A Lost Weekend

I was at a wedding in West Virginia this weekend, so I missed an entire weekend of sports. Here are some of the things I heard about-

- GAH! Strasburg needs Tommy John's... (For those of you that do not know, this procedure involves replacing a torn ligament in a person's elbow with a new ligament, often a cadaver's achillies tendon, which in many cases makes the elbow much stronger. It is a one time operation.) You know, 5 years ago this would have been devastating. However, there is a growing list of first class pitchers who have had the operation and are now back and (possibly) better than ever: Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, Josh Johnson, AJ Burnett, Francisco Liriano and Tim Hudson all had Tommy John's. Stras's own teammate, Jordan Zimmermann, recently came back from the surgery throwing at the same speed he did before needing it. So while I am upset that we will be without my man-crush for the 2011 season, I believe that he will be able to come back strong, still have his command and nasty breaking pitches, and still have the heat. Some say you can throw even harder post-TJ. If so, watch out for that 105 mph cutter, National League.

- My Nats also signed Livan Hernandez to a 1-year extension. I love me some Livan, and if he is willing to keep eating up innings and take 1 year incentive-heavy deals, then we could keep him around for three more seasons.

- John Lannan pitched a beauty as we somehow took 3 of 4 from the Cardinals. Sending him down to the minors was probably the best thing for his career. He looks excellent now.

- Manny went to Chicago. The White Soxs didn't have to give anything up. They aren't even paying him. Why not take him on? They are in second anyway, and he might be the spark they need to catch the Twins.

- Lots of NFL stuff from over the weekend, mainly involving the stupid new umpire placement and injuries. McNabb will be fine. A-Rog and the Packers look great. Peyton will still be fine no matter where the umpire stands. The Ravens are a nasty team.

- Sam Bradford looked solid, and found his new favorite weapon twice in the end zone- rookie tight end Michael Hoomanawanui. Say it with me kids- Ho-OH-ma-Now-uh-noo-ee.

- US Open is starting today- my picks are Maria "One of my many girlfriends" Sharapova and Andy Murray, though it will probably end up being Nadal vs Federer for the first time and some other woman whose name I cannot pronounce.

- Michelle Wie won the Canadian Open. She has now won in Canada and Mexico. Get a major in the US and all the hype will be worth it.

- The Washington Mystics won the Eastern Conference regular season... Then, like the Washington Capitals, lost in the first round of the playoffs.

- College football starts on Thursday! Cuse plays Akron on Friday. Not expecting big things from my Orangemen this year, but some improvement would be nice.

More musings later.