Phil Wood’s still honking…who knew?

This brings us back to balls and strikes, and the case of minor league ump—and big league fill-in—John Tumpane.

Tumpane was behind the plate May 12 when the Nationals played the Cubs.

Tumpane is a Triple-A guy who’s called up when a regular ump has a day off. He started getting major league assignments in 2010 when he was only 27 and apparently believes that close enough is good enough.

When a pitch is so far off the plate that the catcher makes no ...

Didn’t listen to the game…but Scully had to mention Pete Reiser.

Bryce Harper left Monday’s Los Angeles Dodgers-Washington Nationals game after crashing into the right field wall trying to catch a ball during the fifth inning.

Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis led off the bottom of the inning with a drive to right, and the Nationals phenom went face-first into the right field scoreboard trying to make the play. He was bleeding from his face/chin after the collision. Harper left the game ...

Using Richard Goodwin-Shares…this rates very highly as a political speech.

Johnson is a proven leader, and I’m not referring to his career wins and losses or three World Series championships.

I’m talking about a man who was bold enough at 19 years old to challenge former Texas A&M baseball coach Tom Chandler for telling him he’d get a full four-year ride when the scholarship contract only promised him one guaranteed year at the school.

I’m talking about a man who was savvy enough to create a ...

It’s too early in the season to make any hardcore declarations about what Harper is and isn’t doing—these things take time, you know—but we can get some ideas about possible developments from what is there. For one, Harper to this point has cut his strikeout ratio down to 15 percent, or a little less than what he produced in the high minors, rather than last year’s 20 percent of the time. It’s how he was hitting .344 entering action on Wednesday night, despite a batting average on balls in play ...

Latest round of McCatty remarks…

McCatty passionately defended Strasburg this afternoon, saying that the expectations that media members and fans have placed on Strasburg have reached unfair levels, with it getting to the point that Strasburg almost is in a no-win situation.

“You guys put these levels on this guy that are almost unrealistic. You see something so talented, which he is, and when you saw that he was at times so good, you expect it every time,” McCatty said. “... His standards ...

Friction! Dark day for these no wave types?

By now, you’re no doubt familiar with the ongoing controversy roiling Nats Town and attracting national attention, involving pro- and anti-wave forces. Players are largely against it, from what we can tell. A large and vocal faction of fans is also trying to end the wave.

The battle reached a boiling point on Saturday afternoon, when one fan sitting near the back of Section 109 repeatedly attempted to start a wave during later innings — ...

Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg turned in a quality start against the rival Braves on Monday night, but now he’s receiving treatment for forearm tightness. MASN’s Dan Kolko tweets that Strasburg is receiving medication and being examined by team doctors. Manager Davey Johnson told reporters it’s too early to know whether Strasburg will be able to make his next start. Consider the situation to be developing.

While there’s no indication that this is anything serious, it of course bears ...

Bryce: No longer a fractal landscape…but a full season in.

Because the season started a little later last year, the past calendar year includes more than 162 games for a few guys, but Harper is right at 162 after yesterday. And in those 162 games, he’s been one of the ten best players in baseball. Some fun facts from Harper’s first full season.

Over the last year, he has a .234 ISO. Prince Fielder has a .233 ISO.

Harper is still learning how to hit lefties, which isn’t unusual for a ...

No letter on catcher/non-eye catcher, Andy Etchebarren. And that’s a damn shame.

Another part of it is that Johnson learned that former Dodgers and Cardinals GM Branch Rickey - a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and famously known for being the guy to sign Jackie Robinson - liked Johnson when he was a prospect in the Orioles organization.

As you can see in this letter found in the Library in Congress (and put online by Twitter user bettilupi), Rickey recommended to the Cardinals’ ...

Megdal. Ian Desmond. Go.

Quick: name the shortstop who led the major leagues in home runs last year. I’ll give you a hint: he also led in OPS+, posted an above-average defensive season per Ultimate Zone Rating, and held down the position for the team with the National League’s best record. And he’s only 27, suggesting his best days are just ahead of him.

Hopefully, you know I’m referring to Ian Desmond, shortstop for the Washington Nationals. But while serious baseball fans have heard of ...

Why…even Face Palm Santangelo is getting testy!

After tonight’s 2-0 loss to the Cardinals, the Nats have now lost eight of their last 11 games, and Johnson is starting to get fed up with what he’s seeing.

“I’m usually pretty patient, but I’m getting to my rope’s end,” Johnson said. “The effort’s there, but we’re just not getting it done. We’ve got the players who can get it done, we’re just not getting it done. It’s time to get a little mad.

“I mean, you’ve got to tip your hat to (Adam) ...

Suddenly 11 baserunners per 9 innings is Porcello-bad.

In a game like baseball, patience pays. It’s not a good idea to jump to a conclusion too quickly or base a decision on too few facts. I offer this bit of advice based on developments in this season’s four-start performance of Stephen Strasburg.

After his first start, in which he pitched seven shutout innings and permitted three hits, USA Today called it “the first step in vindication for general manager Mike Rizzo, who took much of ...

Swagger gone…no longer money in the bank.

The Nationals took the field two weeks ago for the start of the most-anticipated season in club history brimming with confidence. They had a potent and balanced lineup, they had one of baseball’s most-dominant rotations, they had a ridiculously deep bullpen and they had a talented bench more than capable of plugging any holes that developed along the way.

They also had a swagger, starting with their manager, that suggested a ballclub with no fear and ...

Claw Orange County hammer, replicate Trout.

Some of the Nationals feel that left fielder Bryce Harper plays with a chip on his shoulder, as if he has something to prove.

“To myself, yes,” Harper says. “To everyone else, I could care less.”

Another theory among certain Nats is that Harper is hell-bent on proving that he is better than the Angels’ Mike Trout, with whom he shared headlines last season as Trout won AL Rookie of the Year while Harper took NL honors.

“We made it to ...

“I don’t want everybody to just see the baseball side of me,” Harper said, embracing the stardom that brings screaming fans (young, old, male, female) to every ballpark.

“I want everybody to see the other side of me, too — that I can be on a magazine with jeans and a T-shirt on and my hair done and things like that. I don’t want just me in my baseball hat all the time just the boring, old, ‘Look it’s Bryce Harper with eye black on again.’ I like people seeing the other ...

We can’t even think of a word that rhymes!

The topic was Johnson’s stance on plate collisions between runners and catchers, and whether he felt baseball’s rules needed to be amended to take away the inherent injury risk associated with such violent clashes of irresistible forces and immovable objects.

Johnson’s take on the subject was pretty simple. He called runners ramming catchers blocking the plate “clean, hard-nosed baseball” and placed himself squarely in the old-school camp of baseball ...

Clickers up!

Not that there was any uncertainty about it, but Davey Johnson made it official nonetheless this morning: Stephen Strasburg will start Opening Day for the Nationals.

“I guess you want me to say it,” the 70-year-old manager said. “He’s going to be my Opening Day starter. You drug it out of me.”

Johnson’s selection of Strasburg is hardly a surprise. The right-hander got the Opening Day nod last season in Chicago, then went 15-6 with a 3.16 ERA and 197 strikeouts before his ...

Two players, Mantle and Ott, took big steps forward. Conigliaro hit more homers but his overall production fell off, and Cedeno dropped to a below-average offensive player. Playing major league baseball at age 19 is a tremendous accomplishment, but even that isn’t a gold ticket to immediate superstardom.

Even with the admittedly nebulous nature involved in projecting Harper, projection systems can help show us a range of possibilities. But while projection systems can cut through human biases, ...

I remember when Googie’s Go-Go bar pulled their karaoke machine and lost a ton of biz (plus Nipples Nagurski taking her speculumbago act to NYC didn’t help).

Perhaps less noticeable—though not less notable—were the departures of two well-respected veterans: Mark DeRosa and Michael Gonzalez.

DeRosa may not have appeared on the field much last season while batting various injuries, but the 37-year-old utilityman held considerable influence within the clubhouse. Serving almost as an extra coach ...

And they’ll probably !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!!

How long have you been playing fantasy baseball?

Wuhl » I’ve been playing for over 25 years. When I started there was no internet and there were very few of us playing fantasy sports. Things have changed now and the amount of information you get on players is incredible. Now fans take fantasy baseball seriously, and I appreciate the passion and fanaticism of the people that do. I’m one of them.

Have you been to a game at Nationals Park?

Wuhl » Yes, ...

...and Other Torre Notions.

Knowing your love of baseball, what can you tell us about the legacy of Earl Weaver? (Weaver, a former Baltimore Orioles manager, passed away Saturday at 82).

“Tim Kurkjian, terrific baseball writer for ESPN, says — who knew Earl Weaver as I did — that Earl Weaver is one of the three greatest managers of all time… Earl Weaver understood the basic point of the Moneyball approach to baseball. Which is, people say baseball doesn’t have a clock. Earl Weaver ...

The Nationals would like to see Stephen Strasburg pitch 200 innings next season following a year in which Washington’s ace was shut down at just under 160 and missed the postseason.

In an interview with USA TODAY Sports, Bob Boone, the Nationals’ vice president of player development, was asked to elaborate on manager Davey Johnson’s comment in December that he has “no restrictions” for next season.

“To say there’s no restrictions really means, ‘Hey, we’d like him to pitch 200 innings,’ ” ...