The Washington Nationals are not a very good team. This year, so far, they have been an historically bad team. Yes, as bad as the 1962 Mets or 2003 Tigers. That is a pretty impressive feat.
It’s funny because when you compare the 2009 Nationals roster to the 1962 Mets or 2003 Tigers you are struck by how not terrible it is in comparison. Three genuinely good players? That’s more than those teams had combined.
Adam Dunn destroys right-handed pitching and hates baseballs so much he hits them very long distances away from where he’s standing. Ryan Zimmerman is finally putting it all together. Nick Johnson (sniff sniff) is not hurt right now and hitting the way you expect him to when he’s healthy, minus a bit of power.
The rest of the offense is mediocre, sure. But in a vacuum it’s hard to see how they are playing less than .300 ball just looking at that. The answer is they have worse pitching than even the Baltimore Orioles. Here are the numbers for every pitcher they’ve run out there this year:
| W | L | ERA | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | WP | WHIP | SO/BB | |
| John Lannan* | 3 | 5 | 3.51 | 77 | 78 | 36 | 30 | 9 | 31 | 1 | 38 | 6 | 2 | 1.416 | 1.23 |
| Shairon Martis | 5 | 1 | 5.04 | 69.2 | 65 | 40 | 39 | 8 | 29 | 3 | 28 | 3 | 3 | 1.349 | 0.97 |
| Jordan Zimmermann | 2 | 3 | 5.37 | 57 | 61 | 34 | 34 | 8 | 16 | 0 | 60 | 3 | 0 | 1.351 | 3.75 |
| Scott Olsen* | 1 | 4 | 7.24 | 41 | 60 | 36 | 33 | 8 | 18 | 2 | 29 | 0 | 2 | 1.902 | 1.61 |
| Daniel Cabrera | 0 | 5 | 5.85 | 40 | 48 | 39 | 26 | 4 | 35 | 1 | 16 | 2 | 10 | 2.075 | 0.46 |
| Ross Detwiler* | 0 | 3 | 5.23 | 32.2 | 36 | 20 | 19 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 1.531 | 1.64 |
| Joel Hanrahan | 0 | 3 | 6.35 | 28.1 | 40 | 20 | 20 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 32 | 2 | 5 | 1.835 | 2.67 |
| Joe Beimel* | 0 | 3 | 3.91 | 25.1 | 27 | 11 | 11 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 1.421 | 1.56 |
| Julian Tavarez | 2 | 4 | 4.26 | 25.1 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 1 | 16 | 0 | 24 | 2 | 2 | 1.421 | 1.5 |
| Kip Wells | 0 | 2 | 6.26 | 23 | 20 | 16 | 16 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 1.522 | 1.07 |
| Ron Villone* | 3 | 3 | 0.96 | 18.2 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1.232 | 0.9 |
| Craig Stammen | 0 | 2 | 5.86 | 27.2 | 28 | 20 | 18 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 1.337 | 1.44 |
| Jay Bergmann | 0 | 1 | 6.91 | 14.1 | 16 | 12 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1.605 | 1.14 |
| Garrett Mock | 0 | 2 | 6.92 | 13 | 16 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1.846 | 0.75 |
| Saul Rivera | 0 | 3 | 8.49 | 11.2 | 17 | 11 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1.886 | 1.6 |
| Mike Hinckley* | 0 | 0 | 4.66 | 9.2 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1.966 | 0.27 |
| Jesus Colome | 0 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 15 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2.67 |
| Mike MacDougal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.2 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1.2 | 3 |
| Wilfredo Ledezma* | 0 | 0 | 9.53 | 5.2 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 2.118 | 2 |
| Logan Kensing | 0 | 1 | 18 | 5 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.2 | 0.5 |
| Steven Shell | 0 | 0 | 5.4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.4 | 2.5 |
Ouch. I mean, yeah the Yankees raw numbers don’t look all that much better at first glance but they’ve been improving and there’s room for more improvement. The Nationals rotation isn’t even completely horrible. John Lannan is what he is–averageish–and Jordan Zimmermann is a guy who is going to improve. Shairon Martis has a bit of room for improvement, and if Scott Olsen is ever not hurt he should put up at least average numbers.
What we have here is a completely terrible bullpen. It had Kip Wells in it before he got hurt and they intentionally added Mike MacDougal. Ron Villone looks good on the surface but then you look past the ERA and see that he’s walked more than he’s struck out. Oh and you remember that he’s Ron Villone and wince with the memories of him taking the mound for the Yankees.
I mean, they just signed Horacio Ramirez to improve it and he probably will. Yes, it’s a minor league deal but I’m sure he’ll be up soon enough.
The patched together pitching staff is not helped out at all by the defense, of course. Fangraphs even wrote up a post about it–”The Nationals are Poor at Run Prevention” (summary: It’s been ugly, but some players are under performing). The pitchers will find some relief in this series, though, since Adam Dunn is indubitably going to be given DH duties (unless Manny Acta wants to go out with a bang and DH Corey Patterson or something–I would not complain).
So, while the Yankees should theoretically destroy the Nationals there is some concern about how the pitching staff will perform. Here are the match-ups:
Tuesday, June 16th: Shairon Martis (RHP) vs CC Sabathia (LHP)
CC looked pretty awesome for most of his last start, and the only reason he didn’t have a real quality start was because he was left in to hang when he started to look cooked (this is a recurring theme that will hopefully fix itself as the bullpen continues to improve). He is left-handed which gives him an advantage over the Adam Dunns of the world, but if he leaves something up it’s going to the moon (ask Johan Santana). Sharion Martis has an okay fastball with solid secondary offerings. He started 5-0 which excited some people, but he’s pretty much an average guy.
Wednesday, June 17th: John Lannan (LHP) vs Chien-Ming Wang (RHP)
God help us all if Wang leaves anything up. That is all.
Thursday, June 18th: Craig Stammen (RHP) vs Joba Chamberlain (RHP)
I’ve got no insight on Stammen beyond his numbers, but I do know if the Joba who showed up on June 12th and May 26th shows up that it is not going to be a pretty game to watch.
