31
2010
2010 Outlook: The Nationals – 4th Place Or Bust
An article by Former Writers
The Washington Nationals lost 103 games last season. It would have been worse had they not been saved by a season ending seven game winning streak. Their pitching was in chaos all season long. Relief pitchers blew 25 saves during the season. They had only one starter who made more than 19 starts.
They have made several moves this winter, mostly investing in pitching. It’s a safe prediction that they will improve from last year’s 103 loss season.
Starting Pitching: If you can say one positive thing about the Nats starting pitching last year, it was John Lannan, 25 years old, who in 33 starts pitched over 200 innings. He was 9-13 but with an excellent 3.88 ERA. He will return as their #1 starting pitcher. Jason Marquis, their big free agent signing should be their #2. Otherwise all you can say is that they have several young starters with potential. Ross Detwiler, Garrett Mock, JD Martin, Craig Stammen, and Shairon Martis were all rookies last year and will compete for the other starting spots. Top rookie Jordan Zimmermann (no relation to Ryan Zimmerman), will miss the entire 2010 season due to elbow surgery. Phenom Stephen Stasburg may enter the fray but might very well start the season in the minors.
Relief Pitching: Free agent signings Matt Capps and Brian Bruney will compete for the closer roll. However, neither is a sure bet. Capps pitched to a 5.80 ERA for the Pirates, and Bruney, formerly a Yankee, was injured for half the season and mostly ineffective upon his return. The Nats are hopeful that rookie Drew Storen can quickly step up and contribute. He was the 10th overall pick in last year’s draft and is projected to be the closer of the future.
Offense: Although their greatest strength was their offense, it still ranked in the bottom half in most categories. Adam Dunn, Ryan Zimmerman and Josh Willingham had outstanding seasons and will return for 2010. Christian Guzman may move to 2B to make room for SS Ian Desmond. Nyjer Morgan and Elijah Dukes will be counted on as well as catcher Jesus Flores who was injured for most of last season. The Nats have made no major moves this off season to improve their offense, unless you count signing aging catcher Ivan Rodriguez.
Opinion: Upon analyzing the Nationals, they don’t seem to be that much better than the 103 loss season of last year. Other than Jason Marquis and the two new suspect relief pitchers, they have not added anything of substance. Offensively, they will be relying totally on Dunn, Zimmerman and Willingham to repeat their great seasons of 2009.
The one thing that is unarguable is that the Nationals are a very young team. Twenty two to twenty seven year olds rule. If Strasburg develops quickly and one or two of their other young pitchers contributes, all bets are off and the Nationals will be much improved.
The Nationals hit rock bottom last year and are now on the rise. They may be only a couple of years away from being contenders in the NL East. At least for 2010 Mets fans need not be concerned about falling behind the Nationals.
Prediction: Wins – 69 Losses – 93
About the Author: Former Writers
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Nice post, Danny. i bet the competitive level improves in coming years in the NL East, with the Marlins and Nats on the rise and the Braves and Phillies remaining tough outs. i also think we’ll be there. i’ve always thought our maligned farm system has 6 – 12 solid prospects working their way up the chain. And i’m hopeful for 2010 but very disappointed, so far, in the little Omar/ownership has done to improve the team. We need pitching. i think it’s folly to think every one of our pitchers with Q-marks rebounds in 2010, not to mention that all of our core guys return and rebound. Omar has implemented no contingency planning. A shame.
Bob, do u really believe letting Omar do something very positive was part of Jeff’s overall plan? Omar’s got a 3Y deal in his pocket with a majority owner(Fred) renowned for not eating contracts and Jeff is impotent regarding Omar’s continued employment & his only hope to get rid of him is either a fopar so blatantly bad as to effect the perception of the Wlpon families honor(Willie’s race card category interview) or a team that’s so putrid as to cause a total fan revolt! There is no doubt that Jeff want’s Omar’s scalp since ’07. While Jeff will use Omar’s expertise, he’ll monitor the credit gathering (as in Santana acquisition, Jeff used Omar’s deal making ability then shouldered him aside to negotiate the contract by himself) Gaining the final glory.
My point is that, net/net, this team has been a disappointment in the past 3 years. i firmly believe the team needs a ‘gut check’ and needs a number of gutty/gritty imports to change the team’s chemistry (and effectiveness) for the better. i blame both Omar and Jeff for these failures, their sluggishness in even recognizing there was/is a problem. Last years’s failure was primarily due to injuries. Okay, i buy that, but i blame both Omar and Jeff for the absence of any coordinated plan to improve and stabilize this team in the off season. They both get flat ‘F’s to date…and time is running out.
Yeah, we could be ‘good’ if everyone of our Q-marks rebounds this season and have ‘good’ years. And i could have the winning Mega Millions ticket in my back pocket as well. Not!
Bob, please don’t forget to contribute to MMO when cashing in that ticket!
Lest u forget there is a common thread for disappointments in the past, older pitchjers failing to report to work, pedro, Glavine, Lican, Duque, an ill fated taxi ride, and the 4 ltr words being used for pirching changes…4 letter words I reference are Mota & Sosa…LMAO!
As
I type this the oldest pitcher in our stable is Figgy @ 36; but a glance at the most likely MLB pitching contributors alters the potential for failing elderstatesmen by not including any.
In no particular; but alphabetic order our rostered pitchers are:
Pitchers B/T Ht Wt DOB
— Jack Egbert L/R 6-3 220 05/12/83
— Kelvim Escobar R/R 6-1 230 04/11/76
— Clint Everts S/R 6-2 170 08/10/84
25 Pedro Feliciano L/L 5-10 190 08/25/76
27 Nelson Figueroa R/R 6-1 180 05/18/74
50 Sean Green R/R 6-6 225 04/20/79
— Ryota Igarashi R/R 5-10 190 05/28/79
40 Eddie Kunz R/R 6-6 265 04/08/86
— Arturo Lopez L/L 5-10 165 02/22/83
33 John Maine R/R 6-4 200 05/08/81
— Jay Marshall L/L 6-5 205 02/25/83
48 Pat Misch R/L 6-2 195 08/18/81
49 Jon Niese L/L 6-4 215 10/27/86
38 Fernando Nieve R/R 6-0 220 07/15/82
39 Bobby Parnell R/R 6-4 200 09/08/84
34 Mike Pelfrey R/R 6-7 230 01/14/84
46 Oliver Perez L/L 6-3 210 08/15/81
75 Francisco Rodriguez R/R 6-0 195 01/07/82
57 Johan Santana L/L 6-0 210 03/13/79
29 Tobi Stoner S/R 6-2 215 12/03/84
as u can see, at present, there aren’t any typical long-in0-the-tooth contributing types that have most recently proven unreliable in the crunch.
i agree the staff isn’t all that old. We do, however, have health/injury issues to resolve. Also, another potential sleeper this year is Dillon Gee…IF…healthy.
i agree with your projection, I have them improving by 12-15 wins this year
I’m down on the Mets because of the Jeff/Omar stupidity. So I wouldn’t be suprised if the Mets wind up behind the Nationals. I hope I’m wrong, but that’s what my ample gut tells me.
I think the biggest concern for the Nats is their pitching. They should score some runs with Zimmerman and Dunn.
Johnny, the exact same concern,pitching, belongs to every team in our division. for instance:
PHILLIES- RELIANT UPON MOYER & CONTRERAS & HAMELS(10-11)BOUNCEBACK
ATLANTA- OLDEST ROTATION IN DIV(3 35+SPs) RELYING UPON OLDEST BP BACK END IN MLB(WAGNER,40,SAITO,41)
METS- YOUNGEST(all SP 31 or less) OF TOP 3 CONTENDING ROTATIONS COUNTING ON PITCHING “TO PITCH TO TALENT” INSTEAD OF “TO HISTORICAL STATS”
GNATS- U SAID IT…
FISH- YOUNGEST UNDERPAID ROTATION SUPPORETED BY YOUNGEST UNDERPAID LINEUP
Sorry to disillusion everyone; but there isn’t a NYY/BOSOX PITCHING level comperting duo in the bunch. While everyone is concentrating on what we didn’t do, perhaps they should examine the effect of what our competitors did do:
Phillies added HALLADAY AT THE COST OF LEE, TANTAMOUNT TO OUR HAVING ACQUIRED HALLADAY BY DEALING SANTANA TO MAKE PAYROLL ROOM.
BRAVES DEALT THEIR #2SP FOR ADEQUATE OFFENSE(CABRERA)REPLACING HIM WITH 35 YR OLD INJURY RETURNING HUDSON LEAVING THEM WITH 3 SP 35+ IN HUDSON,LOWE& KAWAKAMI, WHILE ALSO REPLACING THEIR YOUNG, TALENTED HARD THROWING BACKEND OF SORIANO & GONZALEZ WITH AGING INJURY RECOVERING WAGNER & SAITO, NEITHER OF WHICH PROVEN OUT FOR BACK-2-BACK USAGE AS A COST SAVING MEASURE.
While much has been anguished over those we have not added, it certainly is worth remembering we haven’t jettisoned any meaningful contributors.
If our Mets had parlayed Santana into Halladay or K-Mart & Parnell into Wagner & Saito, I’m very comfortable the screaming & gnashing of teath would be much more warranted,deservedly so. Especially if their offensive moves were equally calibrated to minimize the potential significant improvement.
While philly did add Polanco as a significant offensive upgrade, the subtraction of Feliz mitigates Polanco’s net effect considerably same with Atlanta adding Cabrera while opting to shed Kelly also reduces the net potential increase from last yr. certainly the net addition of Bay’s offense while losing none should equate or negate the offensive moves by our competitors. We are all so convined & assured of the greatness Halladay is bringing, aren’t the prognostications nearly duplicates of those heaped upon Johan’s shoulders for his acquisition? Let’s not forget Santana’s was a Gross = Net deal whereby Halladay is only brininging the net differential in recods supplied by
(Halladay-Lee = ?Ws, single digits for certain)
I contend our status of questionable, while uncomfortable may portend much better results than progosticating “TEAM TO BEAT” BS!
You know the Phils could have kept Lee for this year and let him be a free agent after the World Series. Could have been a dominant one two punch in the rotation but unfortunately it didn’t happen.
‘unfortunately’?!! You a Phillies fan?
My guess, they wouldn’t chance an injury; or fan revolt once they saw what a #1&1A atop could really do. Try your own sites or if the moniker is idicative of geography stick to GNATS sites. If u r a Phillie fan, answer my one simple question, watching Charlie Manuel saunter out to the mound, do u ever notice the resemblance to the Phantaic? Could the mascot be Charlie’s bastard son?
Also don’t forget that the Nats is getting close to sign Orlando Hudson.
http://twitter.com/washingnats/statuses/8506274011
Forget what was said on the last post. O-Dog is far apart with the Nats on salary demand.
Bob L says:
February 1, 2010 at 1:33 pmi agree the staff isn’t all that old. We do, however, have health/injury issues to resolve. Also, another potential sleeper this year is Dillon Gee…IF…healthy
Bob, the above was unreplyable; but here goes, I believe there are mainly two major considerations when evaluating injury recovering pitchers, 1) age, 2) type & location of injury most serios being shoulder, next elbow; but miost concerning is ‘soft’ tissue injuries. a third concern would be methodology used for repair(arthroscopic/traditional)
Bob, based upon all of these, I would ascertain, our yongish staff has an excellent chance to bounce back from fairly non-invasive, rudimentary injuries