Thirty-two games. Twenty percent of the season, give or take. Fourteen wins and eighteen losses. A winning percentage of .438. A better record than six other teams — including the reigning NL champions. Not great. Not good. Not horrible. And objectively, about where I thought the Nationals would be at this point (other than having a better record than Colorado).
They’re still not hitting much,but have picked up the team batting average by 20 points in the last couple of weeks. They’ve only hit 18 home runs — far fewer than I expected, but the injuries to Elijah Dukes, Wily Mo Pena and Paul LoDuca likely impacted that total. The struggles at the plate by Austin Kearns, Nick Johnson and Ryan Zimmerman haven’t helped either. And I can’t help but think that the unavailability of Dmitri Young has cost a couple of games where his bat off the bench might’ve turned a game around.
Can you honestly say that you’re not at least a little impressed by their starting pitching? And please, don’t throw any won-lost records at me. If you haven’t figured out by this time that a pitcher’s W-L record is a poor indicator of his efficiency on the mound, you haven’t been paying attention. The club’s major offseason free agent signing, lefty Odalis Perez, has an ERA of 3.18. No victories yet, but six of his 7 starts have been of the “quality” variety. Tim Redding appears to have re-invented himself. Go ahead and look it up: he’s never pitched this well in his career. John Lannan had his streak of consecutive scoreless innings snapped at 21, but he’s overall pitching like a veteran. Shawn Hill — tonight’s starter in Houston — is looking like the top-of-the-rotation guy scouts projected him to be a few years ago, pre-surgeries. The only disappointment has been Matt Chico, who seems to be suffering the sophomore jinx.
Think they’re patting themselves on the back for not trading Jon Rauch last winter? Oh, the offers were there, but Jim Bowden didn’t get the ransom he was seeking and Rauch stayed put; perhaps someone was prescient about Chad Cordero. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him close all year. Saul Rivera? He’s continued to record outs so regularly that one scout told me he must be doing something illegal.
I’m still not sure how the new ballpark is playing, so I’ll go with “neutral” at this point. Players I’ve asked seem to feel the same way, but 18 home games are still too small of a sample.
A year ago they were 9-23 after 32 games. The ’07 preseason prognosticators appeared to be right on; this team would be historically bad. Acta and company managed to right the ship, however, and you know the rest of the story.
This year’s stumble out of the gate was painful, and the rip jobs by the national media were fast and furious. Many of the same writers who had picked the ’07 Nats to erase the ’62 Mets from the pantheon of the putrid figured they had their opportunity to say “I told you so.”
Not so fast, folks.
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].
