While it may sound kind of obvious considering where you're reading this, I have to say that one of the great pleasures of Major League Baseball's return to D.C. has been the ability to follow the Nationals' progress and the variety of Nats information and opinion that's available -- and continually updated around the clock -- on the internet.

The sheer volume of information and the frequency with which it is refreshed is a marked change from the daily newspaper and TV / radio coverage of a couple of decades ago. And both old and new sources have helped fulfill fans' hunger for information by exploring teams' player-development organizations and keeping readers up to date on their activities.

One of the finest such sources, Nationals Farm Authority, made its debut in 2005 at about the same time as Nationals Daily News (then NationalsPride). Over the past six seasons, NFA editor Brian Oliver has maintained a commitment to keeping his readers up to date on the goings-on of the Nats' minor-league system.

That's not all he's been doing. Like most of the rest of us, he's also been holding down a day job. And, on the side, he's been going to school to obtain his certification as a high-school mathematics teacher.

Having fulfilled the latter goal, Brian has sadly -- if probably wisely -- concluded that there's not enough time in the day for classroom teaching and NFA, and has therefore announced that he's shutting down the site. While he does point his readers to other Nats farm-system websites, Brian's reports and insights as well as the Big Board and other good things at NFA will be awfully hard to replace.

We wish Brian success and fulfillment as he embarks on his new journey.

      

I made an appearance late Monday evening on Bill Ivie's I-70 Baseball Radio program.  We reviewed St. Louis' just-completed series at Nationals Park and pondered the future of right-hander Stephen Strasburg after his upcoming Tommy John surgery.

You can access the recording of the show via this link.

      

After a week of good news (the introduction of Bryce Harper) and bad news (the probable loss of Stephen Strasburg to Tommy John ligament-reconstruction surgery), the Washington Nationals hit the road on Monday for a pair of three-game sets against Florida and Pittsburgh.

If the Nationals are looking to make the news balance come out positive, they can be consoled not only by their just-completed series victory over St. Louis -- the first time in the month of August that the club has won three games in a four-game stretch -- but also by some past and approaching milestones.

• On Sunday the Nats won their 56th game of the season.  They didn't manage to do that in 2009 until October 1.


• The club needs just four wins to improve on its record from both 2008 and 2009.


• It's still mathematically possible for the Nats, who have lost 75 games, to finish at or above the .500 mark this season.  Granted, that would require a 25-6 finish -- but it's still a possibility, one from which the 2009 Nats had eliminated themselves by August 26.

Another consolation of sorts is that all three of this week's Washington pitchers have successfully recovered from stints on the disabled list at some point this season.

In Florida on Monday evening, right-hander Jason Marquis (0-7 win-loss record, 8.79 ERA) will be looking to continue his steady, if bumpy, improvement since his return from the disabled list on August 8.  Tuesday's starter will be righty fireballer Jordan Zimmermann (0-0, 11.25) in just his second start since his August 26 return from rehabilitation for Tommy John surgery.  He'll be followed on Wednesday evening by left-hander Scott Olsen (3-7. 4.91) whose shoulder, surgically repaired in the 2009-10 offseason and tweaky enough earlier this season to send him to the DL, was sufficiently strong on Friday to let him turn in a first-rate six-inning performance in a tough-luck loss to the Cardinals.

Meanwhile, the Nats will be seeking to arrest the winning skeins of three Florida right-handers, each of whom has won his two most recent starts: rookie Alex Sanabia (3-1, 3.62) on Monday, Anibal Sanchez (11-8, 3.29) on Tuesday and Chris Volstad (8-9, 4.61) on Wednesday. 

      

As the Washington Nationals approach the end of yet another also-ran season, they haven't forgotten the contributions made by pitcher Livan Hernandez.  The team announced Sunday afternoon that the right-handed starter has been signed through the 2011 season.

Hernandez, 35, who threw both the first pitch in Nationals history after the franchise's relocation from Montreal (at Philadelphia on April 4, 2005) and the team's first pitch in RFK Stadium, has logged a 9-9 record and 3.49 ERA this season in 175 1/3 innings over 27 starts.  Originally acquired by Montreal in a 2003 preseason trade with San Francisco, Hernandez has pitched all or part of six seasons in the Expos / Nationals organization, accruing a 61-56 record and 3.89 ERA over 162 games.

While terms of Hernandez' 2011 contract were not disclosed by the team, MLB.com's Bill Ladson tweets that the deal includes a base salary of $1 million plus incentive bonuses.  Hernandez was signed as a free agent to a one-year, $900,000 contract before the beginning of the 2010 season.

      

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- If you were paying attention at all on Saturday night -- or at least closer attention than Washington Nationals center fielder Nyjer Morgan was -- you couldn't have failed to notice that, in the middle of the Nationals' big six-run eighth inning against the Cardinals, Morgan failed to touch home plate after a Willie Harris double sent him around the base paths from first.

Catcher Ivan Rodriguez didn't fail to notice: having scored his own run, he pushed Morgan back toward the plate, which nullified any chance of Morgan's run counting.

Nor did Nationals manager Jim Riggleman fail to notice either Morgan's missing the plate, or Morgan's apparent need along the way to vent frustration on St. Louis catcher Bryan Anderson, whom Morgan elbow-blocked at the end of his detour away from home.

When asked before today's game at Nationals Park about his decision to omit Morgan from the Sunday lineup, Riggleman at first didn't have much to say about it:  "Just a manager's decision to go a different way today. I think Nyjer's playing fine."

It didn't take long, though, for Riggleman to reveal his true feelings about the incident.

"I think it was just a culmination of Nyjer's anger from not hitting first," Riggleman said. "[He] did an unprofessional thing. He went after the catcher. I certainly don't condone that."

"That's not Nyjer's style of play to do something like that," Riggleman said, while revealing that Morgan was unhappy about being moved to the eighth position in Saturday's lineup.  Morgan has batted leadoff in almost all of the 113 games he has played for the Nationals this season.

"I called him in and told him I was gonna hit him eighth instead of leadoff," Riggleman said. "I think [Morgan's frustration] just was building up all day. I think he thought I was wearing that [catcher's] equipment there at home plate."

"I'm sorry it happened," Riggleman said. "I apologized to [St. Louis manager] Tony [La Russa] and I apologized to Bryan Anderson," Riggleman added, indicating that the apologies were accepted.

Even so, inserting Morgan into Sunday's lineup at any position could have been hazardous.

"I can't minimize [the incident], because if I take the approach that there's nothing wrong with it, we're gonna get people hurt on the field," Riggleman said. "There's gotta be retaliation."

"If Nyjer was playing today, he'd get hit [by a pitch]," Riggleman said. "If an opposing player did that to my catcher and came to the plate, he'd get hit."

Riggleman expressed confidence that the incident was an isolated one.

"You've never seen that before [from Morgan]," Riggleman said. "You'll never see it again."

      

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- If, as a Washington Nationals fan, you think it was tough watching Stephen Strasburg depart suddenly from last Saturday evening's game in Philadelphia with symptoms of what turned out to be a career-derailing elbow ligament tear, imagine how it must have felt to his teammates.

Such as, for instance, catcher Wil Nieves.

"Scary, you know?" Nieves said Saturday when asked to describe his feelings at the time the event occurred a week before. "You're hoping it's nothing serious.  He's been throwing so good, his velocity was there.  It's just scary to see one of your pitchers come out from a game."

The worst news -- that Strasburg would need Tommy John ligament reconstruction surgery -- was yet to come.  Nieves tried to remain philosophical about this latest setback to the Nationals' rotation-building plans.

"We just gotta keep going," Nieves said. "Obviously we lost a great pitcher. But we're just gonna keep battling."

"You've got the other guys," Nieves said. "Like [Jordan] Zimmermann and those guys."

Nieves, however, harbors no illusions about the impact of Strasburg's absence from the Nationals' pitching staff.

"When you lose a guy like [Strasburg], it always hurts," Nieves said.  "But this is a team. We've just gotta win without him. And when he comes back, it's gonna be even better."

      

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg spoke to the media this afternoon at Nationals Park and expressed confidence that his forthcoming Tommy John elbow ligament reconstruction surgery, and subsequent rehabilitation, will be successful.

Strasburg admitted that he suffered a jolt upon learning that he would require surgery to replace the torn ligament.

"It was kind of a shock to me," Strasburg said, "because I really didn't feel anything."

Speaking calmly and confidently, Strasburg quickly put his injury and forthcoming surgery into perspective.

"In a way, it's good that it happened now," Strasburg said, "instead of when we're going to the postseason or getting ready for the World Series."

"It's a new challenge," Strasburg said. "I want to be the best at everything.  Right now I'm going to be the best at rehabbing and getting back out here."

Strasburg said that he has had the opportunity to discuss his injury and recovery path with fellow right-handed pitcher Jordan Zimmermann, who returned to the major leagues on Wednesday evening after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2009.

"[Zimmermann] was telling me that, especially early on, you're going to be questioning yourself," Strasburg said. "It's going to feel really, really good on some days, and the next day it'll be tight."

Strasburg recognizes that the major leagues are replete with successful returnees from elbow ligament reconstruction, "all the guys in the big leagues who are Cy Young contenders, Hall of Famers who have had this surgery."

Expressing confidence in the skills of orthopedic surgeon Lewis A. Yocum MD -- who also performed the procedure on Zimmermann -- Strasburg said, "It's become such a specialty.  I'm going to the best."

"I know deep down inside," Strasburg said, "that I'm going to work just as hard, if not harder, than any of these guys who had to go through it before."

Strasburg did not immediately consider that the pain he felt after throwing the pitch in Philadelphia that resulted in his removal from Saturday night's game might indicate an elbow issue.

"It felt more like a flexor strain than anything," Strasburg said.  "It felt like my forearm cramped up.  That was about it."

In the opinion of Strasburg's medical team, as stated by team general manager Mike Rizzo at a media teleconference this morning, Strasburg's injury was "an acute injury caused by a single pitch."  Strasburg himself, however, did not seem to think that was the only possibility.

"What happened the other night [on the mound in Philadelphia] was something I'd felt before," Strasburg said, "and nothing was torn then.  I don't know what the doctors think, but I think it might've been more something that happened over time."

Team general manager Mike Rizzo reaffirmed the team's intention, despite Strasburg's setback, to build a credible rotation by all means possible -- "via free agency, trades, or developing our own.  That's always our primary goal."

"We're certainly not going to stop looking for the ultimate starting rotation," Rizzo said.  "A year goes fast, and a year from now [Strasburg] will be toeing the rubber."

"We're going to be ready to take off from there," Rizzo said.

Nationals field manager Jim Riggleman said he learned just before Thursday night's game of the likely need for Strasburg to undergo surgery.

Riggleman did not understate the impact that Strasburg's absence will have on the team.

"When you lose a guy that is this talented, it's hard to replace that," Riggleman said, indicating that it might take one or more pitchers to fill the rotation void left by Strasburg.

"We just want to put a staff together that'll get us through the remainder of this year and the upcoming season," Riggleman said, "to make us as competitive and keep moving forward as we've been trying to do."

Zimmermann's rehabilitation was cited by Riggleman as an experience from which Strasburg could project his own future.

"Whether it's on the surface or subconsciously, it's got to affect Stephen a little bit that he saw the work Zimmermann put in in Viera on his comeback," Riggleman said.  "He saw Zimmermann work and he saw the progress from where he was to where he is now, right there hands-on with him" instead of only hearing of other elbow-reconstruction recoverees, such as John Smoltz, at second hand.

Riggleman talked about the injury risks faced by present-day pitchers.

"When I see these pitchers throw, I'm almost more surprised when they don't end up with surgery," Riggleman said.  "So many of them break down."

"You sense that, if you put twelve names in a hat, three of them are going to need surgery," Riggleman said.  "That's just a fact."

Riggleman spoke confidently of his eventual hope to have Strasburg and Zimmermann working in the same rotation.

"It's still gonna happen," Riggleman said.  "It's just gonna be another year before it happens."

      

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Pitcher Stephen Strasburg has been diagnosed with a "significant tear" in the ligament of his pitching elbow and will probably require Tommy John surgery to reconstruct the ligament, Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo announced on Friday morning.

Strasburg had been removed during the fifth inning of the Nationals' game in Philadelphia last Saturday after he winced in pain while pitching.  A "dry" magnetic resonance imaging scan was performed on Sunday, the results of which led the team to request a contrast MRI arthrogram to be performed on Wednesday.

"After reviewing the arthrogram, we've come to the conclusion, our medical team, that Stephen Strasburg has a significant tear in his ulnar collateral ligament," Rizzo told reporters via teleconference from Nationals Park.

The results of Wednesday's arthrogram were actually known Thursday night, but were not disclosed publicly until Friday morning.

"Stephen requested that we not break the news last night," Rizzo said, "because he didn't want to rain on Bryce Harper's parade."  Harper, the first overall selection in the 2010 Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft, was introduced to the media Thursday by team executives.

Strasburg, 21, the first overall selection in the 2009 draft, had been envisioned as the centerpiece of a revitalized Nationals pitching rotation, which has suffered through several seasons of disappointing results. Instead, the rookie right-hander is likely to be spending all of the 2011 season rehabilitating from the injury and surgery.

"We're going to persevere, we're going to move on," Rizzo said in expressing the team's determination not to be sidetracked by the latest news of Strasburg's injury.

"We're going to get our rotation intact," Rizzo said. "We'll be ready to take off in the 2011 season, and beyond with Stephen Strasburg."

A second opinion will be sought from California orthopedist Lewis A. Yocum MD before a definite decision is made to proceed with surgery.

"We're not going to drag this out," Rizzo said. "If the second opinion is surgery, we'll certainly have surgery as soon as maybe the next day."

Most ligament-reconstruction patients experience a full recovery and return to activity. Strasburg's recovery is expected to take 12 to 18 months, although right-hander Jordan Zimmermann -- the most recent Nationals pitcher to have returned to action after the procedure, which was also performed by Yocum -- was back on the mound in just under a year.

Rizzo sounded optimistic that similar results could be achieved in Strasburg's case:  "We've got a big, powerful [21]-year old right-handed pitcher [in Strasburg] with power stuff."

"The success rate for guys coming back from Tommy John [surgery] and retaining that stuff is very good," Rizzo said.  "We saw two examples of it here on the mound yesterday at Nationals Park."  Besides Zimmermann -- yesterday's starting pitcher for the Nationals -- St. Louis' Thursday starting pitcher, Chris Carpenter, has also successfully recovered from the procedure.

While it is difficult to determine whether the injury occurred suddenly or had been building over time, Rizzo reported that the former was most likely the case.

"[Strasburg's physicians] think it was an acute injury from a particular pitch," Rizzo said, while admitting "you can't rule out that there was something there [previously]."

Ironically, according to team president Stan Kasten, Strasburg has not been experiencing pain while awaiting the medical interpretation of his MRI procedures.

"Part of the challenge of this past week is that Stephen's felt pretty good and still feels OK," Kasten said.  "That's why this has been so confounding as we got to a final prognosis."

Strasburg had experienced arm pain on occasion while pitching at San Diego State University prior to being drafted by the Nationals in 2009.

"He did pitch through it," Kasten said.  "It seems clear that whatever [Strasburg's arm pain] felt like [then], it was a different thing [from the pain he experienced Saturday]."

"We did an MRI when we signed Strasburg a year ago," Kasten said. "As of yesterday, [what we saw in Strasburg's elbow is] very different."

Strasburg had spent time on the Nationals' disabled list earlier in the season after he was diagnosed with right shoulder inflammation on July 29.  He had been a late scratch from his July 27 start when he reported an inability to get his arm loose during pregame warmups.

Strasburg's Saturday start in Philadelphia was his third since his return from the DL.  His next start is likely to be delayed until 2012.

      

The Washington Nationals managed to score just five runs over three games against the Chicago Cubs, whose pitching is the fourth-worst in the National League.  So it's reasonable to wonder what they can realistically expect to accomplish this weekend at Nationals Park against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals, whose pitching is the league's second-best.

Perhaps the Nationals' free fall toward the MLB cellar -- they've lost 13 of their last 17 contests -- will continue relatively unimpeded, particularly now that they've lost slugger Josh Willingham for the season.  On the other hand, perhaps the Nats can benefit by exploiting the pressure that must be weighing on the Cardinals, who have lost seven of their last 10 games -- and, unlike the Cubs, have something to play for, entering the weekend three and a half games behind NL-Central-leading Cincinnati.

Just over a year after succumbing to an elbow ligament tear that required season-ending Tommy John surgery, right-hander Jordan Zimmermann is back to the majors and ready to face St. Louis on Thursday evening.  If his record in the minors this season -- which features a 1.59 earned run average over 39 2/3 innings at four levels -- is any indication, the Cardinals won't find the going any easier in Washington, at least to start with, than they did earlier this week when they dropped two out of three to Pittsburgh.

The Nats' probable starters for the rest of this weekend's series will be left-hander Scott Olsen (3-6 win-loss record, 5.21 ERA) on Friday evening, right-hander Livan Hernandez (8-9, 3.36) on Saturday evening and lefty John Lannan (5-6, 5.23) on Sunday afternoon.

On the mound Thursday evening for St. Louis will be 35-year-old right-handed workhorse Chris Carpenter (14-4, 2.88), who has already delivered 184 innings of work with probably seven starts (after tonight's) left on his calendar.  He'll be followed on Friday by left-hander Jaime Garcia (11-6, 2.42) fresh off an 89-pitch complete-game shutout against San Francisco.

The remainder of the weekend will feature a pair of right-handed starters for the Cardinals: recent surgery returnee Kyle Lohse (2-5, 6.47) on Saturday and staff ace Adam Wainwright (17-8, 2.18) -- who, sometime during the first week of September, should log his 200th inning of work for the 2010 season -- on Sunday.

      

The early hook for Stephen Strasburg wasn't the only big event for the Washington Nationals on Saturday night, as it turns out.  During the middle of the ninth inning, Washington Nationals center fielder Nyjer Morgan (apparently; the incident seems not to have been caught on camera) threw a baseball into the crowd, hitting one of the paying customers.

While it's not known whether Morgan had anyone in particular in mind or, if so, whether the attendee he hit was his intended target, Major League Baseball announced moments ago that he's been issued a seven-day suspension for the action.  The announcement was made by Bob Watson, MLB's vice president of on-field operations.

If you're wondering why you still see Morgan's name in the Wednesday evening lineup, it's not an accident:  he's decided to file an appeal, as permitted by MLB rules.  Thus, Morgan's suspension, according to the MLB announcement, "will be held in abeyance until the process is complete."

And should you be itching to hear Morgan's side of the story, we are right there with you.  No word yet, though, on when the appeal will be heard.