there's been talk about a deal involving the pittsburgh pirates and the washington nationals. there was one made today. it's a four-player deal. nats acquire outfielder nyjer morgan and left-hander sean burnett from the mets in exchange for joel hanrahan and lastings milledge. we'll talk about it coming up on "nats xtra" pregame here on masn. hi, everybody. time for "nats xtra" pregame. i'm johnny holliday along with the silver fox, former mvp of the 1986 world series ray knight. good to have you on a special night for nats baseball. number one, nats will go to florida and knock off the

marlins in the doggone eight- game slide they had in miami and a couple of new guys are coming in to join this ball club and we talked about that, didn't we, ray? wouldn't it be nice to get this kid, morgan, playing in our ball club? eye want to relate to the fans about what you said to me. we were walking around the ballpark all year long. we have not commented loot about oppositional players. johnny says have you paid attention to nyjer wilson. he says he flies, he's quick to me. runs almost to the on-deck circle. a kid who has a tremendous amount of energy, johnny. it's ironic you mention that. wouldn't it be nice to have a player hike that who has that type of energy. he can plat flat out run, right center, right field. he'll add a new edge to this is ball club. we'll talk to mike radhames liz yo about that and -- rizzo and get information about how iwent down. >> going out of the organization is joel hanrahan who had so many problems recently and lastings milledge

who hasn't come back to the majors since he broke his hand. so, a good deal maybe for both ball clubs? maybe better for the nationals. >> i like us. hanrahan wasn't going anywhere. johnny didn't put it together. lastings milledge, some people passed him. i think he was a guy they didn't feel good about in the organization. all kinds of ability, but he moved on. i hope both those guys well. you know, sometimes you get a new breath of fresh air, things go good for you. i'm excited we're acquiring a speed outfielder that can steal bases and cover ground. sean burnett, a guy who was a number one ranked prospect in 2001, 2002 as a starter, johnny, put up phenomenal numbers. 38-18, four years in the minor leagues. he hurt his arm and had surgery. now he's coming out of the bullpen. last year, he made 64 appearances for pittsburgh. right now he has an earned run average just above 3.00. he may become the best left- hander in our bullpen. he throws around 90.

real good sink -- real good sink and control. >> he was the -- >> two years in a row. made a couple all-star teams. he was a guy highly thought of raimpgd the number one pitcher in the pirates organization by the sporting news in 2002, 2003, then he had the arm surgery. came back. tried start. had a tough time at indianapolis that next year starting. actually 2005, had a tough time in 2006 starting. put him in the bullpen and he's been solid ever since. >> he's been a guy that visited dr. james andrews in birmingham, alabama, and obviously successful elbow surgery for heim they changed him from a starter to a reliever. as start, he probably had three real solid pitches. if he's going to be ranked the number one prospect in that organization and maybe he lost one of those pitches with surgery. not sure. i've seen him just pitch against us and then on a video when he was throwing just the fastball and a cutter.

so, two-pitch pitchers, usually that puts them in the bullpen. he does throw a lost strikes. he has a lot of experience. threw over 500 minor league innings and 85 appearance combining last year and this year. actually finished 16 games last year for the pirates. this year, he finished eight, he has one save and in 39 innings that he's pitched, only given up 22 hits. it tells you he misses bats. >> if you watch this show at all, you know that ray and i are big, big fans of mike rizzo shall the acting general manager of the nationals and architect this have deal. let's go to south florida and debbi taylor is lucky to have mike rizzo sitting next to him. what a terrific day it is. i know national fans, debbi, have got to be excited about this trade today. >> i think nationals fans, johnny, are going to be very excited about this trade. nyjer morgan, mike rizzo joining me now bringing a lost speed to this team. when you look at the numbers, the nationals have 26 stolen bases and he's got 18 already

this season. take it a step further, willie harris who leads the team has seven and nyjer has eight in the month of june. tell us how this deal got conducted, mike. >> it was really a deal brokered by both clubs, the pirates and myself. you know, we both were dealing from strengths. our strength was corn -- right- handed hitting corner outfielders and their strength was athletic, center field-type ability guys. they had mcclowt and mccutcheon really in center field. nyjer was playing left field for them. we were look for an athletic, defensive, speed-orientated center field type. >> how about sean burnett, the left-handed pitcher, the reliever that has started in the past. how does he affect this team and what will he bring to the club? >> he brings a talented, battle- tested left-handed reliever that we control for sever several years. >> he grow with the ball club. he'll be an important part as a

bridge to a closer and he's going to be a big part of the future of the bullpen also. >> mike, in making a deal like this, does this help you too as we get closer to the trading deadline that if teams are interested in a joe beimel or one of your other outfielders, now you have flex yinltibility. >> yeah, i think you make deals when the deal is to be made. i've always been a proponent of do you a deal when you need to make a deal and not wait for the trade deadline. i think there's more teams that are willing to make trades at this time. i think when it gets closer to the trade deadline, you're focus narrows down a little bit. so, we thought this was the great deal for the nationals. fulfills two of the biggest needs we needed to fulfill and we were lucky enough to have the players they wanted in return. >> mike, why do you think it didn't work here for lastings milledge and joel hanrahan? >> well, joel, i think could use a change of scenery. he struggled here mightily this year. his stuff is still very good. he needs to execute his pitches

better to perform at the major league level. i think maybe a fresh face and a fresh set of circumstances may benefit him. lastings just -- you know, he was a product of an injury this year. you know, he had a very slow spring training start and that turned into a slow beginning of the major league season start for him. we thought we'd send him to triple-a to get his swing down. he was just starting to swing the bat pretty good when he wroak us -- broke his finger and put him on the disabled list. i think it was an unfortunate, frustrating year for lastings. he's a good player, and you have to give to get. we think we got two really good ones and tough give something up to get them. >> real quickly, before you make the roster move tomorrow. >> bringing thee two players, they'll both be in uniform, how tuch there you have it be to make the move? >> i think it will be a

difficult disesmghts you'reaffecting somebody's life. somebody is going down to the minor leagues. it's going to be based on a good, fundamental baseball deal and a lot of times these things work themselves out. so, we think that it's going to be a prudent move and going to be the right move for the development of the players and for the long term good of the franchise. >> mike, before we let you go, ray knight has a question for you. >> hey, mike. congratulations, first. a statement, congratulations, buddy. i know how big you are on the guys who can fly and play center field and do some things, top of the order speed, but lls we talked a lot. you're a makeup guy. you know, we've seen so many guys move on our roster in and out and make changes. i know how important it is for makeup. these two guys fit into that mold? >> oh, yeah, they're super kids. they're super guys. we did a lot of due diligence on the background of all these players that we do. morgan is a guy that we're --

the pittsburgh people have simply fallen in love with the guy. he's a guy who is going to run through the wall for you. good in the clubhouse. he's a tough street guy from san francisco, hockey player background. he's really late to baseball, and that's why his age of 28, going to be 29 in a couple of days didn't bother me so much because we feel this guy even at 29 has an upside because he's got a lot of baseball in him. >> mike, before i let you go, let me make one comment to you. i think now as ray and i look at this ball club that you and stan kasten assembled from manny acta managed, you have a nice mix of young guys, some veteran guys, certainly nyjer is going to bring tremendous enthusiasm to this ball club. i'm really excited about the second half of this season and look forward to this ball club winning a lot of ballgames. >> well, you know, we're going to be an exciting team to

watch. we've gotten better over the course of the season. the bullpen has kind of stablized a little bit. we're going to -- we've got a good, young stable of starting pitchers. we need good defense to help those young guys out to keep their pitch counts down. we'll be a team that plays hard, works hard and we'll be a good bunch of guys in the clubhouse because that's what championship teams are built from. >> mike, thank you, very, very much. appreciate you. debbi taylor down there in florida. we'll take a break ton with more of "nats xtra" pregame here on masn. it's game two of the three-game series. we'll get some nightly notes coming up for you. also, check the starting lineups for both ball clubs when we come back right after this.

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(sighing) ted has betrayed me. (announcer) switch to verizon fios tv, phone and internet today and get an ultra-sleek compaq mini netbook. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities welcome back, everybody. johnny holliday, ray knight. "nats xtra" pregame here on masn brought to you by verizon wireless. for the nationals, -- for the marlins, emilio bonifacio,

first home run inside the park job against julian tavarez hoping day -- opening day when they faced the nationals. he'll be in the number two hole. the rest of the marlins lineup, chris coghlan in left field leading off the batting order for florida hanley ramirez with the .333 average will be the shortstop. jorge cantu at first. then comes jeremy hermida. dan uggla, cody ross in center, john baker catching and sean west on the mound tonight. bonifacio, 18 infield hits this year. that's third in the national league. now, for manny acta for the washington nationals, elijah dukes .284 batting average. runners in scoring position. overall season average at .237. he has nine outfield assists. that's tops in the major leagues, but only 4-32 his last 10 ballgames. look for elijah to hopefully break out of that slump tonight against the marlins. cristian guzman leads off. he'll be at shortstop. nick johnson, the number two hole. then comes ryan zimmerman, adam dunn, josh willingham in right against his former ball club. elijah will be in center field

tonight with a .237 average. second base will be handled by alberto gonzalez. wil nieves will be catching and craig stammen on the mound for the nationals with a team batting average of .258. time for nightly notes. we turn to ray knight. when you think about the addition today of nyjer morgan and burnett and you look at morgan's speed and what this will do to the nationals running game once get on base, he's going to drive the pitchers nuts. >> he's going to change the whole dynamics of the ball club, john ji. he's stolen 230 something bases in the minor leagues, over 35 base in the big leagues in such a short time. he's going to disrupt the pitcher's time. they're going to throw more fastballs to our hitters. he's a guy that can drag bunt. we'll see this in just a minute how he does that and executes that. he also plays so well in the outfield. it's because of his speed. you have guys that read the ball well off the bat. then, you have guys that can just flat outrun the baseball. nyjer is one of the guys who

does both. we saw him cover from the left field all the way to center field playing left field for the pirates. i believe he'll be a true center fielder a guy as i mentioned the other day when we talked, johnny, also in the blog, we've been needing a guy that can go from gap to gap, get back to the wall on balls that are hit hard and charge the ball. a high-energy guy. this guy is perfect. he's the guy you picked out of watching all these guys this year, you picked this guy as the guy that you really liked his energy just walking throughout stadium one night. 18 stolen bases would be first on our ball club. four bunts, first. triples, five. also first. i'd like to make a note. ken griffey, sr. i played with the cincinnati reds, he batted second behind peetd rose. he had 42 infield hits a year, johnny, just by putting the bat on the ball. he also saw a lot of pitches. nyjer seize 3.09 pitches per at- batment come over here. i'll show you about his bunt ago don't swing away now, ok.

>> i won't. >> make sure you lay this bunt down. don't swing away. >> when he does go to the plate, he has four bais base hits for bunts. >> he is so quick. >> he bunts the ball towards third a lot of guys carry the ball with him. because he's bunting the ball at third, he can give himself up early and start running out of the batter's box which gichsgives him a couple steps. gets to first base in about 34.34. he can left-field line almost drag the bunt to the pitcher and be safe. i'd like to not see him bunt every time in every ballgame. i'd like him to try eight bunts a week where do you see him in the batting order? >> first or second. with that kind of speed, you have to have him up there. he has a good on-base percentage. lifetime in the minor leagues, .293, five times over .300. .286 right now the big league average. want to show you how he sets up here. as you take your hand back and start to throw, he leaves here

and starts going and leaves it there and drops the ball down just like that. what happens is he's already gone. he just -- we'll do it one more time. he's gone. when he does that, he's actually ghoot running start so he's here. he sees the windup. here comes the pitch. he actually leaves, drops the bat there, drops the ball and he's gone. so, we don't have anybody else on this ball club that does that. it's a great play. it makes you your third baseman play in, your pitcherrer realizes in situations with runners on third, you have to be tough with this guy. he'll bunt a ball to bunt a guy over and end up getting a base hit and you'll have first and thirdment another thing it does, it makes people start throwing the ball around on the infield. i'm so excited because he's a lot like juan pierre. if you think about a guy that has the second most hits in all of baseball the last 10 years, juan pee pierre is that guy. >> the guy hize idolizes, too. >> he's a juan pierre-type player. >> we're going to take a break. thank you for joining us here on this segment of our knightly

notes knotes. women when we come back, we'll talk about the great performance for scott olsen against his former ball club. (man) some days my 8:15 bus is just a bus,

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another reason why twice as many smartphone users have chosen at&t. get the blackberry bold for $199.99 after mail-in rebate. only from at&t. as the game went on, he got better and better. couldn't ask for anything better. >> started throwing my slider. that's how we got on a roll we got that pitch working. >> it's humid, and he really battled for us out there. >> and scott olsen last night against the florida marlins, he was on his game. the lefld left shoulder seemed extremely ok after the d. l. list he was on for a couple ofweeks there. retired 13-14 last batters he faced. i think he wanted to come out and throw one more against his former ball club. >> yeah, he's back on top, johnny. no question his arm strength. anytime you can throw the slider over a period of time where you end up throwing 18. we saw the graphic there.

i was going to refer to it again. he had 33 fastballs the first 3 1/3 and only four sliders. when he found that slider, saw it was effective, saw it had a good break, he and wil nieves went to it 18 times in that fourth and seventh inning. he's a guy that's big and strong, johnny. you know, that is as he was advertised last night. pitch count, only 14, 15 pitches per inning where he was going 21-22 prior to that. big, strong guy. manny with the fewest wordssummed it up. he couldn't be any better. he's back. that will add a big, big plus in our rotation and these youngs guys will learn from him. this is his fourth year in the big leagues. he's a lot of experience and a lot of success. >> for those of you just joining us on "nats xtra" pregame, lastings milledge and joel hanrahan dealt to the pittsburgh pirates for nyjer

morgan, their fleet-footed outfielder and sean burnett who start and relieved. >> unbelievable. as you mentioned before, he's done so many many things pitched deep into games. ranked their number one best pitcher for three years. had a 38-18 record in the minor leagues before he hurt his shoulder with a 2.08 earned run average. now he's in the bullpen. 8 58 games last year. 38 last year. with a 3.06 earned run average. he's a guy i think will end up strengthening our bullpen. look the way our bullpen shapes out. beimel, burnett, villone. burnett is throwing 90 miles per hour with a cutter. he could be the guy as i just listened to mike rizzo say he was going to be the bridge to the setup guy, to the closer. he's going to be the guy probably in the game, in the eighth inning. he had 16 holes last year and you saw there with now the acquisition or pulling up of clippard. a -- clippard. a bullpen that you don't have to worry too much about

hanrahan and his side kick. he's gone. a guy that had a great arm, but just couldn't find it here. just could not fiet find it here. we'll go there. there will be games he'll stick it to you because he has that kind of stuff, but move him on. get two quality people, left- hander in the bullpen for late- inning situations. they don't come easy. you just don't go about getting speed-type center fielder that can put the bat on the ball just consistently. people just don't give them up. >> as mike rizzo said, a change of scenery good for perhaps both joel hanrahan and lastings milledge. time for the hold of the men stay in the game just for men hair color. how about sean burnett batting average average at .200. three earned runs given up in his last 15 appearances. just as sean burnett has kept the bucks in the game, now hopefully the nationals in the gape game, you too can stay in

the game with just for men hair color. how wla about the starting pitchers in miami as they try to eaton series? cole hamels goes for washington -- craig stammen goes for washington nationals. it's followed one tradition: use the best high-country barley... and only rocky mountain water. and it's been brewed under one motto: never compromise. now maybe this means we're a little set in our ways. but we know a few guys who will drink to that. coors. the banquet beer.

"nats xtra" here on masn. nationals made a deal with the pittsburgh pirates. they acquire closer nyjer morgan and sean burnett -- sean burnett and nyjer morgan. it will be a noon affair in florida. pregame starts at 11:30 a.m. give you a wakeup call about 9:00. make sure you're up. then, the braves come to town after a day off. thursday, atlanta's here. sunday's game in masn hd and dc 50. nats hit the road on monday. >> he's been throwing the ball well. the big papi home run set him back just a tad. five innings plus every outing.

really like the kid. he throws it for strikes. he's only walked 10 guys all year long. i just feel real good about him every time he goes out there and pitches. >> how about this guy? >> great arm, johnny. 93-mile-per-hour hard slider eats you up inside. only has eight starts. he's 3-2 with a .338. a -- 3.38. a guy they're raving about down in mime i didn't got his first major league win over the san francisco giants did sean west. he's a big kid, 6'8", 240 pounds. you have rookie against rookie tonight. i put my money on craig stammen if i was a betting man. >> i'm with you, johnny. although this kid has gotten a lot more fanfare than stammen, i think stammen is one of the guys that mentally tough just the way he handles himself. he'll find a way to win and keep new ballgames. >> thank you for joining us here for "nats xtra" pregame. nyjer morgan and sean burnett joining the nationals ball club. for ray knight, i'm johnny holliday. see you after the ballgame. john and rob coming up next

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