Washington Nationals

Ivan Rodriguez is once again looking to make history in Major League Baseball.

If he is given the opportunity by Nationals skipper Jim Riggleman, the man best known as "Pudge" will be setting another mark in his great career tonight.

I'll be the first to admit that I haven't watched John Lannan's starts very closely recently. Tonight, I'm going to try to watch some of the starts that I only heard on "Charlie and Dave," and afterwards, I'll share more thoughts.

But my first gut reaction to like Mike Rizzo's decision to demote Lannan to AA was not good. The first person I thought of was Steven Shell. ("I didn't like his whole aura on the mound.") Then I thought of Daniel Cabrera. ("I was tired of watching him.") And then I thought of Elijah Dukes and Lastings Milledge.

Stephen Strasburg had another excellent quality start last night in Washington but was a victim of no run support in the 2-1, 11-inning loss to the White Sox. The Nationals didn’t score a run until Strasburg made his exit after the top of the seventh.

The Nationals had defeated the Pirates 5-2 and the Indians 9-5 in his two previous starts. Strasburg had issues with the mound in the game with the Indians which probably caused him to walk five batters. He struck out 14 while walking none against the Pirates and struck out 10 while walking none against the White Sox.

The Washington Nationals have stepped up a notch in the MLB with their performance this year after their horrible 103-loss season in 2009.

The Nats did make quite a few moves for Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham before the 2009 season, and they are now the core guys, along with Zimmerman in the lineup. They also traded for the speedster Nyjer Morgan.

With Washington making plenty of wise moves this offseason, they are off to an average start, with a 31-33 record. They are just 6 games back in the National League East. 

After Washington Nationals’ rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg dazzled in his major league debut, people couldn’t wait to see what he would do as an encore yesterday against the Cleveland Indians. While Strasburg didn’t mow through the Indians like he did the Pittsburgh Pirates, he was still pretty effective.

So how did the most hyped debut in Major League history end up? I think he did alright. Stephen Strasburg reached 101 mph on the radar gun. He fanned 14 batters and had zero walks. Most importantly, we got a W.

You could tell just how great Strasburg's stuff was by reading the body language of those around home plate. Time after time, the knees of Pirates' hitters buckled when Strasburg threw curveballs, and time after time, Pirates hitters were whiffing badly.

On Sunday he picked up his second major league victory over the Indians. It's safe to say he has passed the test so far.

Every so often, you hear people of influence connected to or interested in Major League Baseball fuss about how the black American baseball player is disappearing from the diamond.

Hello and welcome to today's MLB Rumor Mill!

I haven't done a rumor mill for Major League Baseball in a couple of days, so now here is one today!

Is there a possibility that Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt could go to the New York Yankees or Washington Nationals? It could be possible.

More on that and other rumors on today's rumor mill for the MLB!

So sit back, relax, and read today's MLB rumor mill.

Hope you enjoy it!

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Remember where you were on June 8, 2010. That was the day where, more likely than not, the future face of the MLB debuted. His name: Stephen Strasburg.

Strasburg’s debut was probably the most hyped debut in the history of any professional sport. The craze over the 21 year old started when the Washington Nationals drafted him with the first pick in the 2009 first-year player draft.