From the Nationals:
WASHINGTON ACQUIRES OUTFIELDER NYJER MORGAN AND LEFTHANDER SEAN BURNETT FROM PITTSBURGH IN FOUR-PLAYER TRADE

The Washington Nationals today acquired outfielder Nyjer Morgan and left-handed pitcher Sean Burnett from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for outfielder Lastings Milledge and right-handed pitcher Joel Hanrahan. Nationals Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Baseball Operations Mike Rizzo made the announcement.

The 28 year-old Morgan was batting .277 (77-for-278) with six doubles, five triples, two home runs and 27 RBI in 71 games with Pittsburgh prior to the trade. Thanks to a career-high 29 walks and a .351 on-base percentage, Morgan has scored 39 runs this season, or two fewer than his career total in 86 games entering 2009. His five triples rank among NL (tied for second) and MLB (tied for third) leaders. Morgan departs despite pacing the Pirates in batting (.322, 66-for-205) against right-handed pitchers in 2009.

Morgan is blessed with the brand of speed that the Nationals were lacking both on the basepaths and in the outfield. Morgan currently ranks fifth in the National League with 18 stolen bases, and his eight swipes in June are just one less than the nine registered by Washington this month. Morgan played primarily left field for the Pirates. He currently leads all MLB left fielders in total chances per 9.0 innings and range factor per game.

Morgan’s patience (3.9 pitches seen per plate appearance) and batting eye (career-best walk ratio of one base on balls per 11.1 plate appearances) have both played a role in his breakout 2009 season.

Burnett, 26, was 1-2 with six holds, one save and a 3.06 ERA (11 ER/32.1 IP) in a team-leading 38 appearances for Pittsburgh at the time of the trade. A two-time (2001 and 2002) Pirates Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Burnett is 7-8 with 14 holds, one save and a 4.54 ERA (81 ER/160.2 IP) in 109 games (13 starts) spanning three big league seasons with Pittsburgh.

Burnett sports a .200 (22-for-110) batting average against in 2009, and has been nearly equally effective against left-handed batters (.189, 10-for-53, four walks) as those that hit from the right side (.211, 12-for-57, one home run). Burnett shifted exclusively to relief in 2008 and in 96 appearances since, has neutralized opposing left-handed batters with a stingy .178 (23-for-129) batting average against.

The Pirates’ No. 1 selection (19th overall) in the 2000 First-Year Player Draft, Burnett is currently tied for eighth in the National League having allowed only four of 28 inherited baserunners to score. His .345 slugging percentage against is .067 better than the NL average of .412.

Milledge, 24, went 4-for-24 (.167) with one RBI and one walk in seven games with Washington this season.

The 27 year-old Hanrahan finished 0-3 with five saves (10 save opportunities) and a 7.71 ERA (28 ER/32.2 IP) in 34 appearances with the Nationals in 2009.

As many of you may have read, the Washington Nationals hosted a Blogger Day a few weeks ago during which we were able to interview several players, one being Adam Dunn. In many of the blogs, Adam was quoted as saying to us, “I don’t even know what a blog is,” which resulted in much laughter. Well, it looks like he figured it out!

Today it was announced that Adam Dunn would begin blogging on MASNsports.com. According to MASN, Adam has forged a partnership with the network that will include a monthly blog of self-selected topics in addition to a weekly video segment in which he will answer questions submitted directly from the fans. The blog and video segment will both appear on MASNsports.com.

“To talk to fans directly, answer their questions, and be able to explain what we do out here every night — that’s a pretty unique opportunity,” said Adam Dunn. “I’m obviously new to blogging, but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Adam will also participate in several Wired Wednesday segments throughout the rest of the 2009 season. In case you are not one of the reported 9,000 folks who watch games on TV, Wired Wednesday involves players wearing a microphone during the game for the enjoyment of the viewers. The segment works best with players full of personality, and watching Adam wired up should be fun.

As part of their announcement, the network stated the following:

“MASN is proud to be the home of Adam’s new blog, which will surely showcase his energy, enthusiasm, humor, and humility. It will be a great platform for fans to get to know more about Adam, both on and off the field,” said MASN spokesman Todd Webster. “On television and online, MASN continues to implement new features that bring fans closer to the game and the Nationals.”

Unfortunately, MASN’s announcement did not give a definite start time and only states that his blog will appear “soon.” We’ll keep you posted when we know more.

Tomorrow, catcher Wil Nieves will participate in a Q&A with fans at ESPN Zone.

Doors open at 11 a.m. — the event begins at noon.   As always, Charlie Slowes is the moderator.

ESPN Zone
555 12th Street, NW
Washington, DC

On Saturday, 20 June 2009, The Washington Nationals took a step in the right direction and hosted their first Blogger Day. And no, Bloggers Day wasn’t just some free tickets in the same section and food coupons. What the Nationals did for those of us who blog about the team was open their doors and treat us, sort of, like regular media and give us access that we normally do not possess.

And here’s the recap…

Our day began at 3pm when we all met up at the Media Gate to receive our credentials. We each received our day pass with our names and blog sites listed, as well as the “F” for field access! We were then taken to the media room…you know that place with the MASN and Nationals logos covering the wall where you may see Manny Acta talk post-game or where Ryan Zimmerman discussed his contract? Yeah, that place. We were given time with Lisa Pagano and Israel Negron to discuss Community Relations and the work that the Nationals do for the community, especially with children to promote literacy, and their efforts to get this information out to the public.

When that interview was over, a parade of players came into the room. We were expecting Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn based on the itinerary given to us the day before, however, Willie Harris and Nick Johnson decided to join them. Although, Nick was a little question shy and asked us to leave him out of the Q&A and just let him watch!

The guys were good sports and answered all our questions without any hesitation. Although they may not have been 100% sure why we were there (“I don’t even know what a blog is!” – Adam Dunn), they all seemed comfortable with the laid back and casual atmosphere of our Q&A session. Unfortunately, 10 minutes was all the time we had scheduled for these guys. I wish it could have been longer.

At the end of the player interview, Manny Acta came in to give us 20 minutes of his time. Again, it was more casual than any “regular” interview he would normally give. Instead of sitting at the table, he came down and pulled up a chair and sat on the same level as us. He seemed genuinely interested our questions and seemed to have a good time himself. In fact, I spoke to Manny the next day and he told me that he wished he could have been scheduled for a longer amount a time. He also said he was looking forward to August when there is going to be another Blogger Day and hopes that he can be given more time with us then.

When these interviews were complete, we were guided on an in depth tour of the park by chief tour guide and NatsTown’s favorite usher, Coach. Many of us had already seen these sites, but it was a great time nonetheless. We were shown the Presidents Club, Shirley Povich Media Center, press boxes, and Diamond Club before being deposited onto the field to watch batting practice.

We were then joined by Mark Scialabba who is the Assistant Director of Player Development to discuss our farm system and the future of our younger players. For a very thorough recap of that interview, you really should check out Nats320’s blog post.

Finally, it was close to game time, and more importantly to me at that moment, time to eat. We were invited to dine in the press dining area (or to go out on our own). For ten bucks we were offered a buffet of some sort (I didn’t look at it, so I cannot comment on the offerings although I was told that “buffet” is a loose term) or to order from the grill. My eyes set sites on a cheeseburger and fries; so really, there was no other choice for me. Was the food good? Well, let’s just say for ten bucks, there isn’t much else at Nationals Park that I have eaten that was much better – of course, that is not saying much. I am not a foodie, admittedly, and don’t get all that excited about food in general, but there isn’t too much you can do to ruin a burger, so yeah, it was fine. I will say that the french fries were fantastic with coarse salt and cracked pepper sprinkled on them. Anyway…

For our last interview of the night, Stan Kasten and Mike Rizzo came in and spoke to us for about 20 minutes. They were both very cordial and did a good job of answering most of the questions, although I’m not so sure that Stan is a big fan of bloggers or knows what to think of us. Nevertheless, he was very generous with not only his time, but his press box as well. Stan gave up his press box for the night and allowed all of us bloggers to sit there, with the windows open and laptops on, to take in the game. Some of us wrote our blogs for posting the following day; some of us took the opportunity to get in some more interviews; some of us just watched the game (oh and what a game to watch!).

There were ground rules given to us on this Bloggers Day, and at first we were told not to cheer in the press box. I could understand this with professional media and the Blue Jays executives on either side of our box, and I was ready to obey this rule. However, we were then told that this directive was incorrect …we should go ahead and cheer. A few of us did cheer (myself included) since there was so much to cheer about in that game. I know a few fellow bloggers did not like this or felt embarrassed by the cheering, but heck, I am fan first. If I wasn’t a fan, I wouldn’t take the time to write on this blog. So cheering for my team is part of the package. If you don’t like it, then leave me out the next time! Oh, and there will be a next time. We were promised another Bloggers Day for sometime in August.

The only bad part about Bloggers Day for me is that I am new to this and wasn’t really prepared to be participating in interviews. I had no decent digital recorder to record the interviews (it was a good test of the iPhone 3.0 software upgrade with memo recorder: test results = failure) and my good camera was out of commission. So I took mediocre shots and was not able to record any of the interviews, for which I apologize greatly. I will, however, direct you to many of the fantastic blogs where interview content was recorded. They did a much better job with this than I did.

One last mention… I titled this post ‘Blogger Day Staring Willie Harris’ for a reason. I managed to squeeze in one and only one question in all the interviews we did that day. My question was to Willie Harris. He was sitting there during the player interviews, and all the attention was being shown to Nick (who was asked questions despite asking to be a spectator only), Zim, and Adam. So seeing that no one had asked Willie anything, I asked him my one and only question: Given how things are going, how does he always manage to come across so upbeat and positive?

His answer in a nutshell…He has to. He has to be positive to be a role model because guys feed off a positive attitude. He has to be positive because he knows that he is going to have way more good days than he will bad days. He said, if you stay positive and play the game hard, the game will give back to you eventually (I’d like to point out that he said the same thing to Debbi Taylor in a post-game interview, but said it to me first!!). I like Willie Harris a lot, and I am so happy that Saturday was a great day for him and that the game “gave back” to him. And I’m not going to say that my asking him that question caused him to a have a great game including that walk-off home run to win the game, because I know that I can’t take any credit for the way a player performs on the field, but I would like to think that maybe after he gave me that answer he took his own words to heart and decided he was going to have a great day. Not that the world revolves around me or anything…

I want to thank the blog Nationals Pride for recording video of Willie’s answer to my question and posting it on their blog.

I also want to thank the Nationals for Saturday’s event. Mike Gazda, Bill Gluvna, John Dever, and everyone else involved were excited for this event, made us feel very welcome, and were completely open to our feedback. And I think I can speak for the other bloggers when I say that the opportunity was appreciated and we look forward to the next time.

Check out my pictures of the event!

Read more about Bloggers Day at the following sites…

Federal Baseball

Nationals Inquisition

Nationals Pride

Just a Nats Fan

FJB

Nats 320

Nats News Network

I know that some of you may be getting a wee bit tired of my rah-rah attitude towards the Nationals. After all, they are the worse team in MLB, right? So why am I always defending them and seeing the positive side? Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I’m going there again.

I was reading Dan Steinberg’s Sports Bog about the series versus the Yankees. He posted several quotes from NY area newspapers about the series, specifically about the Nationals (more specifically, about how pathetic it was for the Yankees to lose to the Nationals). The adjectives used by these papers to describe the Nationals just about killed me. Lowly, wretched, woeful, dismal were just a few of my favorites that I saw posted there as well as in other places I found myself.

Lowly: low in growth or position

Wretched: poor, sorry, or pitable

Woeful: of wretched quality; sorry; poor

Dismal: characterized by ineptness or lack of skill

Ouch! But I am going to throw this out there at the risk of being ridiculed and torn apart…Are the Washington Nationals really a “bad team”? Are they characterized by ineptness or lack of skill? Are they of wretched quality? Or are there two sides to the story, one of which seems to always get overlooked?

Based on our record, we are a bad team, right? Sure we are. It’s a terrible record. But let’s take another look, shall we? Bare with me here. There have been games when we’ve been winning into the 7th, 8th, 9th innings only to lose the game by our bullpen. That’s terrible! It’s unacceptable that our relievers should fail, and it should not happen. But does that make us a bad team? Some of those relievers actually have been praised for outstanding performances in other games. So again I ask, bad team? In my opinion, if we were such a bad team, we’d never have had the lead at all in those games.

Let’s move on… How about all the errors! Yikes! I mean, really, outfielders who misjudge balls, infielders overthrowing or missing a simple play. We certainly must be a terrible team, right? Lowly, wretched, etc., let’s add to the list! But what about the phenomenal plays by those guys in other games? Zim, Nick, Guz, Willie, Hernandez, have all made some fantastic, score-saving plays (look at Kearns last night). And these plays are not that uncommon; there’s a good play in almost every game. Does this make us a bad team?

How about some more… How about the games back in the beginning of the year? Back when I had more hope for this team, I admit. We were scoring so many runs - just not enough! And our hitting? We were on fire! We just didn’t seem to score enough (loop back to the point about our relievers for some of those losses as well). Does that make us a bad team? Can bad teams score that much, hit that well?

And finally, I was thinking about this recently…We’ve had games in which we did not hit at all. We just had some terrible at-bats. Does that make us untalented, just plain bad? Because when we face a team (let’s say the Yankees since it is fresh in our minds) and their hitters are struck down by our pitching, the pitcher gets the credit. The pitcher gets the credit. But when we face a team and don’t get on base, don’t walk, don’t score runs, well then we suck, we can’t hit, we have no talent, etc. Really? Sure, some nights we don’t hit well, but on other nights the opposing pitcher deserves the credit.

Hey, I know it doesn’t matter how well you’re doing in individual moments when all that really matters is your record. I know that winning is the goal. I know that winning brings in the fans and the money. And winning keeps the team in this town for many years to come. I get it. Winning brings respect. Winning ends the ridicule, blah blah blah. I want the team to win as well. I’ll be happier when the team wins, too. Heck, if the team starts winning, maybe I’ll be able to sell some of my unused tickets that I currently throw away when I can’t make it to a game. I get it!

But like I said above, I feel like there are always two sides to the story. And to say that the Washington Nationals are a ‘bad team’ just doesn’t always sit well with me. I’m not saying we don’t sometimes look and play like a bad team, I’m just saying that I don’t think we are one. So to those media outlets which choose to use those adjectives to describe the team, go ahead. But if you don’t mind, I am going to choose the definitions of those words for myself.

Lowly: humble in station, condition, or nature

Wretched: very unfortunate in circumstances

Woeful: full of woe; unhappy

Dismal: gloomy, dreary, cheerless*

*OK, maybe I’ll save “dismal” for describing the fans.

So this very belated post would be my take on the June 10 conference call for bloggers.  As a quick note, I think it’s great that the Nationals are reaching out to bloggers and I was grateful for the opportunity to participate.

Here is the transcript of the entire call from Nats320.

With the starters part of the call, I found the differences between Randy St. Claire and Steve McCatty really interesting. I think that St. Claire’s approach with video and analyzing the motion is good for younger pitchers still trying to get consistent arm movement but McCatty’s approach looking at what feels right and how hitters react is different but still successful.

Personally, I am a fan of the more technical analyzing; there is something I don’t like about the guess and check method. Needless to say, I am not a Nationals pitcher so the method is not as important to me as the final product, which would be a win.

I really liked Craig Stammen’s advice to Stephen Strasburg about being humble and working hard. The worst way, I think, is to come into the clubhouse this September or in Spring Training or whenever and think you are the greatest pitcher that ever walked the earth and not give respect to the veterans that are already there. That is partly what got Lastings Milledge on the Mets bad side.

John Lannan also touched upon the lack of a veteran in the starting rotation. Now with all of this talk of tearing the team apart and trading away the veterans, I think this could really hurt the team in a more general sense. It’s almost always easier to adjust to a new situation with the guidance of someone who has done the same thing a few years earlier, like an older sibling helping a younger one in the first weeks of high school. It is also something very similar to what the Marlins would do and have done.

I also thought the last question was a great way to end that part of the call, asking how the media affects the team because when I watch MLB TV or ESPN or read anything, really there are always remarks about how terrible our performance is. I don’t think it is fair to anyone but I am glad the team tries to not let the media and opinions bother them but I don’t know if that is always true.

After the starting pitchers (minus Martis), Drew Storen, #10 overall (in case anyone forgot), came on the call. His father worked in Washington and he went to Nationals games at RFK so he has a few ties to the area and the team. He also was a fan of the Expos and Chad Cordero — and Jack McGeary and Storen were friends at Stanford. I really like that he has a mental toughness suited for late innings. Storen also really likes and wants pressure (I just hope it is not in the same way Chad Cordero put himself in pressure situations at RFK, that got too scary sometimes!).

I like the term “critical relief” that they use at Stanford; I think that the Nationals should adopt that instead of naming a new closer every few weeks.

and one last note… Storen and Strasburg are already Facebook friends.

It’s nice to get a glimpse of the future during these tough times in NatsTown.

In the spring of 2005, I was in the process of relocating back to the DC area. I was living in Chicago, working on a project outside Indianapolis, and flying to DC every other weekend to get reacquainted with my new home. Things were hectic to say the least. But one of things that made this arrangement enjoyable was knowing that every other weekend when I was in DC I was most likely to head to RFK and cheer on this new baseball team of ours! And they were a baseball team that was winning games. How exciting!! So I flew to DC every other weekend, rented a car, and went to games with my family. Considering I was going to games almost every other weekend (when both the team and I were in town at least), you’d think I would have seen a winner every now and then, right? Well, think again. That first spring, the Nationals did not win a single game that I attended. Not one. This is not an exaggeration; they were losing every game I went to. I would leave after the weekend ended and my brother would report to me all the winning games he went to the following week. And then I’d come back two weekends later and see…a losing game.

When the days of splitting weekends was over and I was permanently living in the DC area in July 2005, I figured that I’d start seeing winning games. I mean, I traveled Monday through Friday for work, but I was now home EVERY weekend, so my chances to see a win increased, no? Now, by this point I think the Nationals had been in first place for the entire month of June or something like that (I don’t claim to have my facts entirely accurate here, so hold your comments). I figured, “This is it! Bring on the winning games!!” But, um, no such luck for me. Every game I went to, they lost. Somewhere near this time, I recall reading a Gene Weingarten article about how every game he attended was a loss and someone responded that every game that person went to was a win, and what would happen if they went together? Funny, but it made me feel a little better that I was not the only one missing out on these wins!

Eventually, on August 9th of 2005, my birthday no less, I saw the Nats win. Unfortunately, I was working on a project in Houston at the time and the Nationals were playing the Astros – at their home, Minute Maid Park. So while I was thrilled to see the win (oh, and how much do I love seeing my team win when they are away and I am there wearing my Nats hat?), it still was not a home win. I flew back home for the weekend happy, but still unfulfilled. The season ended without my seeing a home win.

After seeing another Nats win while working in Atlanta in 2006, I finally decided that I was destined to only see wins on the road. In fact, it would not be until sometime in June or July of 2006 – Yes, 2006 – that I would see a win at RFK. And it isn’t like I wasn’t going to games…I was! I cannot tell you the exact date, but I do know that it was won on a Nick Johnson walk-off homerun. I remember turning to my brother and saying, “Do you know what this means?” And he said, “Yes, we won!!” and then, “Oh wait…you saw us win at home!!!!”

1 ½ seasons to wait for a home win. But the funny thing is, I really didn’t care. I still enjoyed going to games, I still had fun discussing the losses, I still wore my hat and was excited for the team to be in DC. And then the next season, I became a season ticket holder. So here we are, three years after viewing my first home win, and I find myself slowly becoming less excited, and this concerns me. Me, Ms. Positive, I’m starting to get worn down. But what am I down about? Is it the losses?

In 2005 and 2006, amid all those losses, I didn’t know about chat boards. I didn’t know about blogs. I didn’t realize that there was this world of “fans” that discussed on a daily, no wait, on an hourly basis the ins and outs of each bit of Nationals baseball. I just didn’t realize that people had the the time to do this. I had no clue. But now I read the blogs, I read the chatboards, I read the online reports and the responses from folks. And now I am down. I am depressed. I am having a harder time keeping my chin up. I am having less fun at games. I am less optimistic. Is there a correlation? I don’t know.

I have a belief that negativity breeds negative results. I also believe negativity is contagious. Am I blaming the fans for the losses? Absolutely not! But I am blaming them for my as-of-late baseball fatigue. I am blaming some of them for my spiral downward. I am blaming them for starting to not care. So here is what I am going to do: I am going to go to games and pick a piece of something good and write about here, and if folks want to submit comments to me and be negative here, I’ll deal with that. But I am not going to read the comments posted on other blogs, chat rooms, or online articles. I’m not going to listen to “Fire Manny,” which will be replaced with calls for “Fire Person X” when that result doesn’t work, followed by “Fire Person Y” when that doesn’t work, etc. I’m going to go into my positive cocoon and think, “It is only baseball. It’s fun. It’s a good way to spend the summer afternoon or evening. It’s a good way to bond with friends, family, and strangers who truly love the game.”

I sit in a section of the ballpark that is pretty much designated for groups. There are hardly any season ticket holders up there with me. At first, this bugged me because I felt like the lone group of fans among the masses of those who don’t care. But now I am thinking in a different light. I am going to take this as an opportunity to talk to people in those groups and find out if they are having fun. Is it their first trip to Nationals Park, to any baseball game? Do they closely follow the game of baseball, or are they just happy for being there tonight? Are they enjoying themselves despite the loss? Basically, are they ‘me’ as I was back in 2005-2006? I hope that I find out that they are.

As most of you probably know, voting for the All-Star game has been in a progress for some time now, and Ryan Zimmerman has a good chance of winning the fan vote, but he needs your help! Many of you have already shown your support by handing in multiple ballots at the game and also voting on line. But there is so much more you can do! Although voting online is limited to 25 votes, voting by ballot is unlimited. Did you ever consider taking home a stack of ballots and bringing them back to the game the next time? I was able to punch about 150 ballots in 20 minutes the other night while watching some TV. 20 minutes! And not to brag, but my family has contributed to about 1500-2000 votes mostly done at home while watching TV! Don’t we all have an extra 20 minutes per day to give for Ryan?

OK, maybe Ryan’s winning the fan vote is not enough incentive for you? Well, how about this…At tonight’s game, in the Main Concourse near the Home Plate Gate Team Store, the Nationals will have a table set up promoting their All-Star Ballot Contest. They did this last night as well and offered T-Shirts to anyone who handed in 200 ballots. They also were giving away official line-up cards and game used balls to those who handed in 500 ballots! And I don’t know if they will do it again tonight, but last night, they even put you in a drawing to win field access to watch Batting Practice at a future game if you submitted more than 500 ballots and your name was picked! If seeing Zim win the All-Star vote is not enough incentive, perhaps winning these great prizes is.

So tonight, and every night before the July 2 deadline, get out there and vote for Zim. Do what you can to get our third baseman the national attention he deserves. It’s like free marketing for our team if Zim wins! Let the rest of the baseball community see that there are many bright spots on this team, and although our record may not necessarily reflect that, Zim’s talent does.

And if you are on Facebook these days, join the Ryan Zimmerman for 2009 All-Star Team group and spread the word to your friends and family to get the vote out!

Join the Facebook Group!

So as we used to say in Chicago, Vote Early and Vote Often!

From the Nationals:

The Washington Nationals today selected right-handed pitcher Stephen Strasburg (first round/first overall), right-handed pitcher Drew Storen (first round/10th overall), infielder Jeffrey Kobernus (second round/50th overall) and right-handed pitcher Trevor Holder (third round/81st overall) on the first day of Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft. Nationals Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Baseball Operations Mike Rizzo and Nationals Director of Scouting Dana Brown made the joint announcement.

“We are extremely satisfied with the players we selected today in the Draft,” said Rizzo. “We feel we have accomplished many of our pre-Draft goals of obtaining front-line talent and impact players for the Nationals organization.”

Strasburg went 13-1 with a 1.32 ERA (16 ER/109.0 IP) in 15 starts as a junior for San Diego State University in ‘09. Known for a strong blend of velocity and control, he fanned an NCAA-best 195 in 109.0 innings this season, or 16.1 K’s per 9.0 innings (tops in NCAA), en route to a 10.3/1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Strasburg did not issue more than two walks in any game this season, and walked one or fewer batter in 10 of 15 starting assignments. In three collegiate seasons, Strasburg went 22-7 with seven saves and a 1.59 ERA (43 ER/243.1 IP) in 52 games.

One of college baseball’s premier closers, Storen dominated his competition in ‘09, going 7-1 with seven saves and a 3.80 ERA in 28 appearances with Stanford University. In 42.2 innings of relief work, he tallied 66 strikeouts (13.9 strikeouts per 9.0 innings) with only eight walks for an 8.3/1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. During his pair of seasons with the Cardinal, Storen went a combined 12-4 with 15 saves and a 3.64 ERA in 59 appearances. In 99.0 frames, he logged 116 strikeouts and issued just 23 walks for a 5.0/1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

A hard-nosed infielder with speed, Kobernus hit at a .341 (74-for-217) clip as a junior at the University of California-Berkeley in ‘09. He ranked second in the Pac 10 with 20 stolen bases and posted 14 doubles, three triples, eight home runs and 40 RBI in 53 games. Over his three seasons with the Bears, he batted .324 with 50 extra-bases (12 HR), 89 RBI and 44 stolen bases in 161 contests. Kobernus was one of three Cal players selected among the Draft’s first 56 picks with outfielders Brett Jackson (31st overall by Chicago-NL) and Blake Smith (56th overall by Los Angeles-NL).

Holder—a strike thrower with a bulldog attitude—went 7-5 with a 4.48 ERA in 15 starts as a senior at the University of Georgia in ‘09. He logged a .259 batting average against and tallied 72 strikeouts in 92.1 innings for an average of 7.0 strikeouts per 9.0 innings. During his four-season collegiate career, he won 22 games and fanned 223 batters in 313.2 innings.

The three-day Draft will continue on Wednesday at noon with rounds 4-30. The final 20 rounds will be completed on Thursday.

So last night was Ladies Night at Nationals Park. The Nationals have had a Ladies Night for the past few years, and there are usually a couple per year, this being the first. For those of you who have not heard of this (where have you been?!), the Nationals offer a very good deal to Ladies (and men too, of course, since no discrimination is allowed at Nats Park) to pay $30 for Happy Hour and a ticket to the game sitting with other fellow Ladies Nighters or $20 for just the game if you can’t make it early and join the festivities.

Despite the rain that seems to have been going on for months now, Ladies Night took place on the roof of Garage B underneath the red party tent. And Party Tent is a good way to describe it as everyone there seemed to be having a great time. Along with a DJ providing entertainment and fun giveaways, there were vendors selling jewelry and other accessories, free chair massages and manicures, tables providing info on nail salons (they also had cupcakes…mmm) and gyms, and of course, food (nachos, vegetables, fruits, cheeses). In addition to this, there was a table offering beer and other flavored alcohol beverage samples (For the purpose of thorough blogging, I tried as many of these as I could, and highly recommend the Michelob Ultra Tuscan Orange Grapefruit. This is the sacrifice I make for you.).

The ladies of the Nationals Dream Foundation were also there with a table of items to sell. Ties, tote bags, new Curly W reusable bags, and of course my favorite, the Mystery Grab ball offering an autographed baseball from someone on the team for $25. I must have 20 of these grab balls at this point and sure enough, I grabbed another last night (Anderson Hernandez for anyone who is wondering). Each item sold raised money for the Nationals Dream Foundation.

But the Dream Foundation wasn’t the only ones raising money. At the other end of the tent there stood the imposing Mechanical Bull raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A reasonable $10 donation to the LLS gave one the chance to ride this bull. I waited for a good hour or more to see if anyone was going to ride him, and at first, I didn’t catch anyone even tempted by it. But after checking back a little later, there were many brave women who took to the bull and gave it a whirl (yes, myself included – see above for mention of beer samples). I didn’t see a single woman get off that thing without a smile on her face, albeit a bruise here and there. In my opinion, it was the highlight of the event. Unfortunately, my camera malfunctioned, so the We’ve Got Heart site will have no pics of me on said bull!!

The game included in the Ladies Night deal was actually Thursday night’s, however, the rain postponement of the previous night’s game allowed us to look over the side of Garage B and watch the makeup game that was going on at the same time. Once we left the Ladies Night tent, we were free to actually watch the rest of “Wednesday’s” game in our seats and watch baseball history as Randy Johnson won his 300th game. Although I’ll admit, I was cheering for the Curly W in the books and not for the chance to see history. As much as winning 300 games is truly amazing and I am happy for Randy Johnson, I wasn’t one of those in the crowd cheering about Dunn’s ball four, oops, I mean strike three! I would have been just as happy to let some other park full of baseball fans watch the win on his next turn in the rotation. I’m a little tired of the Nats being on the opposite side of these historic games (anyone remember Bonds?).

Anyway…After the makeup game and a quick turnaround, the Ladies Night game began. Although Sections 102 and 103 were used for the seating, I have to admit that I took cover from the rain in a suite provided by a friend (special thanks to Kelly for that one). From what I could tell looking across the field, there were not many ladies sitting in the actual Ladies Night sections, and I can’t say I blame them as the rain just kept falling and falling. Eventually, the game was called early - another loss for the Nationals.

All and all, despite the weather, it was a successful Ladies Night for the Nationals. A good time was had by all, judging from the smiles and looks on the faces. And Ladies weren’t the only ones having fun. There seemed to be more men at this event than the last one I attended, not that there’s anything wrong with that! Unfortunately, due to the makeup game going on, none of those men in attendance included our Nationals players as planned (at least not to my knowledge as I didn’t see any or hear of any being able to attend). Perhaps the next time around will work better in that regard.

The next Ladies Night is at Nationals Park on Thursday, August 20. Visit www.nationals.com/ladiesnight for more details.

Here’s some pictures from the event.