Brown officially recalled, Braves making things interesting (updated)

FLUSHING, N.Y. - The Nationals have made it official, placing Ian Desmond on the 15-day disabled list with what they're calling a left oblique strain and recalling outfielder Corey Brown from Triple-A Syracuse. Desmond's DL stint is retroactive to July 22, the day after his last game played. Chien-Ming Wang will make a rehab start for Double-A Harrisburg tonight, which will be his third outing since landing on the DL with a hip strain. Meanwhile, the Braves made the first big pre-trade deadline move, as reports indicate they've acquired (or at least are very close to acquiring) starter Ryan Dempster from the Cubs. Speculation is the Braves would be giving the Cubs Randall Delgado, a highly regarded pitching prospect who the Nats faced on Saturday. Dempster has put up a monster 2012 season so far for a terrible Cubs team, posting a 2.11 ERA in 15 starts. He went five straight outings (spanning 33 innings) without allowing a run prior to his most recent start. The veteran righty would give the Braves a nice extra piece as they try and track down the Nationals in the NL East, and would help make the final couple months of the season pretty interesting. The Nats wouldn't have to see much of Dempster, however, as they only have six more games against Atlanta the rest of this season. Update: Ryan Zimmerman has been named NL Player of the Week after hitting .500 with five homers, eight RBIs and nine runs and posting a 1.067 slugging percentage. Decent numbers, I guess.