Stepping forward or remaining silent
Submitted by Jeff on Sat, 12/15/2007 - 8:48am.
- The Nationals and their new catcher, Paul Lo Duca, are remaining quiet about the Mitchell Report even though Lo Duca is named as one of dozens of players who used performance enhancing drugs. One unnamed "expert" tells MLB.com that it's unlikely that the Nats would void the contract because Lo Duca, while named in the report, "has never been convicted of anything, and he has never broken any rules of baseball".
- While Lo Duca has remained quiet, a former Nat catcher has not: Gary Bennett, named in the report, admitted that he used HGH. Bennett used the drugs while recovering from a knee injury with San Diego in 2003, but not since, including his time with the Nats in 2005. "Obviously, it was a stupid decision," he told the Post in an interview. "It was a mistake."
- The Nats are interested in free agent pitchers Mark Prior and Jason Jennings, MLB.com reports. Prior, once a star with the Cubs, has been hobbled by injuries in recent years and did not pitch at all in 2007 because of a shoulder injury that could also keep him off the mound until mid-May. Jennings, previously identified as a potential Nats signing, also suffered from injuries and poor performance last season with the Astros.
- The Nats will get to open the season at home and on ESPN, a "source close to the situation" tells the Times. The Nats and Braves will play on Sunday night, March 30, on ESPN; that game will replace an April 28 game previously on the schedule. The game will be the first 2008 regular-season game in North America, after two season-opening games in Japan between the A's and Red Sox.
- So how are you going to park for that opening game and the 80 that will follow at Nationals Park? A DC councilman is proposing strict time limits on parking and much higher meter rates on streets around the ballpark. That proposal, according to Tommy Wells, would encourage people to find alternatives to street parking for ballgames, keeping the street parking available to businesses and residents. "We do have kind of a transportation crisis looming around the stadium," he said.