Friday night randoms

More random links for you:

Here's the find of the evening-a Paulie Lo Duca card plaque I found at Dick's Sporting Goods. Yikes!

Biggest news of the night: prospect Jack McGeary is gonna play full time this year, according to NFA. Yay!

From Nats Journal:

-Elijah Dukes paid his ~$40k in overdue child support 3 minutes before the deadline (yes, 4:57 pm for a 5 pm deadline, folks). 

-It looks like Jordan Zimmermann is a favorite to earn a spot in the rotation during Spring Training. And Ross Detwiler perhaps by the end of the year? I'll believe it when I see it.

-And straight out of Chico's mouth/pen: "Bowden admitted that the Nationals would absolutely need to overpay for potential free agents." Not surprising.

Hondo could be returning. A nice Q&A session with Hondo here as well. Do it, Kasten.

The Nats have no interest in Fogg, but still have interest in Orlando Hudson and Adam Dunn. I wholeheartedly support going after either.

The Mets signed Rob MackowiaKKKKKKKKKKKKKK. Great move on Omar Minaya's part...NOT!

I take it back

The Cabrera signing isn't an awful signing as I called it last post. Terms have come out.

ESPN says the deal is worth $2.6 million.

This rivals the LoDuca/Fatstrada/Mackowiakkkkk signings from last year. What happened to being responsible with our $?

Did Steven at FJB wish for infinite ammo at Bowden for Christmas? He certainly got it.

I AM ANGRY!

CHRISTMAS IN JULY PART 2!!

MASN is reporting that Failipe Lopez and Paul Lo Duca have been released by the Nats to clear room for Emilio Bonifacio and Elijah Dukes, both of whom are being called up from AAA.

One word:

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

My life is oh so much better now that these two veterans who offer very little to the team and nothing beyond 2008. Finally, JimBow has admitted two of his mistakes. It's still way too late, and he still needs to be fired, but at least he dumped these two deadbeats.

Also-The Nats also traded minor league righthanded Jhonny Nunez to the Yankees for IF Alberto Gonzalez. From the looks of it, Gonzalez is an all-glove, no-hit SS. Jhonny Nunez will probably not be a Major League pitcher, as 22 year olds in A ball with 5.22 ERA's are pretty easy to come by. Looks good enough to me, I've seen enough no-glove, no-hit infielders in Felipe Lopez and Royce Clayton to last me a lifetime.

Wednesday Nats Roundup, Mailbag

Last night was pretty good by my standards (other than the Nats losing). I met a guy from my fantasy baseball league outside the Taco Stand (on the right side of Half Street I think it is...between the Metro and the CF Gate. Awesome Tacos!!) for the game. It's always nice to get a different perspective, and I got one from a Cubs fan who lived in New York and recently relocated to DC (and has a huge man-crush on Lastings Milledge).

The game itself was actually pretty good. It was a quick one and our pitchers were excellent. I was very impressed with Balester, Mock and Hanrahan (and, even though he came out unscathed, I remain skeptical about Charlie Manning). Too bad our offense is awful and we've got Zimmerman making excellent baserunning decisions...NOT!

I think this is interesting: Paul Lo Duca thinks his value is lower because he's not catching. That's pretty obvious I suppose, but it's also obvious that Lo Duca is the 3rd best catcher on the team and Jesus Flores should not EVER be benched again for the sake of "showcasing" a lousy player behind him (a la last week and the Johnny Estrada dealio).

And now it's mailbag time!
Right-hander Jon Rauch has been my favorite player since the Expos acquired him in 2004. Do you think it was good to trade Rauch to the Diamondbacks for second baseman Emilio Bonifacio?
-- Ben F., Suffolk, Va.

No. I tried to rationalize it for a while, but it simply wasn't a great trade for the Nats. Now that being said it could end up being a win for the team, but Rauch is worth more than Bonifacio. They should have (and definitely could have) gotten more than Emilio.

How could the Nats trade away such a valuable player in Rauch? He's clearly been their most consistent pitcher. I'm very disappointed in this trade, as I'm sure many others are, too.
-- Steve O., Montreal

Wookie had a good run in DC, but a 29-year-old closer on one of the worst teams in baseball is as useful as a cow on roller skates. We're building for the future and Rauch probably wasn't going to be part of it. But, like I said, we should have gotten more for him. Bowden's mistake.

What is going on with the Nationals' bullpen? It was advertised as the team's strength and hasn't performed as such. Is it because Chad Cordero went down with a shoulder injury?
-- Lee H., Silver Spring, Md.

The bullpen had 3 solid guys up until the Rauch trade in him, Rivera and Hanrahan. Now we're down to two. Counting on Colome to be effective was not smart, as he simply has never been an incredibly solid reliever. Last year's 3.82 ERA was a fluke. I have no idea what's up with Ayala, but unlike Colome, we didn't see that coming. His lowest ERA EVER was 3.19 last year and that was coming off of Tommy John surgery. Hopefully he'll bounce back and be a solid setup guy next year. Shell has been fine, Manning has been unpredictable, Sanches was uninspiring...and the Chief is hurt. But then again, middle relievers are the most unpredictable players in all of baseball. There's no sense putting faith into them.

Are there any middle infielders in the system who are close to being the big leagues?
-- Michael P., Minneapolis, Minn.

Bonifacio is the only one. Leonard Davis played 20 games at 2B last year in A ball, but he's really a 3B/OF type and Seth Bynum is doing damage in AA at the ripe age of 27. Desmond is in AA and COULD be up at some point next year. I doubt it, though, unless things start clicking. If the Nats sign 3rd rounder Danny Espinoza soon, the answer might be different.

I was so excited when the Nationals acquired Elijah Dukes from the Rays. How has he been so far?
-- J.P., Fairfax, Va.

Besides being injured, he's an absolute manchild. He's hitting .263/.367/.434 for the season, but
is hitting .302/.400/.497 since May 21, where he turned his season around after an awful 1-26 start to the year. He is a future MVP candidate and maybe even a future HOF guy. All he has to do is keep his emotions and actions in check (something I'm becoming progressively more confident in). He'll grow up eventually, and grow up into a heck of a ballplayer.

With the Nats' inability to generate offense, has there been any mention of replacing Lenny Harris as hitting coach? I believe they were better offensively under Mitchell Page.
-- Tim H., Lorton, Va.

Nope. Nobody's thought of getting rid of Lenny.

It appears to me that the team needs to change the manager. Manny Acta doesn't really appear to make tough decisions, especially at critical parts of a game. Appreciate your thoughts.
-- Phil P., Falls Church, Va.

Sometimes I question Manny's lineup making skills, but for the most part, he's a great manager. He runs the team remarkably well considering how bad they are. When it comes to starting certain guys and putting certain relievers in at key points, you often have to wonder how much pressure the FO is putting on him to play guys like Lopez, Lo Duca, etc.

There are not enough words, but too many phrases

Besides the obvious words, here's what I've got:
What was Bowden thinking?
Why should I even care about this team any more?
Is it any wonder the Nationals are the biggest joke of a team in baseball?
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

I don't even know how to express my total lack of respect for the Nationals' front office. I'm not going to defend them anymore. They're idiots. Complete morons. Guys that should be doing (insert name of non-noble work here).

Why am I so mad? Bill Ladson of MLB.com reports that taking Wily Mo Pena's place on the 25 man roster is none other than....JOHNNY ESTRADA!

Here's what Ladson says exactly:

With Pena expected to go on the disabled list on Friday, the Nationals are expected to activate catcher Johnny Estrada from the DL. Estrada has played in only 17 games this year because of a sore right elbow.

The Nationals will have four catchers -- Estrada, Jesus Flores, Paul Lo Duca and Wil Nieves -- on the 25-man roster. Manager Manny Acta said that Estrada will come off the bench and get some playing time behind the plate.

"I have to see Johnny Estrada out there," Acta said. "We have to take a look at him. It's July. Other than that, we'll deal with what we have."

This is so wrong on so many levels. I don't see why they want to torture us so much. Here's a good analogy-Johnny Estrada is to baseball as William Hung is to singing. Sorry, William, I hate to compare you to such a worthless baseball player, but you're the best I could think of.

Johnny Estrada has only had 1 season that has ever been deemed "above average" in OPS+ (where 100 is average, anything above 100 is above average and everything below 100 is below average). Estrada topped out at 113 in 2004, carrying a career OPS+ of 84 and OPS+'s of 74, 92, 78 and 8 from 2005-08 (note the small 2008 sample size, only 39 AB). With such a below-average bat, he must be valuable elsewhere, right? Wrong. Estrada has only thrown out 24% of potential base stealers over his career. Estrada is one of the slowest men on earth (more on that later).

My roommate (a Brewers/Nats fan, so he gets double the Estrada fun) wrote up a quick 5-tool assessment on Estrada for me:
me: i need for you to give me a scouting report on johnny estrada for my blog...very quick...just hit his skills in the 5 tools
roommate: uh
roommate: he doesn't walk
roommate: but can hit for average
roommate: no power
roommate: speed blows
roommate: defense sucks
roommate: arm sucks

Here are some opinions of Estrada from fans:

"At least (Jason Kendall is) likely to post an OBP greater than .300 and not be a distraction in the clubhouse, unlike Estrada. And be fast enough that you can actually bunt him over to second base. And who won't be a double play machine. And Estrada had a pretty crummy year defensively as well." -Chud.com commenter EvilTwin (Brewers Fan during Estrada's time there)

"Johnny Estrada sucks. He was the worst catcher in baseball last season at throwing out baserunners. He is overweight and I have read more than one report that he has a pathetic work ethic. No thanks."-SignOnSanDiego.com commenter Fixxer019 (Padres Fan when Estrada was rumored to be negotiating with them)

"Can we simply replace 'Johnny Estrada flied out to left' or 'Johnny Estrada grounds out 6-3' to 'Johnny Estrada sucks?' Seriously, after each out he makes, I don’t want to hear who got the putout or who got the assist, I just want to here 'Johnny Estrada sucks.' For example: 'The 2-2 to Estrada. Grounder to second. And Johnny Estrada sucks.'"-BravesJournal.com commenter Aram (Braves fan during Estrada's time there). Also from the same site: "#%$^ing Estrada……"-LatNam, BravesJournal.com commenter.

"Omar Minaya, to his undying credit, did do one good thing this off-season -- trading away Guillermo Mota, though we had to accept Johnny Estrada. Johnny Estrada sucks at baseball. But at least the cheater is gone."-Wheres-Luke.Blogspot.com (Mets fan after the Estrada-Mota deal)

"The difference between Estrada and Schneider is negligible, although I suppose Estrada is glacier-slow, whereas Schneider is just catcher-slow."-Matt Collins of BaseballMuse.WordPress.com (Mets fan)

"He may actually be a .300 hitter, which when you add in doubles power (36 last season) and a few walks is pretty darned valuable. (Written in January of 2005, so obviously not the case-.278 career hitter). On the other hand, if he can't hit near .300, he's a drag on the team, because he only hit nine homers and is painfully slow (no stolen bases or triples in his major league career, or in the minors since 2000) and his defense looked pretty shoddy. Interestingly, he wasn't charged with a passed ball last season, despite seemingly having trouble blocking the plate."-Mac Thomason of BravesBeat.com

"I hate him as much as anybody here. He's a butcher behind the plate, he's slow as hell, he has no work ethic, and he does nothing with runners in scoring position."-RealGM.com commenter Comet

Had enough? Now do you understand why Johnny Estrada is an awful call-up in any situation? WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Estrada is being called up to be our 4th catcher. 4. We have 13 hitters on our roster and 4 of them are catchers (3 of them being ONLY catchers, with Lo Duca being an impostor at 1B/LF occasionally...with a .939 fielding percentage on the balls that he actually gets near). That's absolutely ridiculous. Behind our normal starting lineup (I'll call it C-Flores, 1B-Young, 2B-Lopez, 3B-Belliard, SS-Guzman, LF-Casto, CF-Harris, RF-Kearns), we have 5 bench players-2 guys who can ONLY catch in Estrada, Nieves, 1 guy who can ONLY catch in Lo Duca (but we play him at 1B/LF occasionally to decrease the quality of our team), 2 guy who can play 2B/SS/3B in Pete Orr and 1 guy who can play all of the OF positions in Ryan Langerhans. Estrada's only value is as a backup catcher, where he should be fourth on the depth chart.

I know Zimmerman's coming up soon, but who is going to be sent down? The only real possibilities are Orr, Casto and Langerhans-the three guys with the most versatility. So we'll be even MORE shorthanded. Unless Bowden's going to pull the trigger on a deal (he no longer gets the benefit of my doubt), this is probably the worst baseball roster strategy I have ever seen. 31% of our batters on the roster are catchers, and only 1 of them can hit. At least Nieves is good defensively. Lo Duca and Estrada are the Terrible Twins.

Things are not looking good for our future if the Nats are this reluctant to swallow their pride and dump obvious mistakes. Combine that with a 100% irresponsible spending system (which allowed them waste $6.25 mil on both Lo Duca and Estrada in the first place rather than anyone of value) and suddenly defining the team as a "slot team" in terms of the draft and there is no hope visible for the Nats.

For the Nats to ever make the playoffs, 2 things need to happen:
Jim Bowden needs to be fired
The Lerner Family needs to sell the team. It's obvious that they are not capable of running a big league team. They approve spending money in the dumbest places (Johnny Estrada and Paul Lo Duca) and won't allow it for the most important areas (our 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th round draft picks).

As far as I'm concerned, The Plan will never succeed with the 3 Stooges (Bowden, Ted Lerner and Mark Lerner) running this team.

For the love of Frank Howard, can someone bring DC a respectable baseball team?

[/rant]

I'm sure there might be holes in my logic and maybe some bad grammatical errors, as I was too ticked off to even read through this post again. So just leave them in the comments and I'll correct them.

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.

Doubletake

I've got good news and better news (assuming everyone wants a better draft pick next year, that is): Lo Duca is not only returning on Tuesday, but he's going to get some PT in LF. This is where the Scooby Doo picture comes in. Awuhhhhh?

According to Ladson, Lo Duca last played outfield and first base in 2004 with the Dodgers. Just because he played there when the Dodgers were trying to boost his value after he got off the 'roids (sound similar to what's going on now?) doesn't make it right! If you recall, Lo Duca pitched to David Wright in the 2006 Home Run Derby. Since he has pitching experience only 2 seasons ago (as opposed to outfield experience 4 seasons ago), are we going to trot him out there every 5 days? Do we need to even bother calling up Garrett Mock or Collin Balester or whoever comes up next?

Meh. Lo Duca will be about as useful with an outfielder's glove as I would be with a gorilla suit.

The only good thing to come out of this is that while Lo Duca racks up innings at 1B, LF and DH, Flores and Nieves will also continue to catch. Next time we need a call-up, hope that one of Paulie or Wil has heated up and move them for somebody's 2006 18th round draft pick to clear room.

Another 4-6 weeks of this?

Zimmerman's out at least 4-6 more weeks. He'll get a checkup, and if he's not better, he'll have season-ending surgery on his labrum.

Per Chico Harlan at Nats Journal (link is above):

"We're not 100 percent sure that the exercises will resolve this. This is a specific exercise program that is the best in the United States proven to help avoid this surgery and get him healthy. But we're not going to know until that time."

Chico also ran down some other injury updates in the weekly chat he has:

Cordero -- just went down to Florida to start throwing more regularly. He's still about two weeks away from a rehab assignment. I'm guessing he won't be back with Washington until July.

Nick Johnson -- has a setback recently. He was supposed to get his cast removed last week, and the doctors decided he should wear it for two more weeks. Initially the team estimated 4-6 weeks. Now it's more like 6-8.

Lo Duca -- might be close. He just started a rehab assignment. The real question here is, where does he play?

Kearns -- still doing arm strengthening exercises. Once he resumes "baseball activities," the team will have a better idea. Still a few weeks away.

So we're looking at general timeframes of mid-to-late June for Lo Duca, late June-to-early July for Kearns (also fits with Ladson's "2-4 weeks" prediction), July for Cordero, the all-star break for Zimmerman and for Johnson, who knows? Throw in guys like baseball player Chico (MRI on his elbow showed loose bodies, 6 weeks of rest and rehab according to writer Chico) Wagner (throwing simulated games) for some mystery and I start to smell a sitcom.

So I'm starting to have a better feeling about the Nats' "worst lineup ever" now that we'll actually have some of our starters back (not that they were all that special in the first place).

This lineup doesn't sound all that bad to me:
Guzman-6
Milledge-8
Zimmerman-5
Johnson-3
Flores-2
Kearns-9 (he'll be at .250 by the end of the season, I guarantee it)
Dukes-7
Belliard-4
Pitcher-1

We'll hopefully have this lineup from the ASG on. I really really hope so.

But until then, what do we do? We don't really have a choice but to keep trotting out Casto, Pena, etc. But with Belliard back, we've got decent starters at 7 of 8 positions (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CF, RF). There is really no excuse for how bad this team is hitting. They'll turn it around. They better.

Thursday afternoon roundup

Sitting on the couch watching an afternoon ballgame taking place in San Diego is the next best thing to actually being at the afternoon ballgame in San Diego. But I'm not lucky enough to be there right now, so I'll just blog about it.

I am very, very happy with Lastings Milledge's performance in the top of the 4th. Bunting for a base hit, stealing second (twice, really) and then stealing third to score on a sacrifice fly by Elijah Dukes. Milledge is actually hitting fairly well over the last 7 games at .250/.308/.583. He hit a bomb last night, too. After seeing a glimpse of what Milledge is actually capable of over the last 18 hours or so, I've decided to be a little more patient of Milledge's learning curve in center.

It's also pretty funny listening to Paul Lo Duca and Chad Cordero talking about New York and Philadelphia Fans (all are paraphrased, no Tivo here):

"It was easy to convince myself they were yelling 'Duuuuc' and not 'Boooo'"-Lo Duca (sure, Paulie, keep telling yourself that).
"Philly fans are mad, mad people"-Lo Duca
"In Philly you have 8 year olds booing you"-Cordero

Some people don't like Lo Duca in the booth. For them, I have one simple question: Would you rather have Paulie in the booth or behind the plate? I'll take my chances with him chatting with Johnny Holliday.

I'm flipping back and forth between my favorite teams of softball girls, the Nats and the Virginia Tech Hokies in their College World Series game against Texas A&M. The US College Softball Player of the Year Angela Tincher is on the mound for the Hokies. I won't go into how really, really good she is. But she no-hit the US National team. And Tech's starting shortstop (and cleanup hitter), Misty Hall has killed two black bears (one with a rifle, missed what the other one was with). If looks could kill, she would be in the double digits by now. Texas A&M has a left-handed second baseman, Natalie Villareal. That's all I've got so far, but LET'S GO HOKIES!!

Thursday's Roundup

Lo Duca and Estrada to the DL, Flores up from AAA and Dukes back from the DL.
Estrada, first of all, should never have been reinstated from the DL, mainly because he never should have been signed at all. He is awful. He doesn't run out base hits, can't take a walk, hits in to a ton of double plays...and he couldn't even throw the ball when they reinstated him from the DL! They need to cut him, he's worthless.
Amateur Fighter Paul Lo Duca is going to be out 4-6 weeks. I think during this time, Nieves should start 3 games for every Flores game until he falters, and then they should go in cycles of either 2 games for Nieves, 2 for Flores, or 3 apiece.
I still think Rob Macowiak needs to be cut immediately. Sign Brad Wilkerson or Jacque Jones, at least they can play good defense and hit righties. Wilkerson would fit best, in my opinion, as he can take over at first if Johnson gets traded (and I can reuse my Wilkerson jersey/t-shirt thing).

Also, O'Connor to the rotation, Chico to the bullpen. All I have to say: It's about freakin' time! Chico needs to be sent down to AAA to learn how to throw strikes. Pure speculation is that they want him to stay up with St. Claire, but just as I said, that's simply speculation. They don't have any lefties in the pen besides Chico, though, so it could be hard from a management standpoint to send him down, but I still think it's in the team's best interest to keep a worthwhile reliever in the pen, because Chico can't get lefties out either.

I got to go on a tour of Nats Park today. It was really nice, and a fun tour. It's always cool go to in the dugout and bullpen and on the warning track. Wish we could have gone in the clubhouse, though, instead of just hanging on the outside. If you're looking to take the tour, I'd say it's worth the $15 (although my tour was paid for by someone else).

Now, my first Caps rant:
RESIGN FEDOROV!!
RESIGN HUET!!
RESIGN GREEN!!