A Few Good Men: 19 - Peacock

Let's quit the chit-chat and get straight to the stats and analysis.

Brad Peacock - Age 23 - Under club control for another 6ish years

How he became a Nat: Drafted in the 41st Round (!!!) of the 2006 MLB First-Year Players Draft.

The Raw Numbers:
Games - 3
Games Started - 2
FIP - 3.86
Wins - 2
WHIP - 1.083
IP - 12.0
Hits Allowed - 7

Key Stat: 0. This is the number of Runs allowed by Peacock in his two starts. Granted it's only two starts, but one of them came against the best-record-in-the-NL Phillies; the other being the Mets. In those two starts, Peacock went a total of 10.2 innings and allowed just 3 hits - incredible for a rookie. And yes, I know that you can't take too much stock in September performances.

Best Game: A lot of tough choices here... And despite two solid starts, one was better than the other. September 22nd against the Phillies, in a game where the young 23 year-old out-dueled veteran All-Star Roy Oswalt. This win closed out a 4-game sweep in Philadelphia. The young right-hander went 5.2 Innings, allowed just 1 hit, walked 2, and struck out 2 - he could've gone much further as his pitch count was only at 69 when he was lifted.

Worst Game: That would be his first career appearance, a relief effort on September 6th vs the Dodgers. You may remember that this game was also Stephen Strasburg's first post-Tommy John appearance and that immediately after Strasburg would be Peacock - and that Peacock would be not come in mid-inning. Well, Strasburg finished 5 innings and Davey decided to bring in Doug Slaten - floodgates were opened and Peacock had to come in with two runners on to face MVP candidate Matt Kemp. Peacock gave up three runs, two of which were inherited runners. We wrote about this in detail afterwards...

CapBall Grade: A. Brad Peacock has come out of nowhere to become one of the Nats top pitching prospects. This year in just 2 starts he showed the organization why he was the Nats 2011 Minor League Pitcher of the Year.

2012 Nats Status: The rotation for next year is stacked, and at least 4 players have already locked up spots (Zimmermann, Strasburg, Lannan, and Wang) for next year - making Peacock's road the uphill variety. His main competition is going to be Tom Milone and Ross Detwiler (both lefties. If the Nats get a big name pitcher, such as CJ Wilson, the only person vulnerable would be John Lannan. I see him in the rotation because I see the Yankees backing up a Brinks truck for CJ Wilson, leaving Peacock to win an open competition for the 5th starter spot.