Nationals News Quickies!

<---- You said it, Nick!

Props to cat daddy3000, who pointed out that Elijah Dukes was optioned downward to make room for the incoming Pittsburgh players.

Update: A number of Pirates players are pretty upset about the trades going on in Pittsburgh.

By far the most important Nationals statistic: Heading into Tuesday's game, Washington's relievers are a combined 7-25 with a 5.67 ERA, last in the Major Leagues.

It appears that many Pirates bloggers think the Bucs got the better end of the trade with the Nationals.

Thomas Boswell argues that this trade opens the door for further trades. Here's to hoping...

In the win last night, Hanley Ramirez broke the Marlins' franchise record for RBIs.

"It's not a secret, you don't need to be an expert on math to know that walks plus errors equals runs," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "We lead the world in walks and we are right there too in errors." I only wonder when Manny is going to run out of things to say about losses.

Stuff Making News Elsewhere...

The Orioles rallied from a nine run deficit to beat the Red Sox 11-10 last night.

Mets' (9-18 in June) pitcher Johan Santana had this to say after giving up six runs on nine hits last night:

"I wasn’t frustrated (on the bench), I was just letting people know we need to play better baseball.  If we don’t play better baseball we’re not gonna win.  If we don’t make routine plays, if we don’t execute, throw the right the pitch, we’re not gonna win… I wasn’t trying to get on anybody, it was more of a general thing.  We have to play better." I feel like I've heard this before... somewhere...

Aaaaaand this may be relevant only to me, as Jimmy Rollins is on one of my fantasy teams, but he returned to the leadoff spot after being held out for four games, and promptly went 0-5. His average currently sits at .207.  WHY DID I DRAFT YOU IN THE SECOND ROUND! WHY!