News and notes surrounding Washington's loveable cellar-dwellers:

Belliard Signs Extension: Though he was widely considered the Nats most moveable commodity, he and the team agreed to a 2-year, $3.5 million extension to keep big Ron in D.C. Belliard’s versatility makes Manny Acta’s job much easier for the next few years with his ability to play multiple infield positions, his willingness to be a bench player when needed, and his veteran leadership. In the meantime, his .305 batting average is helping to carry the offense.

Trade Rumor Mill: With Dmitri Young’s outstanding season at the plate and a seller’s market for quality relievers, several Nats have been widely rumored to be “on the block” as the non-waiver trade deadline looms next week, with Young, Ryan Church, Chad Cordero and Jon Rauch the most often mentioned. The Post’s Barry Svrluga goes into the details today on the possibility of trading each of them. The short version: these guys are more valuable to the Nats than to better teams, so the team is asking too high a price to trade them and may end up not making any deals. Like Soriano last year, there’s an interesting set of possibilities that could arise if the Nats keep Young until the end of the year (well, interesting to us and fellow baseball geeks like the incomparable Capital Punishment). Have a look.

The Dunn Rumors: As we know by now with our beloved GM Jim Bowden, no Red goes un-coveted, especially those that were drafted by JimBo during his days in Cincinnati. So there’s likely some truth behind the buzzing on teh internets of the Nationals inquiring about Reds OF Adam Dunn.

Photo by Flickr user payal.jhaveri.

Whatever their veracity, the thought of picking up Dunn is dumb, dumb, dumb. His numbers are inflated by Cincy’s Great American Ballpark (390’ flyouts in RFK). He strikes out waaaaaay too much, leading the majors by a wide margin (rally killer). He’s only under contract until the end of the year, meaning the team would have to sign him to an extension in months (meaning he’d walk).

The team has lately started focusing on a “30 HR, 100 RBI” guy as its highest priority. That, and the Cincinnati connection, seems to lend credence to the Dunn rumors. Just as a refresher for any team executives, however, we’d like to post a couple of reminders about a player fitting just that profile (career average: 34 HR/94 RBI) who was ON THE TEAM, but deemed expendable just a year ago.

[If we were really cranky, we might even remind them that Soriano was let go with the rationale that the team would get great prospects through the compensatory draft picks, and that after taking LHP Josh Smoker with one of those picks, the team can’t seem to get him under contract. We’re waiting for Stan Kasten’s next we-planned-it-all-along rationale, where he explains that Smoker was never supposed to sign, and that the team let Soriano walk in hopes of getting the coveted 2008 #31A compensation pick...]

On the field, the Nats are in Philly tonight, where Jason Bergmann will take on rookie RHP Kyle Kendrick. This weekend, Nats fans could get a glimpse of red-hot lefty prospect John Lannan, who might get called up to make a spot start in place of ailing Jason Simontacchi.