Did anyone think it was going to be anything else?

LaRoche has "major" shoulder problems and it's looking more and more likely he'll miss the rest of 2011. I hope everyone had learned their lessons from the previous Nationals that had minor, potentially playable through injuries that ended up needing major surgery. Once happens. Twice is a pattern. Forty-two times is malpractice. I think that's how the saying goes.

Can the Nats get a medical staff with some backbone please? Of course the players are going to want to play. Of course the management is going to want them to play. The medical staff's job though should be to deliver the tough news and hold them out if they can't; not try to view the situation in a way that allows them to play. "Most medical evidence suggests that his leg is severed, but there was a case in Albania once where it was just a mass hallucination caused by eating the KappiKappi plant. Let's roll with that potential scenario for 3 weeks".

With that being said what are the chances Nix still has both his feet in two weeks?

Oh well whatever. It gives time for the Nats to evaluate Mike Morse and Roger Bernadina at the same time to keep themselves from being fooled another year thinking they might be able to be full-time players. (of course that's silly - they'll work Ankiel into the mix just enough to keep doubt alive). For those Roger Bernadina lovers - his career BA and OBP is .246 and .307 respectively. He's hitting .246 and .307 right now. Given that he's not much of a power hitter, what type of major league hitter do you think he is? .280 and .365? I'd still give him till the All-Star break but that's only because I want to remove all doubt. For those Mike Morse lovers - it's been like 3 games. Calm down. He will hit better because he is a better hitter than he showed in the first month. But he needs to keep this up for a good long stretch. Given that it's doubtful he can play 1st next year he has to hit like last year to justify starting him in the OF, where he can't really play.

One more thing from the above link

With Adam LaRoche on the disabled list, Riggleman has said Michael Morse, Matt Stairs, Alex Cora and even Ankiel could see time at first base. Ankiel has never played first, but has been taking grounders there in practice.

If Alex Cora, who hasn't been an average hitter since 2004, who has "slugged" over .400 once in his career, who is the definition of "veteran MI on the bench because your manager loves veterans and you always need a MI", starts a game at first base I think the franchise should fold.

Ed Note : I wait until after I post to read any Nats blogs, mainly because I'm afraid I'll have nothing new to say and then not post anything. Occasionally this means I get a situation where I write nearly the same exact thing as someone else. So go read FJB's hours earlier take on the LaRoche situation, since it's basically the same as my post. Well more accurately mine is the same as his. Also tangentally related - read Past a Diving Vidro's LaRoche Shoulder timeline to relive the whole "saga".