Congrats first to Cristian Guzman on being awarded the NL Player of the Week.  He shares the award with Bronson Arroyo.

For the week, Guzman ranked among NL leaders in hits (MLB-best 16), batting (MLB-best .552), doubles (tied for 7th, 3), RBI (tied for 10th, 6), total bases (3rd, 24) and slugging percentage (4th, .828).

Also, a big congratulations to Joel Hanrahan for earning the Roberto Clemente Award this season.  Hanrahan helped to raise money for victims of the floods in Iowa and also participated in a fundraiser for the Man & Woman of the Year Campaign benefitting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Joel has chosen the Walter Reed Society as the charity to benefit from the Clemente Award.

It comes as no surprise that Shawn Hill has suffered another setback and will not be returning to action this season.  Hill will be examined by James Andrews on Friday.  Hill is still suffering from swelling in his right elbow.

The team has also announced that the Gulf Coast League Nats will be playing in a best of three championship series with the Phillies beginning tomorrow.  It’s the first GCL championship appearance since 1996.  The Potomac Nationals will also be competing in post-season action.

No excuses.  We’ve been slacking off a little this week, trying to catch up on our interviews with women in the baseball world and live our lives.  We’ll try to do better this week.  By the way, Happy Birthday Stephanie! 

There’s lots of good stuff in store this week - a home series with the Mets followed by a series with the Rockies.  We’ll see Johan Santana on Tuesday and probably ex-Nat Livan Hernandez before the weekend’s over.  Tuesday is T-Shirt Tuesday, featuring the “Run, Teddy, Run!” slogan.   Thursday is Ladies’ Night - tickets are available here.  Friday is Miller Lite Party Night - including fireworks after the game.  Of course, Friday is also the deadline for signing draft picks.  As of now, three of the top five — Aaron Crow (RHP), Daniel Espinosa (SS) and Graham Hicks (LHP) – are still unsigned.

On Wednesday, Saul Rivera and Wil Nieves will be talking to kids about healthy lifestyles and the importance of avoiding performance enhancing drugs at an event at Nationals Park.  PLAY, which stands for Promoting a Lifetime of Activity for Youth, is a public awareness campaign of the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society (PBATS), in conjunction with the Taylor Hooton Foundation (www.TaylorHooton.org) and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation (www.RipkenFoundation.org).  The PLAY campaign promotes healthy living and decision making among children in America.  Each participant will receive a PLAY “Pledge Card” to sign along with the Nationals player(s) promising to remain active, make healthy decisions and avoid performance enhancing drugs.

Saturday is the 4th Annual “Save a Life Saturday.”  On Saturday, appointments to give blood at Nationals Park are available from 8 am to 2 pm.  Participants will receive 2 free tickets to a September Nats home game and a visit by Nationals players.  Call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE to schedule your appointment.  After Saturday’s game, fans can stay at the park to watch “A League of Their Own.”

MLB Trade Rumors reports that recently released Nats catcher Paul Lo Duca is headed to the Marlins AAA Albuquerque team.

Yeah, we missed recapping the awesome double header win in Denver.  Congrats to the guys.  We’re impressed and thrilled with the new attitude. 

Here’s a good piece by the Atlanta Journal Constitution on the passing of legendary Skip Caray.  Mark Bowman’s story for MLB is a nice read as well. 

We recently toured Turner Field and I snapped this quick shot of Skip’s shelf in the radio booth.  Like a good baseball man, Caray hated the wave.  Maybe in his memory, we can stop doing it during play.

Baseball lost a great one yesterday and an important piece of its history. 

Why?  You tell me.  Does this move make any sense?  Last night, a surge of youth.  Make way for the future.  Move out of the way vets.  Today, ship Mock to AAA?  What am I missing?

That gives us Ayala and Colome for blow outs, Shell and Manning for middle innings, Rivera for late inning work, Hanrahan for closing.  Eleven pitchers.

From the Nats:

Mock, 25, went 0-2 with a 5.27 ERA in five games, including two starts, with the Nationals.

Felipe Lopez and Paul Lo Duca were released tonight to make room for newly acquired Alberto Gonzalez, rehabbing Elijah Dukes and Emilio Bonifacio.

Lopez made 4.9 million this year.  He hit .233 in 99 games with 25 RBI.  Everyone saw this coming.  He’s talented and it just didn’t work here.  We do wish him the best.

Lo Duca made 5 million this season.  He hit .230 in 46 games with the Nationals.  This was long overdue.  He should have never been signed in the first place.

We missed much of the beginning of the game last night.  Sometimes, it’s better that way.  The Angels batted around in the first, sending 10 men to the plate and securing a 6 run lead.  When they scored 2 more runs in the third, Manny handed the game over to the bullpen.  The combination of Shell, Colome, Hanrahan and Manning put up 6 zeroes with 5 strike outs, 3 hits and only 1 walk.  But the damage was already done.

Errors proved costly in the game and yielded 2 unearned runs to the Angels.  Hill balked and Lo Duca, Young and Harris all had a hard time making routine plays.  Lo Duca’s left field experiment was cut short by a bout of light-headedness.  He left in the second and was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons.  His replacement, Wily Mo Pena, surprised everyone by going deep in his first at bat to give the Nats their first run.  It was only his second home run of the season.  An inning later Elijah Dukes would collect his third, a homer to left field.  The only other run came in the 5th when pinch hitter Kory Casto singled to score Ronnie Belliard.

As if it couldn’t get any worse, there’s more injury news.  Nick Johnson underwent surgery at the Mayo Clinic and will likely be out for the season.  That’s a big loss and very disheartening because he worked so hard to get healthy for this season.  Shawn Hill, who has been experiencing pain all season, will also head to the Mayo Clinic for another evaluation.  Hill will likely end up on the disabled list and probably should have been put on it awhile ago.  We admire his desire to battle but wonder if the Patterson release motivated Hill to fight through the pain more than he should have.  When he’s sharp and effective, he’s a treat to watch.  We wish him a speedy recovery, but you know how those things go.

Some other news:

Zimmerman has a new blog post up, but it’s rather dull.  The team announced a partnership with the Spanish Beisbol Network.  Games will debut on WZHF 1390AM on Friday, June 27.  Select games will be broadcast on WMET 1160AM and XM Radio Channel 174, MLB en Español.  The team also announced plans to build a Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy.  From the release:

In partnership with the District Government, The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation has committed to building a Youth Baseball Academy that will engage inner city youth in the sport of baseball, along with providing after-school educational programs.  Slated as a 12,000 square foot facility with three fields on 10 acres, the Academy will be a year-round youth development program committed to equipping youth with the life skills necessary to succeed in life and to become responsible, productive citizens in their community.

Chico Harlan’s chatting at 2 pm, Mark Zuckerman’s chatting at 1 pm and Jim Bowden’s chat yesterday was utterly useless.

Tim Redding (6-3, 4.12 ERA) takes on Ervin Santana (9-3, 3.17) tonight.

You gotta feel for John Lannan.  His 3.36 ERA in 14 starts is respectable.  His 4-8 win/loss record, on the other hand, belongs to his teammates.  They have averaged 2.5 runs a game when John takes the mound.  Last night, Lannan went 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 5 hits.  In the 6th inning, he gave up a home run to Morneau that would be a costly mistake. 

The Nats managed to collect only 5 hits against former Nat Livan Hernandez.  Lo Duca re-joined the team and played DH.  He did hit a double and he scored the only run.  Belliard, Young and Lo Duca all grounded into double plays over the course of the game.  The Young vs. Young brotherhood showdown was strikingly uneventful.  Both brothers went 0 for 3.   

News:
Congratulations to Chartese Burnett for being named the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s National Capital Area Chapter’s 2008 Woman of the Year. Chartese raised over $79,000 during the ten-week fundraising competition.

Upcoming Promotions:
Fri - Sun, Texas Rangers Series
Thanksgiving in June
Working in partnership with Capital Area Food Bank for the third-annual canned food drive, the Nationals will host a collection of non-perishable food items at all gates and at the Community Kiosk.

Friday, June 20
BBQ Battle Night
Great seats available from $7 to $13 and proceeds going towards the Boys and Girls Club

Second Annual Stitch N’ Pitch
Knit, crochet, embroider, cross-stitch & needlepoint with friends throughout the game. The event is sponsored by the National NeedleArts Association.  Tickets are available here for $13.

Bang, Zoom Go the Fireworks - after the game

Sunday, June 22
Kids jersey give-away day on Sunday has been cancelled. The first 10,000 children 12 and younger will receive 2 ticket vouchers to an upcoming game.