Fouled-Off Bunts: Check N' Go Edition

Sometime yesterday morning, Ted Lerner stopped at his local 7-11, but himself a coffee, a danish, and a money order for $450 million. A few minutes later, he sent it off to Bud Selig, who probably danced around like a glee-filled madman. Now, we can officially welcome our new Lerner overlords. How soon til they start getting booed?

Noted manly man, Jose Guillen is having Tommy John surgery to repair a torn elbow ligament. Wus. Unless he's going to start hitting baseballs with his elbow, I don't know why he can't play through it.

Recovery for a pitcher is typically 18 months. Position players can usually come back sooner, and knowing Jose's stubborness, he's certainly going to try.

I have to wonder, though, did all of Jose's nagging minor injuries cause this? Did he alter his swing/throwing motion because of the strained rib/sore wrist? Did that place unusual strain on his elbow, leading to this? How long has he been playing through the pain -- Frank had to pull him from a few games recently because he was unable to throw.

Finally, it should put to rest the idiotic notion that Luis Ayala's arm injury was caused by the WBC. The Nationals had a player in their care who suffered the same injury. Injuries happen. They're not the WBC's fault.

As far as his future, he's free at the end of the year, even if the Nats are still on the hook for his care. In a year or two's time, he's going to seem exactly like the kind of guy that Jim Bowden loves -- the injured retread who's trying to fight for past glory. I suspect we haven't seen the last of him.

I never mentioned it because I'm a horrible blogger, but John Patterson had exploratory surgery a week or so ago to figure out what the hell was wrong with his arm. It actually turned out to be really good news (relatively speaking). He was having nerve compression in his elbow, and the surgeons were able to dig the nerve out, repositioning it. As nasty as that sounds, that's a HUGE positive sign, especially given the likely Tommy John alternative. It's likely that Patterson will be able to return this season, and if the nerve stays in place, his return shouldn't have any real long-term implications. His arm should be ok -- well, as ok as Patterson's arm is ever going to be. Still, I think they should take their time with him and not push him, especially in a lost season, but having him come back for a few fixed-pitch starts would be helpful for him to shake off the rust, but also for his confidence.

Mike Rizzo (file photo), formerly of the AZ Diamondbacks, was named Assistant GM and VP for Baseball Ops. Rizzo is highly respected, and has had much success with the D-Back's farm system. Presumably he'll run the entire scouting operartion, to include majors and minors, something that's been severly lacking in MLB's 'stewardship'.

Here's the AZ Republic's hagiography of Rizzo. NFA looks at how quickly he was able to turn around the AZ system.

Worthless sack o' crap, Damian Jackson, will be activated from the DL today, sending Melvin Dorta back to Harrisburg from whence he came. Jackson, you'll recall, came down with Whooping Cough. Or was it heartburn? Either way, he'll resume his role as chief rally-killer/ defensive miscuer.

I've stopped caring about the MASN mess, but some news today:
--The FCC wants to send the battle to an administrative law judge. Yawn.
--MASN says that a recent ruling sending them to arbitration signals that they've won, and that the only thing left to decide is the price. Yawn.

These could be part and parcel of the same thing, but, frankly, I don't really care at this point. MASN and Comcast can both to get hell as far as I'm concerned. If they're not the same, then this two-pronged war has about as much excitement and titillation as the average freshman-year dorm filled with Axis and Allies buffs.

Todd Jacobson, who writes for the Freddyburg Free Lance-Star, and who, presumably, has also been told that I'm pure evil, has a blog. He usually writes from the games, giving an inside glimpse at the sort of thing that nutballs like us would find interesting, but just aren't newsworthy enough to make it to the pulpy pages.

The always wonderful Near SE DC development website has images of the proposed parking garages outside the new stadium. Thoughts?

I think I've linked this before, but in my advancing age (next week is my 74th birthday), I've forgotten. Here's the webcam of the stadium site, showing the progress of the construction. Sorry, no T&A today.

Humberto Sanchez, who would've been one of the prizes in a trade with the Tigers has a sore elbow.

This report says that the Chicago Tribune (so much for primary sources!) says that there are four finalists for Soriano: Chicago, Detroit, Anaheim and the Yankees.

I still don't think there's much of a match with the Yankees, but from what I've read, Big Stein is pushing hard for him, even as Cashman is resisting.

Hot Blogger Action!!
--The Federalist handicaps the President's race.
--One of the Curly Wers took a bunch of photos from the game the other day. He's clearly a communist as 1) He hates the President's races 2) He took a picture in a bathroom 3) He got to the game late and left early. For shame!
--Just A Nats Fan took a bunch of pictures, too.
--Sick of pictures yet? Tough! Nats 320 has a bazillion and one.