The Nationals have placed 27-year old righty reliever Ryan Mattheus on the 15-day disabled list due to right shoulder tightness. Mattheus has pitched in 32 games (0 starts) for the Nationals last night and he is 2-2 with a 2.40 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP. He has only given up 24 hits in 30 innings so far this year but he has also walked 14 batters, which is too many. Mattheus also only has 11 whiffs so far this year, which isn’t too good for a guy with the kind of stuff that he has.

The Nationals will lose 25-year old righty reliever Cole Kimball for the rest of the year due to a torn rotator cuff. Kimbal came into this season as the Nationals’ #7 prospect according to Baseball America. He pitched in 12 games (0 starts) for the Nationals this year and he was 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP. He only gave up 8 hits in 14 innings for the Nationals but he did walk 11 batters. The Nationals hope that Kimball will work on his control when he gets healthy again.

39-year old righty swinging catcher Ivan Rodriguez is fighting Father Time in his chase for 3,000 career hits. He currently has 2,842 hits but he’s stuck on the bench behind 23-year old righty swinging Wilson Ramos. Rodriguez has played in 39 games for the Nationals so far this year and he is 25 for 117 (.214 avg, .600 OPS) with 13 runs scored, 2 homers and 19 RBIs. Ramos has played in 63 games for the Nationals so far this year and he is 53 for 209 (.254 avg, .750 OPS) with 27 runs scored, 7 homers and 27 RBIs. I think the Nationals are going to deal Rodriguez this month to a contender (like the Giants) as they already have a replacement (Jesus Flores) waiting to replace him.

UPDATE: (7/8/2011) - The Nationals have placed Ivan Rodriguez on the 15-day disabled list with a strained oblique muscle. The Nationals have called up 26-year old righty swinging catcher Jesus Flores to replace Rodriguez on the roster. Flores has played in 2 games for the Nationals already this year and he is 1 for 2 (.500 avg, 1.000 OPS). He has also played in 56 games in AAA-ball so far this year and he is 49 for 209 (.234 avg, .630 OPS) with 17 runs scored, 5 homers and 30 RBIs.

The Nationals have placed 35-year old righty swinging IF/OF Jerry Hairston on the 15-day disabled list due to a fractured right wrist. Hairston has played in 69 games for the Nationals so far this year and he is 51 for 196 (.260 avg, .687 OPS) with 21 runs scored, 2 homers, 17 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. This will hurt the Nationals bench as Hairston can play pretty much everywhere in the field. He will miss the next 2-4 weeks.

The Nationals have placed 25-year old righty reliever Cole Kimball on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. Kimball has pitched in 12 games (0 starts) with the Nationals so far this year and he is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP. He has only given up 8 hits in his first 14 innings pitched but he has walked 11 batters which is way too many. The Nationals have called up 27-year old righty reliever Ryan Mattheus. Mattheus has pitched in 22 games (0 starts) in AA+AAA-ball so far this year and he is 2-1 with 6 saves, a 1.46 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP. He has only given up 12 hits while whiffing 28 batters in his first 24 2/3 innings, so he has been good.