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Nicked Nat out for year

A surprise to no one, Washington Nationals first baseman Nick Johnson is now out for the remainder of the 2008 season. Johnson was initially out on the disabled list with a torn ligament in his wrist but only expected to miss 4 to 6 weeks. The injury was very similar to what Boston Red Sox’ David Ortiz is currently disabled with. Unfortunately for Nick, the injury has not healed and surgery was needed. The team is pretty confident thou that he’ll be ready for the 2009 season. Read more

Cordero avoids the knife

Looks like Washington Nationals closer Chad Cordero will be able to avoid surgery on his ailing shoulder. Cordero recently met with Dr James Andrews about the shoulder, after his fastball was topping out at just 79 mph the other night. Andrews did a thorough examination and found no structural damage. His official diagnosis is tendinitis and general weakness. This isn’t to say surgery will be needed at some point thou, but Andrews sees no need for any type of.

So where does Cordero go from here? His only option is just to strengthen the shoulder and continue to pitch. Cordero and the Nationals training staff will put together a series of exercises that will be used to strengthen the shoulder, well attempt to strengthen. At this time, there is no plans of putting Cordero on the disabled list.

For you fantasy guys, I’d keep him on your bench if you for some reason have not cut him yet. You can’t really be trusting a 79mph fastball now, can you?

Giants shopping for a first baseman

San Francisco Giants’ GM Brian Sabean said on his weekly radio show that the team is still searching for a left-handed hitting first baseman. The Giants have had conversations within the organization on different players, the two main candidates would be Washington Nationals Nick Johnson and Atlanta Braves Scott Thorman. Both were on the trading block during the off-season and spring training, but are they still available?

I doubt the Nationals would look to dealing Johnson. Johnson has had an amazing start to the season after missing all of 2007 due to injury. He’s been playing first daily again and it looks like the Nationals are very happy with him. So you would have to think the Giants won’t even inquire about him. If they do, I’m sure the Nationals requirements have gone up since the spring ended.

The most likely one out of the two is Thorman. Thorman is currently in AAA and won’t even be recalled to Atlanta unless there is an injury or a major slump. Remember, the Braves have Mark Texeira at first so where would Thorman play? At the moment, the Braves are looking to find a trading partner FOR Thorman. Seems like a perfect match to me. The Giants could easily send an average middle reliever and get the left-handed 1B they seek.

The person who loses out the most in this is Dan Ortmeier, a switch-hitter, is currently the teams left-handed hitting 1B. Ortmeier has pretty much gotten no opportunity to start the season as Rich Aurilia continues to start ahead of him. Guess the team must have lost faith in the 26-year older. Not quite sure why thou as he did have 17 extra base hits (6 of them homers) in just 157 at-bats, he’s even got pretty good speed tallying 4 triples .

Chad Cordero injury update

Semi-good news for all you Chad Cordero fantasy owners, the Washington Nationals closer won’t be going on the Disabled List, yet. The reason for him not entering the game last night was due to shoulder tendinitis. Cordero actually received a cortisone shot yesterday and didn’t enter the game because his shoulder was still feeling strange. The team has shut him down for today and tomorrow, but he will play catch Wednesday afternoon. “Right now, it doesn’t really feel bad,” Cordero said. “I’m not really going to know until I throw on Wednesday, so hopefully everything will be all right.”

If he happens to go on the DL, Manager Manny Acta will consider recalling Justin Maxwell from AA-Harrisburg. “His name was brought up yesterday when we were considering all those things,” Acta said. “The way he played at the end of the year last year and the way he played at spring training - and also you have to take into consideration the roster situation. He’s a 40-man guy. But that wouldn’t be the only reason he would be called up. We feel comfortable with this kid.”

Remember the team doesn’t plan on placing him on the DL just yet. “Right now we’re not even considering the DL yet,” Acta said. “He’s going to be examined today, and we’re going to give him today off, plus we have the day off tomorrow, and then we’re going to check on him on Wednesday.”

In other Nats injury news, Elijah Dukes was placed on the DL with a strained hamstring. Unfortunately for the bench, the team called up a pitcher, Chris Schroder since Cordero is unavailable.

Thoughts on Nats walk-off opener

What a first game in a new ballpark, a walk-off homerun, following a blown save to avoid extra innings. WOW. I’m going to give you my thoughts on tonight’s opener, the Atlanta Braves vs Washington Nationals. Being that I did play-by-play for the game tonight at work, I was able to keep a detailed list of FIRSTS for Nationals Park, so I’ll also post those for you.

First, the National Anthem - I didn’t even think about it first cause I put the chick on mute. But one of the guys at work said doesn’t this chick sound like Miss Piggy. I un-hit the Mute button and man he wasn’t joking. So actually it was a pretty entertaining anthem after thinking it was Miss Piggy singing it.

The first pitch - George Bush remember the advice Derek Jeter gave him a few years back. Go up on the mound, take the rubber and fire a fastball. None of that stand in front boring lets see if I reach toss. The pitch was a little high, but hey he risked embarrassment by taking the mound, well done.

Here’s the list of FIRSTS for the ballpark.
1st Win - Jon Rauch
1st Loss - Peter Moylan
1st Blown Save - Jon Rauch
1st Homerun - Chipper Jones
1st Hit - Cristian Guzman
1st Run - Cristian Guzman
1st RBI - Nick Johnson’
1st Double - Nick Johnson
1st Extra-Base Hit - Nick Johnson
1st Walk (Hitter) - Yunel Escobar
1st Walk (Pitcher) - Odalis Perez
1st Strikeout (Batter) - Kelly Johnson
1st Strikeout (Pitcher) - Odalis Perez
1st Error - Tim Hudson
1st Passed Ball - Paul LoDuca
1st Pick-Off / Caught Stealing - Kelly Johnson by Odalis Perez
1st Injury - Elijah Dukes

Now to thoughts on the game.
Tim Hudson - Amazing start after a horrible beginning. Hudson got knocked around in the first inning throwing 29 pitches, giving up 2 runs, 3 hits but struck out two. It truly looked like it was going to be a long night. Well Hudson went 7 innings and after that first inning no Nationals player reached base. In fact, no Nationals player touched a base again till the walk-off homerun in the 9th.

Odalis Perez - Solid start. I honestly expected for him to get hammered and thought he was one of the worst Opening Day pitchers EVER! What did he do, went 5 innings giving up 1 run, a Chipper Jones homer, 4 hits a walk and 2 strikeouts.

Chipper Jones - Homerun. What can you say Chipper Jones showing early season power has to be a good sign for you Braves fans.

Mark Teixeira - Double to start rally in the 9th inning. Boy was this ball absolutely crushed to right center off the 14-foot high wall. I don’t feel the ball was as close to going out as Joe Morgan thought. They were going absolutely crazy on ESPN that, that ball just missed going out of the park, but I don’t think it was high enough it was MAYBE half way up the ball. Regardless, that ball was still crushed.

Nick Johnson - Looked good coming back from his broken leg that cost him the entire 2007 season. I’ll tell you that was pretty impressive on how he ran in that first inning on Jeff Francoeur TWICE!. Johnson has never been a fast runner but he took Francoeur to town both times, and he’s got the best arm in the National League. Nobody ever tests this guy! Johnson turned a single into a double, then scored from second. Both times I thought he was dead in the water but he beat the throw. Great hustle from a guy not worried about his previous injury.

Jon Rauch - Came in to close out the game for an injured Chad Cordero and instantly blows a save. Granted, he did get some help from the amazing defensive skills of one Paul LoDuca. I must say LoDuca, is a BUM!!!

Ryan Zimmerman - 0-3 going into the ninth with a strikeout and two groundouts. Two outs, 2-2 tie and he hit a bomb to left-center field to win the Nats Opener. In RFK, that ball is most likely a double here in the new ballpark it’s a game winner.

Injuries - Elijah Dukes left the game in the 6th inning with a tight right hamstring. Dukes has experienced problems with that hammy the past 2 weeks in camp. He might get tomorrow off against the Phillies. Chad Cordero felt stiffness warming up for his save opportunity. Peter Gammons just reported stiffness not where thou, so one can only speculate.

The Ballpark - very nice from what we saw on TV. Nice views of the city which it seems every new stadium has now. From the looks of it, there will be a lot more homeruns this year, fairly deep power alleys and straight away center but nonetheless more homers. The ball had some carry to it at times, and once the heat and humidity hit the DC area in the summer that ball is going to be hopping out of there.

Lineups for “traditional” MLB opener

Here’s the lineups for tonight’s “traditional” MLB opener, Atlanta Braves @ Washington Nationals.

Atlanta
2B Kelly Johnson
SS Yunel Escobar
3B Chipper Jones
1B Mark Teixeira
RF Jeff Francoeur
C Brian McCann
LF Matt Diaz
CF Mark Kotsay
P Tim Hudson

Washington
SS Cristian Guzman
CF Lastings Milledge
3B Ryan Zimmerman
1B Nick Johnson
RF Austin Kearns
C Paul LoDuca
LF Elijah Dukes
2B Ronnie Belliard
P Odalis Perez

I’ll be covering that game at work tonight, so I’ll have my own recap afterwards around 1230am or so once I get home.

Nats actively pursuing trades

The Washington Nationals are actively pursuing trades for infielder Felipe Lopez and possibly 1B Dmitri Young. Over the past week or so, Lopez has done quite a bit of complaining that he doesn’t want to be with the team if he’s not starting. He’s retracted the statements at times, but then later goes back to his originally thinking. The Nats who are opening up a new ballpark this season, don’t want to deal with all that non-sense, so you have to believe they’ll look to make a move. Well today, team GM Jim Bowden sent a message to players who were formerly starters.

“We certainly are going to have compassion for players on this team that are everyday players that are not going to get to play every day [from] the get-go,” Bowden said. “I have compassion for that. … If we could make a move to give them an opportunity to play every day and make our organization better, we’ll do it. But we’re not going to make a deal that we don’t think is going to make our organization better, because we’re all about winning. We’re all about the team. We’re not about individuals.”

The two players he’d be talking about are clearly Lopez and Young. Both players are in danger of losing their starting jobs to Ronnie Belliard and Nick Johnson, respectively. Johnson is no surprise as he’s coming off injury, and the injury is the only reason he lost his starting job. The team has always been fond of him and as long as he’s performing they won’t even think twice about letting him go. Young has stayed relatively quiet and been a team player throughout the whole spring competition. If he’s with the team come opening day, he’ll most likely get a majority of the at bats against left-handed pitchers.

Belliard well he’s just simply outperforming Lopez, and its not by a small margin either. Belliard is batting .383 with 3 homers and 8 rbis, while Lopez is batting a paltry .236 with 1 homer and 3 rbis. Lopez has also received more of the at bats in spring training then Belliard. The problem is most teams are more interested in Belliard and its not just cause he’s out playing Lopez. Belliard is a cheaper alternative as he’s only making $3.5 million for the next 2 years, while Lopez is making $4.9 million for 2008 alone.

This situation could still get pretty ugly if Lopez isn’t dealt and in that respect I believe the Nationals will just dump him for a box of cracker jacks if they have to. Bowden said they won’t make a deal just to make a deal, but if Lopez is truly going to be a pain in the ass, then sometimes you just have to do it.

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