http://river-dogz.com Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:32:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Wrigleyville: The Nats schooled the Baby Bears yesterday, 13-5 and that makes two wins in a row. Shocked? This wouldn't be the first time the Nats played well against the sluggies. Back in late April, the Nats took two of three from the Cubs, with John Lannan turning in a stellar ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/08/23/nats-tame-baby-bears/ Down On Half Street: In the midst of this nasty ten game skid, there is some good news -- at least we don't have Felipe Lopez to kick around anymore. We can leave that to Tony LaRussa. (Then too, Ryan Langerhans is still here -- so thank God for that.) The former Cincy ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/08/18/what-i-thought-about-this-week-viii/ Injuries, especially to a pitching staff, make teams scramble to plug the holes. The Red Sox, four games in back of the Rays when the evening started and licking many wounds in their starting rotation, are not immune to this fact. So it was that the wonderfully-named Charlie ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/08/13/the-art-and-design-of-pitching/ The Other Manny: Baseball fans were treated to what ails the Brew Crew on August 4, when first base slugger Prince Fielder shoved pitcher Manny Perra during a game with the Reds. The tape of Fielder's explosion was featured prominently on "Baseball Tonight" and played over and over on Milwaukee television stations. Baseball ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/08/09/the-coming-brew-crew-collapse/ Well, it has been one week since "the trade" that sent Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox to the Dodgers in return for one Jason Bay of the Pirates. So, it must be time for the deep analysis that a handful of games will allow. But first, the ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/08/07/the-manny-show-cancelled-bay-watch-a-hit-in-boston/ Down On Half Street: The Nats told us that Emilio Bonifacio and Alberto Gonzalez would bring speed and defense to the Washington line-up, in the apparent hope that we might thereby overlook their troubling deficiencies at the plate. No such luck. Neither Bonifacio nor Gonzalez have had consistent success in stroking ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/08/06/what-i-thought-about-this-week-vii/ Gonzalez and Bonafacio: The mid-summer hiatus is over, the great travel adventure to other parts of the world has ended (with apologies for the lack of posts) and, most important of all, the trade deadline is past. But not before our beloved Anacostia boys rid themselves of useless contracts and hangers-on, and set ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/08/01/under-the-gun/ As The Deadline Approaches: There is a common notion now abroad among baseball analysts that, at least during the dog days of July, the baseball world is divided into two kinds of people -- "buyers" and "sellers." These words are used to denote whether a team is contending or not and, therefore, whether it ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/07/13/trading-jon-rauch/ Down On Half Street: Let us now dispense forever with the tiresome: "Houston you have a problem" signs and simply note that while the cynics say that it was only a matter of time before the Nats' bats were loosed against the likes of the lowly Astros, it was damned good to ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/07/12/what-i-thought-about-this-week-vi/ The Fanbase: Recent numbers reported by Dan Steinberg in his sports blog reflect a woeful story. MASN's Nat's numbers have dropped precipitously over the last year -- so that now there are only 9000 households in DC who tune into Nats games, a figure that is down 43.5 percent from last ... http://river-dogz.com/2008/07/10/masn-and-the-dc-numbers-game/