On The Hill...

DC lefty John "Cool Hand" Lannan is (2-4) in his last 10 starts this season, with Washington 2-8 over the same stretch. Lannan allowed just 1 hit over 6.0 scoreless innings against Miwaukee in his in his most recent outing, but the bullpen blew the lead and the Brewers went on to win the game in the bottom of the thirteenth inning. Against Colorado, (earlier in the same beer-sponsor-filled road trip that took DC through Milwaukee's Miller Park), Lannan lasted 7.0 innings in Coors Field, giving up 5 hits, 2 runs and a HR with 2 walks and 8 K's, but the Nationals were unable to match the Rockies' offense, which rallied to tie it at 2-2 in the seventh and exploded for six runs in the 8th off Nationals' relievers Luis Ayala and Charlie Manning to widen the gap to 8-2, the eventual final score. 

In 9 starts at Nationals Park, John Lannan is (2-6) with a 5.29 ERA, 1.49 WHIP and .278 BAA, allowing 10 HR's and 28 earned runs in 47.2 innings pitched, as opposed to the 90.0 road innings Lannan's thrown, in which he's given up just 5 HR's and 24 ER's with a 2.40 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and .234 BAA...

Two nights after former Nationals' catcher Brian Schneider hit his first HR in Nationals Park as a NY Met, the former Mr. National Himself, Livan Hernandez returns to DC to make his first start in Nationals Park as part of the Colorado Rockies' starting rotation. Livan's made just one start with the Rockies, a miserable outing in San Diego in which the 33-year-old soft tosser was tagged for 9 ER's on 7 hits and 2 HR's by the Padres in a 16-7 drubbing at PETCO (all caps) Park.

On the year, Livan Hernandez is (10-9) in spite of his high 5.94 ERA, but the Twins released him after 25 starts and Colorado claimed Hernandez off waivers after Minnesota had designated the veteran for assignment to make room for the returning Francisco Liriano. 

Against the Nationals, Hernandez is (7-5) in 13 starts with a 3.96 ERA in 88.2 IP, allowing the different Expos/Nationals to collect 85 hits, 39 ER, 8 HR's and 22 walks while he's struck out 56 batters with his deceptively slow stuff, which he used to great effect in his one start against DC this season with the Twins in Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, where he threw 7.0 innings, and gave up just 5 hits and 1 run with just 1 K and 0 walks...

Nationals' #'s Against Livan Hernandez...

Ronnie Belliard - 10 for 38, .263 AVG, 1 2B, 1 RBI.

Aaron Boone - 4 for 10, .400 AVG, 1 2B, 1 3B, 3 RBI's.

Cristian Guzman - 3 for 7, .429 AVG, 1 RBI. 

Austin Kearns - 11 for 25, .440 AVG, 1 2B, 2 HR's, 11 RBI's. 

Ryan Zimmerman - 4 for 13, .308 AVG, 1 2B, 2 HR's, 3 RBI's. 

John Lannan Breakdown...

Lannan vs Lefties - (Career) - 38.0 IP, 38 hits, 6 HR's, 14 BB, 27 K's,                                                                           1.37 WHIP, .262 BAA.

Lannan vs Righties - (Career) - 134.1 IP, 127 hits, 12 HR's, 43 BB, 70 K's,                                                                    1.34 WHIP, .252 BAA.

No Crow? Eh...Who Needs 1st Round Picks, After All Not One Of The Pitchers On The Current Nationals' Roster Was A 1st Round Pick...Uh? Wait...Uh?...

...and of the other 1st Round picks on the team, such as Zimmerman, Kearns, Lastings Milledge or the injured Chad Cordero, which of those players has really made any contribution to the Nationals' limited success over the last few seasons. I say that Washington's much better off without a nearly major-league ready pitcher, considered by some the best available arm in the draft, who fell to DC 9th overall only because there were questions about his signability...Not to worry, right? 

So Aaron Crow and the Nationals didn't agree to a contract before last night's draft pick-signing-deadline, and at the team's official website, MLB.com's Bill Ladson writes, in an article entitled, "Nats unable to sign first-rounder Crow" that the Nationals will receive a supplemental pick in next year's draft:

"That will give Washington two top 10 picks, and if the season ended today, the Nationals would get the No. 1 overall pick because they have the worst record in baseball."

Well that's some consolation right? The opportunity to pick 1st overall most likely and then take another player 10th overall that may or may not sign before next year's deadline...I mean I didn't think Crow was gonna demand that kind of money, I mean it's not like you could have known what Crow wanted beforehand...right?

The difference in the end...between $700,000 and $900,000 according to Washington Post writer Chico Harlan who details the negotiations in his latest Nationals Journal post entitled, "Two hours after deadline", in which Mr. Harlan reports that the Crow camp offered to go as low as a $4.0 million signing bonus, while the Nationals wouldn't go above $3.3 million, while DC GM Jim Bowden states that the Crow camp came down to $4.4 million,(from $9 mil) while the Nationals last offer was for $3.5 million and the Major League contract that Crow had made it known he desired. 

In the final analysis, Mr. Chico quotes DC GM Jim Bowden, who laments:

"'We worked extremely hard,' Bowden said, 'and were unable to sign Aaron Crow, our first-round pick.'"

While Crow's representative, Randy Hendricks tells Mr. Harlan:

"'It looks to me like [the Nationals] wasted a lot of time for themselves and for Aaron.'"

...and Mr. Hendricks client is now off to pitch for the Fort Worth Cats.

The Colorado Fans' Perspective: the SBN's Rockies' blog...Purple Row

Check the NatCast if you're heading to Nationals Park...

While all the Nationals' fans online were thinking about the team's future, the current DC team dropped their eighth-straight, 4-3 to Colorado. The second of three gets underway at 7:10 pm EST in DC with Lannan and Livan battling it out on the mound. Is anyone else REALLY disappointed to wake up and find out the Nationals just lost their first-round pick? Or did you just expect that they would lose him, or expect that he'd sign? So who's #1 overall next year? Who's Watching The Nationals?