<_guillen
Jose Guillen now out for the season (see the Nationals note here), and Bowden denies Soriano trade rumors (which means, of course, that a deal is in place and will be shortly announced, going by past indicators). I guess it will be kind of hard to trade Guillen now, right? And with this being his final year on his current contract, that means that the Nationals will not get anything from the loss of his services come the off-season free agent shuffle. Of course he could re-sign with the Nationals at that point, but the likelihood of that occurring are slim (despite the contract being up, the Tommy John surgery, rehab - out for maybe up to 12 months, will be paid for by the Nationals; a great take on Guillen's as a Nationals player can be found on the Nats320 blog by the people that began that Jose song).
<-Soriano Oh, and that trade denial: "All I can tell you is that we don't have a deal in place with any team at this hour on any player. That's the only comment I'm going to have," Bowden said. Apparently there are reports that Soriano would be traded to the White Sox for a pitcher (Brandon McCarthy (White Sox GM: "I have no intention whatsoever of trading him in any sort of deal. He's very much a part of our future. To answer your question, Brandon is not going anywhere.") and a center-fielder (Josh Fields). On the other hand, ESPN said that the deal was very close to getting completed (“A source told ESPN's Tim Kurkjian that a deal that would send Alfonso Soriano to the White Sox is "extremely close" to happening”). Also: The Tigers have turned down a deal to get Soriano (Soriano to Detroit for RHPs Humberto Sanchez and Jair Jurrjens, plus OF Cameron Maybin), and the Nationals turned down the counteroffer (which is not mentioned). The White Sox, Twins, Tigers, Mariners, Yankees, Angels, and Dodgers are all interested in Soriano, but Bowden is asking for a lot in return and so far the Mariner’s interest has faded, the Yankees are looking elsewhere (plus they don’t exactly have a lot of prospects to dangle in front of the Nationals), the Tigers are moving away from a deal, and the White Sox note that the players it would have to trade are part of its future.

Contract Extension for Soriano - Guillen, apparently, wanted a five year $50 million dollar deal, but the Nationals didn’t want to give him one, instead they offered that deal to Soriano before this season started. Soriano rejected that deal, and now says that he doesn’t want to talk about his contract until after the season (see the “denies” link above; also both Soriano and Stan Kasten are very stubborn people - Soriano wants a no-trade clause, and Kasten has never included a no-trade clause in a contract).

Oh, and the team is now officially owned by someone/thing other than the MLB owners.

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Tonight:
<-RFK
Barry Bonds and some other San Francisco Giants will be visiting RFK today, Wednesday and Thursday (a day game).
RHP Matt Morris (“going for his sixth straight win” - no decision last game he pitched, a win, no decision, etc.) will face off against RHP Ramon Ortiz. Morris has pitched in 20 games this year and has a record of 8-7, 4.42 ERA. In his last start on the 19th of July, Morris gave up 3 home-runs in 7 innings pitched, increasing his ERA to 4.42. For the year, Ortiz has appeared in 19 games and has a record of 6-9, 4.73 ERA. While Morris is going for his sixth straight winning decision, Ortiz is trying to avoid his fourth straight loss. The Giants (51-48) are currently 1 game back from first place in the NL West division. The Nationals are 16 games back in the NL East division, and in last place (43-56).


ESPN preview; Nationals.com preview

I know I have Ortiz somewhere, but I can't seem to find him in picture form

Projected starters:
Wednesday: Lowery (5-6, 4.45) vs. Astacio (1-1, 5.75)
<-Astacio Thursday: Cain (7-6, 4.67) vs. Hernandez (7-8, 5.80) <-Hernandez
WashingtonNationals