Washington Nationals 2011 - The good, the bad, the future

[RickD]

This is the 15th in a daily series of short looks at each team in MLB. The opinions expressed are my own..

The Washington Nationals.

In 2005 the Washington Nationals went 81-81, though they were still 5th in the NL East. Since then it has been gloom, despair, agony and pain, deep dark depression and excessive misery! The team stayed mired in 5th place and never won more than 73 games. In 2010 the team won a measly 69 games.

2011 has given the Nationals a reason to hope. The team went 80-81 and found themselves holding 3rd place in the NL East. They played 161 games because a home game against the Dodgers was cancelled due to rain. The game was not made up because it was inconsequential to the playoffs with no room on the schedule to play it.

The Good:


Davey Johnson - Taking over the team as manager, Johnson benched vets to look at young players and worked wonders with the young guys.
In his first full season, right-hander Drew Storen saved over 40 games. Setup man Tyler Clippard had a 1.93 ERA and struck out 104 batters in 88 1/3 innings.
The pitching staff ranked in the top 10 in the Majors in ERA.

The Bad:


Manager Jim Riggleman resigned, citing the team's refusal to discuss extending his contract. This was after the team went 1 game above .500 for the 1st time since 2005.
The offense was one of the worst in the NL. For that matter, so was the bench!
Adam LaRoche and Ryan Zimmerman struggled with injuries. Stephen Strasburg was out all bu the final month.
Jayson Werth was not worth what the team payed him in 2011. He struggled through 150 games and saw his BA drop 64 points to .232 and his SLG dropped from .532 to .389!

The Future:


Stephen Strasburg will be on an innings limit next season as he continues his comeback from reconstructive surgery on his pitching elbow.
Davey Johnson should be back in 2012.

[yankeebiscuitfan]

This is one of the teams I don't care about. Actually, since the team was robbed from Montreal, deep down inside I hope that this third Washington experiment will fail as well.

There is only one player that I follow and that is Roger Bernardina, for well known reasons I guess.

[WilsonC]

One major positive for the Nats has to be the fact that Strasburg managed to return from his injury, throwing hard and with no apparent loss of effectiveness. They'll still need to build his workload gradually until he shows he can handle a full season, but the signs are positive given how he finished the year.

[yankeebiscuitfan]

One major positive for the Nats has to be the fact that Strasburg managed to return from his injury, throwing hard and with no apparent loss of effectiveness. They'll still need to build his workload gradually until he shows he can handle a full season, but the signs are positive given how he finished the year.

And one big thing Strasburg should work on is alternative pitches. In the few games I same him pitch he was heavily relying on his fast ball. He should learn to use a breaking ball and a change up as well. If he manages to master a change up, that could be his major out-pitch.

[WilsonC]

And one big thing Strasburg should work on is alternative pitches. In the few games I same him pitch he was heavily relying on his fast ball. He should learn to use a breaking ball and a change up as well. If he manages to master a change up, that could be his major out-pitch.

He has a very good breaking ball that he threw quite a bit in 2010, and a fair change, but it's possible that the Nats wanted him to focus on his fastball to get the feel for his mechanics back and reduce elbow strain. Last year, his fastball use was about 57%, which is similar to a lot of top pitchers (Verlander, Sabathia, Weaver, Cain for instance).

[RickD]

Strasburg being on an innings limit still bugs me. I mean why bring the guy back early in 2011 if you are going to limit how much he can pitch in 2012.