MASNsports.com is your online home for the latest Orioles and Nationals news, features, and commentary. And now, you can connect with MASN on every digital level. From web and social media to our new mobile alert service, MASN has got all the bases covered.
Get the latest breaking news direct to your phone with our mobile texting service.
Good afternoon. Just a couple quick links I wanted to pass along to you, both from our site and a couple other places on the web:
First, Mike Rizzo's video blog for this week is up here, and if you haven't seen it yet, it's definitely worth checking out. The Nationals GM was gracious enough to invite us to his suite at Nationals Park and give us an inside look at what he does during a game, from watching the action on the field to tracking minor league games to calling other GMs with trade proposals. For me, it was a fun look into a part of Rizzo's day few of us get to see, and I think you'll enjoy it, too.
For those of you in MASN's fantasy baseball leagues, head here to check out how you're doing. Once there, you'll note that my team, Golden Goose, is awesome. I was second in my league (The Goessling Game) this week, and won Kristen Hudak's league (Nats Buzz). How do you like that, Who Dat?
If you're not in one of these leagues, I'd recommend signing up. It's free to play, the format is pretty simple and there are prizes given to winners each week, which include signed items from Nationals and Orioles players. Even though the season is underway, it's not too late to win some cool stuff.
Collin Balester's wife, Ashley, blogs about heading to Viera, Fla., for a couple weeks, where the Nationals are converting Collin Balester to a reliever. In here, she also talks about Matt Chico heading to Syracuse.
There's been a lot of talk today about Tyler Clippard, whether his results are for real and if there's a drop-off in his performance when he enters a game in the middle of an inning as opposed to starting it. FanGraphs has an interesting look at Clippard, and Federal Baseball discusses it in detail here. And if you want to join the Clippard discussion from today's edition of Second Look, that's here.
One quick note on the Fox/Strasburg conspiracy theory I threw out over the weekend: Fox apparently moved its blackout window for next Saturday's games to 7:00 p.m., so it can show a few marquee interleague matchups in prime time. That means all the other games are starting at 4:00, not 7:00, next week, including Nationals-Orioles. So the 4:00 start at Nationals Park has nothing to do with Fox picking up the game (in light of a possible Strasburg debut); it's exactly the opposite. It was fun while it lasted, though, wasn't it?
