Weekly Rundown: Tony Gwynn, Haywood, Rick Maese

Weekly Rundown is a combination of links and brief comments on stories and topics that I couldn't get to during the week. If there's something important that I missed, don't hesitate to send an email or leave a comment.

• Brian Mitchell comments on his firing, and WJFK may soon be switching to an all-sports format. [D.C. Sports Bog]


• Tom Friend writes an interesting piece on Tony Gwynn and his son, who now plays for the Padres and is hitting .299/.374/.401 in 39 games. [ESPN]


• Jeff Suppan was for sale on eBay? [Big League Stew]


• Brendan Haywood on Etan Thomas and his depature from the Wizards:
  

  
  "Uh, it's one of those situations that it doesn't really matter. It's not a happy he's gone. I mean, I didn't mention him because there was no need to mention him. And that's no disrespect to him, but when I look at our team, he hasn't played the last two years due to injury, unfortunately."
  
  "And then you look at the same thing, he wasn't really tight in our locker room structure. You know, he kind of distanced himself, and we even talked to him about it, like, 'We feel like you don't feel like you're part of the team.' So he distanced himself from the team. So you look out there, we're gonna miss Songaila because he's played and played well the last couple years, and we're gonna miss him because he went out with guys to eat, he went out to the comedy shows and to the mall, he hung out, he was an integral part of our team. While Etan didn't play, and he didn't have that many close friends, so, we're not gonna miss him.
  
  "And that's nothing about our [personal] business, our business is our business and the past is the past, we settled that. So there's not any problem with him as a person. I think the trade actually works out well for him, because I think he has a trade kicker where he gets more money, so that's great in this economy, any time you can make more money. And then he has a chance to play, where he wasn't gonna play here."
  

  
  So, you mean, Andray Blatche and Thomas weren't best friends? Stunning. [D.C. Sports Bog]


• Ever get the feeling that batters are striking out more than ever? Well, according to Tim Kurkjian, they are. [ESPN]


• Dave Cameron believes the Nationals won their trade with the Pirates that had them sending Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan to Pittsburgh in exchange for Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett. He highlights Morgan's solid outfield defense as a large factor. [FanGraphs]


• Basketbawful has put together an impressive and entertaining multi-part series ("Livin' Large") on what it was like to live in a dorm room with a college basketball player. As of right now, there are four installments up. Here's part one. [Basketbawful]


• Patrick Hruby offers 10 more examples of players who you've probably encountered while playing pickup basketball. His first article, published about two years ago, included eight types of players. That article and my own experiences on the court allowed me to come up with my own list a while back. [ESPN]


• Finally, Jamie Mottram interviewed Rick Maese, the new Redskins beat reporter for The Washington Post. [Mr. Irrelevant]