These bits of news probably have a connection. Paul Lo Duca underwent knee surgery yesterday because of a torn meniscus. He is said to only be missing 4-6 weeks of action, which would mean he would be ready for Opening Day anyway. We mall know what happened to Nick Johnson. Here comes Johnny Estrada. Estrada is a switch-hitter, and the Nats currently have a serious lefty deficit. He's had a couple of good seasons over the years with Atlanta and Arizona. Last year he played for Milwaukee, and only threw out 11 out of 84 base steelers. The Brewers basically threw him away at the end of the season, trading him to the Mets for infamous reliever Guillermo Mota. After acquiring Brian Schneider from the Nats in the Milledge deal, the Mets non-tendered Estrada, making him a free agent. The deal is reportedly worth $1.25 million, which pretty much seems like back-up money to me. Unless the Nationals don't think Blowduca will turn out or if the injury is worse than we think. This means that Jesus Flores will be a regular in the minors in '08. He definitely needs some quality time for developing into a #1 MLB catcher. I've always appreciated the work of Estrada, so who knows how he'll turn out. At least this can pretty much be a guarantee that we won't be seeing Chad Moeller as our backup catcher anytime soon. Whew! And, to tell you the truth, I really wish Drug Boy/ Blowduca/ Pusher/ Deciple-on-Roids/ Dealer stays injured for a long, long time. $5 million down the drain. Capitol Punishment has a hilarious Lo Duca piece here. Tim Dierkes of mlbtraderumors.com made a nice point about Jim Bowden stocking up the roster with veterans. Any thoughts?
You probably already know this, but Johan Santana was traded today to the Mets for four prospects--Carlos Gomez, Phil Humber (loser), Deolis Guerra, and Kevin Mulvey. That pretty much sums up the top of the NL East for at least 2008. They now have a 72-hour window to sign Johan to the appropriate contract extension in order to make this baby final. The Yankees and Red Sox certainly had better packages on the table back around the Winter Meetings. I think the Twins pretty much blew it. Phil Humber???
Random question: Whatever happened to Tomo Ohka? I was always a big fan before the Frank Robinson thing. The answer: He was released by the Blue Jays early last season after going 2-5 with a 5.79 ERA in 10 starts. He's since been in the minors for a few different organizations. He's now a Minor League Free Agent, and doesn't even crack mlb.com's top free agent list. I mean, Micah Bowie was on that list. Jason Simontacchi still is. That's how highly they think of him. I'd bring him back on a minor league deal to compete for a rotation spot. I always find it fun to look at the stats of old (circa 2005) Nats players. You should give it a shot.
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