Nationals release Lo Duca, Estrada, and Lopez

Jim Bowden and Manny Acta had been showcasing Lo Duca and Lopez for the last month, in hopes of getting a deal done. But Lo Duca was only hitting .230 and Lopez .234, not nearly high enough to garner a trade for a prospect or even a vat of fat. But F-Lop and Lo Duca left with some good things to say, and came out of this looking classy. Lo Duca wanted to apologize to the fans for his play.

"I apologize to the organization and the fans....I'm a better baseball player than I played."

and Lopez left without saying anything bad about the organization.

"This is definitely not the end of me. I'm still young. I'm healthy. It didn't go well for me here, but it's not the end of the world. I wish everybody the best. I've got nothing bad to say about the Nationals."

The Nationals will put the future on display for the last two months of the season, including recent acquisitions Emilio Bonaficio and Alberto Gonzalez. Finally the Nationals are actually going young, the Nationals fans were promised this last year. Since trader Jim realizes old ball players on last place teams are not good trade pieces he starts the youth movement. It should have happened a long time ago. Here is what he had to say:

"We're going to turn the page, and we're going to get younger for the last
two months," Bowden said. "We're going to continue to develop young players. We
want players here that are going to hustle, that are going to play the game hard
and play the game right."

Oh and Elijah "Your Dead Dawg" Dukes returns less than four weeks after suffering damage to both the meniscus and patellar tendon in his right knee which he suffered during a game in Cincinnati. He went 5-for-15 in three rehab games at Columbus.

The Nationals will need to make another move prior to Friday's game to clear one more spot on the 25-man roster.