Day 22: Washington Nationals

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Washington Nationals

2007 Regular Season Record: 73-89

Cost per Win: $37,347,500 / 73 = $511,609 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Nationals had the 3rd lowest opening day salary in all of baseball and when that is considered they had a fairly good season. They had the best record of the 4 low-budget teams in baseball, the others being the Marlins, Pirates, and Devil Rays. They played in the NL West which had 3 of the 5 teams with more than 83 wins at the end of the season so they played some pretty tough competition to get their 73 wins. Statistically as a team the Nationals weren’t strong offensively ranking 13th in the NL in batting average and last in the NL in runs scored. Their pitching was better but it still ranked 10th in the league in terms of ERA which is actually fairly good considering that the team didn’t produce many runs for them and they were in pressure situations a lot.

The Nationals had 2 very strong bats in the lineup in 2007. First was Dmitri Young, the 2007 comeback player of the year. Young hit for a .320 batting average to lead the team and tied for second on the team with 74 RBIs. The team leader in RBIs, homeruns, and runs scored was Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman also led the team in strikeouts so maybe he swung for the fences a few too many times. Other members of the Nationals that had good offensive seasons were: Wily Mo Pena, Austin Kearns, and Cristian Guzman.

The Nationals lad a consistent pitching rotation and only had one player start more than 21 games and in total had 13 different pitchers get starts. The team leader in wins was Joe Rauch with 8. Rauch is a reliever and he didn’t start a single game in 2007 so that should tell you how many wins the starters got. One high not in terms of pitching came from Chad Cordero who finished the season with 37 saves but he also had 9 blown saves but with the lack of offensive numbers by the lineup that is not surprising.

Key Free Agents: OF Nook Logan, 3B Tony Batista; Logan had good numbers last season but the Nationals have passed on offering him a new contract so far this off-season. He was named in the Mitchell Report and there are some big questions around him and it seems the Nationals are going to avoid that controversy for right now. Batista is a loss in term of experience but Aaron Boone has already been signed to fill his place so that loss won’t be felt too badly.

Offseason Needs: The Nationals really don’t have any needs that need to be filled anymore. They have been busy in the off-season signing several players like Boone, Willie, Harris, and Rob Macowiak. Their biggest off-season acquisition is Paul Lo Duca who they signed to a 1 year deal worth $5 million. They are a young team so some improvements should be made next season just through improvement and experience of the players on the roster last year.

Prediction for the 2008 season: The Nationals play in a tough division there is no question about that. That fact will hurt their record with the Phillies, Braves, and Mets all trying to maximize their wins against the Nationals in order to stay in the race for the division which will be pretty heated. The Nationals will probably be a better team next year but I don’t think it will really translate into more wins just better stats and more enjoyable baseball to watch. So that means they may get closer to the 500 mark but won’t get above it and I’m pretty positive they can plan their vacations for October with no problems.