Nick Johnson - See You In 2009

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Done for the season? Yes. I'm gonna say yes. The bat he's
holding here has a brighter career outlook than Johnson's.

Nobody is saying anything officially yet, but it doesn't look good when you piece together the clues. Nick is reading a Field & Stream at this moment, in the waiting room at the Mayo Clinic. Back in May, Johnson tore a tendon sheath in his right wrist. It may surprise you to learn that I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure a tendon sheath is the sausage container holding in all the yuck. It's a "sheath" that surrounds the "tendon". The wrist was put in a cast back in May. Since then, they've removed the cast twice. Each time, Nick "reported soreness". In other words, it hurt like 8 bitches in a bitch boat.

This image illustrates an attempt at credibilty when I talk medical shop

Now, I'm no mathematician, but I can count. He's worn the cast for 39 days. There are 97 days of season left, and he's turning those waiting room magazine pages with his left hand. Nick's done for the season, again.



On the field, things have gotten desperate. In Saturday night's 13-3 debacle, Dmitri Young kept his foot on the bag to get the out as the ball sailed past his glove. That's not a lack of athletic ability, but rather a lack of instinct. A first baseman's first job is to make the catch, then get the out. Young is also still struggling against his insulin to lose weight, and the insulin is winning. He's still hitting well, but his weight is higher than his batting average. There is no way anyone can dislike Dmitri Young. He's a truly good guy and he remains a great asset to the Nats, but he's not the answer at first base.

This team is scrambling to fill holes all across the lineup. No team could maintain anything close to a winning record without their guys on first, third, right field, catcher, and closing pitcher. This goes a fairly good distance in explaining the abominations Saturday night against Texas and the series in Minnesota. Anytime we see Paul LoDuca guarding first base, it's going to be a long, ugly day.

There are some glimmers of hope. Garrett Mock's low-cost airplane has touched down back in Columbus and a guy named Steven Shell showed off a pretty decent fastball, shutting down three in a row in the top of the ninth during the 5-3 loss to the rangers on Sunday. Odalis Perez is on his way back and expected to make his next start.

I was like, "OK who's zis sporto?"

Pete Orr also started in Sunday's game and looked like he came for a job interview. Orr played second while Belliard covered third for Zimmerman, who is also most likely gone for the season. He reminds me of Jamie Carrol, whom Jim Bowden gave away for $300,000.00.

Speaking of Bowden, his influence appears to be waning as more and more guys come in who were either with the Braves or somehow associated with Stan Kasten. As Bowden's pet projects Wille Mo Peña and Felipe Lopez are all but surrendering, we're seeing Willie Harris and Pete Orr - both former Braves - being moved into position.



In July, it's this reporter's bold and reckless opinion that Aaron Boone will be at first, Dmitri Young will be benched, Willie Mo Peña will be traded, Willie Harris will platoon with someone else in left field, Belliard will be back at second, Lopez will be traded, and Pete Orr may well find a job at third - if he continues to impress.

The deck will keep getting shuffled, and we're likely to see more crooked numbers on the scoreboard in the meantime. If there's an upside, it's this; we're getting to see a lot of young and new talent. As for downside, there's more than enough to go around. It's hard to watch, but the staff and management of TNP are up to the task.










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