My Love Affair with Danny Espinosa

(AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Danny Espinosa's mark in the major leagues certainly couldn't have been anticipated.  While he had an incredible minor league season, no one could predict what was coming in his first 5 major league games.

Espinosa has made an incredible run to make it to the majors in 2010. He was just drafted in 2008 and signed at the deadline in August.  Espinosa started in AA Harrisburg and worked his way up to AAA Syracuse in the same season.  As MLB's extended roster day came on September 1st, Espinosa was immediately promoted.  Yes, that's two levels in just one season.  And yes, he made an astonishingly quick impact.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Danny Espinosa is the first player in major league history to have "at least two home runs and six RBI in one of his first five MLB games."  One of those home runs just happen to be a Grand Slam. 

His first week in the majors has been nothing short of Strasmas-sy.  The hype is there, and people are ready to see Espinosa (23 years old) and Desmond (24 years old) shore up the Nationals middle of the infield for many years.  For those wondering, Desmond is now hitting a cool .289 on the year.  He's hitting .346 since the All Star break.  Unfortunately, Desmond is battling a problem with his left hamstring, but hopefully he'll return soon.  Espinosa... hitting a clearly unsustainable .563 in his 16 at bats.

In the meantime, though, Espinosa will surely get lots of opportunities to play at shortstop to show everyone what he was capable of.  One thing is for sure.  Even with Desmond's 31 errors this year, if he and Espinosa can hit anywhere near .300 on the season in future years, fielding errors will be quickly forgotten.

Danny Espinosa's First Game

Danny Espinosa's first game as a Washington Nationals infielder was going to be a boring affair. The Nationals were down 15-5 to the Florida Marlins. Adam Dunn had been pulled from the game to give Espinosa a chance. Well, then Nyjer batted.

For some background, in Tuesday nights game, Nyjer Morgan plowed into the Marlins catcher, separating his shoulder and ending his season. As expected, Chris Volstad hit Nyjer, and he ran to first. Everyone expected it, right? It's fine. But then Nyjer proceeded to steal second base on the next pitch. And then third. Not the classiest thing with the team down by double digits.

When Nyjer Morgan came back up to bat, Chris Volstad threw behind him. That was enough for Nyjer. He charged the mound, jumped at Volstead, benches cleared, bullpens cleared, blood was drawn. Morgan, Volstad, and bullpen guy Jose Veras got tossed from the game.

Nyjer Morgan is already facing a 7 game suspension for an incident in Philadelphia. Then he plowed over the St. Louis Cardinals catcher. Then the Marlins catcher. Now this. I'd have to imagine Morgan now faces a sizable suspension. Not that it will matter much, because Riggleman seems to have had it with Nyjer.

But to get back to the original point, Espinosa got a hit in his first MLB at bat, an RBI double. He also got into a benches clearing big league fight. And almost turned a double play. All in all, Espinosa saw a month's worth of excitement in just one half game. They're not all like this, kid.