Who Nat? Tales of Struggling Clubs Doing Well This Year

Posted by Iroquois Plisken

Because I am a sucker for puns, I've made a new feature that will run whenever I think of a team that hasn't done well recently that is presently doing well this year (sorry, Pittsburgh. Probably not you.) The first up in our inaugural series is the namesake, the Washington Nationals.

Impressively enough, the Washington Nationals are sitting above .500 a little more than six weeks into the season. Adam Dunn is doing what he does best - be a three outcome batter. What I find fascinating, though, is where the Nationals offense ranks among the National League clubs. Would you believe that they are presently in the top 50% in average, OPS (and the two feeder categories, OBP and SLG), and in the top 3 of SB? We can probably attribute this to the surprisingly not-shitty play of Cristian Guzman, though to be fair that is mostly based off of his stinky performances in Minnesota. He's been serviceable for the Nats for the last two years.

Their middle of the order is pretty much the same as last year and are producing steadily. Ryan Zimmerman is putting up All-Star numbers (.330, 8 HR, 23 RBI through 37 games). Josh Willingham has been putting up comparable numbers (except average) and getting on base at a steady clip, almost at a Nick Johnson level (.413 OBP). Adam Dunn is, well, the posterchild of consistency. With about a 5% margin of error, his line will look something like 40 HR, 100 RBI, 110 BB, 100 R, and .245 BA. Every year. Some years (like last year), he bucks it up a bit in the batting average department, but you know what you're gonna get.

I think the real story is how the Nats have been winning without vastly improved starting pitching. Can you name the starting 5 for the Nats? I got three before I had to look up the other two. They are

John Lannan (L), Craig Stammen (R), Livan Hernandez (R), Scott Olsen (L), and Luis Atilano (R)

I think the staff of the 1989 Cleveland Indians had more names than this, and they were put together to be the worst team in the majors. You can probably point to Pudge Rodriguez's influence over this staff, as he always seems to coax a little more out of his pitching talent. Nobody on their is going to blow you away with their stuff...yet.

The 900 lb gorilla in the minors is, of course, Stephen Strasburg, destroyer of worlds, pillager of loot, and fast of pitcher. You've heard the hype. If he can come in and be about half as effective as he has been in the minors, the Nats suddenly become an interesting squadron. More interesting than they are now, at least. Add in potentially acquiring Roy Oswalt, as the hot rumor has it, or even Cliff Lee (should the Mariners fall out of it. Don't laugh.) and suddenly the punching bag is firing back with a right cross or two. They already have a strong (albeit overworked) bullpen with Capps and Clippard (7 wins!), and they just added Drew Storen (closer of the future) to get him some experience. A potential rotation of

Oswalt/Lee, Strasburg, Hernandez, Lannan, Olsen

and you might be onto something. Maybe not playoff contention yet, but certainly 70-80 wins.

To top it all off, you're holding the #1 pick with Bryce Harper waiting in the wings. The hype machine is certainly in force for the kid (with help from his official page). A quick YouTube search will bring up his monstrous home runs against clearly inferior competition. He is, no doubt, the most hyped catcher prospect since Joe Mauer (who, apparently, helps people get banned from Mexico). Signability can't be an issue if they got their way with Strasburg.

I'm not sure how long the Nats will remain in contention, but if their good fortune continues, we could see a return to 2005, where they eclipsed the 80 win mark. A little luck with their pitching prospects and potential trade partners and maybe they scuffle for the Wild Card for a couple weeks. I can't think of a Nats fan (I could stop the sentence right here) who would turn that down.

Is baseball back on the Beltway? You're definitely not rushing Storen and Strasburg up to the Majors to rebuild. You want to see what you got and strike while the bats are hot. If nothing else, tune in on or after Memorial Day to see the 100 MPH fastballs cranked out of the park or past some bats. Hopefully Strasburg doesn't aspire to be the next Kirk Hammett and injure himself cranking out some sweet 5 button solos.