http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/ en-us Copyright 2008 Thu, 15 May 2008 14:33:59 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.36 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss We'll find out, I suppose. Mike Pelfrey hasn't allowed a hit through six innings. He's faced only three batters more than the minimum. Mind you, this is a guy who's allowed 46 hits in 33-1/3 innings this year. Thankfully for the Nats, Bergmann is matching Pelfrey zero for zero. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/does_a_blog_mention_curese_a_n.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/does_a_blog_mention_curese_a_n.html Thu, 15 May 2008 14:33:59 -0400 Series finale. Nats go for three out of four. Washington Lopez - 4 Guzman - 6 Zimmerman - 5 Boone - 3 Milledge - 8 Kearns - 9 Mackowiak - 7 Flores - 2 Bergmann - 1 New York Reyes - 6 Castillo - 4 Wright - 5 Beltran - 8 Church - 9 Delgado - 3 Castro - 2 Anderson - 7 Pelfrey - 1 http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/lineups_from_shea_1.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/lineups_from_shea_1.html Thu, 15 May 2008 12:31:09 -0400 That's the latest. Nationals are putting their first baseman on the 15-day DL. An MRI this morning revealed a tear of the tendon sheath in his right wrist. The injury problems for Johnson continue. Dmitri Young will rejoin the club tomorrow to take his place. Here's what Manny Acta said about the news. Q: Thoughts on Nick? A: I feel bad for him because, as always, we want to see him play a full season. He worked extremely hard to come back to spring training and be in the shape he is. And now this happens. He's a big part of our club. That being said, now Dmitri is coming up and he'll be able to help our offense too. We're lucky to have two guys at first base. Q: Are you confident Dmitri is 100 percent? A: Yeah, and he feels good. The reports we had from Double AA http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/johnson_out_46_weeks.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/johnson_out_46_weeks.html Thu, 15 May 2008 11:41:23 -0400 Mega computer problems last night. About nine minutes before 11:30 deadline, my laptop pulled a Palmeiro-in-Congress and lost all memory of its past. When I rebooted, the story I'd been writing entirely vanished. Wasn't on the desktop. Wasn't in some temporary folder. Wasn't recovered by some miracle MS Word mining expedition. Though I'd saved the story frequently, it left no residual trace. Gotta admit, as I started rewriting something to make midnight's deadline, I kept thinking that this might be the time to try the ol' six-word game story. ("Nats perform better than Dell Latitude.") Anyway, turning attention to more relevant topics... The Nats play the series finale at Shea this afternoon. Jason Bergmann versus Mike Pelfrey. Especially given their top-shelf play last night, Washington has the chance to claim a little momentum here, such as it exists in baseball. If you can come to New York, win three out http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/the_only_real_solution_is_a_ma.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/the_only_real_solution_is_a_ma.html Thu, 15 May 2008 08:50:02 -0400 Injury update on Nick Johnson. He's heading back to DC this evening for a wrist examination that will determine the extent of an injury he sustained in his final at bat yesterday. The team is still saying he's day-to-day, but it seems like Johnson is concerned. He left the clubhouse today with his right wrist wrapped in a splint. "I hope it's nothing serious, but today it's pretty sore," he said. "Last night I couldn't really sleep, it was pretty sore, and today I can't really move it. I hope the drugs kick in." Chances are you know the backstory here; if not, try a Google search of "Nick Johnson + injury-plagued." The guy has missed time in his career with a fractured right femur, a lumbar strain, a fractured cheekbone, an injured lower back, a right hand stress fracture, a left wrist strain, and a strained muscle in right http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/johnson_status_update.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/johnson_status_update.html Wed, 14 May 2008 18:33:44 -0400 The heavy reading, for those interested. (This comes courtesy of Nats PR man Bill Gluvna.) I'll paste it below. --- NATIONALS MINOR LEAGUE REPORT VINCENT VANALLEN: LHP Cory VanAllen is a combined 5-0 with a 0.68 ERA (3 ER/ 40.0 IP) in 7 games (6 starts) with Double-A Harrisburg and Single-A Potomac...among starters, the 23-year-old leads minor league baseball in ERA and ranks 2nd with a .137 (16-for-117) batting average against...VanAllen was selected as both the Bank of America Eastern League Pitcher of the Week and the MILB.com Pitcher of the Week for the week of May 5-11 after going 2-0 with a 0.71 ERA (1 ER/12.2 IP) and 11 strikeouts in his first 2 career starts at the Double-A level...before his May 3 promotion to Harrisburg, he went 3-0 with a 0.66 ERA (2 ER/27.1 IP) in 5 games (4 starts) with the P-Nats...VanAllen, who was selected in the http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/unabridged_minor_league_report.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/unabridged_minor_league_report.html Wed, 14 May 2008 15:39:01 -0400 One thing I managed neither to fit into the game story nor the notebook was the incident that opened last night's game. Because it involved a hit batsman one night after tensions ran high over the cheerleading episode, many -- at least in the press box -- interpreted John Maine's first pitch as the signal for a saucy night. After all, before facing lead-off man Felipe Lopez, the Mets' pitcher had faced 181 batters this season. He'd plunked just one of them. He's known for average- to above-average control, and of course, baseball is a game whose history is rich with retaliation. I suppose Lopez found out that retaliation can leave a welt. Maine's opening delivery darted toward the inside corner of the plate and hit Lopez in the midsection. But nothing serious happened after that. No stare-downs. No more hit batsmen. Rather, Lopez just jogged to first. We had http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/chat_reminder.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/chat_reminder.html Wed, 14 May 2008 09:38:03 -0400 Manny Acta's (brief) take on the Figueroa/cheering/clapping circus. Q: Do you have a reaction to what happened yesterday regarding Nelson Figueroa? A: I don't. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and we live in a world nowadays where everything you do and say, you're offending somebody. So I really have no reaction to it. Q: Specifically he said if the coaching staff allowed that to continue, it's unprofessional. Is there any response to that? A: I don't have any reaction to it. They weren't yelling names or anything like that. They were cheering their own guys. You don't see it every day in the big leagues, but I don't think they were doing anything mean. Q: Do you take offense to that characterization, then? A: No. he's entitled to his opinion. This is America. Q: Are you surprised it's even an issue? A: Yes, because half of Florida is http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/thoughts_from_manny_and_a_line.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/thoughts_from_manny_and_a_line.html Tue, 13 May 2008 18:32:31 -0400 Until yesterday, I'm guessing, Nelson Figueroa was largely irrelevant -- and perhaps entirely unknown -- to the casual New Yorker. But last night's Figueroa-led controversy at Shea proves that a little smack-talk, at least in this town, is still the most direct path to ignominy. Both the Post and the Daily News made entirely unsurprising decisions to fillet Figueroa on their back pages. The Post headline: SOFTBALL GIRLS The Daily News headline: SIS BOOM BLAH The fact that all this happened in New York, where Lastings Milledge played last year, and where Manny Acta once managed, and where the Nationals visit three times annually, makes this a half-juicy story for the local press. All the assembled hacks are about to head down to the team clubhouses to get the latest he-said, he-said renditions. (Listen, nobody said the Fourth Estate helps lift the greater intelligence quotient.) Anyway, we haven't yet gotten http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/life_on_the_back_pages.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/life_on_the_back_pages.html Tue, 13 May 2008 15:23:39 -0400 There's a theory drifting out there that any decent idea can be summarized in six words, which, by the way, I said directly above in six succinct words. A cursory Google search of "six words," in fact, reveals that Hemingway once authored an entire short story in this format. ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") For reasons that only reveal my demented bookish side, I get a kick out of this stuff. Anyway, allow me to introduce a little competition, which perhaps we can play here from time to time. The Nats -- or at least their most recent game -- in six words: My try for now? "Better than softball-clapping? Softball hitting." Have a go if you want. I'll be back later this afternoon with far more elaborate thoughts on this burgeoning Mets-Nats rivalry. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/any_idea_requires_just_six_wor.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/any_idea_requires_just_six_wor.html Tue, 13 May 2008 09:34:54 -0400 Quick note here after watching Nick Johnson draw a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. Johnson's .223 average is unsightly, sure, but he entered the game with a .413 OBP, just outside of the league's top-10. Here's a large reason for that discrepancy: Right now, Johnson leads MLB in the percentage of pitches taken. Exactly 69 percent of his pitches he simply watches. (Albert Pujols, by the way, ranks second in this statistic.) Johnson's at bat here shows exactly why he's still a valuable player even when his average doesn't reflect it. He looked at his first two pitches, gaining a 2-0 edge in the count. Then he started fouling pitches -- toward the Mets dugout, over the backstop, down the right field line. He worked the count full, and then, with the Shea crowd rising in anticipation, drew a simple walk. Didn't help his average, obviously, but it tied http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/nick_johnson_a_modest_apprecia.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/nick_johnson_a_modest_apprecia.html Mon, 12 May 2008 20:17:23 -0400 Meet the Mets! Meet the Mets! Please, don't interpret the link as a suggestion to click. Meanwhile, a Mackowiak sac fly to center drives in Nick Johnson, who'd reach on an error. One-one game, and the strongest side on the field is still Mother Nature. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/they_wait_all_of_one_inning_at.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/they_wait_all_of_one_inning_at.html Mon, 12 May 2008 19:34:28 -0400 When Svrluga and I walked into Shea today, we passed about four or five security guards near the entrance. Not a single person bothered to seek our credentials. We just walked right in. I'm guessing that by now, most people are figuring that nobody comes here unless they absolutely have to. An hour before the first pitch, the wind is whipping. The line of American flags atop the stadium are flapping so hard, they sound almost like the spinnaker on a sailboat in the angry seas. One gust somehow slid under the white infield tarp and peeled a huge flag away from home plate. It took about 10 guys to wrestle the tarp back into position. But the good news: No rain right now. Looks like they're gonna play. The lineups. Washington Lopez - 4 Guzman - 6 Zimmerman - 5 Johnson - 3 Milledge - 8 Kearns - 9 http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/lineups_from_shea.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/lineups_from_shea.html Mon, 12 May 2008 18:10:13 -0400 Substantive or not, I found it unavoidably ominous, and just a tad funny, that on the day I moved to Washington, D.C., to prepare for a new life covering baseball, a Washington Post headline in the bottom corner of the Sports front read, "Chico, Nats, Struggling To Get the Job Done." So there -- I figure we've already gotten the best Matt Chico coincidence out of the way. My name is Chico, too, and from now on, I'll be handling, or rather getting handled by, the Nats beat writing job at The Post. Here are the biographical basics, which you can freely use as ammunition in my darker moments: I attended Syracuse University (aka, the Harvard of Onondaga County). I'm 25. I grew up in Pittsburgh, working first for my hometown paper, the Post-Gazette. And for much of the last year, I've lived and worked for the national tabloid in http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/an_introduction_2.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/an_introduction_2.html Mon, 12 May 2008 10:18:19 -0400 Some wrap-up thoughts following a miserable sweep by the Marlins. Manny Acta - Every day is a good day for the Nationals manager. That, of course, makes the life of a beat writer better. This is a job in which you root for yourself - for a good story, a good quote, and for people that don't make your life more difficult. Acta never makes things more difficult. "The Main Event" - What does it say about the Nationals that each home game, in the middle of the fourth inning, that the PA guy comes on and booms, "And now, it's time for the maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain event!" You mean, the baseball game people are paying hundreds of dollars to see? Uh, no. That'd be the 10-foot tall presidents race. Perhaps in a few years, baseball might be the main event. Crazier things have happened, I suppose. Panera - You want breaking http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/a_dozen_things_ill_miss_about.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/05/a_dozen_things_ill_miss_about.html Sun, 11 May 2008 15:44:47 -0400