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.