Mitchell Page Out

The Nats have given Hitting Coach Mitchell Page a leave of absence for the most Washingtonian of reasons, "personal reasons." Presumably, he, like so many others, wants to spend more time with his family. In his place comes former Red and (you'll undoubtedly hear this 42 times tonight) Pinch-Hit King, Lenny Harris.

I know nuttin', and there's likely a good chance he's dealing with something personal, but I suspect this is their way of saying adieu to Page for his poor performance. Given his past history with alcoholism, perhaps they wanted to do something nice and keep him in the family, even if it's more of a distant cousin in Albuquerque sorta thing now.

I don't think that Page can take the blame for what's gone on this year. The Nats are running some mediocre players out there, and a few of the key guys have been slumping -- and he's certainly not responsible for NJ's injury or Soriano's disappearance.

My impression over a short time was that he was an effective hitting coach, and the Nationals, as a team, improved last year, especially in terms of their batting eyes and approaches. I'll be interested to see what Lenny Harris espouses.

At the very least, he's catching a team that's likely to improve offensively over the next few weeks as the law of averages plays catch-up.

Our good friend Bill Ladson fills in more details.

He's having some health problems, including some numbness. It's not related to his problem with alcoholism.

And he's likely to not rejoin the team.