Nick Johnson hasn’t played for the Marlins since AUGUST 18^TH, and it doesn’t look like he is going to any time soon.

Johnson injured his hamstring in the first inning of a double header on the 18^th and hasn’t been around to help the Fish since.

According to South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s beat reporter Juan C. Rodriguez, Nick Johnson attempted to run a bit to test his tender hammy before yesterdays game…it didn’t go too hot:

"It didn't go too good," said Johnson, who has not played since the first inning of the first game of the Aug. 18 doubleheader because of a strained right hamstring. "When I'm running, I still feel it."

Johnson is able to play catch and hit without discomfort, but running and fielding ground balls remain problematic.

Asked about the possibility of returning during the upcoming Mets series, which starts Tuesday at Land Shark Stadium, Johnson said: "After what I just did, I don't see that happening."

Consider that a good trade. The Nationals only benefit in keeping Johnson was that he would provide a solid presence for the rest of this last place season. Now that he is hurt he would have no value to the Nationals, and certainly isn’t helping the Marlins.

The Nationals received lefthander, 22-year-old Aaron Thompson in the trade. In four starts in Harrisburg Thompson has posted a 2.78 ERA and has struck out 23 in 22 innings with only 6 walks allowed. 

The Nationals 1-4 hitters single handedly won the game for the Nationals Sunday as they slugged past the Brewers, 8-3.

The onslaught started in the first inning when a Ryan Zimmerman single up the middle knocked home Nyjer Morgan and moved Cristian Guzman to third. A Belliard singled knocked home both Guzman and Zimmerman to give the Nats the early 3-0 lead.

The next inning Nyjer Morgan slapped a sacrifice fly to center, scoring recent call up Mike Morse. Beefy Cristian Guzman then smacked home a solo shot to give the Nats a 5-0 lead. 

An Adam Dunn and a Ryan Zimmerman homer in the third and fourth gave the Nats an 8-1 lead, the club never looked back.
  

Craig Stammen started the game for the Nationals and earned the win as he went 6.1 innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits. Sean Burnett and Tyler Clippard finished the game with three shutout innings of relief.

The top four in the batting order took charge:

• Nyjer Morgan 1-4, 1 R, 1 RBI
  
• Cristian Guzman 2-5, 3 R, 1 RBI, 1 HR
  
• Ryan Zimmerman 2-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 HR
  
• Adam Dunn 2-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 HR
  

The Nationals offensive onslaught of course erupted in the face of Manny Parra. Parra has been awful this year after what was a commendable rookie campaign in 2008. In 22 starts this season Parr has an 8-10 record, with a 6.54 ERA. Opponents are batting .311 on the season against the 26-year-old.

With the win yesterday, the Nats have a chance to split the series with the Brewers today as Colin Ballester will face Milwaukee staff ace, Yovani Gallardo.
 

John Lannan had one of the worst outings of his young career last night as the left-hander allowed seven earned runs in only 1.2 innings Saturday night in a 11-9 loss against the Brewers.

Unfortunately, and surprisingly, this awful outing has only been an exclamation point at the end of a slope of downward progress for Lannan that has seen him winless in his last four starts.

That leads to the inevitable question, what’s wrong with John Lannan?

Going into the All-Star break many considered Lannan a rising star in the National League. In only his second full season in the big leagues the lefty had a 3.70 first half ERA in 18 starts for the club, and that’s after coming off an awful April that saw him give up 14 earned runs in 27 innings.

In the month of May John Lannan had an ERA of .389, and in June of 2.19. Many began to consider Lannan an overlooked bright spot in a dark season for the Washington Nationals.

However in Lannan’s eight starts since All-Star break he has allowed opponents to bat .293 against him. His second half ERA has spiked to 4.81 and he has walked almost as many batters as he has struck out. The month of August alone has been even worse, as the lefty has allowed batters to hit a whopping .364 against him and has had a 9.00 ERA.

So what has changed?

In the first half of the season Lannan allowed 39 walks in 112 innings, which comes out to one walk every 2.9 innings pitched. In the second half he has allowed 14 walks in 48.2 innings pitched, which comes out to one walk every 3.4 innings. So actually his walk rate has gone down, which is a good thing.

His home run rate has stayed steady as well. In the first half he allowed a homer every 9.3 innings pitched, and in the second half he has allowed one only 9.64 innings pitched. Even Lannan’s hit rate has only risen slightly as the first half saw him allow 1.04 hits per inning, where win the second half he has allowed 1.16 hits per inning.

So while statistically it is hard to pinpoint the cause of the problem, visible evidence shows that he is allowing the big inning far more often. What made Lannan such a successful starter in the past was that he was able to pitch out of tough situations. He had that bulldog mentality that gave him that switch to really turn it on in the clutch. It’s what made John Lannan so fun to watch.

It seems like that’s gone away somewhere. Maybe he’s harboring an injury, or maybe he’s tired.

Whatever it is Lannan better find himself good and quick.

It’s been over a year since the Washington Nationals drafted Aaron Crow in 2008 and the still-amateur pitcher remains unsigned by anybody despite having already sat out one-and-a-half seasons.

After the debacle with the Nationals in 2008, Crow re-entered the draft and was selected 12^th overall by the Royals. One might have thought after a yearlong layoff Crow would want to sign and play immediately, however when we last heard from him he had just turned down a $3 million offer from the Royals.

While almost every other player in the draft had to be signed by August 17^th or else they would be forced to enter the draft the following year, Crow was a special case because he pitched in independent ball in 2009 (one game for Fort Worth). As a result, Crow has until the next draft to sign.

Waiting until after all the other first round picks have signed has given Aaron Crow a tremendous advantage. When Crow turned down the $3 million offer before the signing deadline, it came at a time when the majority of first round picks were unsigned. The $3 million offer was based on the value of the previous years contracts.

However, after Stephen Strasburg signed a $15 million deal, and Seattle signed second overall pick to a $7.5 million deal, Aaron Crow has an all-new bargaining position.

Without lifting a finger (or a pen) his price has gone up. By putting the price tag at $15 million on a top of the line, college-pitching prospect that is close to Major League ready, Crow and his team can easily argue that he is at least 1/5^th of the investment that Strasburg is.

It’s a funny world. By opening up their pocket to get Strasburg, the Nationals actually inadvertently helped the player they discarded last year.

Sorry Kansas City. 

I came across this on Yahoo!’s Shut Down Corner:

Hilarious, and really really well done. It got me thinking though, you never see commercials like these for any Washington D.C sports teams. Kansas City isn’t the only team with funny commercials either, the Colorado Rockies are famous for funny team ads.

Here’s a great spot from the Rockies last year:

Surely if the Nationals had commercials like this it would only help them with their already poor attendance.

It wouldn’t seem that hard to do either, at least for the other D.C franchises. Our city certainly has its share of characters; Gilbert Arenas, Chris Cooley, Clinton Portis, Antwan Randel El, and Alexander Ovechkin.

Sure, we have Eastern Motors:

But lets see some effort from the teams.

The Brewers ruined Steven Strasburg’s coming out party last night as they handed the Nationals their fourth loss in a row, and their 79^th of the season.

The Brew-Crew got right at it Friday night as the Nats were probably still in a daze from the Strasburg madness. Fielder rocked a two run bomb to center knocking in fellow slugger Ryan Braun to give the club an early 2-0 lead.

The Nats battled back in the bottom half of the first with a sacrifice grounder by Zimmerman to score Nyjer Morgan and a solo blast by Adam Dunn to tie it up.

From there…it was only a matter of time.

Despite solid pitching from J.D Martin he allowed four earned runs in 6.2 innings pitched. The rookie showed excellent control while he struck out four and walked none. Unfortunately his eight hits included two homers.

Down 4-2 in the top of the 9^th, the Nationals brought in Jorge Sosa to hold the Brewers score so the Nats could make a potential comeback in the ninth. That was probably a mistake….

Sosa allowed three runs on four hits while walking one. Despite a Ryan Zimmerman solo shot in the 9^th, the Nats could not overcome the deficet and lost 7-3.

Sosa, who had been very effective since making his debut at the start of August, looked absolutely lost this last week. Wednesday against Colorado, Sosa couldn’t hold the Rockies from piling on the lead as they scored the run that put them out of reach in the Nats 9^th inning comeback. Now he absolutely got crushed by the sub .500 Brewers.

Former National Felipe Lopez went 2-5 last night for the Brewers, and is batting .310 on the season. With 62 runs scored.  The switch-hitting second basemen is batting .371/.405/.429 against the Nats this year with four runs scored.

Despite the loss, last night was a special night for Nats Park. The National media was out in full form to document this potential franchise-changing introduction, the unveiling of Washington’s first overall pick, Stephen Strasburg.
 

Bill Ladson of MLB.com talked to current Nats about what they thought about the kid becoming a National. Jesus Flores said:

"I'm really excited with the team, the front office for getting the deal done, I'm real excited to start catching this kid. I hear he can throw a 100-mph fastball and he has a nice curveball and good breaking stuff. That's the kind of pitcher you love to have."

Duk’ from Yahoo’s Big League Stew covered the story and jested:

“When it finally came to pass on Friday afternoon, the arrival of Stephen Strasburg in Washington was not greeted by flying doves, trumpeting elephants, a lifting of the Redskins Tweeting ban or the Teddy Roosevelt mascot coming armed with a copy of a healthcare solution everyone can agree on.”

The New York Times asserted that it was news fit to print, and of course, Miss Chatter took some great pictures.

Before the Brewers clinched the Wild Card in 2008, the last time they had been in the playoffs Ronald Reagan was only in his second year of his first term.

It was a struggle for the Brewers from 1982-2008, filled with 16 years of embarrassment, futility, and well, Bud Selig-ness. The low point came in 2002 when the Brewers finished the season in last place with a record of 56-106. Brewers fans had had-it, following the 2002 season the club hired a new General Manager, Doug Melvin.

Under Melvin’s tutelage, the Brewers developed and grew arguably the league’s best home grown talent.

First came pitching phenom Ben Sheets. Sheets had been drafted in 1999, 10^th overall by the Brewers, and by 2000 he was an Olympic hero for the American Baseball team. He soon rode his newfound fame to the Major Leagues, however many speculated that he may have been rushed. For three years sheets produced mediocre results, which were interrupted by shoulder problems.

In 2004 however Sheets broke out in a big way. In 34 starts the hard throwing righty posted a 2.70 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 264 strikeouts to only 32 walks in 220 innings pitched. Those numbers were good enough for the leagues best strikeout to walk ratio and for a second All Star appearance for Sheets.

Then for the Brewers came the young home grown hitters we all know today. And as Sheets combined with Fielder, Braun, Weeks, Hart and eventually Sabathia the team rose to the top of the standings in 2008.

In the second half of 2008 Sabathia and Sheets were sensational for the Brewers. Sabathia recorded seven complete games and three shutouts. In 130 innings the big fella went 11-2, posted a 1.65 ERA and struck out 128. Sheets matched his brilliance with three shutouts of his own, along with a 3.09 ERA.

However the team met their downfall in the playoffs when Sheets could not pitch due to yet another arm injury. They lost 3-1 in the NLDS to eventual World Champions, the Philadelphia Phillies.

While the Brewers learned an important lesson about homegrown talent in 2008, that it needed to be supplemented by outside help, they also found that with Sheets Health, went the season.

Sheets arm troubles came from years of over work in a time when he should have been developing. By the time the Brewers needed him to be the Cy Young caliber pitcher he was, his arm was already on the fritz. The Brewers were in a bind in the early part of the decade and they needed their phenom young stud to pitch in the majors, whether that would result in success or failure.

If the Nationals are lucky, newly introduced pitcher Stephen Strasburg may someday reach the level of Ben Sheets at his best. Like Sheets ,Strasburg pitches above 95 miles per hour, has great breaking pitches, and tremendous strikeout potential.

Sheets and Strasburg both hold the distinction of striking out 20 batters in one Division I college baseball game, and of course they both hold the distinction of being anointed the savior of a franchise much in need of saving.

Both young starters pitched for team USA and both were considered at that time, essentially MLB ready.
  

Today however, the two stand very much apart in their careers, as Strasburg was just introduced into the league, and Sheets is currently on the outside looking in. Yet another shoulder surgery in the 2008 offseason left Sheets without a team for 2009, and while he will likely be back someday, neither he nor the Brewers will find the form they had in 2008 for a while.

The Nationals must learn from the Brewers cautionary tale and protect their investment. While we all may be itching to see number 37 in uniform, lets remember that number 15 no longer is.

Patience; it’s the key to hitting, it’s the key to pitching, and it’s the key to long careers.