With a lot to prove to Washington, Elijah Dukes has offered us a small glimmer of hope for his turn around this Christmas season. The troubled outfielder recently organized a holiday toy drive in Tampa Bay, joined by our very own recent draft pick, Michael Burgess. Turns out the two are friends and attended the same high school.

Dukes and Burgess purchased over 300 gifts for children in the community ranging from baseball supplies to televisions and bicycles.

While still concernced about this Dukes situation, we wish Jim Bowden’s project the best of luck in 2008 (in the spirit of Christmas, afterall).

The Nationals sure have had a busy couple of weeks. Seems as though some of the trades the club made at the beginning of the month have come back to haunt them a bit.

We were not happy when the Nationals acquired outfielder Elijah Dukes. His previous actions and run ins with the law had us worried that the change Jim Bowden promised Dukes would make was unlikely. Now, just two weeks after the trade was announced, Dukes finds himself in hot water again. The situation is actually quite similar. A former flame has accused Dukes of domestic violence and has requested a restraining order. According to Amanda Reese, who says she dated Dukes from August to October, Dukes sent her a number of threatening text messages. Sounds pretty familiar huh? Remember the message he sent his soon to be ex-wife, “you dead dawg.” Apparently the Nationals have set up a support system to keep Dukes in-line. He will live with Barry Larkin until Spring Training. Perhaps an easier fix would be to take away his cell phone? Of course the Nats say they didn’t know about this situation, that it happened before the trade, and that since he has been with the club, Dukes has been cooperative. Regardless I’m sensing a theme, its pretty obvious that the club is going to have their work cut out for them on this one.

In addition, with the release of the Mitchell Report, the Nats found the name of their new catcher Paul Lo Duca* on the list. President Stan Kasten made a few comments about the report yesterday. He would not specifically name Lo Duca* or Nook Logan, but it was pretty clear that the Nationals didn’t know about Lo Duca’s* steroid use when they acquired him. Kasten made it clear that talking about steroid use is a personal decision left up to the player. We commend those players like former Nat Gary Bennett and the O’s Brian Roberts for being honest about their usage. Wonder when or if Lo Duca* will say anything, my guess is no…

The Nationals have also announced their official 2008 schedule today. Still no word on Spring Training. President Bush has been invited to throw the first pitch at the new stadium. Sadly, there will be no baseball in the nation’s capitol on the 4th of July. The 2008 schedule includes an away game in Cincinnati on July 4. What’s a Fourth of July celebration in DC without a baseball game? We can’t imagine the Nats passing on a sell-out game opportunity in the new stadium.

LA Times reporter Bill Plaschke said it better than we can.

“Baseball will survive, because as long as there are summer nights and bleacher seats, baseball will always survive…The good part about the report is that it represents an important step toward a clean future. The bad part is that, more than any other sport, baseball is steeped in its past.”

Clearly, we haven’t had a chance to read the entire 409 page document, but we all understand its basic content. First, for those items that hit close to home.

Nook Logan. A National for some of 2006 and all of 2007, released just days ago by the Club. A surprise? Absolutely. When reached on Thursday, Logan said, “I’m not talking about it. You have to talk to my agent. I just play baseball.”

From Page 229:

Rondell White, a Tigers teammate, referred Logan to Radomski. Radomski stated that he sold Logan one kit of human growth hormone just before federal agents searched Radomski’s house in December 2005. Radomski mailed the package to Logan, who paid by money order. Radomski recalled having between six and eight conversations with Logan about the use of performance enhancing substances. In the course of one of these conversations, Logan confirmed that he had received the shipment from Radomski. Radomski still had Logan’s phone number in his cell phone directory at the time of his final interview with me and provided me with the phone number.

Congressman Tom Davis thinks Logan should get his money back. “I mean, Nook Logan? I mean, he ought to get his money back, whatever he paid for…They must have watered his down, man. Put some flour in it or whatever.”

Next, the one that should irritate us much more. While the evidence against Logan is minimal and inconclusive, Lo Duca is clearly implicated by the Report. Paul Lo Duca.

New Nationals catcher Lo Duca’s name is plastered throughout the entire report, not just in his own section. Lo Duca is cited in Eric Gagné and Matt Herges’ reports with a number of accusations about him purchasing and injecting illegal performance enhancing drugs.

Page 209 begins the 37 times Lo Duca’s name is mentioned:

Todd Hundley referred Lo Duca to Radomski when Lo Duca played for the Dodgers. Radomski estimated that he engaged in six or more transactions with Lo Duca. In some transactions, Radomski sent the performance enhancing substances by overnight mail to Lo Duca’s home or to the Dodgers clubhouse and Lo Duca sent Radomski a check a week or so later.

Lo Duca’s name, with an address and telephone number, is listed in the address book seized from Radomski’s residence by federal agents. During that search, federal agents also seized a note from Lo Duca to Radomski…

Now there’s a great role model for young Jesus Flores. And if suspensions are put in place for Lo Duca, will Flores start on Opening Day?

Commissioner Bud Selig and Don Fehr of the Players Association addressed the matter after Senator Mitchell released the report. Selig was eager to understand and learn from the past and suggested he’d handle the situation on a case by case basis. Fehr defended players who may have been wrongly accused.

There will be a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Tuesday. More hearings scheduled for January as well. Plaschke concludes with this strong statement:

“For baseball to experience a true cleansing, it must first spend time feeling the filth that its fans feel, the grime from a 409-page dirty book that, for now, has torn apart our bleacher seats and blown out the lights on our summer nights.”

The Nationals just announced the addition of Rob Mackowiak and Willie Harris to the 2008 roster. Both Mackowiak and Harris are left handed free agents which should help to balance out our heavily right handed roster.

Jim Bowden made the announcement and said, ” “With the additions of Mackowiak and Harris, I feel we will have one of the deepest and most balanced benches in the National League.”

Mackowiak who plays all outfield positions as well as first, second, and third base, is a career .262 hitter with 63 home runs and 282 RBI in 818 games, and has played with Pittsburgh, the White Sox, and last year with San Diego. While outfielder Harris appeared in 117 games with Atlanta in 2007 and batted .270 with 20 doubles, eight triples, two homers, 32 RBI and 17 stolen bases.

Lots of stuff going on today. Have you all checked out the copy of the Mitchell Report. Both Paul Lo Duca and Nook Logan make appearances. We’ll have more on that soon…

A rumored list is posted at Deadspin:

Update: This list is wrong and implicates players who were not named in the report — including our own Aaron Boone. More soon.

Brady Anderson, Manny Alexander, Rick Ankiel, Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Aaron Boone, Rafaeil Bettancourt, Bret Boone, Milton Bradley, David Bell, Dante Bichette, Albert Belle, Paul Byrd, Wil Cordero, Ken Caminiti, Mike Cameron, Ramon Castro, Jose and Ozzie Canseco, Roger Clemens, Paxton Crawford, Wilson Delgado, Lenny Dykstra, Johnny Damon, Carl Everett, Kyle Farnsoworth, Ryan Franklin, Rich Garces, Jason Grimsley, Troy Glaus, Juan Gonzalez, Eric Gagne, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Jose Guillen, Jay Gibbons, Juan Gonzalez, Clay Hensley, Jerry Hairston, Felix Heredia, Jr., Darren Holmes, Wally Joyner, Darryl Kile, Matt Lawton, Raul Mondesi, Mark McGwire, Guillermo Mota, Robert Machado, Damian Moss, Abraham Nunez, Trot Nixon, Jose Offerman, Andy Pettitte, Mark Prior, Neifi Perez, Rafael Palmiero, Albert Pujols, Brian Roberts, Juan Rincon, John Rocker, Pudge Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Scott Schoenweiis, David Segui, Alex Sanchez, Gary Sheffield, Miguel Tejada, Julian Tavarez,Fernando Tatis, Maurice Vaughn, Jason Varitek, Ismael Valdez, Matt Williams and Kerry Wood.

Two hours until the final list is released.

The Nationals have worked out contracts with three of our arbitration eligible players. They also announced the release of Nook Logan and Mike O’Connor.

Luis Ayala had a good comeback from his elbow reconstruction surgery last season with a 3.11 ERA in 44 appearances. The 29 year old will make 1.7 million next year.

John Patterson and Ryan Wagner both missed most of the 2007 season with injuries. Patterson will make 850,000 while Wagner will make 450,000 next season.

Ayala and Patterson were important parts of the 2005 pitching team. Patterson went 9-7 with a 3.13 ERA in 31 games. Ayala went 8-7 with a 2.66 ERA in 71 innings.

Wagner was aquired late in 2006 from the Reds along with Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns. He was 3-3 for the Nats in 26 games in 06.

The Nationals now have five players — Lopez, Colome, Cordero, Rauch and Redding — who remain arbitration eligible.

UPDATE - Make that 4 RHPs…

The Nationals have agreed to terms with Jesus Colome. 1.25 million for next season.

is reported to have agreed to terms with the Nationals. According to Barry Lo Duca will get $5 million for one year. Does this move seem to be a scramble to fill a roster void to anyone else? Is Lo Duca any better than Brian Schneider? Really? I still don’t understand why we traded him in the first place. Paying millions for a guy who isn’t much better than what we had seems like a move only Jimbo would make. What the heck happened to my team over the past week?!

I understand the desire to create a winning team. Believe me, I can’t wait to see the Nationals play October baseball. However, it all seems to be coming at a pretty high cost. I am supposed to just accept that we might have a better record next year, and cheer for guys who clearly don’t have the same amount of character as those we just gave away? I realize that’s probably a very ‘girl’ thing to say, but does character really count for nothing?

If all of the talk in 2007 about clubhouse unity and positive energy was true, it seems like the Nats will have a lot of work to do in 2008 to ensure that atmosphere doesn’t go away. So while we might be better offensively, our starting first baseman’s main job is going to be babysitting our potential center fielder, and we extended a contract for veteran infielder just to help bring character to the clubhouse. Now we also have an older catcher who we have given a bunch of money to for only one year, who doesn’t really get a long with our other potential center fielder, and has issues all his own. This all seems a bit backwards to me.

Lastly, what happens to our ‘catcher of the future’ Jesus Flores. Is he going to be sent down to the minors next year to further develop? Keeping in mind that he certainly proved himself last year at the big league level, with a great arm, on point defensive skills, and key clutch hits. He has also been playing winter ball in Venezuela. As I posted before he’s not playing everyday, but when he does play he produces — he hit an RBI double last night. I say why not give this kid a real chance to prove what else he can do?

I am not sure about the 2008 Nationals. Who knows, maybe I am too emotionally attached, but I have a feeling we as fans are in for quite a dramatic season. I’ll try my hardest to remain positive, and hopefully I eat my words.