A National disgrace in Washington

Baseball Betting Lines

07/09/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In the National League East, four of the five teams in the division can still see the top of the standings, save for the Washington Nationals.

The Nats now have the worst record in all of baseball (34-57) and while Florida and the Mets are within 1 1/2 games of the first-place Phillies and Atlanta is just five games out despite a rough 10-game stretch, Washington can barely get out of its own way these days. On Tuesday night the Nationals opened a three-game homestand with Arizona by failing to score a single run for the second time in the last four outings. The 2-0 setback dropped Washington to just 1-3 on the season versus the Diamondbacks and 2-9 against the club over the last two years.

Since sweeping each three-game series at home against Arizona in both 2005 and 2006, the Nats are still waiting for their next home win versus the D'Backs. Washington, which currently owns the longest losing streak in the NL (six games) and has dropped eight of the last 10 overall, has been shut out an astounding 11 times already this season. In each of the past two seasons the Nationals have bounced back from having losing months in March/April, May and June by playing above .500 in July, but with a 1-6 start to the month the team is destined to give their dismal 9-18 mark of 2005 a run for their money.

With a nine-game road trip on the horizon after the 79th All-Star Game next week, the outlook doesn't appear too promising for the Nationals. Although, heading into the Midsummer Classic, Washington does catch Houston at home for three games and the team has managed to take 10 of the last 18 meetings with the Astros since the beginning of the 2006 campaign.

CRISTIAN BLESSED WITH ALL-STAR SELECTION

Needing to find a representative from the Washington Nationals for the All- Star Game in New York next week, the National League opted to choose Cristian Guzman. The shortstop seems like the only sensible choice given that he's played in all but three games for the Nats and leads the club in quite a number of statistical categories.

A nine-year veteran who was initially drafted by the New York Yankees in 1995 but never represented the Bronx Bombers in the majors, Guzman already has more hits this season (119) than he's had in any of the previous three. Guzman leads the team in both doubles (25) and runs scored (50), the latter more than double the total of all but just three of his teammates at the moment.

Although he had his 14-game hit streak snapped on Tuesday night in the loss to Arizona, Guzman, who has knocked in just a total of five runs since June 13, still ranks as one of the team leaders in RBI. However, that stat (29 RBI) tends to be misleading because the two men ahead of him, Lastings Milledge (32 RBI) and Jesus Flores (30) have both played far fewer games than Guzman.

This is the second time in his career that Guzman has been invited to the All- Star game, first earning a spot on the 2001 American League roster when he was a member of the Minnesota Twins. In his only All-Star at-bat at Safeco Field seven years ago, Guzman struck out.

WHO'S HOT

Since coming off the disabled list last week, Austin Kearns has accounted for six hits in 19 at-bats. Similarly, Dmitri Young has also generated six hits in the last five games for the team and now has 32 hits in his last 32 games with the club. In addition, Young has added to his on-base percentage in the last week with a total of seven walks.

WHO'S NOT

The Nationals as a whole have been in a hitting slump the last six games, batting a collective .212 with just one home run and a total of nine extra- base hits. The lone long ball was sent out by Elijah Dukes, the outfielder adding a pair of doubles during the stretch as well. However, the team will have to try and make up for his production now due to the fact that he's been sent to the DL with torn cartilage and a partially torn tendon in his right knee. Willie Harris, who has started four of the last six games for the Nats, has just three hits in his last 20 at-bats.

ON DECK

The Nationals play the second of a three-game set against Arizona Wednesday night at home, sending John Lannan (4-9) to the hill to counter Micah Owings (6-7). Thursday night finds Jason Bergmann (1-6) trying to dig himself out of a miserable hole this season, as he sets up against Dan Haren (8-5) for the Diamondbacks. Houston comes to town on Friday night for three straight heading into the All-Star Break, with the Nationals throwing Tim Redding (6-3) at Roy Oswalt (7-8).

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.

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