Nats notes

As expected, Kory Casto and Mike O'Connor were waived. Both cleared and will end up in Syracuse. Good for them, I'm sure both will see time in DC this summer. Also, Rule 5 pick Terrell Young will start the year on the 15-day DL with right shoulder inflammation. Young needs to spend 90 days on the active roster (the DL doesn't count) to stick with the Nats. I'd put it about 50-50 when injuries start to set in halfway through the year.

Now, all we're waiting on is word on who the 4 remaining relievers will be. Still have my money on Bergmann, Mock, Shell and Hinckley (although I think Hinckley should be replaced with Colome).

Now, here are a few links to share:

The Hardball Times takes a look at Shairon Martis (along with The Angels Angels' prospect Nick Adenhart). Definitely worth a look, some pretty charts and graphs and stuff there. The author, Harry Pavlidis, describes Martis' changeup as "top notch" and notes that "his slider may actually be three different pitches."

Marc Hulet of Fangraphs takes a look at some Nats prospects. Nothing earth-shattering, just some more "Zimmermann is awesome," "Detwiler regressed," and "the Nats' farm system sucks."

New additions to Nats Park: the statues of Hondo, Gibson and the Big Train are finished, 7-feet tall Racing President Bobbleheads, recycling bins, better signs, etc.

That's all I've got for now...still have another 1,000 or so words to write on Jane Cazneau. If you're interested in a mini-history lession, click here!

Monday Links

Check 'em out!

RotoAuthority takes a look at the "cliches" of Spring Training-losing weight and gaining muscle and their correlations with player performance.

Baseball Insider gives us some hope that Randy St. Claire might be able to turn Daniel Cabrera into a good pitcher (but why isn't this on Nats Journal?).

Alex Ovetjkin defends Alex Semin's "fighting" style, comparing it to the hammerfist.

Chris Cooley buys a yellow shirt, can't start his Mercedes, has a dance party in the back of a taxi.

3 days after winning the Orange Bowl, the Hokies already aren't getting any respect for next year.

That's all for now, hopefully there will be some Nats news sometime soon!

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.

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.

Sunday Night Roundup

Wow, nice ending to the game tonight! For those of you who live under rocks (or read my blog for reasons other than Nationals coverage, a dangerous thing in the summer), Nats infielder Ronnie Belliard hit a 1-2 pitch with 2 outs in the bottom of the 12th to beat the Dark Side 3-2. Great to see the Nats win (and the Dark Side lose) in such a dramatic fashion. Seems every time a Nats player hits a walk-off homer, I'm at work. So I guess I'll have to start working more often. Take one for the team, I guess.

The Reds signed Rob Mackowiak to a minor league contract. Usually guys are used to going from the Reds to the Nationals, but I guess Mackowiak is a non-conformist. He really showed his individuality by refusing to conform to the ML standard for being able to hit the ball. Way to show 'em, Rob!

Virginia Tech 400-meter hurdler Queen Harrison made the US Olympic Team today. Another proud moment for Virginia Tech. In the past year, the Hokies have reached the final four in men's soccer, the BCS in football and the College World Series in softball. They scored ACC Championships in Football, Women's Track and Field (both indoor and outdoor) and golf. Still looking for the elusive National Championship, but Virginia Tech sports continue to be on the rise.

Mike Green, Brooks Laich, Cristobal Huet, Shaone Morrisonn and Boyd Gordon can negotiate with other teams starting at (I believe) noon on Tuesday. Wouldn't it be great if, say, Huet signed between now and when I wake up tomorrow? And Green and Morrisonn decide that they'd rather save the team some cash and both sign deals around $1 mil for the better interest of the Caps? And Brooks Laich said "I think that's a great idea" and followed suit? And Boyd Gordon signed for the minimum and Cindy Crosby shaved his 15 year old hispanic kid moustache and the Caps signed Wayne Gretzky's time machine self? Hopefully, the Caps will be able to fit everyone under the salary cap. If you're interested, check out Japers' Rink's assessment of the value of draft pick compensation in the NHL. Here is my assessment of cap room.

Looks like that's it for now. I'll check in tomorrow late morning/early afternoon.

Quick odds and ends

• Added the link to the Nationals Farm Authority Big Board to the links on the right. Check it out every week if you want to live a happy, fulfilling life.

• Check out Pop'rs. My understanding of Pop'rs is that they are seasonings you put on foods, but have a good source of many vitamins and don't have a whole lot of sugar/carbs/sodium. Flavors go from Cocoa to Butter to Strawberry to Taco. Click the link to find out more, and you can enter a contest here to try them.

• I'm also proud of Nationals pitcher Joel Hanrahan for doing some fundraising for the floods in Iowa, where he is from. If you want to bid on any of the items from the online auction (or just wnat to peruse them), check it out here.

• Late Edit: Fredericksburg.com is reporting that Hill COULD be out for the year:

  Right-hander Shawn Hill yesterday did not rule out the possibility that he could be out for the season. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Thursday with a strained right forearm, and he will be out indefinitely.

  "At this point, I honestly think that this is what it needs," Hill said. "I haven't had a good period of rest for a couple years now. I haven't had a good year to rest where my arm can just strictly rest up, heal up and catch up from all the abuse it's taken. At the same time it's frustrating because it's the middle of the season."

  Hill will leave the team and go to his offseason home in Florida in the next few days. He said his arm hurts even when he's doing normal, everyday activities. When that pain subsides, he'll decide when to begin a rehabilitation and throwing program.

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

Monday night roundup and a must-see link!

Regarding tonight's 10-4 win over the Mets: Wow, we can beat these guys, but not the Marlins? I mean sure, Nelson Figueroa is no Johan Santana, but it's not like he's worse than Ricky Nolasco. But I digress. Tonight was odd...a pretty bad pitching outing by Odalis Perez (seriously, 11 hits allowed in 6 and 1/3 innings?) to go with his great evening at the plate (3-3, 1 run, 2 RBI, 1 sacrifice). The team had 4 doubles. Flores continues to alternate between hits and strikeouts, Guz leaves 8 men on base...and we still won by 6 over what was supposed to be the clear favorite to win the NL pennant at the beginning of the year. That's why ballgames are played on grass, not paper.

The Post has a new beat writer for the Nats, Chico Harlan. He's looked good so far, but only time will tell regarding whether or not he is Svrlugaesque.

Quick answers to the Mailbag questions:
Since Lastings Milledge hasn't been performing well enough, is there any way that the Nationals would consider signing Jim Edmonds?
-- Josh T., Chevy Chase, Md.
Are you serious? Edmonds is awful! He can't hit any more (.178/.265/.233). He was outhit by Jake Peavy by over 100 points, and Peavy isn't even a .300 hitter!! Edmonds can still catch the ball but he takes roughly eighteen years to get to it, so his defense isn't better. I mean if we want an more expensive and worse player than Milledge, Edmonds is definitely our guy. Stupid question.

What do you think of general manager Jim Bowden's strategy of signing veterans to fill out his roster -- Aaron Boone, Rob Mackowiak, Johnny Estrada and Paul Lo Duca. The Lerner ownership would have been better served by just saving its money. What is your view of this?
-- Michael L., Westport, Conn.

Boone-Good
Mackowiak-Good (Signing him was a good idea, keeping him is not)
Estrada-BAD!!!!!!!! MOST WORTHLESS PLAYER ALIVE!!!!!!!
Lo Duca-Poor...not quite bad, but I'm not feeling Jimbo on this one. Should have just let Jesus play in the Majors.

The Lerners were going to have to spend money in the offseason to keep fans from killing themselves, so this is what we got. I would have rather had them sign Boone and Mackowiak and Wil Nieves and save the money they spent on past-their-prime has-beens like Johnny Estrada and Paul Lo Duca on a contract extension for Ryan Zimmerman, because that's something the fans would actually get excited about. Not a stupid question.

Would there be negative consequences by sending Wily Mo Pena or Austin Kearns to the Minors and bringing up Ryan Langerhans? Langerhans seems to have corrected his hitting problems at Triple-A Columbus.
-- Geoff B., Las Vegas

No matter what corrections were made, Langerhans had 35 hits in 210 at bats last year. We would have to waive Wily Mo or Kearns to send them down. Learn waiver rules, please. It would make so much more sense to send down Mackowiak or Harris (inferior players to Kearns/Pena) or Dukes (options left). Stupid question.

I really enjoyed watching the rise of John Lannan from Class A Potomac to the big leagues last year, and now he is our best starter. The Nationals have a similar pitcher this year in Cory VanAllen. Have you heard any mention of him from the "think tank" about moving him up the ladder?
-- Cole J., Atlanta

Ladson's response: Oh, yes. He was already promoted to Double-A Harrisburg, and Bowden talks about him often. I would not be surprised if we saw VanAllen in the Majors by August or September.

Sounds good to me. I don't have any "think tank" connections so I'll have to defer to Ladson on this one.

You mentioned special assistant to GM Barry Larkin's stepping in to offer advice on hitting. How does hitting coach Lenny Harris feel about Larkin's presence? Is there some bad chemistry going on between the players and Harris?
-- Dean O., Winnipeg, Manitoba

It's not bad chemistry, it's the fact that Harris is not a very good hitting coach, period. Teach patience, patience, patience, the Nicky J method. Please, FIRE LENNY!!!

Considering how quickly Jason Bergmann was sent down to Columbus after pitching poorly in April, are you surprised that the Nats haven't sent Matt Chico down yet?
-- Mike G. Millersville, Md.

I'm not surprised at all, but I'm rather appalled. Bergmann>Chico. Chico needs the AAA seasoning more. Just because he pitched 31 games in the Majors last year doesn't mean he deserves a spot through thick and thin this year. Bergmann had 21 starts last year and put up a 95 ERA+ to Chico's 91. Give the guy with more pro potential another shot. That guy is Bergmann.

I recall Ryan Zimmerman's rookie season in which he had a significant number of bunt singles. Any thoughts on him trying that a couple of times to help him get out of his funk?
-- Doug C., Lubbock, Texas

Zim: please start doing this again. I miss your amazing drag bunts!!

***And here's your must-see link. A bunch of hilarious "Hardball made easy" videos with real MLB players such as Carlos Zambrano and Brad Hawpe. They're worth 10 minutes of your time (5 videos in all)

Welcome!

Congratulations! You've stumbled upon my new blog. Since I'm a student and have very little credibility when it comes to sports (just a foaming-at-the-mouth passion), you're just going to have to trust me at first.

I'll be blogging mostly about the Nats, Caps and Redskins. I will also claim the Cubs as my own, as they were the baseball team I was raised on. I will periodically drop notes on other teams and players, but my main focus will be DC area sports teams (minus the Wizards, because I know absolutely nothing about basketball). I'll also write quite a bit about the Virginia Tech Hokies.

Some of the things I'm going to try and do on a regular basis:

1) Come up with an unsubstantiated trade rumor of the week. I will look through their team needs (or wants, or surpluses) and find a team that matches up and try and come up with a trade partner. While I am no GM, I don't think I'll be too far off with anything.

2) Post a roundup of my sports thoughts of the day. It may be short like 1-2 items, or it may be long. I'll discuss all I can here.