' idea of having him retire and host the pre-game show, though. He and Robert Fick would make an awesome broadcasting tag-team (and, although I was never a fan of him on the field, Paulie was semi-amusing in the booth as well, when he wasn't divulging Ryan Zimmerman's top secret injury status).

Hockey Links of the Day
Check out all of these Capitals concept jerseys from NHL Tournament of Logos (now Icethetics). I'm quite partial to this one as a 3rd jersey. The Caps need to find a way to add the Best Secondary Logo in the NHL to the front of a dark blue sweater.

Football Links of the Day
Florida State QB Christian Ponder finished his undergrad degree in 2 years, and is now enrolled in the Graduate program at FSU. I know, I know it is FSU, but it's gotta be hard graduating in 2 years (including summers) anywhere. I don't even want to graduate in 4! Ponder's only game experience in his short career came last year in Blacksburg, where he didn't totally embarrass himself, going 8-18 with 105 yards, and 1 TD while rushing for 51 yards on 5 carries. Oh wait. He's the guy whose miscues (2 INT and a fumble) directly accounted for the Hokies' last 12 points (INT returned for TD, fumble set up a FG and INT set up the Hokies to drive to the 1, where FSU stopped them on downs and subsequently allowed a safety. Sorry, Christian, but I'm an FSU hater. Quit your stupid chant and maybe I'll stop hating.

I (finally) added Chris Cooley's blog to the sidebar. Every post is somewhere from 7-12 on a 10-point scale of hilarity, but this one really sticks out and actually made me laugh out loud in The Barry Svrluga House of Bread.

And if anyone's into MMORPG's (I have no idea what that stands for), here is a fun game to check out: Goal Line Blitz. Basically it's a free game where you create your own player and as time goes on, you develop them into a better player. Your player usually starts on a CPU team, but will be offered contracts by human-controlled teams generally before your player's first season ends. That's the best I can describe the game. As time goes on, you can accumulate "flex points" and either create more players, "own" a team or buy custom equipment. If you don't want to wait to accumulate "flex points" you can either buy them or invite people to join the game, as I'm doing now.

Try this Product
I (semi)recently won a contest where I received two flavors of Pop'rs. Pop'rs are essentially awesome-tasting, good-for-you Pop Rocks that you sprinkle on foods. They're mostly marketed toward families (so moms can get their kids to eat their veggies), but with my two flavors (Cocoa and Taco), I can add both flavor and nutritional value to my ice cream and Ramen noodles. They're really worth trying out. Go to Pop'rs.com and order some or stalk the "Eat Your Veggies" blog for similar giveaways to the one I won my Pop'rs in. To borrow the catchphrase from Pringles: Once You Pop'r...well nevermind.

24
For those of you who, like me, are in completely 24 withdrawal there is good news. A 2-hour "prequel" movie to the show's 7th season will be shown on Sunday, November 23. The movie, entitled "24: Exile" will bridge the gap between season 6, which ended last summer, and season 7, which was pushed back an entire year because of the writer's strike.

Random Updates
Since my interview with 2008 Nationals draft pick Chris Curran a week ago, he's caught fire, hitting .419 (13/31) with 2 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 12 R, 6 RBI, 5 BB/4 K and 1/2 SB over 7 games (including 3 straight 2-run, 2-hit games. We're proud of you, Chris! Keep up the good work!

It's been a while since I mentioned Brian Conley, my first cousin once-removed (I think), who was a 2008 draft pick and is an outfielder in the Orioles organization. He's at .258/.364/.400 through 34 games in the GCL.

One last Link of the Day
Here's a post I found on StumbleUpon, entited "How much is inside cookie dough ice cream?" The post is pretty funny and not too long, so be sure to check it out. If you have Firefox or Internet Explorer and don't have StumbleUpon, get it. Now.

Friday afternoon roundup

A decent bit of Nats rumors today.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via MLBTradeRumors.com) speculated today that both New York teams should have interest in Austin Kearns. The Mets have two corner outfielders on the DL (Church with post-concussion stuff, Alou out for the year now) and are starting Inning-Endy Chavez and Fernando Tatis, who both could be considered the epitome of short-term solutions. The Yankees have Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon on the DL. There is apparently no timetable for Matsui's return, but no matter when the two of them get back, Sherman doubts the Yankees' ability to hit lefties (something Kearns does well). This isn't really a rumor, more of a speculation of sorts. I don't see Bowden trading Kearns unless he gets a decent bit in return, so it's really a win-win for us. We either get to see Kearns back in DC next year (and, as I hope you know by now, I'm a big Kearns fan) or we get a decent bounty of prospects (hopefully ones that can hit) in exchange for him.

Also, MLBTradeRumors.com reported that the Cardinals were scouting the Nats recently. The original article came from MLB.com, where the author, Jim Molony, suggests the likely players scouted were Odalis Perez or Tim Redding, "both available inexpensive options who have been pitching well lately." Tim Dierkes of MLBTR also speculated that the Cardinals could be looking to upgrade at SS by aquiring Cristian Guzman. Howabout Perez and Guzman for Aaron Miles and 2 or 3 B prospects?

Lastly, the Caps resigned defensive forward Boyd Gordon to a 1 year deal at $725k. The general consensus is that it was a good signing. I haven't seen anyone who says otherwise. Gordon is a good checking line/4th line guy who can play both the wing and center. He can shut down opposing players, but he doesn't score many points. Japers' Rink had a great write-up on his value to the team this morning.

One random note: Check out the "Answer Man" series of interviews on "Big League Stew," a Yahoo! Sports blog run by David Brown. Some of the stuff is pretty funny, and very interesting. I spent a good hour of my Friday morning (from 1 pm to 2 pm) reading the interviews. Some of my favorites were Huston Street, Kerry Wood and Bert Blyleven. Even Joba Chamberlain is pretty funny. Just skip the Derek Jeter one-he's about as exciting as a grey tube sock.

EDIT (5:15 PM): Roger Bernadina was sent down today. Ryan Langerhans was called up. Why waste a spot on a guy we know can't hit? Give Escobar or Daniel a chance. Another poor move on management's part.

Good News, Bad News

Good News:
According to Tarik El-Bashir of The Post (and Capitals Insider), both Brooks Laich and Shaone Morrisonn have elected for salary arbitration. Here's how Tarik explains the situation:

If Morrisonn and Laich do not agree to an extension with the Caps in the coming two weeks, their cases will be scheduled for a date sometime between July 20 - Aug. 4. The deadline for decisions is Aug. 6. By filing, this also means Morrisonn and Laich are no longer eligible to sign offer sheets from other clubs.

Tarik also notes that Boyd Gordon is not going to elect arbitration and Eric Fehr will likely take what the Caps offered him in his qualifying offer.

Bad News:
Elijah Dukes went down tonight with a right patella tendon strain. He's going to get an MRI sometime soon, but it's not hard to believe he may have hurt his ACL. More as the story develops.

EDIT-12:40 AM
From Nats Journal:

The left fielder has a meniscus tear and a partial tear of the patella tendon. He will be placed on the disabled list. (Likely replacement: Kory Casto). He will be out a minimum of 4-6 weeks.

So it's worse than just a strain but it's not as bad as a torn ACL. Good news and bad news in itself I guess.

Wednesday Afternoon Roundup

By now, we all know that G Cristobal Huet spurned the Caps' offer of 3 years at $5 mil per year for the Blackhawks' 4 years at $5.6 mil per year. The Caps then turned to Jose Theodore, most recently of the Colorado Avalanche. While I'm not buying the Caps' whole "he was the 2002 Hart/Vezina winner!!1!one!" campaign, he's a solid goalie signed to a short-term deal. Japers' Rink and The Red Skate both, as always, have good analysis up:

Bottom line: if you were of the belief that Cristobal Huet was the kind of goalie that could take a team all the way, you're probably inconsolable today. But for the rest of us, the reality is that provided that everything else comes together over the next few days/weeks/months, there's no reason to believe the Caps won't be perfectly fine in both the short- and long-term. And hey, at least they didn't sign Ray Emery, right?
-Japers' Rink

Théodore provides equivalent value at a more cap-friendly price.
For those upset that Huet isn’t between the pipes for the home team at Verizon this fall, justify your belief that it is more likely that Huet will carry his dominant play from March of last season into this coming season than it is likely that Théodore (12-4-1 with two shutouts, a 2.27 GAA, and a .917 SV% in his final 18 starts) will do, essentially, the same. They seem exceedingly comparable netminders, and are of similar age as well.
Career stats give a slight nod to Huet in the ratio numbers, but clearly Theodore has more NHL, and specifically playoff, experience.
-The Red Skate

So there are your key quotes from both blogs, and I find both absolutely agreeable. If Theodore is great, we him signed relatively cheap for that. If he's terrible, it's only 2 years. If he's decent (as expected), then we're fine. Cristobal Huet, contrary to popular belief, is NOT as good as he was for the Caps last year. He's a solid goaltender but at the same time he is no Martin Brodeur. I would have supported the 3 year $15 mil deal, but 4 years is simply too much to give a goalie with really only 1 year of great performance, especially when the Caps have to lock up Semin and Backstrom during the contract.

Also, where does this leave the Caps in cap-room? As you may or may not know, I posted some predictions of what the 6 guys the Caps were looking to re-sign would get:

Fedorov: range of $2 mil/1 year to $3 mil/1 year. We'll settle in the middle for $2.5 mil.
Fehr: range of $900k/1 year to $1.95 mil/2 years ($975k average). I'd bet on $925k.
Gordon: I'll just make one spot guess: $925k/1 year.
Green: range of $20 mil/5 years ($4 mil average) to $33 mil/6 years ($5.5 mil average). Because he's most likely to get a big offer, I'll go with the max at $5.5 mil. He could get offered $6 mil/year or more in FA, but I doubt the Caps match that, mainly because it would base more than 1/4 of their yearly salary in just 2 guys. Plus they would get draft pick compensation.
Huet: range of $10.5 mil/2 years ($5.25 mil average) to $24 mil/4 years ($6 mil average). I'll say he'll make $5.75 mil next year.
Laich: range of $1.75 mil/1 year to $5.5 mil/3 years ($1.83 mil average). $1.75 mil sounds like a nice round number for our figures.
Morrisonn: range of $3 mil/2 years ($1.5 mil average) to $5.25 mil/3 years ($1.75 mil average). We'll call it $1.6 mil next year.

The Caps have roughly $19 mil of cap room for these 6 guys, so when you take away Theodore's $4.5 mil and Green's $5.25 mil, they'll have $9.25 mil spread between the other 4. I'm optimistic that they'll be able to make it all fit, assuming Laich and Morrisonn stay under $2 mil per and Fedorov stays under $3 mil. Gordon and Fehr won't make more than $1 mil. If all of those assumptions come true, that's $9 mil or less, and the Caps will be fine.

Most of Nationals news right now revolves around Colin Balester and trade rumors. I'll talk about Balester in a second, but first about trade rumors. According to Chico Harlan's chat today, Lo Duca and Lopez are "at the top of the list" of guys to be dealt. MLBTradeRumors.com names the Marlins as a possible suitor for Lo Duca and we all know about the Orioles' recent "interest" in Fail-ipe. In the end, I bet Lo Duca gets DFA'ed after the trade deadline, maybe moved in a waiver deal to a team whose catcher unexpectedly goes down. Lopez I have a feeling will end the year in a different jersey, because the Nats aren't going to resign him and he's not going to net a draft pick. Might as well move him for SOMETHING, since his value is still somewhat-existant (since he's young-ish and has some "potential" left).

Now back to Balester-good performance last night (I missed a good Nats game, as usual). I'm impressed. We finally have a real prospect pitching (no offense to Clippard/Mock/O'Connor) and it feels good. I have to run now, so I'll spare you more of the same thing and say: let's re-evaluate him at the end of the year. Go Balester!

EDIT-4:23 pm
Virginia Tech WR Brandon Dillard is out for the year with a torn ACL. Dillard was going to compete for a starting job this year. His loss severely depletes an already depleted WR core that lost its top 4 recievers last year to graduation (Eddie Royal, Josh Morgan, Justin Harper and Josh Hyman). Hopefully the Hokies will be able to rebound from this. Here's a decent season preview on the Hokies I came across yesterday on Sportspyder.com. Losing Dillard really just means that the Hokies will have to find a consistent reciever or two out of probably 5 or 6 candidates now rather than 6 or 7.

Quick Hits

On my way out the door, but:
Caps resigned D Mike Green (4 years $21 mil)
Caps signed G Jose Theodore (2 years $9 mil)
Kolzig signed with Tampa Bay
Huet signed with Chicago.

I suggest reading up at Capitals Insider for updates and analysis.

My first impression: 2 years of Theodore is better than 4 years of Huet. I'll explain later.

And now that I've put the angry eyes away

Roundup time!

Pete Orr was sent down to make room for prospect Colin Balester to start tomorrow. It's gotta be bittersweet news for Orr. He'd obviously like to be in the Majors most, but at least he gets to represent Canada in the Olympics later this summer (assuming we don't call him up later on, which might be a poor assumption if Fail-ipe is dealt to the Dark Side).

The Nats made a ton of organizational moves today. As always, NFA is on top of it all. Key points: C/1B Luke Montz promoted to Columbus, 1B Bill Rhinehart promoted to Harrisburg, 1B Andrew Lefave demoted to Potomac, LHP Josh Smoker demoted to GCL. If I were a betting man, I'd wager on Montz being a 40-man addition and a September call-up at the very least this year.

According to Tarik El-Bashir of the Post, the Caps still haven't resigned any of their bunch of free agents. He does go on to point out something I like to hear a lot, though:

Once Huet and Green are re-signed -- some league officials consider this to be a matter of when and not if -- McPhee will turn his attention to re-signing unrestricted free agent Sergei Fedorov and restricted free agents Brooks Laich, Boyd Gordon, Eric Fehr and Shaone Morrisonn.

I like to see "a matter of when and not if," because we need both Huet and Green next year if we want to go further than the first round of the playoffs.

That's all I've got. If anything exciting happens before 6:30 am or so, I'll be on it. If not, I'll be back on for a mid-afternoon update around 4:30 or 5.

Off-Day Roundup

Today was an Off-Day, so not a whole lot to talk about. Here's the roundup:

Nats roster moves: Hill to the 15-day DL, Odalis off the 15-day DL, Nicky J to the 60-day DL (clears up a 40-man spot...Balester anyone?)

Caps make qualifying offers to Brooks Laich, Mike Green, Shaone Morrisonn, Eric Fehr and Boyd Gordon. Also mentioned: the 08-09 season salary cap will be $56.7 mil. The Caps have $37.6 mil tied up in contracts amongst 18 players already, so that leaves them about $19 mil of room to sign the 5 mentioned above, plus Huet and Fedorov if they so choose. Here are what I think the boys in red, white and blue will end up making (rough figures, mostly guesses and based on the comments from Japers' Rink's "Rink Wraps"):

Fedorov: range of $2 mil/1 year to $3 mil/1 year. We'll settle in the middle for $2.5 mil.
Fehr: range of $900k/1 year to $1.95 mil/2 years ($975k average). I'd bet on $925k.
Gordon: I'll just make one spot guess: $925k/1 year.
Green: range of $20 mil/5 years ($4 mil average) to $33 mil/6 years ($5.5 mil average). Because he's most likely to get a big offer, I'll go with the max at $5.5 mil. He could get offered $6 mil/year or more in FA, but I doubt the Caps match that, mainly because it would base more than 1/4 of their yearly salary in just 2 guys. Plus they would get draft pick compensation.
Huet: range of $10.5 mil/2 years ($5.25 mil average) to $24 mil/4 years ($6 mil average). I'll say he'll make $5.75 mil next year.
Laich: range of $1.75 mil/1 year to $5.5 mil/3 years ($1.83 mil average). $1.75 mil sounds like a nice round number for our figures.
Morrisonn: range of $3 mil/2 years ($1.5 mil average) to $5.25 mil/3 years ($1.75 mil average). We'll call it $1.6 mil next year.

That would put them at $18.65 mil among the 6 players. All I can say: It's gonna be close! But if they need extra room, they can always dump Pothier. Per the Caps.com article:

Pothier missed the second half of last season with a concussion, and his career is believed to be in jeopardy. There are two years remaining on his contract at $2.5 million per season, but the Caps would gain some salary cap relief if Pothier were physically unable to play during that period.

That's all for tonight. Check back in tomorrow, maybe something exciting will happen overnight.

UPDATE (1 minute after original post):
My boy Deron Washington was taken 59th overall in the NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons. I don't care about the NBA at all, but it's good to see him get a shot.

Here's where some other locals went:
Roy Hibbert (Georgetown)>>Toronto Raptors
Sean Singletary (University of Zima-drinking Brats that are Future Yuppies with Popped Collars...will be referred to in the future as "The University of Suck")>>Sacramento Kings
Patrick Ewing, Jr. (Georgetown)>>Sacramento Kings
James Gist (Maryland)>>San Antonio Spurs

Something to look forward to?

From SI.com's "Ten tough things" (about the toughest things to do in sports):

Score 80 goals in an NHL season

Last to do it: Brett Hull (88), St. Louis Blues, 1990-91
Why it's so hard: "The goalies are way better - that's the biggest reason why it doesn't happen anymore," says Steve Yzerman, the legendary former captain and current vice president of the Detroit Red Wings, who scored his career-high 65 in 1988-89, the same season that Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins lit the lamp 85 times. (Wayne Gretzky -- 87, 92 -- is the only other member of the 80-plus club.) "You don't get as many easy ones like you used to coming down the wing, slap shots going right through the goalie's legs. But yeah, I do [think we'll see it happen again.] It may not be next year, but if you look at forwards' ice time now, these guys are playing 24, 25 minutes (per game) because teams simply aren't going to have the depth (due to the salary cap). For a while, these guys were at 17 to 20. What did Alex Ovechkin score this year [66 goals]? With a couple more years under [Capitals teammate] Mike Green's belt, Nicklas Backstrom's belt, Alexander Semin's, I think [Ovechkin] might get there. I don't know about 80, but you'll get into the 70s again for sure in the next three or four years. Those [Washington] guys are going to be tremendous."
-- as told to Michael Farber

Caps thoughts

The Caps took a trip down memory lane tonight, drafting Bengt Gustafsson's son Anton in the first round (after trading their first rounder, #23, and a 2nd rounder for pick #21). If you don't know who Bengt Gustafsson is, you are not a Caps fan. If you don't know how to pronounce the name "Gustafsson," don't worry. It's spelled exactly how it looks...just like this: GUSTAFSSON. There, you said it. Got it down?

Here's more on Bengt (from Wikipedia):

Records

• Set a Washington Capitals record (since broken) for points by a rookie with 60 in 1979-80
• Scored the fastest goal from the start of a period (5 seconds in third period) vs. the Philadelphia Flyers on January 18, 1983
• First coach in history to win the Olympics and the IIHF World Championship in the same year (2006)

Notable events

• Scored the game-winning goal for the Washington Capitals in the franchise's first victory over the Montreal Canadiens on February 19, 1980.
• Became the first Washington Capitals player to attempt two penalty shots in the same season in 1980-81.
• Scored 5 goals to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 7-1 on January 8, 1984.
• He played his entire nine-year NHL career with the Washington Capitals and notched 555 points (196 goals, 359 assists) in 629 games.

But seriously, Anton Gustafsson is going to be either a stud or a dud (well I guess most people are one or the other). If Gustafsson can stay healthy (apparently he's the hockey equivalent of Nick Johnson), he'll be a solid, two-way centerman. If he can't stay healthy, his NHL career will likely be shorter than that of his father's sting of 629 games.

Here's Anton's scouting report (from HockeysFuture.com):

Talent Analysis

Gustafsson reminds quite a bit of his father Bengt-Åke. He is a highly skilled two-way center with very good hockey sense. Gustafsson has good size, decent strength and plays a hard-nosed game where he often likes to play the body.

In the offensive zone, he comfortably sets up plays and leads the team with his play. Gustafsson’s puck control is good and he easily finds good passing opportunities. Although perhaps not a natural goal scorer, he does have a good release. Could perhaps work some with his acceleration, but he is fast when he reaches full speed and very difficult for the defensemen to get hold of.

Defensively, Gustafsson takes a lot responsibility and is a leader that takes no unnecessary risks. Instead, he makes smart and simple decisions. Overall, perhaps the most all-round Swedish player that is/was eligible for the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

I'll give the pick an 8/10 and the trade a 6/10. A second rounder (especially the top second rounder we had out of 3 total) is too much to add on to just move up two slots anywhere besides the top ten. But Gustafsson at 21 is a decent buy, and will hopefully be an NHL mainstay for the boys in red white and blue.

The Caps also traded D Steve Eminger and their 3rd rounder from this draft to Philly for the 27th overall pick, which was used to draft defensemen John Carlson. I'd say the trade and pick are both 10/10. Eminger has talent, but is rarely used and is no more than a #6 at this point in time. If Carlson makes it to the NHL with the tools he supposedly has while Mike Green is still with the Caps, they'll have a lethal combination of puck-moving defenders. Here's Carlson's scouting report from MyNHLDraft.com:

John Carlson has size, speed, skill, and a high hockey IQ. Praised for his physical assets, he isn't afraid to use them. A great two-way defenseman, has both the offensive skills and defensive shutdown abilities, logs a lot of PK minutes. Could be the next best all-around D-man behind the big 4 Doughty, Pietrangelo, Schenn, Bogosian. An extremely rounded and fast player, capable of QBing the PP. May have hurt his draft ranking due to playing in the USHL, could have gone somewhat higher. He has the ability and he will be an NHLer.

Overall, the Caps did well today. They added two kids (and I can call them kids now that they are, in fact, younger than me, a scary thought) who will be more than just 3rd liners. Gustafsson could be a 1st line center if he stays healthy and Carlson looks pretty underrated to me. Nice work, George McPhee.