I used to own dogs and it was tragic when they eventually passed on. So in that sense, Vick is one of the worst people I could imagine. But in reality, there are players in the NFL who have killed or maimed human beings, spent less time in prison, and served little or no suspension time in the NFL. It's time for the league to move on. The worst thing that could happen, if the rumors of his deal are true, is that a team signs him and he commits more dog fighting activities. In this deal, Goodell has probably stipulations that would ban Vick for life for such action or maybe even less.

Vick was a great athlete and should be given a chance to compete again, if a team is willing to take on the baggage. In recent days, discussions on sports talk radio put out the scenario if a regular person had committed such acts and spent time in prison, would they be allowed to return to his job? I say yes, if the employer wants him back. In Vick's case, Atlanta does not, but there are other teams who could use him even if not as a QB. He owes money to others, so allowing him to make even league minimum will help him repay his obligations. Without an NFL job, there is little chance he'll ever pay it off. I am not saying that we have to let him play, just that we need to remove the restrictions and let an owner decide if it's worth the risk and money.

Bethesda Big Train has a Twitter account to follow to keep up on the action with the league.

Tuesday night's game was the shortest game since 1988, but it wasn't short of excitement. While Monday night's focus was on home runs, Tuesday was all about pitching. The American League was able to out pitch the National league despite a rocky start from Roy Halladay. Both teams managed to throw under 120 pitches over eight pitchers, with the AL throwing 108 and the NL throwing 118.

Even though the pitching dazzled it was the AL reserves that ending up being the difference maker.
While Carl Crawford, Curtis Granderson and Adam Jones are not unknowns in the league, they certainly weren't supposed to be more valuable than Jason Bay and Nelson Cruz.

With the game tied at three in the seventh inning, Brad Hawpe hit a drive off of Jonathan Papbelbon. When it looked like it was all but out, Carl Crawford reached up and made what he called the best catch of his career. That grab not only earned him the MVP but most likely also saved the game. It was one of the most spectacular plays of the first half and definitely the play of the game.

In the next half inning it was Curtis Granderson's turn. With one and no one on, Granderson laced a hard hit ball off of Heath Bell over the head of Justin Upton. With the ball careening off of the wall Curtis rounded second and slid head first into the bag at third base. The NL decided to intentionally walk Victor Martinez to get to, what they believed was a non-threat, Adam Jones. After a lengthy at bat Jones finally hit one into the outfield scoring Granderson on the Sac Fly.

These three in the end were the difference makers for the American League, showing why the NL has been unable to win recently. While the NL may have starters to compete with the American League, its reserves are nowhere close the AL's. It is the second year in a row that the reserves have made the difference. Last year it was Justin Morneau and Michael Young who won it for the AL.

If the National League wants to come out of the Mid-Summer Classic with a win in the near future it needs to look past its starters. Sure, it is good to have a great starting line up, but in the end it comes down to the role players. The AL just simply has better ones and that is how they have been unbeaten 13 in a row.

Peerless Prognosticator

Mike Vogel

Caps365

Welcome to the Show

I will be at the morning skates tomorrow but not the scrimmage. Regular coverage resumes Thursday.

(Just a side note- you can follow the Hotlby and Bruess on WashCaps this week.)

" I guess everyone saw what happened to Dale....yes, the story is starting to come out but it's just the tip of the iceberg. "

" Lot's of people are telling me to stay quiet but shouldn't the fans know the truth? It's your loyalty, season ticket money and emotions here "

He also appears to allege the promotion of Stan Bowman to GM and reassignment of Dale Tallon to Senior Advisor is linked to his contract dispute.

" Just so everyone begins to understand, Dale was like a 2nd father to me. "

These posts may turn out to be exaggerations of the story, or just a heck of a lot of hype, but the suspense sure is crazy.

A few weeks ago On Frozen Blog ran a great article about Twitter’s effect on the NHL. From fake player accounts to pre-press conference announcements, it has a huge impact on bringing the sport to more fans. (PLUG: you can follow myself, The DC Sports Page, and Big Money Tony too.)

Today marked the first day of practice at the Captials' Development Camp hosted by Kettler Ice Plex, and several invitees not on the original roster attended as well. A few things caught my eye today: Mathieu Perreault, Dmitri Orlov, and a remarkably tan head coach. Bruce Boudreau really got some color this summer.

The camp split into two groups, A which started on ice a little before 10:00am, and B, which began on ice at 2:30pm.

Baseball has come upon the All-Star game break, so putting in new management now is not a surprise. Riggleman can tweak the lineup and/or rotation and pull players from the minors if necessary. Certainly there is no question that the Nationals are terrible and need changes. But if Acta were not here all season, would the team be in contention? This team built by former General Manager Jim Bowden, did not underachieve. It had virtually no pitching and the hitting can not make up for that. Nor can a miracle manager. There are questions as to whether Acta was major league manager material. Alas the Nationals will never know as he never got the chance to field a major league team.

So who's up? While Riggleman has experience, which might be the direction that the team will head toward, he is still below .500 in his managing career with several teams. He will probably get to run the team in interim until th end of the season. Likely the team will have to go outside the organization. This becomes a problem as the team has yet to decide on a permanent replacement for Bowden. Mike Rizzo has kept the team running, but sinking, and made transactions, but has not had a full offseason to work. There is time of course, but the Redskins had time too when Joe Gibbs 2.0 retired and look how quickly they settled hired Jim Zorn.

I've stated disgust of the BCS system and this changes nothing. Now that practically any team that would be worthy of the national championship is included in the BCS. But then again, not really. With the BCS calculations, who you play and when you play them become important. There is no guarantee that Notre Dame will decide to play a WAC team. Or that Florida will play a MWC school. While not perfect, the 8 team playoff suggested by the MWC can help. The biggest issue with the BCS is how do you decide who is the better undefeated teams between 3 teams. Or three 1 loss teams? An 8-team playoff helps with this unless there are 9 undefeated teams or other combination that puts some teams in and some teams out with the same record. NCAA, let's try this again in a few years and get it right? In the meantime, I'll wait till November when the basketball season starts.

The Contract:

Nylander at the age of 34 signed a 4 Yr $19.5M deal with a no trade clause in 2007 which years earlier (a no trade clause) was denied to Peter Bondra. All the pieces for a potential disaster in the making were set to occur. For a team with aspirations of becoming Stanley Cup Champion, it's Nylander's salary cap hit impacting personnel moves that's proving the most devastating.

It's not the player or agent's fault for getting the most money over the most number of years during contract negotiations. The Caps earned the right to another bad contract the hard way and signed the deal themselves. Two years into Nylander's contract it's easy to see the disappointment on both sides.

The contract situation should have been resolved well before the draft and free agency period. Now the Caps have let another offseason year go by with a significantly high salary cap hit that's hand cuffing potential roster moves.

The Solution: Take Action Like Dan Snyder

It's time for the Capitals to pull a Dan Snyder move. That's right! Redskins fans probably recall the infamous shot heard 'round the metro area after Laveranues Coles requested a contract extension that put the Santana Moss trade on hold. Snyder let him know that he'd send him a flat screen TV to watch games because he wouldn't be wearing a Redskins uniform the remainder of his contract. Eventually Coles was dealt for Moss.

A similar stance wouldn't hurt with Nylander. If Nylander wants to play hockey in the NHL then he has the power to remove the no trade clause, if he wants to play in Russia he also has the ability to make that happen, and if he refuses to take any action then he can file for retirement because the Caps need to let him know he's not in their plans - at all. The decision would then fall squarely on Nylander's shoulders and force a resolution. Where Nylander's career takes him is up to him, but the Caps shouldn't continue to wait for Nylander to have an epiphany for someone already out of favor with Coach Boudreau.

The Initial Plan

Washington hoped Nylander could be the offensive playmaking center that had been lacking in recent years, as well as provide the leadership for a young team. With Backstrom starting his NHL career in Washington all the pieces made sense with Ovechkin and Backstrom already on board. It's easy to confuse a mentor with true leadership. It didn't take long to find that Nylander's style of play didn't fit well with the players already in place and by the end of the 2009 playoff season he found himself barely playing.

A trade in the previous year's deadline brought the true leader onto the Capitals in Sergei Fedorov. The bond and kindred spirit Backstrom and Nylander share makes perfect sense. Nylander may make Backstrom feel more at ease in his new surroundings but leadership takes a stronger presence that never appeared from the high priced center. Leadership takes on the quality of lifting up a team and moving the players as a group into a certain direction or sometimes taking on a more difficult responsibility of calling players out to perform at a higher level or providing the steadying influence on a young team.

Nylander's salary cap space could have been used to acquire a defensive minded defenseman or to provide help along the top two forward lines. The longer the situation drags out the more embarrassment it becomes on both parties and prevents the Capitals from moving closer to their 2nd Stanley Cup appearance.

Sergei Fedorov’s decision to move to the Kontinental Hockey League marks another loss for the Washington Capitals. Victor Kozlov signed with Salavat of the KHL in May, and rumors have linked both Donald Brashear and Michael Nylander to Russian teams as well.

While Brashear denied these claims during the season, he does expect to hit the free agent market come July 1; he has not yet been approached by the Capitals regarding a contact for the 2009-2010 season. The Washington Post’s Tarik El-Bashir reported that while the KHL rumors were indeed false, Brashear has not ruled out a move to Russia in order to play.

As the Caps lose two, and possibly three of their veteran players, it displays another shift towards the “Young Guns.” These changes could, however, have serious repercussions.

Of the Capitals’ veterans, only five will enter the 2009-2010 season with more than four years of having played forty or more NHL games.

It is no secret the Vikings have a serious running game; Adrian Peterson has proven that, but with the addition of Favre, they will have finally (or at least temporarily) solved their quarterback shuffle as well. The Vikings may also have a championship defense in the making.

The first would have been the change in philosophy from high risk high reward picks involving young high school players vs. a more measured approach by acting general manager Mike Rizzo who prefers more experienced players from college to fully understand the player he's drafting with more time to evaluate players.

The second signal Nats fans should have heard was the sound of money. For all of the money that will be spent on the #1 overall pick Strasburg, the Nationals drafted a reliever early in day one of the draft. Storen signed quickly and could even be rushed (too) quickly to the 40 man roster in September. Adding to the mix the lack of command of Storen's pitches by MLB.com. Drafting another starting pitcher may have cost the Nationals more money. Although the Nationals bullpen lacks the depth and quality in the minor and major league level, drafting a closer for a team that is on pace to secure the number one pick in next year’s draft let alone vie for the league record in futility set by the 1962 Mets with a 120 losses seems premature. Affordable relief pitching can be found early in the offseason if it's a priority. With excellent scouting, young pitchers can also be developed through the system. Two factors that haven't really been addressed in recent seasons.

Would it be that far to fathom that ownership may consider all the money tied up into Strasburg and look for savings elsewhere? Fans may draw a connection between the lack of free agent spending in prior years coupled with a relief pitcher taken so early. Would ownership really have been willing to add Adam Dunn to the roster if they had already signed Teixeira? Fans may already be drawing their own conclusion and are expressing their counterproposal to ownership by the way of empty seats.