Fouled-Off Bunts: Things You Already Knew Edition

Farewell to Joey Eischen, who was placed on the 60-day DL with a torn rotator cuff, likely ending his career -- although you never know. Eischen was one of Frank's favorites, and had an interesting career. Take a look at his pro stats. He pitched at every level, including a year with my hometown Independent League team, the Adirondack Lumberjacks. There's a card of him here in the Lumberjacks' uniform, with that same goofy delivery. (Randy St. Claire played with the team, too -- but my memory's fuzzy; he may have just been the pitching coach)

Taking Eischen's place on the roster will be Bill Bray. Bray has been dominant in New Orleans, pitching 31.2 innings while striking out an impressive 45 batters. They're hitting just .217 off him. He's clearly ready, and should be a big improvement over Eischen. It'll be interesting to see how Frank uses him. He's been reluctant to put his other two rookies in close situations.

Santiago Ramirez, one of those rookies, had an MRI yesterday, which revealed a flexor strain, and he's day-to-day.

Jose Guillen was DL'd with the hamstring injury that should've put him on the DL three weeks earlier. So much for being a 'real man'. What garbage. The Nats called up Mike Vento, who was scorching the crap out of the ball in New Orleans, the rich man's Matt Cepicky.

After his throwing exhibition, Matt LeCroy complained of elbow soreness and was given a cortisone injection. He says he's fine. Wiki Gonzalez accepted his assignement to New Orleans. Given his shoddy defense, it's unlikely he'll be back up unless Brian Schneider explodes.

When Wiki went down, Shawn Hill came up, pitched effectively, and was promptly skipped. He was supposed to start today, but they're skipping his start. I guess he was too effective for them. We wouldn't want to derail the freight train that is the Ramon Ortiz Cy Young Express.

Zach Day was placed on the 60-day DL, effectively ending his season. He met with Dr. Andrews yesterday, but be damned if I can find anything on the outcome.

When Brian Schneider was activated, the team dumped Felix Rodriguez on the DL with 'arm problems'.

Ryan Church, like Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead to us.

Aaron Gleeman had a post on his blog that seems somewhat applicable to the Church situation. Just substitute Church/Bowden/Robinson where appropriate. We're not the only franchise dicking players around.

Dayton Moore accepted the GM job for the woeful KC Royals. He was one of the presumed favorites for the Nats GM job. Frank Wren's still kicking around. But I wonder if this increases the chance that PT Bowden hangs around for another year? I can see it happening. Bowden has had SOME success with a limited budget, and reading between the lines, ours is going to continue to be limited. I dunno...

The Major League draft is next week, and Jim Bowden's name dropping in his latest Examiner column. The Nats have the 15th and 22nd pick, and are likely to go the pitching, pitching, pitching route. There aren't any sure picks like Zimmerman was last year, and it'll be a much slower path to glory. I'll have more on this next week.

14.2-time Emmy Winner Jim Williams sez that we'll have TV by the All-Star Break... Or Else!

Oleanders reconsiders the Wilkerson/Soriano trade and thinks that Bowden might've won it, if only because the prospects that Soriano'll net are going to be better than what Wilkerson would fetch.