A 2-4 road trip isn’t what the Nationals had in mind when they headed west last week. At this point their record is only a game better than a year ago at this time, a shade past the one-third point of the season. Last year they were 16 games under .500 at the end of June, and played .500 baseball from that point on. This year they started 5-15, and have played .500 since, with a shocking lack of offense, much better starting pitching than expected and an extensive disabled list.
It’s funny how a fan’s perspective changes. A year ago the pre-season “experts” predicted a season that would be awful, genuinely “historically” bad. Didn’t happen. They didn’t lose 100 games, or even 90, and didn’t finish last. So, based on that, many fans assumed that they’d be even better in 2008. Changes were made to the roster, and — avert your eyes now if you must from the following two words — on paper, they certainly looked like a better team.
I can’t explain what happened to the offense. Team-wide hitting slumps are pretty rare in the grand scheme of things. But, when you’re only scoring an average of 3.74 runs per game — and you’ve allowed 4.70 runs per game — 10 games below .500 suddenly doesn’t look so bad.
Getting shut out twice by Arizona wasn’t much fun, unless you’re a D-backs fan. However, if you look at those games in a different light, you’ll see that Brandon Webb, Chad Tracy, Justin Upton, Stephen Drew, Mark Reynolds, Conor Jackson, Chris Snyder, Micah Owings and several others were all drafted and signed by Mike Rizzo — currently the Nats’ assistant GM and VP of baseball operations. Rizzo laid the foundation for what figures to be a long run of dominance by Arizona in the NL West, and he’s doing the same thing here. Last year’s draft, his first in DC, was ranked number one overall by Baseball America, and he gets another shot at it this week. Washington has the ninth pick overall, and while there’s no clear-cut number one amateur prospect like there was a year ago with Vanderbilt lefty David Price, the pickings figure to be pretty deep.
The Nats have a plan, and that plan doesn’t include signing multiple second-and-third tier free agents. What, you want this team to turn into the Orioles? One need only look up I-295 to see what happens when you use the Band-Aid approach to putting a team together. As the scouts say, players like Aubrey Huff, Jay Payton and Kevin Millar are second division regulars, or, as they’ve all been elsewhere, complementary pieces to a contender. By the time Andy MacPhail is done, they’ll be that again, or out of the game.
Of the current Nats 25-man roster, I don’t see more than maybe 6 players who will still be around town in 2011. It’s how the game works these days. You grow your own. And Mike Rizzo’s farming methods seem to work pretty well.
Hear Phil Wood Saturdays at 10 a.m. on SportsTalk 980 AM and is a contributor to Nats Xtra on MASN. Contact him at [email protected].
