Washington Nationals

Several sources (Fox’s Ken Rosenthal and the Chicago Sun Times’ Joe Cowley) say the White Sox are working hard to pry Adam Dunn away from the Washington Nationals, but aren’t having much success due to the Nationals’ exorbitant asking price.  Reportedly, the Nats want Carlos Quentin or Gordon Beckham, both of whom the ChiSox are understandably reluctant to trade away.

However, the White Sox have apparently offered up just about anyone else in their farm system, including 1B/3B Dayan Viciedo and RHP Daniel Hudson.

There are currently two pitching phenoms in Major League Baseball.

One, though, is getting an absolutely massive amount of media attention in Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg.

The other is David Price, the Tampa Bay Rays starter who recently started the All-Star game in Anaheim this past Tuesday.

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The Major League Baseball trading deadline grows closer by the day, and one of the hottest names burning up the hot stove is Nationals slugging first baseman Adam Dunn.

So far, the rumors surrounding Dunn have been sketchy at best. Also, there is some hesitancy as to the legitimacy of rumors considering Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo recently came out and said it would take an "extraordinary deal" to Dunn get out of D.C.

While that may be the case, there are five teams who are still going to try and boost their lineup with Dunn's big bat.

Give Adam Dunn credit—he's done everything possible over the past year and a half to increase his marketability as a trade chip. He's a truly marketable player who could help the Nationals and a lot of other teams too.

The Mets had an excellent opportunity to guarantee at least a series split, maybe even a series win last night, but Francisco Rodriguez couldn’t hold it for them.

He, along with the Mets, try to rebound. Courtesy of NewYorkMets on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/NewYorkMets/status/17724997077 here is this afternoon’s lineup, with comments and notes from me:

In this era of expansion, no pitcher is ever too old or too arm-worn not to get one more chance.  The Nationals have reportedly signed 44-year-old Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez to a minor-league contract.

El Duque has pitched all of 26.2 minor league innings the last two seasons combined, but in fairness, he’s pitched pretty well (30 Ks and great ratios).  It will interesting to see if he has enough left to work his way back up to the majors.

There is less than a month to baseball’s trading deadline and the Washington Nationals will soon have to decide whether they are going to be buyers or sellers.

http://mymetsjournal.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-again.html?spref=tw

Joe Petruccio has done an EXCELLENT job this year on recording each game in art afterwards. Check it out!

The New York Mets are coming off of a series loss against the Marlins in Puerto Rico, but they did win the final game. Now they head to Washington D.C. on little rest for a four-game series against the Nationals. Courtesy of NewYorkMets on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/NewYorkMets/status/17516245075 here is tonight’s Mets lineup, with some notes from me:

So where are the Washington Nationals headed?

Just a couple of months ago, the team was five games over .500 and seemed both ready and able to remain competitive until Stephen Strasburg joined the squad and Jason Marquis, Chien-Ming Wang, Jordan Zimmermann, and Ross Detwiler regained their health.

The Nationals could then move some of their surplus starters into the bullpen and trade away the rest for players who could plug some of the holes on the 25-man roster.