Fantasy Washington Dc

The plane barely pulled up before hitting the water last night, as the Nationals ended their nine game tailspin by squeaking one out against the Braves; Mark Teixeira and Chipper Jones tried to make things spicy, but Jon Rauch (after a questionable Chad Cordero "save attempt") slammed the door on the A-T-L. After the game, the Washington Post reports (via Mister Irrelevant) that Jim Bowden was absurdly enthusiastic and maybe a little sarcastic with his praise of the win to manager Manny Acta in the clubhouse.

Long after the Washington Nationals mercifully ended a nine-game losing streak yesterday evening ... General Manager Jim Bowden burst through the door to the coaches' locker room just off the home clubhouse at Nationals Park.

'Manny!' he screamed to his manager, one Manny Acta. 'One in a row, baby! On a streak! The lead's down to three and a half.'

Ha. Ha. Ha. That's what my equally sarcastic reaction would be -- I'm assuming I can't punch and/or slap my boss, here -- if Bowden stormed into my locker room and shouted that. Dude, Jimbo, we just came off a nine game skid.

People can only be so enthusiastic about a new ballpark, m'kay? Bowden's a good guy and he's done a fairly nice job rebuilding a team that didn't really want to do anything monetarily until they got in the new park (you really should have traded Soriano though, Jimmy). Plus, he hired and has retained Manny Acta, who still remains pretty freaking underrated in the managerial world. Still, though, that's fairly unnecessary.

Bonus Fantasy Spin: In case you missed it in the first paragraph, Chad Cordero almost blew another save. With Acta's back completely up against the wall -- nine game losing streak about to go to ten, men all over the bases, bullpen melting down, etc. -- he turned to Rauch, who bailed him the eff out. That's something to think about before you go making wavier claims for "The Chief"; I'd probably hold onto Rauch for now too. Wouldn't be surprised to see him take over the closer's role, much less for Cordero to be still hurt.

To get you ready for draft season, Fantasy FanHouse will be running through each major league team, covering lineups, rotations and sleeper/busts.

Meet the ...
Most undervalued manager in MLB. Manny Acta does get some love, but mostly from "statheads", and he should get much more. Unfortunately, people are too busy being excited about Dusty Baker's return. But that's a whole 'nuther diamond full of clogged bases. Anywho, Acta will have his work cut out for him again this year with a Nationals team that gets a new ballpark but not a new squad. For the Nats, there is Ryan Zimmerman. And then there is everyone else. Zimmerman is a top flight option at third for any fantasy team. After that ... well, Shawn Hill pitched well and under the radar last year, so consider him a nice back of rotation starter. Wily Mo Pena will hit homers and strike out a lot. It's what he does. Towering moon shot --> golden sombrero. Austin Kearns and Nick Johnson always seem ripe with potential, but that's what I said about Chuck too. See how that panned out.

The Breakout
Lastings Milledge was once thought to be the pride of the Mets organization. Then they traded him for not much. In fact, pretty much just a catcher. So that was odd. Milledge still has skills and he strikes me as the type of guy that might play the vengeance card in D.C. He's also locked into a starting role and should have plenty of run. No reason not to gamble on him late in a draft or for cheap at an auction. His speed on the basepaths doesn't hurt either.

The Bust
I mean, really. It's tough to predict one. I would say John Patterson, but he doesn't get enough love to qualify. Instead, let's roll with Paul Lo Duca. Yes, he is a catcher. Yes, he is borderline undraftable. But that "borderline" shouldn't be an issue. Just don't touch him. He goes to a worse offense, he has been implicated in the Mitchell Report, and while catcher "doesn't matter", it does matter not to get a totally horrible one. I bet you can get Rockies backstop Chris Iannetta for the same price, if not cheaper.

From a fantasy hockey perspective, Chris Clark of the Washington Capitals was one of those quality depth guys at forward -- someone who knew how to cash in on the offensive opportunities created by playing on the top line, to the tune of 30 goals and 54 points last season. Depending on the scoring of the fantasy league, Clark was ranked higher as a right winger than players like Glen Murray, Brian Gionta and Alexei Kovalev.

The Capitals made some significant additions to their offense during the off-season, which made me wonder if the captain would return to play with Alexander Ovechkin this season. So I asked him during media day several days ago what his role might be:

"Things are a lot different this year. It all depends on how things happen at camp. In camp, you never know what's going to happen. If we're a championship team or a playoff team, back-up goalie is fine with me. As long as we're winning."

Clark won't be replacing Brent Johnson, but he also won't be on Ovechkin's line, either. Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post reports today that Clark has been moved to the Capitals' checking line:

Clark is expected to start the season skating with center Boyd Gordon and left wing Matt Pettinger. Although their primary responsibility will be to shut down the opposing team's best offensive players, Hanlon hopes the trio also will chip in with 50 or more goals, which would put them among the league's elite checking units.

The lineup change can be read several ways. Foremost for Clark, it likely means an end to the consecutive career offensive years he's had and, potentially, a decrease in his 16 power-play points from last season. But, as El-Bashir points out, Clark could be relocated to one of the top two lines should either Tomas Fleischmann or Nicklas Backstrom falter. More importantly for Washington, the move signals a quality depth at forward the franchise hasn't seen in years -- depth that has players like Ottawa's Jason Spezza calling the Capitals a dark horse in the Eastern Conference.

Redskins running back Clinton Portis continues to suffer from tendinitis in his right knee, and the condition kept him out of Tuesday's training camp practice.

It's the latest piece of bad news on the injury front for Portis, who got hurt in the Redskins' first 2006 preseason game (shortly after saying he didn't think veterans should have to play in the preseason because of the risk of injury) and was never fully healthy last season. Portis missed half the year and finished with just 523 rushing yards, almost 1,000 yards below his previous career average.

With Chris Samuels likely to miss the entire preseason with a knee injury, the Redskins' offense won't be at full speed for a while. If there's any good news for Redskins fans, it's that Ladell Betts played very well in place of Portis last year. They may need him to do the same this year.

Big ups to Hogs Haven for finding this nugget. Here is Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell ... well ... just watch!

Seriously, Bud Selig must really hate us. To start the season he figured that keeping his customers from being able to watch his product, was a good idea. Thankfully, reason prevailed in that case. Unfortunately, since Bud couldn't get that from us, now he's going after fantasy baseball.

Attorneys representing Major League Baseball argued Thursday that online fantasy baseball companies cannot operate without paying license fees to MLB to compensate players for the use of their names. A panel of three judges at the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seemed skeptical that MLB could take financial control of a game that uses publicly available statistics and widely known names of players. "MLB is like a public religion. Everyone knows (the players') names and what they look like," said U.S. Judge Morris Arnold. "This is just part of being an American, isn't it?"

I just can't figure out why fans don't like this guy.

I wouldn't exactly worry about losing fantasy baseball, as Judge Arnold said, the case doesn't carry much weight. It's just another case where Bud Selig is so concerned about making money for the game, that he couldn't care less about us, just our dollars.

Of course, if it somehow did go through, it would be great news for everyone else in our MLB Fanhouse League. My team, ironically named Selig Ate My Baby, has a huge lead on everybody else. Their seasons are already over.

(Thanks to Deadspin)

Previously at The Fanhouse:
Congress's DirecTV Pleas Fall On Deaf Ears
Democracy Wins! Cable Granted Access To 'Extra Innings'