thurdl sports

Calling Mixologists

2007-06-09T19:47:00.000-04:00

I realize it's been awhile since I've had a real NIH update, and this isn't one. This is on a slightly different topic.

I've been on a bit of a bar tending craze of late, doing a Cocktail of the Week for the last three or four months. Three of the last seven weeks we've been doing the official cocktails of the triple crown races, including today finishing off the Belmont Breeze, which is very wonderfully refreshing even though it has a lot of random ingredients.

That got me thinking that I would love to create a drink that I would tentatively call the Curly W. That is to say, an unofficial official drink for the Washington Nationals, and I was hoping to get some input from fans.

Some thoughts that I have:

1) Optimally the last ingredient on the list should be a splash of grenadine for color.
2) It should be an appropriate drink for a summer night. That is to say, probably three ounces of booze that is then topped off with some fruit juice and some combination of 7Up, club soda, or any other kind of bubbly liquid.
3) The drink should be well suited to enlarge to pitcher-sized, perfect for that backyard barn viewing or tailgating (even though the latter may become a thing of the past in the new park).
4) Any ingredient should be readily available both through the VABC and through a minimally stocked DC liquor store. Optimally something available in minibottles, to allow for a single or pitcher to be made without messing around with measuring.

So I thought I'd throw it out there to see if there are some thoughts about any ingredients that seem appropriate, anything that would have a local significance that I might not know, or if anyone is just a better drink creator than I am.

NIH: Here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again

2007-05-16T08:11:00.000-04:00

At the pace we're going, the Nationals are likely going to flirt with some sort of record for most starting pitchers used in a season. In the past few weeks, a solid 60% of our opening day rotation has hit the disabled list. First we lost John Patterson. Next Shawn Hill went down with a known injury in his glove arm and an as-yet-unknown injury in his throwing arm. Well, last night we managed to lose one more in the form of Jerome Williams.

Look, it's bad enough when a good team can't keep their pitchers healthy. That's the problem that has been plaguing the Yankees this year. But these are the Nationals. We were just barely keeping up a 50-win pace even with the pitching staff that we had, and now we're down to two opening day starters, and a guy who started the season on the DL. Beyond that? Well, tonight we're trotting out someone for his first career start who has never put in more than 3.1 innings of work. Maybe the plus side is that the pen only gave up 1 run in 7 innings of work last night, but they're going to be paraded for another 6 innings tonight in all likelihood, and they can't keep up like that forever.

The official cause of injury for Williams is a rotator cuff strain. The only prescription for that kind of injury is resting the shoulder, icing it for a few days, then heating it for a few days. Hopefully if it is just a strain and not a more serious tear he shouldn't be gone for more than the required 15-days that his DL trip will mandate. But that's still 2-3 starts that the Nats are going to have to pull out of somewhere. If it's more severe, it could require surgery. My guess is there'll be an MRI very soon, and we'll know how serious it is in the next few days. It's a 94% success rate surgery if it comes to that, but obviously a much longer stint on the DL.

As for who'll be pitching for the Nationals these next few weeks? Bermann is the current ace of the non-DL staff, and Simontacci had a good second start winning his first game since 2003. Simontacci is also currently scheduled to start Thursday and Friday according to the list of probable pitchers on the Nationals web site.

We all knew this was going to be a rough season. It's about to get rougher.

NIH: Catching up (huff puff)

2007-05-07T09:52:00.000-04:00

One week in Vegas, one in Huntsville, and one trying to get a novel first draft done, and I'm a little behind on the injury news. Today's a good day to catch up, though, because it's a huge injury news day.

First, guess who has landed on the DL. John Patterson. And I let out a sad sigh, because I had such high hopes this would be his healthy season. He looked better with each start, until his most recent, when he left in the third injury with elbow problems. He's got some elbow nerve problems in the same elbow that was operated on to end his 2006 season. The team doctors are saying there's no structural problems, but there is fluid, there are some nerve problems, and Patterson's May is likely over. We could be seeing him back around the same time as...

Nick Johnson, who isn't part of the news today, but that provides as good a segue as any I'm likely to write in this blog. His recovery process is being reported as very good, he's getting back into playing shape, and I'm really hopeful that he'll be back in June.

So, back to today. Just as Patterson goes on the DL, two names will be coming off it. Cristian Guzman and Nook Logan are both being reinstated for today's game. Guzman will likely be starting at SS today in Milwaukee, moving Lopez back to second base. The outfield should feature Church sliding back to left, where he's more comfortable, Nook as a defensive center fielder, and Kearns continuing on in right field. How long things will stay like that is hard to say, especially with the addition of Langerhans to the roster. Both players went out in that disastrous season opener, Guzman having gone 0 for 3, and Logan managing a single in his only at bat so far this season. Both will likely be looked at very closely as they get some additional at-bats.

NIH: A new low

2007-04-11T08:24:00.000-04:00

Last night hurt. Nationals got shut out for the first time this season, dropped their expected pythagorean record to 17-145 (yes, you read that correctly), and suffered yet another injury when reliever Ray king pulled up lame with what is being diagnosed early on with that catchall baseball injury: tendonitis. The hope is to medicate him and avoid the DL, but since the pen is the one almost bright spot this season for the Nats, an injury out there really...well, it just sucks.

NIH: Trying the rose colored glasses

2007-04-09T11:58:00.000-04:00

John Patterson in his second start after losing most of last season to injury...looked better. Alright, I know I've already lost most of the people who could be reading this, since the Nats fell to the Diamondbacks 7-1 for the second straight night behind Patterson's starting performance, but just look at the pitches thrown.

His curveball was curving again. His fastballs were faster (though still not up to where he can throw them). He went deeper into the game, and after the disasterous first inning (can we just start games in the second inning?) gave up no runs on two hits during his remaining four innings.

Alright, look, I'm not saying that this is the kind of outing we should be happy about for our supposed ace, I'm really not. He's still not striking out batters, sitting at just 4 Ks on the season. He was still out after just five innings and was chalked up for his second loss of the season. But he did stay in longer, his stuff looked better, and he gave up fewer runs than the debacle that was Opening Day.

Here's my two cents on the problem: kid gloves. He was underworked through Spring Training because the team was concerned that he was going to fall apart at any moment. Pitchers go through the period that Patterson is, but they tend to do it in March, during Spring Training, when the games don't count. Hopefully he's coming out of it, and I think he's still going to justify the team's faith in putting him at the top of the rotation. 20 wins? Hardly, but I do think he'll shake off these first few starts and look better.

I just hope to hell I'm right.

NIH: How things could be worse

2007-04-06T09:59:00.000-04:00

At one point I toyed with the idea of having this be an all-DC-sports injury blog, but decided against it, just because I didn't know enough about the other sports to reach even the level of general cluelessness that I approach baseball with. Sad, huh? However, there is the need to step back from baseball for a moment and look at another team that plays in Chinatown.

As the Nationals suffer injuries early this season, the one solace that can be taken is that this is a team that was never really built to compete this season. If we lose a cog or two, it might affect whether we lose 98 games or 104 games. Heck, if I wanted to really spin it, early injuries and reliance on some of our less tested prospects could only possibly have upsides if the prospects plesantly surprise or our first round draft pick inches higher and higher.

And then...there's the Wizards. This was just a dream season for them through the early months as they ate up the East like a buffet and even occasionally held their own against teams from the more dominant West. It was a team poised for a deep playoff run, and even had a good chance of taking the Eastern crown. Now? It's a team in shambles that has been plagued by enough injuries that, if I were tracking DC sports injuries, I'm sure I'd need to post an entry about myself and the ravages of carpal tunnel syndrome.

The latest collapse is star Gilbert Arenas who is going to be unable to play basketball for the next 2-3 months. Now, as I understand the NBA playoffs, that just means he'll be out for the opening games of the first round, but this has teams licking their lips as the once feared Wiz are now being looked at as the team everyone wants to start their playoff push against.

I'm not sure what I would prefer. Injury problems on a team so bad they hardly register a blip, or a team that's playing fantastic ball suddenly falling apart because of injuries. Which is harder to watch? Hard to say. Though I do think more good is possible from the Nationals woes then from the Wizards.

NIH: The Next Day

2007-04-04T09:08:00.000-04:00

I know it's usually not my beat to try and parse what people are saying. But when it has to do with injuries, it becomes my beat. First, let's look at the facts:

Fact the first: Cristian Guzman is now on the 15 day DL with a strained hamstring.

Fact the second: Felipe Lopez will start tonight's game at shortstop, where he's played most of his career, instead of second base, where he moved to this season.

Those are the facts we're dealing with. Next we've got what people said. First up we had the Nationals radio team on Monday after the game postulating that Lopez would not make the move back to shortstop unless Guzman was going to be out for at least a month. Now, they were obviously not running that question by the team management when they said this, but they do understand the situation well enough. Someone who did talk to Nationals brass is Bill Ladson, who reported that Manny Acta, "said if Guzman is out for an extended period of time, second baseman Felipe Lopez will move over to short and Ronnie Belliard will be the second baseman."

So, what do we know about the chances for Guzman's return right now. We know that hamstring injuries don't necessarily heal up overnight. We know that two different sources, one quoting Manny Acta, said that Lopez would not move to short unless the injury was going to be long term. And we know that Lopez is moving to short.

All of this probably means that Guzman is done for April. We'll see where it ends up going.

NIH: Nook to the DL, no word on Guz (yet)

2007-04-03T13:30:00.000-04:00

Stuff is still breaking and I'll likely edit this post as I have more information, but the initial indications are the Nook Logan will be spending some time on the 15 day DL, with his lost play time being estimated anywhere between those 15 days and the rest of the month. Kory Casto will take his spot on the 25-man.

No word yet on the reevaluations of Guzman.

Edit: Best I've found on Guzman is that he will not be starting today, but there's no sign of him being moved to the DL. Wilson will be starting at short, which is another sign that the team views this as a short term injury, as team sources stated that a long term injury would result in Lopez sliding back to short from second.

Edit number two: Jim Bowden was on Channel 9 WUSA tonight, and stated that Guzman was placed on the DL at about 5:30pm this evening.

NIH: It's been a bad day.

2007-04-02T17:33:00.000-04:00

Please don't take a picture.

Good god. I was all set to come back from RFK today and do a rundown on those who are starting the season on the DL. See, I've been rather quiet through Spring Training, mostly because I've been trying to get a short story finished up for a rather large contest.

Anyway. I was all set to come home and make that post. Unfortunately that was before the game actually happened. First, let's talk about the medium news. John Patterson started today's game. And he left the game for reasons that had to do with performance rather than injuries. That was, from the perspective of the NIH, the best news that came out of today's game.

And then...Nook Logan happened. Nook strained his groin near the end of Spring Training, but was able to recover very quickly from that, letting him act as the starting center fielder on opening day for the Nationals. Today's injury, it should be said, has nothing to do with that injury. As soon as he hit that wall going after that ball, I had flashbacks to 2005 and Ryan Church slamming into the wall. I thought Nook would be okay, but then he went down. Hard. There's nothing quite so awkward as watching someone hobble off the field from the farthest point from the dugout.

Officially? He hyperextended his foot. He'll be getting an MRI later today and that's all we're going to know until there's a press conference tomorrow. Here's what I will say. He injured his foot. And he walked off the field. Slowly, yes. With a lot of help, yes. But he was able to get off the field without needing a stretcher, and that was on an injured foot. He's not going to play tomorrow, he's probably done for the Marlins series, but this could come and go without him taking a trip to the DL. Which is good, since we've already got outfielders hanging out on the DL. Though it's bad because then we're going to be short handed for a few games, especially because...

Cristian Guzman, in his first game back from a season that was ended by a Spring Training injury, injured himself. It happened while I was standing in three different lines being told that hot dogs were sold out even though other cashiers at the same concession stand were handing people hot dogs. But I'm here to talk about injuries, not the continued problems that the Nationals have getting people food, or ordering enough Opening Day pins so that they don't sell out 20 minutes before the game even starts.

Deep breath.

Guzman, right. He has pull a hammie either while swinging or while taking the first step to first base. I heard to boos from those who thought he was dogging it on what was an easy out for the Marlins, but the Nats were also very quick in sending out a replacement short stop as a pinch runner. Guz is being given a chance to rest the leg, treat it with whatever ballplayers treat legs with, and will be officially poked and prodded before tomorrow's game to determine the extent of the injury. I'm guessing he's out for at least tomorrow but with some rest could see action against the Diamondbacks.

So. Far more exciting of a day at the ballpark in terms of the NIH than I would have liked. Oh, and hey, if the Sports Bog is reading this, thanks for the shout out. Makes me feel guilty that I might not have done as much curling coverage this off season as I would have liked.

NIH: The Comeback Trail 3: Luis Ayala

2007-02-13T12:32:00.000-05:00

Did anyone else forget about Luis Ayala? Does anyone else remember the World Baseball Classic?

Ayala, I will admit, slipped my mind while planning these Comeback Trail stories, which is a shame, because he was one of our more reliable bullpen arms during the 2005 season. In the course of 68 appearances, he put up more wins than losses, kept his ERA to 2.66 (which, while not great, put him 3rd of our 5 most used relievers that season), and even recorded a hit in three plate appearances. He was, in short, a guy you could put in and not worry about too much.

Then, the World Baseball Classic happened. Many teams griped that their players might get injured in the WBC, or would lose development time. For the Nationals, these gripes seemed to come to fruition. With the exception of [b]Alfonso Soriano[/b], all the Nats representatives in the WBC had slow starts to the 2006 season. Ayala we should have been so lucky for him to be slumping. Instead, he overused a sore arm during the Classic, and ended up being taken out of a game with an elbow injury that was season ending. He'd been having some problems for awhile, and it's arguable that his elbow would probably eventually need reconstruction. Hell, some might even say that the WBC meant he had the injury sooner, meaning his surgery happened sooner, meaning his return is coming sooner. Not having had a camera in his elbow, it's hard to say if the injury was inevitable.

Whatever is to blame, the injury happened, and Tommy John surgery was the result.

Now, he's back. Or, at least, mostly back. The average recovery time for Tommy John averages around a year, with pitchers usually needing a little longer, since they require more out of their repaired elbows. In Ayala's case, we're just a little shy of a year at this point, and he's already taking throws from the mound with a hope that he will be on the 25-man roster when the team comes north (or, technically, west) for it's home opener.

How effective he'll be, that's the question. He might still have some recovery to do, and there's far from a guarantee that he'll be at RFK on April 2nd. He's still in his late 20s, and his three seasons in the majors have been decently consistant. He won't set the world on fire, but if he can stay at his career numbers, he might help eat some innings and shore up some of our relief pitching this season. The question is how long until Ayala returns fully to form. Fortunately the team is in no kind of hunt, so if he costs us some runs or even games early on, it shouldn't have too much of an effect on our season.

NIH: The Comeback Trail 2: Cristian Guzman

2007-02-12T08:03:00.000-05:00

Remember. They're not booing. They're saying "Guuuuuz."

Cristian Guzman is in the need for a serious rebound coming into the 2007 season, as he has now had one month shy of two lost seasons with this organization. In 2006 he was sidelined for the entire season. In 2005, save for September, he was flirting with the Mendoza Line at the plate, dragging down what had been a career batting average of .265 I'm not going to pretend that those are numbers that would light the world on fire, but they would have been quite welcome as a relief from offense that was occasionally dwarfed by the pitching staff.

Still, NIH is an injury blog, so the 2005 season isn't what I'm quite as concerned about as the 2006 season. Before the season even started, it was revealed that Guzman would require shoulder surgery that would sideline him for the entire 2006 season. That was it, over and done, with Guzman's potential comeback year put on hold while he slowly recovered.

This season he's coming back, and he is entrenched enough in the shortstop position that he's pushing late season acquisition Felipe Lopez over to second base to fill the hole left by the timely trade of Jose Vidro. That was setting up to provide some interesting drama going into the spring with three big league middle infielders fighting over two spots. So we've been spared that, which is great, as I doubt this team is looking for another Spring Training position controversy after last year's drama with Alfonso Soriano. Not that that necessarily turned out for the worse.

Guzman has a certain skill set, one that was honed on the artifical terf of Minneapolis, where a chopper in the infield won't come down before a fast enough runner can get to first base. He's known the All Star game, and has even had MVP votes during that magical 2001 season where he got his average up above 300 and an OPS+ of 111 (while I don't understand OPS+, I am led to believe that triple digits are good).

So. What will 2007 bring? Which was the fluke, 2001 Guzman or 2005 Guzman? In many ways, there are more questions about Guzman than about Patterson, as Patterson has at least displayed a certain level of competence between his DL trips. Guzman...he's still going to have his 2005 season hanging heavy in the memories of many fans of this team. Can the man who has thrice led the league in Triples get his swing back in a park that love the three bagger? Obviously time will tell, and Guzman is going to be due for some close evaluation as the season progresses.

NIH: The Comeback Trail 1: John Patterson

2007-02-09T13:39:00.000-05:00

Does it seem like I talk about John Patterson more than anyone else in these NIH posts? I'm sure it does. And I'd like to stop, I really would, but that's going to require one thing: John Patterson to have a healthy season.

Last year was an extreme. Working around a pair of extended visits to the DL, Patterson only got enough game time to put up four decisions, only one of which actually went for a win. This season he's coming in to be our staff ace after the loss of most of the other starters from the 2005 season. As of today, he is slated to be on the mound April 2nd as the Nationals start their 2007 campaign.

1-3. That's a lot to worry about. His right forearm was in pain most of last season, and he eventually underwent season ending surgery to relieve pressure on some nerves in his arm. The good news? That's supposed to make everything better. The surgery was one of those magic surgeries, like Tommy John, but better. The pain was relieved, and he got right back into recovering from it, and has declared himself 100% ready for 2007.

I hope so. Patterson is ambitious. He wants to be a starter. He wants to play. He wants to be an ace. His entire career has been an odd one, starting with taking advantage of a drafting loophole when he first entered the league until the point that he fought his way into the 2005 rotation as the #5 starter out of Spring Training.

The problem is, he's always had one label hanging over his head his entire professional career: Injury Prone. 2005 saw him pitch 31 games at the major league level, but that was flanked by seasons where injuries limited him to 19 starts in 2004 and just 8 starts and 40.2 innings in 2006.

There was even a brief, though potentially unsubstantiated rumor that he had retweaked his arm, and might not see action until a month starting in 'J'. Right now there is nothign beyond the initial reporting of the rumor to back that up, so we'll see what happens when pitchers start working out on Thursday. If there's anything to that, it'll show up soon. Hopefully not, though, and hopefully he'll make it through the season in one piece.

Lord knows our rotation is weak enough with him. I hate to think what it'll look like without him.

NIH: Reporting Early

2007-02-06T08:08:00.000-05:00

It's still a few days before even the pitchers and catchers report, but it's time to get the ole NIH dusted off and ready for a new season during which I hope to have less to report about. However, I look at this roster, and I see a lot of players who were banged up last season, and a lot of players who have that unfortunate label of "injury prone."

It's been an interesting off season in the Natosphere. The Washington Post has started to notice that the blogs exist. Although the NIH is well below most radars, either with the Post, the team, or the team's beat writer, I'm still looking to ratchet things up in the blogs sophomore season. No more rookie mistakes, I'm looking to deliver an improved product. And that starts with a mission statement.

The NIH will strive to be the most concentrated and in depth digestion of Nationals injury news available. Last season I started looking into what the injuries were, and I'm hoping to continue that even more this season.

The other news this off season among the Nats blog was The Interview. I think most of my readers are fellow Nats bloggers, so know what I'm talking about. My official view is that I have no official view. It was what it was, and I hope that the reaction was just a sign that we were all ancy for the season to start, and for something real to talk about and debate.

That said, I will be looking to do some profiles over the next few days of the key players who left last season on the DL and are hoping for healthier seasons this year. Since pitchers report first and since he did end up the subject I talked about the most last season, that will start with John Patterson.

I'm glad to be back for Season Two. Here's to a healthy year.

Programming Note

2006-11-14T08:51:00.000-05:00

I know what you're all thinking. You're all thinking "maaan, thurdl, I've got a serious jonesing for some curling, but I don't know when it'll ever be televised again!" Well, you're in luck. Set your VCR, your TiVo, or just plop down in front of the telly with some leftover turkey on rye bread, because on Sunday, November 26th, NBC will be carrying the Korbel Elite Challenge from 2pm-4pm. This will include both celebrities trying to curl, and legitimate curling rinks, including 2006 bronze medal Team USA.

I mean, what else are you going to watch? Football?

NIH: The Offseason and Future

2006-10-19T11:13:00.000-04:00

It's been a fun season, and great to dip my feet into the world of the NIH this season. This feature of the blog will probably now be taking a hiatus for the next several months, as there just won't be as much injury news to talk about, other than maybe the occasional press release about how someone is doing in their recovery. NIH will return for the 2007 season, and will do so right here on thurdl sports. I'm still working on any changes that I might want to make to the style and presentation of NIH in the future. Until then, this blog will probably be about curling more than it is baseball, as the season for one happens perfectly during the offseason of the other.

I'd like to thank everyone that's come on board as a reader during this season, and look forward to being back with the NIH in the future. Until then, good health to you all.

NIH: Year End Injury Wrapup Part Two

2006-10-04T10:09:00.000-04:00

Wow. After what happened last time I made one of these posts, I was hesitant to get to work on this one. However, I think this is a much more stable list of players, especially as it includes our presumed ace for the 2007 season.

Michah Bowie: No, I didn't mean him, I just do these alphabetically. Bowie appeared in 15 games out of the bullpen for the Nationals this season, managing a 1.37 ERA and more strikeouts than walks in 19.2 innings of work. He was one of several pitching callups during the season, and not the only callup to get injured. He hit the 15-Day due to muscle strain in his throwing shoulder in mid-August and was supposed to be ready for a return on or about September 18th. However, he never made that return, and finished the season on the DL. He had some good games, and would be worth a second look, but there is currently no indication if he is in the Nationals plans for 2007.

Shawn Hill: Hill has been sitting on the 15-Day DL for most of the season, having been placed there originally on July 1, with the team citing elbow soreness. Before that, he'd managed a 1-3 record over six starts for the Nats. He was never downgraded to the 60-Day list, and never upgrades back to active status during the season. He's a young pitcher, still under team control, and cheap to keep around, leading many to assume he'll be in Spring Training to compete for a starting job with the 2007 squad.

John Patterson: John Patterson is injury prone. There's just no better way of putting it. His 2006 was limited to just eight starts, including his last outing, where he lasted just one inning before having to be pulled because his injured elbow started acting back up again. After his second trip to the DL this season, it was announced he would be receiving surgery to relieve a pinched nerve that was causing most of his problems. Recently, he was spotted at Alfonso Soriano's 40-40 induction bash in New York, and was interviewed the next day by the MASN crew. He indicated at the time that he was getting back to pitching curve balls, and has had no major set backs. He'll hopefully be good to go in Spring Training, and we can only hope he has an injury free 2007. If he's to be the ace of the 2007 staff, then the team is hoping for the pitcher who started 31 games in 2005, and not 8 last season.

NIH: 60-Day DL post-mortem

2006-10-03T15:54:00.000-04:00

Well, I should have done the 60-Day DL post last, it would have been shorter. Today the Nationals released three current and two past residents of the 60-Day DL: Ryan Drese, Pedro Astacio, Felix Rodriguez, Zach Day and Joey Eischen. The NIH will thus not be tracking their off season recoveries, and wishes them good health wherever they may land.

Update: Brian Lawrence has had his 2007 option bought out. Which means of the pitchers on the 60-Day DL, the Nationals will only be inviting one to spring training.

NIH: Tubthumping

2006-10-02T12:13:00.000-04:00

Briefly on Nick Johnson. He was in RFK on Sunday for the finale against the Mets. Those in attendance were treated to his highlight real with Chumbawumba's Tubthumping pounding in the background ("I get knocked down, but I get up again.") I was briefly hoping for him to hobble out on crutches just far enough to wave to the crowd, but instead we were treated to him on the Jumbotron, looking a little dazed (I'm guessing he's still on pain medication). Was nice to know he was there, even if he might not have been all there. Also, at some point "GET WELL NICK" was hung up by fans in the upper deck, large enough to theoretically be seen from the dugout, though I don't know how long he stuck around, and didn't see him at any other point during the game.

NIH: Year End Injury Wrapup Part One

2006-10-02T08:38:00.000-04:00

Well, with the season having whimpered to an end, the Nationals officially have 11 players on their DL, not counting Nick Johnson who, due to the fact that the rosters had expanded and there was only one week left of the season, was not placed on the list. Therefore NIH will be doing a series of posts over the next few days talking about who is still injured, what they're injured with, and the prospects of their return. I'm focusing mostly on the 40-man roster, though there were some high profile season ending injuries at the minor league level as well.

I'm going to be doing this in three parts: Pitchers 60-Day, Pitcher 15-Day, and Fielders. I think it says something about our injury woes at pitching that I have to divide it up between two parts.

Let's start with the longest of those three lists, the pitchers who ended the season on the 60-Day DL.

Luis Ayala: The Nationals had some reasons to gripe about the World Baseball Classic. With the exception of Soriano, most of the players who the team sent to the WBC came back to season opening slumps, or worse yet, season-ending shoulder injuries. Ayala should have never been pitching at the WBC, as his shoulder was already in a state that probably would have delayed his 2006 season. When a ligament in the shoulder tore while he was on the mound for Mexico, that was all she wrote. Since then, he's undergone shoulder repair surgery, and extensive rehab. According to Todd Jacobson of the Fredricksburg Free Lance-Star, Ayala is hopeful for his return by Spring Training, and feels like he has "a new arm."

Zach Day: I'll be honest, I forgot Day ever took the mound this season for the Nationals, racking up a 2-5 record through the months of April and May. His last game of the season was May 22 against the Astros, but his injury problems go back to when the Nats picked him up on waivers back in April. At that time, the staff doctor recommended that he needed to be on the DL due to spasms, but he said he was fine to go. Two months later, he left a game early with what was termed at the time simple soreness in his shoulder, but turned out to be tendinitis. That put him on the 15-Day DL. He never quite recovered, and eventually had rotator cuff surgery on June 6th and was placed on the 60-Day DL, where he would spend the rest of the season. His prognosis for the 2007 season should be decent.

Ryan Drese: He pitched 8.2 innings back in April, spanning two starts, and notched up 2 losses in the process. Then, on April 17th had an MRI due to shoulder problems, and it was revealed that he had flexor tendon strain. At the time the prognosis was no surgery needed and a return in 4-6 weeks. Of course, anyone with a calendar could tell you that April 17th was 25 weeks ago today. He suffered a setback in his recover in May when continued inflamation was found by doctors, even though there was no further damage noted. At the time, there was no schedule set for his return. We'll see how he looks in the offseason and whether or not he'll be pitching again anytime soon.

Joey Eischen: With his ERA hovering right around 9.00 for much of the time he played this season, most people were hoping that Eischen would have a limited role. His role was cut to nothing, however, when he tore a muscle in his rotator cuff in late May. It was known at the time that the surgery would be season ending, and marked the third consecutive season he'd made a trip to the DL. He's going to be a free agent this off season, and has already said that he would take a smaller contract to return to the Nationals, likely knowing that it's hard to negotiate contracts from the DL.

Brian Lawrence: The National who never was. He was picked up in the off season in a trade that sent 2005 third baseman Castilla to the Padres. In a sense, his trade was a successful one, even if he never played. Castilla's salary was off the table, his 2006 proved disasterous to the point that the Pads cut him from their roster, and it opened the door for Zimmerman to come in and have a ROTY caliber season. But this is about Lawrence, not any of them. Way back on February 25, he tore his labrum, and was until at least August and likely for the season. Here we are in October, and we know we didn't see him during the sweltering summers nights at RFK. Still, we paid him $3.5 million to never play. This coming season, he's owed either $7.5m to play or a $550,000 buy out of his contract. If he could return to form, he could be a decent cog, but it's unknown whether that $7.5m is within the plans of the new ownership of the team.

NIH: And now we know

2006-09-23T21:15:00.000-04:00

Offical word is that Nick Johnson suffered a fractured right femur, and will undergo a surgical repair this evening in New York.

Just to pass along a little general knowledge, the femur is the longest bone in the human body. Also called the thigh bone, it run from the hip down to the knee. The surgery is necessary to reconstruct the bone right away, otherwise the thigh muscle can have a tendency to pull the fragmented bone sections so that they overlap and knit incorrectly. If this happens, it can cause a life long disability. Don't get too concerned, however, as the type of surgial procedure he is having tonight will likely result in a full, but slow, recovery. "Slow" here being defined as three to six months. Thus, if Johnson takes any bad turns in his recovery process, he could actually still be out with the injury in Spring Training or even the start of the season.

NIH: What I'm Finding on NJ

2006-09-23T19:37:00.000-04:00

The news is still kind of sketchy. The following things I know for sure.

There was an on-field run-in between Nick Johnson and Austin Kearns during the Saturday game against the Mets.

According to the MLB.com write-up: "Vidro's first reaction after the crash was to cover his ears, having heard a crack or pop in the collision, followed by Johnson's screams of anguish." (emphasis mine)

ibid: "He's hurt pretty bad," manager Frank Robinson said. "Nick's not going to stay down if he's not hurt that badly. When he wasn't moving, we knew he was hurt pretty bad."

NJ was taken to the hospital. No specific injury is being confirmed by the Nationals.

Seattle PI is headlining their article with the phrase "breaks leg" and are specifically calling it a broken leg.

At this point, only conjecture can be made. Seattle, Washington is hardly where I would expect the first confirmations to be coming out of, so I can only assume that they are working off of many of the same ruors and conjectures that anyone is working with right now. However, just because I don't believe Seattle would be where confirmation could come out of doesn't mean I don't think it will ultimately be the truth. Of course, even if so, the question is what broke and how seriously. His season is done. Let's hope his career isn't.

NIH: The Crash

2006-09-23T16:31:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, I had already given up on today's game when the big collission between Kearns and Johnson happened. Thus, I'm initialy relying on a description of the event that misschatter gave in the Gameday chat.

Wright hit a popup to shallow right field. Kearns and Johnson dove for it at the same time, both of them falling. Johnson’s right leg was bent as he went down and Kearns fell on top of him. Vidro went after the ball and started jumping up and down motioning for help immediately.

Johnson rolled over onto his belly and punched the ground in obvious pain. They came out and rolled him onto a stretcher and carted him off the field after splinting his right leg in the position it was in.

Kearns was so upset he came out of the game (looked like he was crying)

Some of the initial indications given was that Johnson's leg looked broken. Unfortunately there is nothing that is being officially being reported anywhere, but I've got nothing better to do than troll the news until I find something more official about the conditions of Kearns and Johnson.

UPDATE: SI.com is carrying the story, but so far has very little additional information than misschatter's take on the situation.

NIH: What is Tommy John?

2006-09-15T09:59:00.000-04:00

When working the injury beat, it's kind of nice not to have anything to report about, especially with the injurific season that the Nationals have been having. However, it's been awhile since I've updated the NIH, so I thought I'd do the next in an on going series of articles where I get to the bottom of common injury terms.

Today, I'll be looking at Tommy John surgery.

The first important question that popped into my mind when I learned about this procedure is who, exactly, is Tommy John, and why does the surgery get named after him? It's a long medical tradition that diseases and procedures often get named after the person or group who go first. Thus it is that we have diseases named after the tragic Lou Gherig, a group of Legionaires who were having a convention in Philly, and who can forget Maxwell Necrotizing Fasciitis? In much this same tradition, Tommy John was the first pitcher who reaped the benefit of the surgery that has become almost a right of passage in modern badeball.

Tommy John, in short, is the winningest pitcher not in the Hall of Fame. His career ERA is under 4.00. He won 57 more games than he lost over his career. His career strikeout total is well north of 2000. But what he will always be famous for was when he told a surgeon to "make something up" in 1974 when he damaged his ulnar collateral ligament, an injury that, at the time, was viewed as career ending.

The surgeon he said this to was one Dr. Frank Jobe. Dr. Jobe was a graduate Loma Linda University Medical School and did his residency (and later specialized in) orthopaedics. And what he eventually made up was a revolutionary procedure that involved replacing the damanged ligament with a tendon from elsewhere in the body, usually in the forearm or the leg (in John's case it was the forearm, though an urban legend says it was from a cadaver).

Tommy John returned to the Dodgers 18 months later, pitched for 13 more years, and 164 of his 288 career wins came with a transplanted tendon in his arm. That surgery took four hours to perform. Now the process has been stramlined so that the surgery takes only about an hour, leaves nothing more lasting than a scar, and can get players back on the diamond sooner.

And, some claim, better than ever. It's always been one of those stories about Tommy John surgery that players come back better than ever, throwing harder and getting better motion on the ball. To the point that some people have even considered elective Tommy John. Of course, this is a bit of a myth. The surgery isn't magic, no medicine is. And there isn't a 100% recovery rate. Just because you get Tommy John doesn't mean you'll play again. Also, many believe that what is the real benefit is not the surgery itself but the long recovery process, and the work that is gone through on the arm after the stitches are put in, taken out, and only a scar is left behind.

It's not, to put it simply, the surgery, but the conditioning.

Still, it has meant that pitchers can have much longer careers than they once did. Heck, it even means that a diagnosis of a torn UCL can be a sigh of relief, since there is such a well established procedure for replacement of the ligament.

And there you have it. The $2 tour of the history and procedure of Tommy John Surgery.

NIH: Injury of monumental importance

2006-09-06T15:00:00.000-04:00

Dan Steinberg has a huge scoop in his new bog (which, if you're not reading, you should). A few months after Teddy Roosevelt went down with a sprained ankle, injuries have once again hit the Racing Rushmores as George Washington took a hard tumble during the President Race at today's day game against the Cardinals. He was able to get up and finish the race, but no word yet to how this will affect his ability to race. He has a week to recover, with the Nationals heading out west to play the Rockies and Diamondbacks, but until we know the extent of the injury there's no saying when he'll be up and racing again.

Early speculation is that Grover Cleveland might get a call up if Washington has to go on the DL. Cleveland has apparently been tearing it up with the Zephyrs during their Minor President Race, and recently won on two non-consecutive nights.

NIH: The New Kid

2006-09-01T09:04:00.000-04:00

Most Nats fans have probably woken up this morning to see the news that Anderson and Ward were both traded for pitching prospects. And yes, it's already time to be writing an NIH post about the kids.

The pitcher we got for Anderson is just fine.

The guy we got for Ward, though, is one Luis Atilano. The kid's history: he was a first round draft pick in 2003 (mid-20s overall pick), and has been working his way through the Braves minor league clubs, going one level a year. '03 saw him in GCl, '04 in a short season A, '05 with the A level Sally League, and '06 with the Advanced-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans. (Trivia: The Pelicans are the only Atlanta affiliate not named the Braves. Good for them.)

However, his season ended short this year thanks to Tommy John surgery. He went under the knife on August 10th, which means that his 2006 is over, as is his 2007. He'll be reporting to the Nationals minor leagues no sooner than 2008, though with an arm that should be stronger (common misconception is that Tommy John makes your arm stronger, when in reality it's the recovery regimine that does it). Probably the soonest he'll compete for a rotation spot would be 2009, but more realisitically 2010 or 2011.

NIH: Some good news. Any good news!

2006-08-30T12:10:00.000-04:00

Alright, the simple fact of the matter right now is that the Nationals suck. So I've decided to devote this NIH entry into finding any good news I can about our injured players. So let's go.

First off, Nick Johnson returned to the lineup last night for the first time since Franceour smashed into him. Good to see him back in the game. It's been an amazingly injury-free season, since injuries have been the theme of his career to this point. Johnson drove in one of the Nationals runs on a single hit.

John Patterson is featured in the sidebar that the Washington Post is putting on its Nationals articles. Apparently he's feeling good right now, and his arm is improving. That's good news, right? There's no stated return date. I'd like to see him be done for the season, others have argued that it would be a nice motivational tool (and nice fan service) for him to start the closer on October 1, even if it's a 50-60 pitch count limit. I think it all just depends on where his arm is. Just, for the love of god, don't rush him back!

Luis Ayala was briefly in the news about a month ago when he popped in to see his team mate while they were on the west coast. Today marks 5 months from his Tommy John surgery, and he says he's feeling great. Now mind that the best case recover for a pitcher is about 12 month (so April '07) and often can go to 18 (so October '07). Hopefully he's right that things are feeling good, but don't translate that to returning before, say, the all star break.

NIH: Another season ended

2006-08-29T14:21:00.000-04:00

[W]ith the season dwindling down to just over a month left, it takes less and less of an injury to be season-ending.

There are times I don't want to be right, and this is one of them. As I figured might happen, Alex Escobar's shoulder dislocation will mean the end of his 2006 season. According to the article on mlb.com,
he should be plenty ready in time for spring training, where it'll probably be him and Church fighting for the starting CF job next season.

As for now, just add it to the list of Nationals whose seasons ended before October 1. Long damn list.

NIH: Esco? Far from healthy.

2006-08-28T08:51:00.000-04:00

Tell y'all what. From now on, just assume Escobar is injured, and I'll make special posts when he's not.

Alex Escobar continues his strange trip through baseball. When he's healthy, he's dangerous to opponents. Unfortunately his injuries make him equally dangerous to his own team. And now, he's back on the DL for the second time this season, this time with a dislocated shoulder. We'll see how recovery goes, but with the season dwindling down to just over a month left, it takes less and less of an injury to be season-ending.

Speaking of ended seasons, I thought I'd see what was up with John Patterson. Hard to find actual news about our 2007 ace, other than stories about how he's not available (including one in the WaPost pointing out he's only pitched 40 innings this season). Finally TSN, one of my favorite sources for curling news, happened to have a story. According to an article dated to this past Thursday, Patterson has started playing catch at 75 feet (pitching rubber to home plate is 60.5). That's the first step in a long road back, and the article is suggesting the same thing I was a few weeks ago: that his season is over. Better health in 2007, Big Nasty.

NIH: Chief's chief woe? His toenail.

2006-08-27T16:21:00.000-04:00

Always interesting when I can speak with first hand knowledge of the injuries that our guys get. Tommy John surgery? Never had it. Slammed into someone else while running at full speed? Thank goodness no. Ingrown toenails? Hell yeah.

During today's broadcast, TBS reported that Chad Cordero had minor surgery yesterday to help with an ingrown toenail. For those who have never had one...lucky bastards. It's exactly what it sounds like, the toenail starts to grow into the skin, causing irritation, inflamation, pain, and in some cases can lead to infection and even blood poisoning. In the very least, it doesn't feel good. The surgery in question cut away the end half of his toenail to remove it from the surrounding skin.

Now, the new laser procedures for this are mostly painless, but exposed nail bed is very sensitive, and I would not want to be putting pressure on a toe teh day after such a surgery, much less the kind of pressure involved in pitching. In most motions, each foot will bear the full weight of the body at least some of the time.

Of course, our managerial staff, in their infinite wisdom, sent Cordero out to work the 8th inning today. He didn't show too many ill effects. He gave up a homer, but that's just the Chief being himself. Got out of the inning with 19 pitches, and hopefully didn't aggrivate his toe.

Nick Johnson was not in today's game.

NIH: Francieboy sidelines NJ, claims accident

2006-08-27T09:30:00.000-04:00

The only reason I believe that Jeff Francouer ran into Nick Johnson accidentally is that it's too risky of a proposition to do something like that on purpose. Though it did look like shoulder-to-face contact, which would have been slightly better news for the Braves right fielder who has given us such fits with his bat since joining Atlanta. Guess he wasn't satisfied with just beating us with his hitting, he wanted to show off his tackling skills.

Anyway, the result is that Johnson is day-to-day with a left cervical strain. This is somethign akin to whiplash, which is never a good thing. He could be back today, he could be back in a week, he could need longer. I'll be keeping an eye out for news on his recovery.

NIH: Plenty Going Down

2006-08-22T08:56:00.000-04:00

The first big piece of old news I've not yet covered is the return of Jose Vidro to the ball club. He's been demoted a smidge in the batting order while out on rehab assignment, but is back and swinging away at balls, managing four hits in twelve at bats since returning. The team is being cautious with him, though whether that's because of his continued recovery or his fielding it's hard to say. He saw limited action in the series closer against the Phillies on Sunday, just his third game back. The big game now is to keep him healthy, and maybe some AL team will nibble at him as a DH and emergency 2B.

To make room for Vidro's return, Micah Bowie was sent to the 15-day DL, retroactive to the 10th of August, making him eligable for a return later this week. Or, ya know, when the rosters expand. Wink wink. Stated reason for the DL trip is a strain of his left latissimus dorsi. You've probably heard this muscle called by its more common name: the lats. I'm guessing that he'll be back on the roster in September, since that's just the most convenient time to do so, as it will involve no other roster moves.

Of course...there may be a spot opening up on the 25 man roster. Outfield wiz kid Alex Escobar has been hospitalized with an infection in his shoulder. A swelling of left elbow spread all the way to the wrist by the time the team rolled into Dolphin Stadium, just the latest in a series of injuries that have plagued the kid. Shame too, cause he's a hell of a player when he's actually able to take the field. He's already missed two full seasons and 42 games of this season due to various injuries. Shame too, since he's hitting well north of .300 right now. Look for Ryan Church to get some more play time while Escobar is recovering. How I hate that we only ever seem to have outfield room for just one of those two players, since they're both fun to watch.

It's seems crazy that the Nats are allowed any good news on an injury, but such I have to report, as Joey Eischen is recovering well ahead of schedule from season ending surgery. Team's going to take things slow, but he should be back in form by the start of the 2007 campaign.

Finally in news that I think will be me officially scooping the Farm Authority, prospect Larry Broadway's season is now over, as he's been sidelined with an unspecified injury to the right shoulder. The Zephyr first baseman will be undergoing an MRI to determine what the problem is.

NIH: Others Sports Edition

2006-08-14T12:26:00.000-04:00

As part of the growing and changing process of the NIH, I'm giving a try to looking into the injuries on the other 4 major league teams in the area, just to see how it feels. This may or may not be a regular feature of the new and improved NIH of the future.

First, all the water cooler talk seems to be about Clinton Portis right now, who got an injury that very much counts in a game that very much didn't. He managed to get his shoulder dislocated very early on in an exhibition loss to the Bengals after running down an interception with perhaps a little more zeal than could normally be expected during a preseason matchup. I remember a few times in the preseason where Zimmerman made catches that were amazing but that I was too worried he'd come up lame afterwards. Anyway, Portis' injury is being described as a "partial" dislocation, and he's expected to return in time for the regular season. However, he's already worried that teams might aim for his now-bum shoulder in an attempt to take him out of games.

Over in Korea, Wizards Wiz Kid Gilbert Arenas strained his groin while practicing with Mike Krzyzewski's refocused and rededicated Team USA. He will thus have to miss out on the rest of the World Champion. However, he had been basically missing out as it was, since he'd only had one start and was averaging only 11 minutes per game. I'm just waiting for this to become basketball's WBC with teams complaining about getting their players back injured. With just over two months until the regular season starts, there should be plenty of time for Arenas to get healed up.

NIH: Vidro on comeback

2006-08-13T08:52:00.000-04:00

Most recent Nats Notes column reports that Jose Vidro should be making a slow return to the team after having completed a series of "baseball activities" without any pain. Presumedly that means he was able to spit sunflower seeds and adjust himself publicly without any discomfort, so that's good.

Anyway, if you hurry, you can go watch him play, as he will be down in PW County for one day only, playing DH in today's home game against the Blue Rocks. This will mark the second time in as many seasons that Vidro has made the start for the P-Nats, having also done some time at both DH and 2B last year. This time around, though, he'll be shipped north quite quickly, scheduled to play some 2B for the Harrisburg Senators (will have to be Tuesday, since Monday is an off day for the AA club).

Best cases should have him ready to take the NL East Road Trip with the Nationals when they take a 9 game jaunt to Philly, Shea, and Atlanta.

Pulling Out The Soapbox

2006-08-11T08:36:00.000-04:00

One in an occasional series of non-NIH rants.

Now is the time for all good fans to come to the aid of the team. Ladies and gentlemen, fair readers, and bloggers alike, we as Nationals fans are faced with a threat even greater than that posed by Yankees fans, brisket, and Screech combined. For, this coming Monday, the Washington Nationals through the channels of their official team website will start a vote on the finalists in the Show Us Your Pastime contest. Among them is the greatest threat to fan santiy that a team has ever considered.

Someone wants to give each and every person who shows up to games a whistle.

At first, this might not seem like a threat. It's even played down, saying the whistles would be for when the Nats hit a home run, but ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to consider the potential. I know that if you are reading this blog you are most likely not only smart but attractive as well, so it shouldn't take long to consider this question: think about the people who surround you in the stands at games, and think, do you want them to have a whistle at their disposal?

Think about every pitch an opposing pitcher throws, and think of someone in your section blasting their whistle to throw them off. Think about every swing that an opposing player takes, and think about someone in your section blasting their whislte to try and break concentration. This is not some idle threat, you know as well as I that there are people out there who would thus have the whistle in their mouth for ever single pitch of the game, whether at the beginning or end of the pitch. May I remind you that the series that just wrapped against the Marlins saw an average of over 300 pitches per game. And that's not taking into account people blowing the whistles while the Nats are running the bases, and generally at random points throughout the game.

This is something that has to be stopped.

MUST be stopped.

However, it is not enough to simply vote against the whistles. No. I am too worried that the "anything but whistles" vote could get split among the other three choices, so a united front must be offered. It is thus that I officially throw my support behind "It Don't Mean A Thing."

Tell your readers.

Tell your friends.

Tell anyone.

Remember, you can vote once a day.

And remember: the threat of the whistles is not one to take lightly.

Thank you.

NIH: Viral Meningitis

2006-08-09T08:47:00.000-04:00

Among various bits of self congratulatory back patting, Jim Bowden let slip something interesting in his weekly examiner article. It seems that Nationals draft pick Chris Marerro is recovering from viral meningitis. Yes, that meningitis.

Before I get too carried away here, the key word is "recovering" and he is expected to return to action within the next two weeks.

The word meningitis strikes fear in the hearts of anyone who's ever lived in a dorm, because every year there's some news story about three people on a hall getting it, and one or two of them dying. It's nasty damn stuff. Generically "meningitis" means a swelling of the membrane that covers the brain and spinal cord. More specifically it comes in two major flavors based on what has caused the swelling: viral (or aseptic) and bacterial.

There are a wide range of viruses and bacteria that can cause meningitis. Don't think of it so much as one disease more as a very serious symptom. Now, when you hear about the dorm deaths caused by the disease, it's usually the less frequent bacterial flavor of meningitis, and is very...well...fatal. Viral is much more common, and often goes undiagnosed, mostly because the symptoms end up looking like something else, usually like the flu.

If it is viral meningitis, Marrero should have little to worry about, and should be back on his feet soon. NIH wishes him good recover and good health.

NIH: Controversy!

2006-08-08T15:47:00.000-04:00

It was a throwaway in my last post, but the DLing of Gary Majewski could have some serious implications, both in team relations and in medical staff.

The medical and front office staffs of the Reds are considering contesting the trade, claiming that they were uninformed that Majewski had tendonitis and had received a cortisone shot a few days before the trade. Of course, they also say that, given what they know now, the trade would have gone through anyway. Still, they feel that the Nationals and Jim Bowden were not completely up front with them.

Jim Bowden has a potential axe to grind against the Reds? Who knew!

Anyway, the implication in terms of medical staff is that we might be losing one of our medical consultants, Dr. Tim Kremchek, who is (A) the cheif of medicine for the Reds and (B) all sorts of pissed off about this. He's throwing around implications that Majewski was told to keep quiet and that his full medical records were never released to the Reds, even after the trade.

Well, I'm not an investigative journalist, because I don't have access to the people involved, but this could be a dust-up with long ranging implications, as it could close the door on any future trades with the Reds, could cost us some respect of other potential trading partners, and will remove one of our primary medical consultants from the ranks.

CORRECTION: I posted earlier having no idea what was up with John Patterson. In fact, all I had to do was check my own blog to find this post where I said he'd be in a split for 6-8 weeks. This would be the third week of that. Miss Chatter of JANF has helpfully passed along that he's resting comfortably at home.

NIH: Some catching up, some looking ahead

2006-08-08T12:28:00.000-04:00

I've been using this off time during my move to compose my thoughts about the future of NIH, and I would like to proudly say that it does have a future...but one that is being worked on, so there will be more detailed announcements later. Some things I'm considering working on for 2007:

The DL Board, tracking DL movements for the team and return eligability dates.

Player Injury Tracker, listing what injuries a player has gotten over the course of
the season, in a hopes of identifying patterns and chronic problems, and also as a research point for anyone curious.

We'll see how this will all work out.

Anyway, what has your humble NIH blogger missed? Well, let's run things down. It's never been entirely clear how injured Livan Hernandez has been this season, though his knee has been giving him noticable problems at various points. Trick is, it's no longer our problem. NIH wishes him the best of health and pitching with his new club. Except when they're playing us.

Robert Fick landed himself on the DL just a day after Brian Schneider had to miss a game himself, creating an immediate potential disaster that resulted in Schneider being brought in as emergency catcher on what would have otherwise been a recovery day. The Nats probably would have called up LeCroy, except he was no longer a National at the time, or Wiki Gonzalez, except he's been AWOL since the AAA all star break. So, up comes Brandon Harper until Fick is back. Man...our catching situation sucks.

Jose Vidro has been lingering on the DL for longer than expect. He was supposed to travel with the team for the San Diego series, but didn't. Seems to be a wait-and-see process for him, and there's no real indication who'll be starting at second base tomorrow when the Marlins hit town.

Jose Guillen had successful surgery, and will now start a lengthy rehab. Who knows when he'll return, and to what team he'll return to.

For anyone keeping count, the Nats have 9 pitchers on the DL, including 6 on the 60-day. Speaking of DL'ed pitchers, John Patterson has yet to have any rehab starts scheduled, and I can't track down any information on his recovery status or progress. I'm starting to wonder if he's seen his last action for the big league club this season. Or maybe he'll basically end up a call-up during roster expansion.

In bullet-dodging news, Gary Majewski has been DLed by his new team, the Reds.

That's it for now. Caught up on news, and looking to the future.

NIH: Patterson fears realizes...with Ryan Drese

2006-07-30T09:23:00.000-04:00

Throughout this season's injury jerk around with John Patterson I had one worry: that rushing him back would make things even worse. Now, a vindication of sorts, as Ryan Drese has suffered a significant setback during his rehab starts.

Bound for the Zephyrs this week, Drese will instead be undergoing that most famous of baseball surgeries, Tommy John, making him about the fortieth National to undergo that this year, by my rough count. This is going to seriously screw over Drese, who will now have to spend a likely minimum of 12 months rehabbing, since the need for Tommy John was caught so late. Could be as much as 18 months, so this is easily his 2006 and 2007 seasons ending. Worse, it could have nearly been his career ending if the crack Nationals medical staff hadn't caught the need for the surgery.

That's a subject for another, more editorial piece I'm working on.

In other Tommy John news, Jose Guillen's surgery was a success, and his long rehab process is now starting.

I know there's been other injury news, but NIH is still trying to get settled into the new Arlington headquarters. Reports will start being more regular again by next week.

NIH: Guillen done for this season. Next?

2006-07-25T07:39:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, as reported here, Jose Guillen left the Marlins game early with a sore elbow. Well, that escalated to him taking his second DL trip of the season. There's been a new development, as an MRI has revealed a complete tear in one of the ligaments in his right elbow.

And that means: Tommy John.

Yup, it's season ending surgery for the angry man of the Nationals right field. Beyond that, it could sideline him from baseball for as long as 18 months. Considering he's currently on a contract that expires when the Nationals limp off the field just over two months, that's a rather awkward position for him to be in as a player. But...not awkward for us, because it gives the Nationals every incentive in the world to have Guillen not be a National anymore.

In other news cut stright from the arms of Nationals players, Nate has brought to my attention that 2005 Rule-5 draftee Tony Blanco, currently on assignment with the P-Nats, will undergo a season ending surgery to repair a torn labrum. Guess there's no fear about him being brought up at roster expansion time now.

Also out that I missed is Alex Escobar who has been gangbusters for the Nationals, and will be an important cog in the outfield considering the likely upcoming trade of Soriano and the loss of Guillen. His number may be skewed by early success, but he's better than several other options the Nationals have at the moment.

Damian Jackson is expected to be activated off the DL later today.

NIH: Catching up

2006-07-22T15:46:00.000-04:00

This is NIH coming at you from its new homebase in beautiful south Arlington, and filling in all the news that I missed reporting on while in the process of moving.

First off the bat, John Patterson's surgery is being termed "successfuly." They relieved some pressure that the Median Nerve was under, sewed him back up, and he should be right as rain...however unlikely this season. He'll be in a split for a good 6-8 weeks, and then go through recovery after that. By the time he works his way through rehab assignements, the season will likely be over. So, probably the last we've seen of the Big Nasty this time around.

Jose Guillen's chances of being traded got even worse when the Nationals had to just flat out put him on the DL, retro to...it doesn't matter, because he'll still be on the DL when the trading deadline comes and goes. Now, there's no reason he can't be traded while on the DL, but the kinds of teams that are looking to pick up players are also looking for them to be able to make an actual impact, and not just languish away with an injury.

Damian Jackson and his esophageal woes landed him on the DL as well. However, whether this move reflected his inability to play for awhile, or whether it was just done to bring up a pitcher to fill out the injury plagued rotation is anyone's guess.

NIH: Big Nasty Cut for JP

2006-07-19T21:21:00.000-04:00

Well, here it comes, surgery for one Mr. John Patterson, right handed pitcher for the Nationals. It's currently just being called exploritory surgery by a lengthy press release on the Nationals official website. Two sentences, but there's some things to go into there.

First things first: we now have a medical staff in DC? Seems in the past that we kept shipping people off to Ohio whenever they needed any kind of medical work. That's a minor thing, though. The surgery itself. There's a few bits of medical technobabble going on in there, so...some exploration.

First, lacertus fibrosis. So it's off to a website from an actual Ivy League University, so you know it's got to be good. The Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Journal offers a very handy article that explains that a lacertus fibrosis is "the medial fascial expansion of the biceps tendon that lies superficial to these neurovascular structures." So, that clears that up, I hope. Sometimes I'm at a real disadvantage that my degree is in computer science and not polysyllabic medicolingual jargonoscopy.

A slightly easier concept: the medial nerve. That is, quite simply, a huge nerve that runs from the spinal chord just at the base of the neck all the way down to the thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. This is a problem, because it passes through just about every major muscle of the arm and through the infamous Carpal Tunnel, and can thus have problems at multiple points along it's long and lonely journey through the arm. If you'd like a more graphical view, here's a diagram of the medial nerve from a music website (apparently guitarists are also occasionally plagued with problems of this nerve).

So, getting back to the lacertus fibrosis. It's also apparently called the "bicipital aponeurosis" (there's a reason I don't do this as a podcast, my tongue is cramping just thinking about these words), which is right where the bicep ends in the elbow.

So, to sum it all up? Another elbow problem. What's likely going to happen is that Patterson's going to have the inside of his elbow sliced open so the surgeon can poke around with a stick for awhile to see what exactly is wrong with it. Why the press release can't just say so, I don't know.

NIH: Strained elbows all around

2006-07-18T21:47:00.000-04:00

When Jose Guillen was pulled before his second at bat during tonights game in Miami, there was some immediate speculation that he might have been traded at that point. Pull him out of the game, he's no longer our property, don't want him getting injured.

Wait...have I made this post before?

Strained elbows are painful. They can include swelling, tenderness, a limited mobility of the joint, and limited usefulness of the arm. But enough about your humble blogger and his injury, it would seem that Guillen has also strained an elbow during tonight's game, disappearing before he was able to make his way to the plate twice.

So, yay, second night in a row where one of our potential trade monkeys has gone down in a game, derailing his Trade Equity Train, to borrow a phrase. Then again, Guillen's Trade Equity Train already looked...well, about like this anyway, so I don't know if that's much of a loss. Plus, it lets us put Kearns into his natural position, and get Escobar some play time. So...I'm failing to see a downside to the situation.

NIH: Vidro Pulled. Hamstring, not trade

2006-07-17T22:25:00.000-04:00

When Jose Vidro was pulled before his second at bat during tonights game in Miami, there was some immediate speculation that he might have been traded at that point. Pull him out of the game, he's no longer our property, don't want him getting injured.

Well, turns out it wasn't a trade. And that he had gotten injured. He strained him hamstring to be specific, though it's being called a minor strain. His hamstrings have not been among the body parts that seem to fall off Vidro every season, so hopefully this is a case of him not paying enough attention to pregame stretches rather than a harbinger of things to come for Vidro.

Tony Armas's most recent return to the team didn't prove to be a horrible one, even if he did get saddled with the loss. He made it just 5 innings, but that's only two outs short of the team average start this season, and he was coming off an injury, so had a shorter hook than he might normally. He managed four strikeouts, but also gave up all four Marlin runs during his 92 pitches. Tomorrow night, Mike O'Conner will be called back up from New Orleans to make some more emergency starts, especially with John Patterson back on the 15-Day.

Rehabbing Ryan Drese got the call for the Harrisburg Senators for Sunday's action against the Reading Phillies, and fortunately didn't have to face the Writing Phillies, or the 'Rithmaticing Phillies.

Okay, that was lame.

Anyway, he got to throw for three full innings with an unknown pitch count, thank you very much imcomplete AA box scores. During that time, he allowed two hits, recorded two strikeouts, and only gave up one walk. The game was a double relief affair, with Phillies pitcher Randy Wolf going for the Reading farm club. Even without an actual number of pitches, Drese is obviously being kept on a rather low pitch count right now if he's only being allowed three innings, and might end up with two or three more rehab starts before he's fully back. Or, he might get pulled up before he's ready like Patterson was if we have a dire need for a pitcher. Which, the way our staff is falling apart and Livan being shopped around, is likely.

NIH: Patterson to the DL.

2006-07-15T08:37:00.000-04:00

Another of my infrequent posts while moviing, but this was something Big And Of Note. John Patterson is back on the DL for the third time in two seasons. Of course, I'd guess that he probably shouldn't have come OFF the DL this last time, but what's done is done, and who knows how much he's reinjured himself. Early talk? Early talk is that we've seen the last of Patterson until the 2007 campaign. Right now he's only on the 15 day, and it is retroactive a few days, so he could technically be back before the end of the month.

But that's a big "technically". Boy is hurting, and hurting bad. He shouldn't have come back, and in doing so, has probably only made things worse. I'd almost say that they should just shut him down for 2006. We're not trying to prove anything, and it's more important that he be around in 2007, '08, '09, '10, etc.

In other news as long as I'm updating...

Damian Jackson is suffering from something that sounds very nasty: esophagus spasms. He's listed as day-to-day.

Livan Hernandez's first post-break start was pushed back two days and will be happening tomorrow in order to give his knee more rest.

Pedro Astacio will be making his third start after coming off the DL tonight.

Tony Armas is scheduled to make his first start since mid-June to lead off the series in Florida on Monday.

NIH: What's with JP?

2006-07-09T18:07:00.000-04:00

Once again, John Patterson had to leave a game early with problems in the same arm that's been plaguing him for the last few months now. I think it's time that someone realizes that HE'S NOT BETTER YET! Yes, it would be great to have him back and to get some wins out of him, but this is a team right now that needs to have a pitcher can be an ancor of the rotation a few years down the road more than getting wins this season. We don't need wins this season. Hell, at the current rate, losses will help us better since they'll get us a better spot in the draft.

DL him. Now. Put him back on the List, send him down, get him the hell better. The more times we put him out there when he's clearly still injured, the more likely he's going to aggrivate it into something season- or even career-ending. The team right now is gambling with its future, and that really needs to stop.

His arm's dead, and the best we can hope for out of him starting right now is 7-8 innings of the bullpen getting raked over the coals.

NIH: Hello? Mr. NIH man??

2006-07-09T11:26:00.000-04:00

You may have already noticed this, but NIH hasn't been updating as regularly. This is a trend that will continue for a few weeks, as the NIH is relocating from Falls Church (and Cox country) to Arlington (and Comcast country). I'll try to keep as up-to-date as I can, but other things are going to take priority the next three weeks.

NIH: Rehab. TA2 2 AA

2006-07-05T18:57:00.000-04:00

It's time for Tony Armas to start working his way off the DL, and the first stop on the trip will be a start for the Harrisburg Senators tonight in Trenton. As with most rehabs starts, look for him to be on a set pitch count with a quick hook. As usual, I'll be reporting on how he looks, or at least on how the numbers look after the game.

NIH: Patterson and Astacio pitch, NIH says nothing!

2006-07-05T10:28:00.000-04:00

Well, been a nice long holiday weekend for the NIH, filled with not covering a few stories that I probably should have covered, because I was busy enjoying what was basically a four day weekend (or felt like it, even though I worked Monday). So, it's time to do a little catch up.

Astacio Watch: The timing was right for me to be keyed into the progress that Astacio has been making on his way back to the majors. With the elbow injury to Hill being more serious than originally thought, Astacio's return to the majors was pushed up to this past Monday, easily earning a win behind the explosive Nationals offense that day. When his day was done, the Nats were sitting on a fat 8-1 lead that would only get padded at that point. Astacio managed just two strikeouts in the effort, but also only surrendered one walk and three hits (though one a homer). A solid outing of 71 pitches, cut short as there was no need to over stress him, and because this could really be seen as a rehab start, just with the major league club. Astacio is staying in the rotation now that he's back, so should be seeing action in the second of three games against the Padres this weekend.

A longer outing would be key. But then, these are the Nationals. Longer outings would be key even from our guys who've been healthy all season.

Patterson Watch: JP wasn't quite so lucky with run support, but then again, that's really been the story of his career in Washington. Last season's king of the no decisions got another ND yesterday after an outing that featured five innings of efficient ball, needing only 67 pitches to get the fifteen outs. This included a first inning where he needed just 10 pitches to dispatch the Fish in order. Unfortunately, he was robbed of the win by a blown save recorded by Rauch in the 7th, so the win ultimately went to Cordero, who at 4-3 has a record that some of our starters could envy.

Possibly the best part of JP's start, he pounded out five strikeouts during that period with just one walk surrendered. He seems to have his stuff back, but the training staff obviously didn't want to overwork his arm after it went dead the last outing. He could probably also be said to be on rehab with the major league club. We need all the hurlers we can get right now. Patterson will next see action Sunday afternoon in the closer against the Padres.

NIH: Dead arm

2006-07-01T10:22:00.000-04:00

Patterson Watch: It took some digging around sports medicine sites to figure out what, exactly, pulled Patterson out of the game early in Toronto, something called "Dead arm". Finally, I was able to track down a VA Tech website where kids ask sports medicine questions. The fact that the tone isn't entirely unlike my articles I realize may mean I've been condescending my readers, and now I'm all angsty.

Long and short, a dead arm is a brief dislocation of the shoulder joint. Ball of the joint slips out of the socket then right back in. Owie? Now, I've been hearing dead arm was the problem, but also that it wasn't quite as major as the website makes it sound (sounds like it's healed by extended conditioning and/or surgery). There are alternate takes on dead arm that are a little more colloquial, that the arm has simply just given out, it just refuses to work any more, and at that point there's nothing that can be done but leave the game. I think it's the second version of dead arm that Patterson is having problems with. Problem is that this kind of dead arm has no real fix other than just waiting it out.

Right now the Nationals homepage does not have a probably pitcher listed for what would be Patterson's next start, but he was being advertised as the July 4th starter on the Jumbotron at RFK last night. If it is just wait-it-out, he should probably be considered day-to-day, and depending on the severity of the dead arm, a decision might not come until Monday.

NIH: Guess what. Livan's knee. Again

2006-06-29T23:22:00.000-04:00

This is starting to seem like just a really bad joke right now, and I for one am not laughing. Livan Hernandez, he of the bum knee all last season, he of the repaired knee in the off season, he of the trade rumors in hopes of flipping him for prospects...

God, it hurts even to say it. But according to the Post, he's reaggrivated the knee. Now, it should be pointed out that he has worked through knee pain in the past, so he's not planning to miss any starts. It's also not the same injury as before, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. All I know is this is a team with nine pitchers on the DL right now, and both of the clubs aces have been reported injured the same damn day.

I really wish I had less to blog about. Seriously. Can we stop with the injuries?

NIH: I'm sick of saying this...

2006-06-29T21:33:00.000-04:00

Two words I didn't want to write anymore...

Patterson Watch. In just his second start since rejoining the Nationals, Patterson left the game mid-batter during the fourth inning. Yes, he's injured again. Right now they're saying it's fatigue of the arm, but that sounds like a really sketchy and on-the-spot kind of diagnosis that doesn't mean anything. He's being officially listed as day-to-day right now, but we'll see when he can get a more official diagnosis.

Sigh.

NIH: Astacio rehab

2006-06-29T07:22:00.000-04:00

As promised, I've been looking for information on Astacio's start yesterday...

It was a decent start up in Connecticut, where the Senators took the win, even if Astacio himself didn't play into the decision. It was only because he didn't stick around in the game long enough to do so, not because of anything he actually did on the mound.

The Box Scores I can find don't seem to believe in pitch count as a stat, but he did face only 13 batters in the four innings that he pitched. The only thing that kept him from facing the minimum was the Defenders first baseman Ishikawa launching one over the wall in the second inning. Astacio did also manage two strikeouts as part of the twelve overall outs recorded.

Not the kind of start that will set the world on fire, but a solid start of the kind the Nationals are hoping to get out of Astacio during his lengthy rehab assignment. I'll be keeping an eye out as to when and at what level his next start will be with.

Aw hell, Hill! Word is that starter Shawn Hill was experiencing stiffness while going against the Blue Jays last night. Hill is expected to be the first guy sent down when the next major league pitcher is ready to rejoin the big league club. I'm suddenly worried as to whether he's going to make it that long, what with our injury luck this season.

NIH: The lost Nationals

2006-06-27T21:04:00.000-04:00

Researching Astacio last night got me thinking about the Lost Nationals pitchers. There were two guys we picked up in the off season who didn't pitch a single regular season game as a National before hitting the DL. Astacio is rehabbing and we might still get a half season out of him, but there's another one, who was injured earlier and is gone for the season.

Yeah, everyone knows Brian Lawrence, I don't know why I'm giving a history lesson about him.

His injury was a rotator cuff tear that was diagnosed during surgery to repair his labrum. What that translates to is the fact that his shoulder was seriously fecked up. Let's look at how a shoulder is assembled. The two major parts of the shoulder that are part of the torso are the clavicle (feel your shoulder, it's the thin bone at the top) and the scapula, or what is termed the shoulder blade in layman terms. The shoulder is a ball and socket joint, which means that the socket that is the labrum accepts the ball joint head of the humerus.

So where's the rotator cuff? It's a series of tendons that covers the front of the joint. Yup, back to those pesky tendons again, seems like everytime I go researching a serious injury, it always comes back to tendons. Tendons are stretchy little bastards, to the point that they were used as a rudimentary form of elastic in some older cultures. Ew, right? But, when they tear or snap, they take a hell of a lot longer to get fixed than a muscle or even broken bone will. That's where all the problems are coming from. These are lingering and crappy things to get injured, but we just keep going down with them.

So. Tendons. They suck. Hopefully we stop hurting them, and I mean now.

NIH: Opening the mailbox!

2006-06-26T16:31:00.000-04:00

I just got my first question today, so I thought I'd turn it into a new feature: the NIH Mailbox. Let's go!

Nate asks: What exactly is a forearm strain, and how does one last for 4 months, like Pedro Astacio's injury?

NIH sez: My first instinct is to say that forearm strain is one of those generic kinds of injury names that could include a whole range of actual injuries. I've only ever suffered mild RPI style strain of my Brachioradialis myself, but then again, I also don't put the kind of horrible strains on my arm that a starting pitcher does dozens of times each mound appearance.

As Nate noted, Pedro Astacio hit the long term DL list back in early April with "forearm strain" listed as the official injury. His recovery has been a slow one. He suffered the strain originally during the Beltway home-and-home exhibition series against the Orioles, and reaggrivated it during what was supposed to be a rehabilitation start with the Zephyrs in early June after bouncing around the Nationals minor league teams. Current news is that he will he rehabbing again on Wednesday for the Harrisburg Senators.

But that's not the question.

Medically, strain is defined simply enough as an injury to a muscle or tendon. None of the research I can do will say exactly what muscle and/or tendon in his right forearm that Astacio has injured (there are several to choose from) but strain prognoses can range from recovery times measured in just weeks to recovery times as long as a year. The idea of it taking a full twelve months to work through the strain is obviously an extreme, but it's not uncommon for a medium or severe strain to cause several months of pain. Judging by the way Astacio has been bouncing around, and him being recalled from the Zephyrs so close to his return to the Major League club says that this was at least a moderate strain.

I'll keep an eye out and report on his next rehab start for our AA team. The fact that he's still at that level tells me that he's probably still two rehab starts, at least, away from returning the club, so I wouldn't count on him showing up until closer to the All Star Break, maybe later. Strains can linger.

So. Hopefully that answers the question. If anyone has a question that the NIH Mailbox can tackle, leave them here, and I'll research them as I have time!

NIH: Johnson back

2006-06-24T22:11:00.000-04:00

Johnson Watch What did I say? Huh? What did I say? I said Nick would be back and playing in OPACY, and tonight's game marked Johnson taking first base for the Nationals after a few games off with back soreness. We're in a long rain delay while I'm writing this, but as I'm writing this, he's been up to the plate 4 times, with two walks and two strikeouts.

Let's see, after the game, how his back was feeling.

NIH: JP, JP, won't you pitch for me?

2006-06-24T14:03:00.000-04:00

Patterson Watch I'm hoping it's the last time I'll be typing those words this season, as the Big Nasty was back, and back strong. Unfortunately, he got crap in the way of run support, so got sacked with a loss his first time back on the mound for the big league club. He made it through six full innings, allowing two runs on six hits among three strikeouts. Not the strongest outing he's ever had, but it's a good sign that he can be throwing the kinds of games he threw last year.

Here's hoping, at least.

The one question I'd had with Patterson ready to return was who would get sent down in order to make room for him on the 25-man roster. The answer wasn't one that might not have been the most intuitive, but wasn't entirely unexpected after last weeks MRIs. Yup. Tony Armas Jr. has hit the DL, retroactive to Wednesday. The official reason listed is forearm strain. He will be next eligable to pitch on the 5th against the surging Marlins.

I think that's a requirement right now, to call the Marlins "surging."

NIH: Prognoses, Day-to-day

2006-06-22T08:17:00.000-04:00

Say something about the condition of the Nationals players right now that I had to look up the plural of "prognosis" to make sure I got it right. So, here goes.

Armas: Armas has gotten a cortisone injection in his arm to counter some soreness and swelling that was revealed through an MRI. Now, I always hear about players getting cortisone, so I did a quick look up on what it is and what it does. Cortisone is a secondary hormone that is often released along with adrenaline in times of stress which has the effect of supressing the immune system, and is seen as one of the primary reasons that stress can lead to illness. Nasty stuff. I assume that the immune supression is the goal, though, to try and get the swelling down, since that's an immunoresponce to...I don't know exactly what. Armas will be reevaluated in three days.

Johnson: Johnson is only being listed as day-to-day right now. That's the good news. The bad news is that he's apparently reaggrivated an injury that kept him out of a significant chunk of the 2004 season. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone who follows the Nationals that Johnson is officially considered injury prone, and that's one of the reasons that the Yankees were willing to part with him. The official injury is a lumbar strain. For those of you who don't have lumbar support chairs, that's the region right at the base of the spine, just north of the waist. That's the kind of back problem I tend to get myself, and I know that it can be pesky, unpredictable, and painful. From one sufferer to another, I wish him a speedy recovery, above and beyond just wanting him back on the field.

Patterson: To close with good news, Patterson is listed as our probably pitcher tomorrow night in OPACY. Here's hoping we can turn around from that 26-9 drubbing the Sox gave us.

NIH: A run down on the run down

2006-06-20T23:23:00.000-04:00

I may have spoken too soon about Nick Johnson. He and Tony Armas Jr were both shipped back to DC to have a once over by the team doctor. These examinations would decide whether Johnson would DL retro to this past Saturday and Armas retro to Tuesday. That would mean that Johnson would be eligable for return no sooner than the July 1 game against the Devil Rays, and Armas would next be eligable to start on Independance Day. Of course, those are both earliest possible return dates.

Johnson is having problem in the left side of his back. Back pain is a tricky thing, something I know entirely too well from experience. It could be that it starts loosening up tomorrow, it could be something serious that sidelines him for awhile. Obviously the hope is to get him back in the lineup as soon as possible, but healthy trumps fast when you're just playing for divisional ranking.

The other shocker? Soriano. It's being reported that he was wearing an ice pack on his right hand before tonight's game against the Red Sox. He's been experiencing soreness since batting practice on Monday. He's still in and playing, though, but he might not be getting all he can get out of that powerful bat of his.

I'm looking for good news, ANY good news, so here it is. Tim Foli, who I reported was hospitalized with heat exhaustion, is expected to be helming the Zephyrs again tomorrow. Huzzah for a speedy recovery for Foli. He'll be joining the team in Oklahoma City, destroying the earlier news I'd heard about him waiting for the club to return to New Orleans. Perhaps the 3-8 record they've had with him gone has pushed him back a little earlier?

NIH: When will his back let him come back?

2006-06-20T21:03:00.000-04:00

NJ Watch I figured his past injury history would mean I'd have to eventually report about Johnson in the NIH. His back is still giving him some problems, and it looks at this point like he will not be playing any games in Fenway, but should be back against the Orioles. Here's to hoping. Apparently his back is feeling better, but there are still occasional twinges.

Here's hoping for a speedy return.

Zimmerman!!

2006-06-19T17:31:00.000-04:00

Wait! Don't worry, this isn't an NIH post!

I know this has been covered ad nauseum, but dadgum, I've watched the Zimmerman home run more times than I should admit to, and everytime I get the same wonderful flutter in my stomach when he connects with the swing. Probably one of the three biggest home runs in the history of the New Nats right now (ranking with the Grand Slam at RFK last season, and Vinny's homer in the 2005 home opener).

Just...wicked kickass, even better in front of a huge crowd, even better against the Yankees. Just wanted to say that, even if everyone else has already said it.

NIH: Bad NIH, No Biscuit

2006-06-19T17:27:00.000-04:00

Well, looks like a day-to-day snuck by me, which is odd, since I did notice that Nick Johnson wasn't playing this weekend, but didn't think of checking on why. Just figured he'd been playing all season, and needed a night or two off. Turns out that his back is giving him some minor problems, which has caused him to be scratched from the lineup for the short term. Yesterday he wasn't even allowed to take batting practice so as not to tweak it, and instead was treated to massages.

Ya know, I need to be told I can't work and need to get massaged instead.

Anyway, these are my guesses and not any inside knowledge. If he wasn't swinging a bat yesterday, I don't expect him to play today, and I'm not sure about tomorrow either. He'll be back in the lineup before the road trip ends, I'm rather certain of that, but whether his return will happen in Fenway or OPACY, it's anyone's guess right now.

Should have confirmation of him being out of the lineup in another half hour to hour.

NIH: Patterson rehab number three

2006-06-18T17:09:00.000-04:00

Patterson Watch: Another week, another rehab start for John Patterson. This time it was back to the other Nationals club as the Big Nasty had his second start for the Potomac club. The PNats themselves walked away with a loss in the game, but unlike his last start in PW County, Patterson was not put on the hook for it.

Instead, he pitched 5.1 innings of, if not the most inspiring ball, at least a longer outing combined with more domination of hitters. Among 5 runs, all earned, he also put away 7 batters with strikeouts, and walked off the field with a lead that was quickly squandered. All-in-all an odd game resulting in the Orioles high-A Keys walking off with a 9-8 victory.

Patterson is said to have felt comfortable with the start, which is great news. The standard rotation would have him showing up in OPACY to face the big league Orioles. Interviews say he's ready to get back, but it hasn't yet been verified that he'll be back to the rotation when he's supposed to be. Here's hoping.

Tim Foli I reported a few days ago that the manager of the Zephyrs had been hospitalized with symptoms of heat exhaust. I'm thus thrilled to report that his recovery is going well, and he's eager to get back to coaching the big Zs. He's also been doing some scouting during the leave of absense. Likely he won't be joining the team during their current road trip, but will likely be in charge when the team gets back to New Orleans.

NIH: Just try not to swallow

2006-06-16T09:08:00.000-04:00

Anyone who's seen the last few mound appearances from our bearded Texan pitcher might think that he's looked, well, very un-Majewski-like when throwing the ball. Looks like there may be a reason for that. Washington Post is reporting that Majewski is getting over a bout of strep throat that was hurting his energy levels for awhile. Now, I'm not sure if strep itself causes energy loss, but not being able to eat comfortably due to a raw throat might. Hopefully he's over it, and can look more like his old self this weekend series against the Yankees.

Heaven knows we'll probably need all the help we can get.

NIH: Back to Potomac

2006-06-13T21:25:00.000-04:00

Patterson Watch Well hell, those were words I was hoping not to use until Saturday when I came back from the game and reported how he looked against the Yankees. Patterson will be pitching on Saturday, that hasn't changed. All that changed is where he'll be pitching. He'll be down in Prince William Country pitching for the P-Nats, where his night will be limited to 6 innings or 90 pitches. The stated reason is to let him get more curve back in his curveball before coming back to the big league club. I wonder how much of it was a confidence thing. Projecting ahead, his next start for the big league club will now not be against the power hitting Yankees, but against the more lackluster Orioles.

So there you go, new return date will probably Friday, June 23rd up in OPACY.

NIH: Recoveries

2006-06-12T22:02:00.000-04:00

First, we here at the Nationals Institute of Health would like to extend our best wishes to Tim Foli, manager of the AAA Zephyrs. He'll be out for about a week and a half after being hospitalized with symptoms of heat exhaution. Here's to wishing for a speedy recovery.

Guillen Watch: He's back, and he's back big. Guillen pounded in two of the Nationals three runs tonight, going 2 for 3, and launching a homer over that back fence of RFK that has long proven so elusive to him. That means that, since coming back from the DL, he's sitting on 4 hits, 2 runs, and 4 RBI in 7 at bats. Not a bad pair of games for Guillen, and here's hoping that he's back and better than ever.

Patterson Watch: Patterson had his second rehab start today. The game is still going on as I write this, but Patterson hit his pitch count limit during the 5th inning. Final numbers in 4.2 innings: 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned run, 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Very firm and decent outing for Patterson. I'll digest all the post game interviews tomorrow morning, but that he went all the way to his pitch count limit means he was likely feeling no discomfort, so anyone who'll be at Saturday's game should get to see his return.

NIH: Rehab number the Second

2006-06-12T07:11:00.000-04:00

Patterson Watch Tonight's the night, Patterson will be hurling for the AAA New Orleans Zephyrs in what is hoped to be the last rehab start before he returns to the big league club. He will be going 75 pitches or 5 innings, whichever comes first. If all goes well, he will be on the mound for the Nationals against the New York Yankees this coming Saturday (a game I have tickets to, so that excites the hell out of me, nice when I can do some kind of actual in-person NIH work).

Other than that, the Nationals have been surprisingly injury free the last week or so. We've had the scattered missed game by a starter, but mostly just standard resting starts without any associated day-by-day injuries. I'll tell ya what, considering the beat that this blog covers, I really wouldn't mind having nothing to report for awhile.

Probably means a good time to catch up on some of the more generic postings.

NIH: Defensive Substitution...

2006-06-10T20:35:00.000-04:00

Guillen Watch, and quite literally a Guillen Watch, since I got to watch Guillen in person today. I was going to get back and report on yesterday's double header (First game 1 hit in 2 AB with a run, second 1 hit, 3AB, 1 run, 2 RBI), but that was immediately made completely obsolete news during today's game in RFK stadium. Everything I'd seen about Guillens return said that, while he was eligable to return today, he likely wouldn't. Or at least the quote from Frank Robinson saying that he wouldn't be back until 100%, which made it sound like he wouldn't be coming back immediately. However, there he was, taking the field in the top of the 8th inning. He only had one at bat, and popped right up in the process. But he is back.

Now, how long he'll stay is another question, since he is the topic of so many rumors as being on the trade block. Be interesting if we get to Guillen bobblehead day (July 7) and he's no longer a National...

NIH: Patterson a Zephyr

2006-06-09T08:47:00.000-04:00

In a semi-exclusive interview with Brian Oliver of the Nationals Farm Authority*, the Nationals Institute of Health has learned that Patterson's Monday rehab start will be for the AAA Zephyrs as they take on the visiting Iowa Cubs. Check out this space on Monday for a pitch-by-pitch run down of all 70 throws! Okay, maybe not, but at least I'll be watching the MiLB Game Tracker and giving my thoughts.

*Semi-exclusive interview here means that he mentioned it in Friday's Gameday Chat, I asked his source, then wandered over here to make a quick update entry.

NIH: Potomac Nationals Indeed

2006-06-09T07:47:00.000-04:00

Guillen Watch Guillen snuck under my radar and made his way onto the Potomac Nationals roster for some rehab games, which is some good news. Or, at least, some news. He went 0-for-2 against the Keys in action last night, but left the game early because of a wet field and fears that he might reinjure himself with a slip. There's a double header tonight, and Guillen has been quoted as saying he's all for it, and would love to be back in RFK this Saturday.

Of course, there's still Robinson saying he wants Guillen to be 100%. Afterall, he's more lucrative as trade bait if he's 100%. Not, um, that anyone is officially saying that in any way, oh no.

Patterson Watch Patterson should have a 70-pitch game on Monday, possibly for Potomac. I haven't seen that he'll be anywhere other than Potomac, so I'm taking that as given until I hear differently. If this start goes as well as the last one, his next game will be for the big league club.

NIH: Rehab Start the First

2006-06-07T23:09:00.000-04:00

It's John Patterson Watch time tonight. Patterson took the mound tonight against the Winston-Salem Warthogs, which always puts me in an odd spot, since I was a Warthogs fan while in college at Wake Forest. Twas back when I was fed up with the Orioles, had no Nationals, and they were in town. But that's neither here nor there.

Patterson was only kept in for 10 outs, four of which he fanned. However, he also put up one earned run and ended up sacked with the loss. The start probably gave him some deja vu from the 2005 season. Decent outing, no run support, saddled with a loss. Oh well.

Anyway, Nationals Farm Authority got to ask a few questions of the Big Nasty, so I'll conceed that I'm outclassed tonight, and point you that way. That's what a Potomac Nats press pass can do for a guy.

Patterson will have at least one more rehab start. As of this writing, it's uncertain which club it will be with. Would seem to make sense just to keep him local in Potomac, but an interview with the man himself on the Nationals website reveals he expects to be pitching in the Mississippi Delta the next time he's hurling. Then, hopefully, it'll be back to the big league club.

Will be great, since our bats are starting to wake up, so getting one of our best pitchers back could lift the team that much higher.

Guillen Watch I'm trolling the news, and I can find only two things that anyone is saying about Guillen. One, he's eligable to return Saturday. Two, he probably won't return Saturday. From Frank Robinson: “As far as I know, yes, he’ll be physically ready... Sharp and game ready? That’s going to take a while.” So there you have it. I guess.

NIH: Double the surgery, double the fun!

2006-06-06T07:12:00.000-04:00

Nationals have two different pitchers scheduled to officially go under the knife for their respective season-ending surgeries. Zach Day will be undergoing repairs of his right rotator cuff, and Eischen his left. The surgeries will both be taking place in the city of Cincinnati, which it should be pointed out is apparently the home town of the Nationals. Who knew?

Ryan Zimmerman sat again last night. The Nationals, through Jenifer Langosh of MLB.com, are reporting that he should be okay to play tonight. His problem is still being listed as soreness and spasms in his back with no more information about what his problems may or may not be.

The winning pitcher last night for the New Orleans Zephyrs was named Pedro Astacio. That's a name that hasn't been bandied around in quite awhile, but he is starting to have rehab starts. Astacio threw 63 pitches in 6 complete innings, allowing two runs on four hits. Of course, we should all hope that a pitcher we consider one of our major league level guys is able to generate some outs going against a AAA club, so the big news is more that he pitched at all. Better than his last start for the Zephyrs, which was 61 pitches in 4.0 innings and getting pegged for the loss to Omaha.

Patterson is still scheduled to go tomorrow against the Winston-Salem Warthogs.

NIH: Zimmerman? Not Zimmerman!

2006-06-05T07:13:00.000-04:00

Brendan Harris was playing third base on Sunday as the Nationals completely a sweep of the Brewers. Now, that by itself isn't any problem, Zimmerman deserves days off, and I'm not expecting him to flirt with Ripken's record in another decade. However, it does worry me that the stated reason was not to give him a day off because he's earned one, but rather because he's having back spasms.

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with back spasms, and that's just a day-to-day kind of injury where a player might get benched the day game after a night game. It's just still a little worrisome that our young buck is having some twinges already.

Patterson watch: John Patterson is scheduled to be the starting pitcher for the Potomac Nationals this coming Wednesday. Now, he's had several rehab starts pushed back, but this time there's finally signs that he's ready to start the rehab. His last bullpen session went just fine, throwing 45 pitches with no report of pain or discomfort. He'll probably go four to five innings, and everthing I'm seeing says this won't be the only rehab start he has down in PW County.

Guillen watch: Today is day 11 of Guillen's trip to the 15-day DL. Now, I'm not so new at this that I think the 15-day DL means he'll be gone exactly that amount of time, but that will be the minimum until we can start looking at him. Unfortunately, I've seen no updates on his condition at any point during while I've been home. Just pulled hamstring with some people (perhaps lightly) concerned there might be one or more other injuries that the Nationals aren't talking about. He is due to extended Spring Training early this week, and that chance to test the injury will give a better idea at how bad it is, and when he might be expected back.

His return may be delayed, as Robinson is quoted saying he wants Guillen back at 100%, not just 85% or 90%.

NIH: Stop getting injured!!!

2006-06-03T20:12:00.000-04:00

Eesh, still haven't had the time to get my head fully out of my ass since my vacation, and we put another player on the DL? Dear lord. Alright, let's see what I can get out of this most recent one.

Yesterday, Santiago Rameriz got placed on the 15 day DL, retroactive to May 30. Now, am I the only one saying "Santiago who"?? Seriously, we're starting to accrue injuries to players who I didn't even realize were Nationals. Looking at his stats, he's pitched just 3.1 innings since being called up on May 23rd. That would go a long way to explain why I haven't heard of him, since his entire Nationals career was while I was on vacation, apparently.

So. Not going to waste much time on him and his 8+ ERA. He strained his right elbow. I don't see anything about a prognosis, but I think there are bigger issues with the team right now than whether a AAA relief pitcher gets himself healthy again.

The pitcher I'm worried about is John Patterson. He's thrown a simulated game, and he's going to throw another one before he gets a rehab start. I assume they rest him the same amount between simulated games as he would get between actual starts, so that means that his return to the Nationals is still likely more than a fortnight away. He may even get two rehab starts, which pushes the timeline back that much more.

With the team starting to finally click, getting his arm back into the rotation would be a HUGE help, though it's obviously better to get him back healthy than fast, since we're not in any place where we need wins to stay in a race. Be nice to have him back if the rumors of Livan being trade bait are true.

Joey Eischen is being listed as out for the season, and is firmly on the 60-day DL. I don't think that really comes as a surprise to anyone. The way he was pitching this season, I think a lot of people thought something was up. With his ERA 5 points above his career totals, and with him throwing away games left and right, there seemed to be a problem. Turns out it was left rotator cup, and the muscle therein, which is torn. That gives the Nationals six pitchers on the 60-day. I'd have to do some research, but I think we probably have the deepest DL of anyone in the league with 12 total players.

Guillen is on the DL with a strain. Hopefully he'll be able to come back soon, but strains can be nasty and unpredictable things. As with Patterson, it's better to get him back healthy that quick. I'll keep an eye out for updates on his condition.

PHEW! I think I'm caught up now.

NIH: And this is what I come back to?

2006-05-31T13:38:00.000-04:00

I've returned from my vacation, and it's time for NIH to wake back up again. Except...well crap, it looks like the Nationals just had a field day getting themselves injured while I was away. Eischen is likely out for the season. Guillen has been put on the 15-day. Neither of those is really a surprise, what with the bullpen abuse this team undertakes and Guillen's willingness to play injured in the apparent hope to get more injured. Sigh.

Schneider's back, that's good. Patterson I need to research. Oh god, there's just way too much to cover right now. I'm going to try to catch up with what I've missed, but now's not the time.

NIH: Mission Statement -- and then some

2006-05-18T16:15:00.000-04:00

I was going to do something like this back when I started the new blog imprint, but ended up getting thrown basically right into things, since there's been constant injury news to be reporting on. So, with this about to go dark for two weeks, I thought this might be a good time to talk about what I'd like to do with this blog.

NIH, for those who missed the opening post of this new imprint, is the Nationals Institute of Health, a name I wish I could take credit for. In general it exists because I wanted to be part of the best blogsphere within Major League Baseball, but had nothing to add that wasn't being covered already. So, when no one else leapt on the idea of the NIH, I basically stole it. Yup, that's me, one big ole idea theft.

The purpose of the NIH will be to pass along news of Nationals injuries, whether they be major injuries or minor ones. I'll also be tracking the recovery of DL players, as you've already seen me doing with Patterson and Guzman. Right now, most of this information comes from the Nationals Notes in the Washington Post, official team releases, and occasional trolling of Google News. In short, I'm just one guy who's assembling the available information into a single location.

So then who am I? Basically, I'm a complete neophyte. I really know almost nothing about what I'm talking about except what I read in releases, and what I research. That means that when you read posts where I'm explaining things like a SLAP Tear, I'm doing that research on the fly, and educating myself at the same time that I'm hoping to educate others. By the end of the season, I'll probably have a better idea of what I'm talking about, but ultimately there will always be injuries that pop up that I've never heard about, and will have to research.

So, what do I hope to do with this blog? Well, I hope to make it as helpful as possible to those people who chose to read it. My goal, at the time, is to assemble and pass along the information I can find. Also, I've already planned to start presenting more information about injuries that come up, treatments, and even talk about what other players have come back from the same injuries, and what shape they were in when they made that comeback.

And...I'd also like to know what you, the readers, would be interested in seeing as part of a blog focusing on Nationals injuries. I'm already finding this is a really interesting (and, unfortunately, entirely too frequent) of a subject to work with.

Upcoming entries: UCL injuries, and Tommy John surgery.

Catch y'all in two weeks. Hopefully any news that I have to catch up on will be good news. In these next two weeks there's a chance that John Patterson will finally have his rehab start, for one. Astacio should start to progress, and might actually have a timetable by the NIH comes back.

NIH: Guillen day-to-day

2006-05-17T23:36:00.000-04:00

Another day, another injury to report. I'll admit, I started this imprint within the blog I wondered how much there would be to talk about. Nationals injuries, how much is there to really talk about there?

Sigh.

Guillen's evening was cut short on Wednesday at Wrigley when he suffered from some strain in his right hamstring. Unfortunately, that's really all the more information available right now, especially with the game still going on right now. We can hope this is a minor thing, but the last time we had someone go off with a hamstring strain, we brought him back too soon, it got worse, and he's now on the DL.

At this point right now it makes better sense to be healthy than rush recoveries. We're not in the running for anything except fourth place in the NLEast. There's also been some talk about flipping Guillen over to a contender in exchange for some fodder to start rebuilding our farm system. DL drops his trade value like hell.

Tomorrow shall be the last post before this blog goes dark for a few days. Look for the NIH Mission Statement.

NIH: Addendum

2006-05-16T23:08:00.000-04:00

Wow, I am going to have to do some serious research of Drese's injury. I did a very brief preliminary search, and it seems that there is a surgical repair that is effective at fixing UCL injuries.

It's called, colloquially, "Tommy John".

Look for my next "research along with thurdl" in the next two days, I'm guessing.

NIH: Pitcher roundup

2006-05-16T22:58:00.000-04:00

I believe this is what they call a good news/bad news situation. Burried at the bottom of the most recent Notes article at the Nationals home page were some updates.

The good: Pedro Astacio had a bullpen session without any pain. Of course, they're still not giving any kind of timeline for him. On the other hand, they are giving a timeline for John Patterson, and that just keeps sliding further and further back. It does look like he'll return to the major league club. Hopefully by the All Star Break at this point.

The bad: There's been a new diagnosis of pitcher Ryan Drese. What had originally been called flexor tendon sprain was revealed, after an MRI, to be something called a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Which...is a long stream of words that adds up to "it's a heck of a lot worse than we thought". Plus, I think I have my next injury to research, but not tonight. Anyway, it's going to be 2-4 weeks of rest, followed by a re-evaluation, followed by potential surgery, which would likely be season ending.

Pitcher injury woes, the theme of the 2006 season, look like they're not going to be ending anytime soon. Oh joy. At least they'll keep me busy on this blog.

Except... Except your humble blogger is going to be taking a vacation, and the NIH will thus be going dark starting Thursday night and continuing until probably the last day in May. I'm off to New England, where I will be taking in a game at Fenway, assuming it hasn't been completely washed away by then. This won't be my last post before the vacation (I've already got that one planned), and when I get back, there might be some changes in the way I conduct the Nationals Institute of Health. Stay tuned, and good health.

NIH: The SLAP tear

2006-05-15T22:49:00.000-04:00

Normally there wouldn't be much Nats injury news on an off day, and I'm fortunately not here to say that anyone has broken an arm climbing out of bed. I think that only happens to Wake Forest football players. The only real news of the day is that Guzman has been moved over to the 60-Day DL. Not sure what purpose there was to waiting this long to do so, but it's been done.

One of the things I wanted to do with this new focus on the blog is to explore exactly what the injuries are. The whole thing is still a work in progress, I'll admit.

The SLAP tear, for the layman, based on my research. The first question I had was what the hell a SLAP is. It's always been presented in upper case, and since I was never told there was a part of the body called a slap, I figured it was an acronym. Sure enough, SLAP stands for "Superior Labrum Anterior to Posterior".

My next question was what, exactly, a Superior Labrum is. Yeah, I'm just getting into this whole anatomy of a baseball player thing (and thank god this isn't Yudachat, cause I know that Jeff Gannon would be showing up after that comment). Through a little research I've found that there isn't a Superior Labrum, just a few above average ones. The labrum in question is actually caled the glenoid labrum, which is part of the shoulder joint that runs generally from the edge of the armpit closest to the body and curls up to about the midpoint of the shoulder joint. It's a ring of cartelidge.

Superior actually refers to the tear itself. A superior tear is a tear to the labrum at the front of the body, and an anterior tear is in the back of the body. More specifically a SLAP tear tends to occur where the bicep tendon meets the labrum.

What causes it? Throwing overhand. In sports it's most common in baseball players (like Christian Guzman) or volleyballers. Compare the overhand motion of a serve with that of a throw, and you'll see some very similar motion. It's basically a form of repetitive stress injury, though it can be caused by one-time events such as lifting heavy boxes or having your arm jerked. More frequently it happens to pitchers, who put a hell of a lot more stress on their arms, but it can happen to position players as well. Or to anyone, really.

It's one of the arguments against getting kids too much into pitching at an early age. This is a slight veer fromt he topic, but as younger and younger kids are being pushed to throw more sophisticated pitches in the little league ranks, shoulder injuries are on the rise. Young arms and shoulders that are still going through puberty aren't built to sustain the kinds of stressful forces that can rip even healthy adult shoulders to pieces.

The long and short of it is Guzman suffered from the proverbial throwing his arm off.

Most pitchers who get a SLAP tear have peaked in their careers. Their velocity and stamina will be down. However, a position player is more likely to make a recovery to regular season form, just because they aren't relied upon to throw the ball 100 times a game.

The biggest name position player I can find who suffered a SLAP tear was Troy Glaus, who had his 2004 campaign cut short by what was diagnosed as a SLAP fray (some sites seem to suggest the terms are interchangable, others that there is a subtle difference that I can't fully grasp). He has not only come back, but come back strong. He's hitting better since the injury, and his fielding is showing no sign of suffering.

So the prognosis for Guzman could still be good. He's got plenty of recovery time, and the injury isn't quite the career-death sentence as it would be for a pitcher. Still, only time will tell.

Sources used while assembling this entry:
Slate.com article: Labrum, it nearly Killed Him. By Will Carroll
Orthopedic Center, St. Louis: Patients Guide to SLAP Tears. By Dr. Mark Miller
Various wonderful drawings I got from entering "glenoid labrum" into a Google Image search.

NIH: Catchers play musical DL

2006-05-13T21:24:00.000-04:00

Schneider came back the other night, but not for long. Apparently his hamstring problem is a little more severe than originally thought, and nationals.com is reporting that he's been moved to the 15-Day DL.

So, that leaves us with one catcher, right? Wrong.

The slight good news is that Fick is ready to come back, so he's being recalled from his rehab assignment and the 15-Day to serve as LeCroy's backup until Schneider is ready to return (though whether it'll be starter/backup or a platoon is yet to be seen). When Schneids does return, it'll be interesting to see what happens. Will Fick stay with the big league club to act as an emergency catcher? If so, who goes down? Some of the talk is that Church might be getting an undeserved return trip to New Orleans. But that's not really injury news.

This will be Schneider's first career trip to the DL.

NIH: Playing catch

2006-05-12T22:50:00.000-04:00

John Patterson reportedly had a pain free round of catch today, which is great. Of course, this marks the beginning of a return process that will take three weeks in the best case, but that's fine, considering the alternative would be more setbacks, and a return closer to the fourth of July than Memorial Day.

And how healthy is too healthy? Tom Boswell floated an interesting chunk of interview in his chat today. He talked to Livan Hernandez, who had surgery to repair a bum knee that was giving him problems all of last season. It's actually possible that that LACK of injury is what's giving Livan such a hard time. Last season he had to futz around with his pitching motion to put less pressure on the knee that was bothering him, and it's apparently taking him much longer than he expected to get back into his old motion.

I hope this is the case, because it means there's a potential light at the end of the tunnel for Livan's pitching woes. It could also explain his problems in first innings, as he's needed to settle down into his motion. Of course, it's also entirely possible that he's just in the middle of a massive and horrible slump, dragging the team down with him.

So it's official, folks, it looks like we've got one ace out with an injury, and one ace struggling through being injury free. Don't you just love the Nationals?

NIH: Bullpen Workout

2006-05-12T07:45:00.000-04:00

Today was The Day, Mark 2. When Patterson's rehabs start down south in Woodbridge was rescheduled, today was supposed to be the day. However, the last reports I've seen are that Patterson's actually just going to get some bullpen work today, and his actual rehab start is going to be pushed back. Currently his return to the big league club looks like it will happen in a month starting with a 'J'. Looking at the June 2nd game against the Brewers, but there will likely be more news either later today or tomorrow based on whether he feels any soreness today.

Hopefully we'll see him back, and soon.

NIH: The good news

2006-05-10T22:50:00.000-04:00

Can there possibly be good news in a game where the opening day starter still failed to get his second win, and the team went down in flames right after actually fighting back? Well...a little. Schneider was promised back tonight, and sure enough, he was behind the plate. Not only that, but his bat, which was heating up before his injury, stayed sizzling, as he pounded out two hits in four at bats, and even managed to come around and score.

Nice to have him back.

NIH: Tendinitis

2006-05-10T09:34:00.000-04:00

From wikipedia:

Tendonitis (also tenonitis or tendinitis) is an inflammation of a tendon. For example, patellar tendonitis (jumper's knee) is an inflammation of the patellar tendon, which connects the tibia to the patella.

Chronic overuse of tendons leads to microscopic tears within the collagen matrix, which gradually weakens the tissue. Swelling in a region of microdamage or partial tear can be detected visually or by palpation. Increased water content and disorganised collagen matrix in tendon lesions may be detected by ultrasonography or magnetic resonance imaging.

Due to their highly specialised ultrastructure and slow collagen turnover, tendons and ligaments are very slow to heal if injured, and rarely regain their original strength. Partial tears heal by the rapid production of disorganised type-III collagen, which is inferior in strength to normal tendon. Recurrence of injury in the damaged region of tendon is common.

Ahh, nice to be able to get a free three paragraphs with a block quote like that. So, why am I starting out with a description of tendinitis? Quite simple: it's a word that Nationals fans might have to get used to hearing for awhile. For example, the press release about Guzman yesterday reveals that to be John Patterson's diagnosis, and it's been reported in the WaPost that Majewski might have a touch of it as well. However, in Majewski's case, it looks to be more minor, and he did see some time on the mound in last night's victory over the Reds.

Patterson? Well...this morning Barry Svrulga is reporting in his Nationals Notebook that the May 18th return date might get pushed back two more weeks, with a new date of June 1 being eyed. That's an off day for the Nationals, though, who then head to Milwaukee the next day. The article isn't clear as to whether the 6/1 target would be for a rehab start, or to rejoin the big league club. Keep tuned for more updates on JPat, and to see which National gets tendinitis next.

NIH: Tada!

2006-05-09T16:10:00.000-04:00

Press release time from the Nationals concerning Guzman's surgery. Apparently it has been categorized a success, and he'll be starting rehab very soon, and the prognosis is excellent that he'll be back and ready to whiff at fastballs by Spring Training '07.

Same release also says that JP has gotten and "injection" which I've seen elsewhere described as a cortozone shot to the elbow that's giving him trouble. Right now his rehab start with the P-Nats is still scheduled for this Saturday, but I'm not going to go buying tickets tonight in hopes of seeing it.

NIH: Knife day for Guzman, Schneider back today?

2006-05-09T07:36:00.000-04:00

Guzman's surgery, pushed back from yesterday, will be occurring today, officially ending his season. Everything that I'm reading says there's little worry that the recovery time will be long enough to keep him away from Spring Training this year, but it does mean that, barring a trade or a call up, we're looking at Clayton as the Nationals day-to-day short stop for the foreseeable future.

All hopes are that Schneider was given Sunday's game off to give him a little extra time, especially since Monday was an off game. Tonight the Nationals are taking the field agaisnt the Reds, and I've seen nothing that says that LeCroy is going to be behind the plate, which is great news. The last thing we need to do is stumble into a situation where we discover just how shallow our catching depth is.

NIH: No news on Schneider

2006-05-07T18:15:00.000-04:00

In today's win against the Pirates, LeCroy was behind the plate for the entire game. Which means two things: First that LeCroy was apparently not in any way seriously injured by the backswing he took to the shoulder yesterday, and the Schneider was given the day off. Whether that's to let him recover, or because his injury is actually being evalutated, I cannot find. Hopefully it is the former, and he'll be back in action sooner, rather than later. I will pass along any real news when I can get my hands on it, and I'm hoping such news will come by seeing his name in the Monday lineup card.

NIH: Schneider day-to-day, bad pitching news

2006-05-06T22:23:00.000-04:00

Brian Schneider was pinch hit for his third at bat during tonight's game against the Pirates. The initial indication from the broadcasters has him day-to-day with a tweaked hammy, I'll get the Nats press release up as soon as its released.

This put Matt LeCroy behind the plate tonight, where he took a bat to the shoulder during the top of the tenth inning. He was able to stay in the game, but it immediately raised the question of who would catch if the injury had forced him to the bench for the rest of the night. I don't know if that almost-disaster situation will change anything about how quickly the Nats pull the trigger on bringing an extra catch up should Schneider have to spend some time out of the lineup.

Now, that's the bad news. The worse news is that the Nationals pitching health is not going to be improving anytime soon. Both Drese and Patterson are being reported as having set backs this week. Serious suck there. Drese was found to still have inflammation of the elbow, though no structural damage, and the club is still reluctant to set a time table to when he'll be back in a Nationals uniform for a game.

Patterson's rehab start with the Potomac Nationals has also been pushed back after he experienced some pain in a bullpen session. He was hoped to start this coming Monday, but has been pushed back to at least the 13th, which means the earliest he'd be on the mound for the Nationals will either the closer at Chicago or the opener of the Orioles series.

This means the Nats continue to have three of their anticipated starters sitting on the DL. Just wonderful, eh?

NIH: Guz Gone

2006-05-05T18:52:00.000-04:00

NIH is going to be a new occasional feature of this blog. It started with a joke on the Yuda chat that a blog needed to be started about the health of the Nats, but no one thought there'd be enough news. However...it looks like there will be. I'll try to keep up with injuries, research and explain some of them as best I can. All in the name of the Nationals Institute of Health.

It's starting today because there's been a press release: Guzman is going to be lost for the season. There had been a lot of hopes that he'd be able to work out his SLAP tear and start a rehab assignment with the Zephyrs just as soon as they were playing in plenty of warm weather cities. Yeah, I guess the injury was cold sensitive. He's been spending time at extended Spring Training before coming up for a consultation with the Nationals medical staff.

Well, what many people thought would be inevitable has, indeed, happened. Much of the amateur medical talk when the SLAP tear happened was that surgery was inevitable. In fact, there were some fans who wanted the surgery to happen sooner rather than later. Though how much of that was a response to his 2005 numbers, it's hard to say.

So. Would Guzman have a better 2006 than 2005? Hard not to. But now we're never going to find out. Hopefully he'll be completely better for the 2007 season, and ready to put up career average numbers.

Hopefully.

Marlins series postscript: Number crunching

2006-04-17T08:47:00.000-04:00

I decided, being home sick, to look up some of the numbers from the series, and Marlins attendance figures. Here's what I found.

Series Attendance: 38,877
Marlins Average: 14,561/game
Average not counting home opener: 11,212/game

Now, to provide some points of reference...

Washington Home Opener Attendance: 40,530
Tampa Bay Average: 17,213
TB Non-opener Average: 13,382

Quickie

2006-04-14T09:46:00.000-04:00

I'm glad that Church'll be back in the uniform he should have worn opening day. The Watson expirement was a bad idea from the get go.

Is the Miami market worth saving?

2006-04-14T09:22:00.000-04:00

Over the next three days the Nationals will be taking their first trip of the season down to the southern tip of Florida to take on the struggling Marlins. And I don't just mean record, though this series will determine who takes over the basement of the NLEast since both teams are going in with only two wins.

The talk about moving the Marlins is still going strong. San Antonio has set itself apart from the pack, as the mayor is offering the team a $300m facility to be built in the city (though where the team would play between relocation and that facility opening is something I'd have to research). I'd actually take a bet of San Antonio versus the rest of the field should relocation end up happening.

But there's still the "if" and the "should" factor going on. There is an active push to keep the Marlins in south Florida, building in on or another of the suburbs or exurbs of Miami. The question I have is a simple one: Why?

Alright, I'll conceed that Miami is a great market. HUGE market. Anywhere that the Marlins moved would be a downgrade in market size, which would make this different than the move from Montreal to Washington DC. However, what good is market size if the people living there don't actually come to the games? Let's look at some numbers. Dolphin Stadium, in its updated 2006 baseball configuration, holds 36,331 (which is far less than the 47k it was confgured to hold for the Marlins opening season). Opening day, only 31k fans showed up.

Now, I know that a Nationals fan can't really talk about opening day, since RFK had as many total empty seats as Dolphin Stadium, though the RFK crowd in raw numbers was 4,000 people above the capacity of the Fish Bowl. Also, the major difference is that the Nats then went on to draw 30k and 25k the next two games, both of which are excellent attendance numbers for early April, especially considering the 25k game was the second day game that week.

The Marlins haven't been so lucky. Their next two games at home have failed to draw 9,000 people. Their total attendance to date has been 48,493 which isn't even enough to sell out some of the larger stadia in baseball. In fact, it doesn't even come close to the 55,255 that showed up to watch the Marlins play at Shea stadium this past Friday. The Mets have twice now had individual games outdraw the entire opening series in Miami. The Yankees have managed it twice, both times against the low-draw Royals. The Devil Rays are even managing to outdraw the Marlins, having not dipped below 10,000 in any game, and 40k in their opener.

I'll be interested to see a few things. First, whether three games at the Fish Bowl don't match the Nats opening day crowd. Second, whether the season Nats@Marlins attendance will even crack 100,000 sold tickets.

All in all, I think it boils down to one simple thing: A smaller market that supports its team is better than a huge market that doesn't. Even if San Antonio can only draw 12k per game, that's still better than the Marlins are looking to pull this year. It's time to start drafting the resolutions, and getting the ball rolling. Move that team.

Just...uh...wait until the Nats owner is decided, cause baseball can't multitask.

WMC: Did you think I forgot?

2006-04-13T09:33:00.000-04:00

I'm sure anyone who follows this blog for its curling coverage (both of you) has noticed that I haven't talked about the results of the championship game. Mostly that's because I'm entirely uncertain what kind of coverage it'll be getting. See, this Sunday at 3pm on ESPN2, they're offering two hours of the bonspiel.

Now, with the women's tournament, that meant a two hour version of the championship game. However, the big difference is that the United States was playing for gold in that game, whereas Fenson's rink was eliminated. Will the American sports media cover Canada/Scotland, or will they just give a two hour overview of the tournament, I don't know. And, unfortunately, I'll likely be unable to find out unless I decide to set my VCR to tape it.

Still, tune in if you want to see curling on TV! Maybe next year we can get more than two hours per tournament if the numbers are good.

Drays of sunshine

2006-04-12T23:05:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my sport blogs identity crisis, as curling has wrapped up for many many months, and I find myself just one voice among many in a Natmosphere that is teeming with probably the best collection of blogs for any team in MLB, or perhaps in any American professional league. So, it's likely just going to be my various thoughts about sports in general for awhile, unless I find a really good angle. Dunno. I'm thinking about starting to track exNats like I did during the WBC.

But that's not today. Today is just damned depressing. I was flipping back and forth between the Amazing Race and the game today. Yeah yeah, I was all excited to get MASN, and yet I'm watching the Amazing Race, while people who would strangle a cable executive to get MASN don't get to see any of the game. But I happened to flip to the game and noticed that Vidro was up.

With the bases loaded.

And no one out!

Against Pedro! Holy crap on a stick!

Well, I think everyone who follows the Nats knows this story. Vidro strikes out, Guillen GIDPs, and the Nationals strand yet more runners, which looks like it's going to seriously be the story of our season. Again.

Later tonight, I was checking the scores around the majors, and I noticed that my AL team of cheering was wrapping up a game agaisnt the Orioles. For those who missed it, I've been sort of a closeted DRays fan since their inception, and decided to just say screw it, come out of the closet, and cheer them on, especially now that they have an owner that gives a damn. Well, the Rays managed to pull out a three run victory against Angelos's boys, which is actually two pieces of good news in one: Rays win, Os lose. Hell, the boys from St. Pete actually managed a damned grand slam in the 8th inning, something I'll be surprised if the Nats can pull off this season. They've taken just 2 out of 6 gaves against the birds so far, but augmented that with two out of three won in what used to be called Skydome, and they're off to a 4-5 start.

Yeah, it's early in the season, but it means they're right with the AL East pack. Ain't gonna stay that way, but it's fun for now.

And then i realized something, and it made me even more depressed about the Nationals. The Devil Rays, of all teams, are my ray of sunshine right now. The team I'm following that's actually doing marginally better.

If it weren't 11:15pm when I realized this, I'd probably be drinking.

WMC: Championship Day!

2006-04-09T11:29:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the last big day of international curling for several months. Kinda sad. Though it's going out with a bang, and two of the biggest historic juggernauts in the sport going at it for the championship of the 2006 World Men's Championship.

Scotland went into the tenth end of yesterday's semifinal ties with the Norwegian team that had dispatched Pete Fenson's rink from the tournament. However, they also went into the tenth end carrying the hammer, and were not about to screw that up. Thanks to a well executed takeout with that last rock, the Scottish lay two when the dust had settled, and thus set things up for a rematch with the Canadian team today.

This marks the third time the two teams will meet on the Lowell ice, and they've split the two previous matches, so this will serve as a best-of-three rubber situation. The first match saw the Scots score in four consecutive ends to put away the Canadian team with little trouble. The Scots shot 80% in that game, led by vice skip Ewan McDonald managing to shoot an excellent 89%. The Canadians managed 79%, but were dragged down a great deal by their skip, Jean-Michel Ménard, shooting just 66%.

In the second meeting, just two days ago in the page playoffs, the Canadian team rolled, stealing the first end, and not looking back. Scotland was only shooting 67% in that match, with Murdoch himself only managing 52%. The Canadians had two curlers at 89%, including their skip who faltered in the first meeting, and had just no problems at any point in the shortened match.

This is all going to come down to who can make the shots. Both teams have excellent potential to shine, but both have also shown the ability to falter and fall. No room for mistakes today. Here's to a good ten ends!

WMC: 3/4 Page Playoff

2006-04-08T00:20:00.000-04:00

Don't have time for a long post right now, but all that has to be said is that the US lost, and is now eliminated. 4th is respectable, but after the bronze in Torino, and playing on home ice, I was really hoping for something more. Alas, not to be.

WMC: 1/2 Page Playoff

2006-04-07T16:23:00.000-04:00

First of the Page Playoff games is in the book. Featured the top seeded Scottish team against the always heavily favored team from Canada. Had all the makings of a hell of a match. Well...

The game lasted all of six ends, at which point the Scottish team conceded the match having been outscored 8-2. The Canadians just made the Scots look silly. They were off their game the whole time, with skip Murdoch only managing to shoot 52%, and his third only managing one percentage point higher. Meanwhile, the entire Canadian team was shooting between 83-89%. That's hell to fight against, even if you're shooting your best.

End-by-End breakdown.

End 1: Scottish hammer. Canada steals 1. 1-0 Canada
End 2: Scottish hammer. Canada steals 3. 4-0 Canada
End 3: Scottish hammer. Canada steals 1. 5-0 Canada
End 4: Scottish hammer. Scotland scores 1. 5-1 Canada
End 5: Canadian hammer. Canada scores 3. 8-1 Canada
End 6: Scottish hammer. Scotland scores 1. 8-2 Canada
--Scotland Concedes--

CRAZY!

US/Norway on tap for 7pm, winner plays Scotland.

WMC: Round Robin Recap

2006-04-07T09:03:00.000-04:00

First, sorry for not getting the last draw reported last night. This is still an amateur blog, and there was a need for me to crash before I could get all the scores updated and reported. The two major games of import last night saw Sweden losing, which set the field of four, and Canada beating the US, which set the seeding.

For Pete Fenson's team, this means a little trouble. They're going into the playoff round riding a three game losing streak, having dropped consecutive games to the Aussies, Finns, and Canadians. Not the way to end the round robin, and hopefully he can rebound going into the playoffs. Unfortunately time is not on their sides. The women's tournament was set up so that an entire day of tiebreaking draws was scheduled, but not so with the men. The most Team USA gets to do is sleep in and enjoy and early dinner.

For those who missed the women's playoffs, here's how Page Playoffs work to determine ranking of the top four seeds.

Today at 2pm, the first and second seeded teams will play, this being Scotland and Canada. Then and 7pm, the third and fourth seeded teams will play, this being Norway and the United States. The loser of this second game is eliminated from the playoffs, and gets the #4 ranking.

The victor of the Norway/US match will then take on the Canada/Scotland loser in the semifinal, which is tomorrow at 1pm. The loser of this game will be eliminated, and will take bronze home from Lowell.

Finally, the winner of Canada/Scotland will take on the winner of the Semifinal match on Sunday at 12:30pm for the whole ball of wax.

The United States has only a 1-2 record against the other teams that advanced. The Norwegian team they start out against is the same one that handed Fenson's boys an 8-5 defeat during the seventh draw on Monday. That game featured Pete Fenson shooting an uncharacteristically low 68% during the match, doing worse on hits than draws with only 65% accuracy. He's going to need to do much better than that in hopes of winning this thing.

Finally, a post mortem to my fourth team, the only one eliminated by the round robin. Markku Uusipaavalniemi was suffering most of the tournament from a wrist injury, and wasn't able to play some matched, and wasn't able to skip others. This resulted in him missing the first three Finnish draws, which they dropped 2 out of three. If his presence would have turned just one of those around, there'd be a playoff today, and U15 would be in it. There's now a long off season for him to recover, and I hope to see him back for next winter's international season.

WMC: Final draw implications

2006-04-06T17:26:00.000-04:00

Right now Scotland is the only team guaranteed automatic advancement to the Page Playoffs.

Scotland will be joined by the winner of the US/Canada match.

IF Sweden wins, then there will be a tiebreaker, with Sweden, Norway, and the US/Canada loser going for the last two spots in the Page Playoffs.

IF Sweden loses, then there will be no tiebreaker draws, and the four to advance will be Scotland, US, Canada, Norway.

WMC: Day Six Preview

2006-04-06T08:13:00.000-04:00

Here it is, last day of the Round Robin already. Last big curling tournament until November is winding down, but at least we've got one more day of action, and what a day it is. I figure everyone sporting at least 4 wins is in mathematical contention right now, even though they'll need perfection and help just to make the tiebreaker draws.

None of the four teams with 5-4 records play each other today, so it's remote but not impossible to all four to improve to 7-4. As soon as a fourth team hits at least seven wins (there's just the US and Scotland there right now), the four win Aussies and Germans are going home. That's the magic number today. I'd not be surprised if that's the cut off line. Canada needs just one win to create a trio better than seven, and I think at least one of the 5-4 teams will pull off a perfect last day of curling.

Enough of that, let's look at the matchups. Let's look at ALL the matchups. The teams listed second in each matchup will have the first end hammer. Check back through the day, and I'll be updating this post with scores and records as the draws end.

Draw 15 (9am)
Norway 8 v Japan 5
Switzerland 8 v Ireland 2
Germany 6 v Denmark 7
Finland 7 v USA 5

Draw 16 (2pm)
Scotland 6 v Switzerland 2 [Scotland thru to Page Playoffs, Swiss eliminated]
Australia 4 v Norway 5 [Norway thru to at least Tiebreaker]
Canada 6 v Finland 4 [Finland eliminated, Canada thru to at least Tiebreaker]
Sweden 8 v Germany 3

Draw 17 (7pm)
USA v Canada [Winner thru to Page Playoffs]
Denmark v Sweden [Win puts Sweden in tiebreaker]
Ireland v Scotland [No effect on advancement]
Japan v Australia [Both already eliminated]