Photo by Scott Ableman.The Nationals released outfielder Elijah Dukes today, ending what was, at times, a tumultuous two seasons with the team. Mark Zuckerman notes that Nats manager Jim Riggleman will likely choose from the trio of Willie Harris, Justin Maxwell or Mike Morse to fill Dukes’ starting spot in right field this season. Dukes hit .250 last season, with 8 home runs and 58 RBIs in 107 games. While this news should already serve…

A combined eleven RBI? Dukes and Willingham were all business last night. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Nationals 15, Cubs 6: I was practically raised on Eddie Vedder’s nearly-unintelligiable snarl, but I can’t seem to recall a song in the Pearl Jam catalog which provides quasi-cryptic advice about pitching. Too bad for the Cubbies: the bearded Ved threw out the first pitch at Wrigley last night and he probably could have quoted such a tune…

Austin Kearns Let’s engage in a hardball hypothetical, shall we? Player A is a 25-year-old outfielder, hitting .244 with 6 HR, 30 RBI, and 18 runs. Not the greatest stats, but Player A is generally appreciated by the fans, and has moderate-to-good defensive capabilities, even though he might be slightly late to practice once in a while. On the other hand, Player B is a 29-year-old outfielder on the decline. Player B is currently…

The Nationals have won 3 of their last 13 games, and possess the second worst record in the National League. The team is currently batting .235, have an OBP of .310, are slugging .357, and have an OPS of .667. They also have 229 total RBIs and 781 total bases. What is amazing about all of these statistics is that the Nationals trail all other NL teams in each of them. In fact, these numbers…