A Few Good Men: 39 - Slaten

We are in the Home Stretch of our massive and ridiculous 44 part series - detailing every single player that suited up for the Nats this past season.

Doug 'The Anti-Clippard" Slaten - Age 31 - Just over 4 years of MLB Service Time

How he became a Nat: Selected off of waivers from the Diamondbacks after the 2009 season.

The Raw Numbers:
Games - 31
ERA - 4.41
WHIP - 2.143
FIP - 5.66
OPS/against - 1.036

Key Stat: .333. This was Slaten's BAA (Batting Average Against) vs. Left-Handed Hitters. For a LOOGY (for the uninitiated - Left-handed One Out GuY), this number is incredibly terrible. His job is to do one thing and one thing only, get out left-handers. Instead, he let them get on base 1/3 of the time with a greater than 1.000 OPS... Wow.

[Note - Judging Slaten's best and worst game is pretty difficult to measure due to the fact that he was bailed out several times by other pitchers after failing to do his one job. That said, we are going to do our best]

Best Game: June 1st vs the Phillies. In a tight contest with John Lannan facing off against (Future Nat?) Roy Oswalt, Doug Slaten came in with the bases loaded in the 6th and got Dominic Brown to fly out.

Worst Game: June 3rd vs the Diamondbacks. This was an incredibly tough decision, considering that Doug Slaten was so terrible all year long - but this is a game that defined his year. Yunesky Maya was struggling in the 5th (shocker), and he exited the game in favor of Slaten to face the lefty, Stephen Drew. 5 pitches later (3 of them balls) and the 1-0 D'Backs lead became a 4-0 D'Backs lead thanks to a crushed triple to center that almost left the park. Slaten's line for the day is just 1 hit, but he let all three inherited runners score.

CapBall Grade: F. For a LOOGY, letting in 47% of your inherited runners score is absolutely dreadful. Not only that, Doug Slaten was incredibly lucky as evidenced by his .397 BABIP. Want more? Well you can't have any, cause this is depressing me!

2012 Nats Status: Doug Slaten will not be tendered a contract by the Nats and there is a 0% chance that he will return to the ball-club.