We're between halves of the Strasburg roundtable, so I'm just going to post a few links:

  The Nationals have won eight straight! The Nationals have won eight straight!

  No major news on the Jordan Zimmermann front, and in this case, no news is good news. I really hope they don't need to open him up, but only time will tell.

  A few days old, but the National Anthem was played on a bat on Saturday. That was pretty cool.

  My favorite sideline reporter, Debbi Taylor, argues for giving Mike Rizzo the GM job. I agree with her for the most part, but she says that bringing in Julian Tavarez and Kip Wells were good moves, and I don't think I can agree with her there...

  As Dave first reported yesterday, the Red Sox have some interest in Cristian Guzman after Jed Lowrie, heretofore their shortstop, reinjured his arm. Instead of simply letting Boston pick up his salary, though, the Washington Times is reporting that the Nationals would prefer to get something in return for Guzman. Guzman was having some issues earlier this year (and what sounded to me like an attitude problem), but has hit well and has been improving on defense. He's not getting any younger, and the Nationals won't be in contention for a while, so I say trade him for a few lower-level prospects and save the money on his salary... to pay Strasburg.