Offensive Offense and Prodigious Pitching

The hometown Nationals are off to their best start since baseball arrived in DC at 5-2. There are a ton of reasons why the Nationals are getting the job done (the Pitching Staff, LaRoche, Desmond) but there is an alarming trend that should scare the pants off of Nats fans.

The sheer lack of hitting with Runners in Scoring Position. More commonly known as RISP.

Let's take a quick gander at the Nationals effectiveness game-by-game with RISP:

- Yesterday - 3-2 win vs. Reds - 2 for 7 - LaRoche and Desmond with the hits

- April 11 - 4-0 win vs. Mets - 1 for 14 - Flores with the hit

- April 10 - 6-2 win vs. Mets - 4 for 14 - Werth (2), Bernadina, and Ramos with the hits

- April 9 - 4-3 loss vs. Mets - 2 for 9 - LaRoche with both hits

- April 8 - 4-3 loss vs. Cubs - 2 for 5 - LaRoche and Desmond with the hits

- April 7 - 7-4 win vs. Cubs - 3 for 5 - Bernadina, Tracy, and Lombardozzi with the hits

- April 6 - 2-1 win vs. Cubs - 1 for 7 - Desmond with the hit

For those of you scoring that home, that's a whopping 15 for 61 since the season started and only 7 for 35 in the past three games.

To put it another way - the Nationals BRS% (Base Runner Scoring Percentage) is 3rd worst in all of baseball with 10%. Meaning only 10% of Nationals base runners are scoring.

And while the offense struggles to get runs across the plate, the Pitching Staff is showing exactly what they are made of.

The last three starting pitching lines for the Nationals are as follows:

- Gio - 7 IP. 2 H. 0 R. 0 ER. 0 BB. 7 K. Game Score - 80

- Strasburg - 6 IP. 3 H. 0 R. 0 ER. 3 BB. 9 K. Game Score - 74

- Detwiler - 5 IP. 2 H. 0 R. 0 ER. 1 BB. 6 K. Game Score - 68

This is absolutely a case of "anything you can do, I can do better". Detwiler pitches a gem, Strasburg ups the ante and Gio ups it again by posting the 7th best MLB pitching performance of the season thus far (per Game Score).

I know that it's still early in the season (Sample Size Alert!), but if the offensive and pitching trends continue, I think we are going to be looking at a lot of 2-1 games... Get the heart meds ready...

Discussion: Position Players Pitching

So, I would gather that there are several readers out there (myself included) that stayed up to the wee hours of the morning to watch the end of the marathon Reds-Phils game at Citizen's Bank Smallpark. Eventually the Phils would win on a bases loaded sac(k)-fly (thanks MASN) by Raul Ibanez in the bottom of the 19th inning. The most interesting stat from the night is that the winning pitcher was none other that second baseman, Wilson Valdez - who had played the whole game to that point at 2nd. He was the first position player in over ten years to win a ball game, the last being Brent Mayne, a Catcher for the Rockies at the time.

When talking with my brother about last night's events, he posed a question that now I forward on to you.

Which Nats position player would you want taking the mound in the 19th inning?

My thoughts on this will be in the comments, lets see some crazy answers (yes, I know Ankiel used to pitch - be a little more creative)

Dunn Gone

Around 5pm the White Sox closed on a deal with Adam Dunn that will pay the slugger $56 million dollars over 4 years. Cue the violins and paper bags in NatsTown.

Done yet?

K. Good. Now lets look at what exactly this means for the Nats; good and bad.

Bad:
- The Nats lose a huge left-handed bat, a bat that hit 76 home runs in 2 years as a Nats; which places him 2nd overall in Nationals team history... in 2 years...
- Lose an on-base-machine. (.398 and .356 OBP in the past 2 years)
- Lose a clubhouse leader.
- Lose one of the best 3-4-5 lineups in baseball.
- Makes Zim sad.

Good
- 2 compensation draft picks; the 23rd overall, and then one in the compensation round right after the first round.
- Regardless of who is picked, a better defender. They will make Desi, Zim, and Espinosa better.
- Don't have to pay, or play, a 36 year-old 1B in a 40 year-old's body.

I think everyone in NatsTown knows by now that the home team won't be contending this year, and, most likely, not next year. The 2011 MLB Draft is a lot deeper than the 2010 Draft was and, with Rizzo's penchant for scouting, having 3 top 40 draft picks can pay quick dividends.

A big bat is not something that a last place team needs, its a luxury. Dunn was brought in because we lost out on Teixeira and we needed to find someone healthy to replace Nick Johnson. It was a need based situation. Once again, losing teams do not need sluggers; those that think otherwise need to simply look at our projected rotation for next year, where our need truly lies.

Adam Dunn was a fantastic National. I loved watching hit shots over the bullpen into the 2nd and 3rd deck. I will most certainly miss his goofy attitude and the pink gum hanging out of his mouth after every hit. It sucks that he is gone.

Defense and pitching build contenders and Dunn just doesn't fit into that mold; at least not in the National League.