Washington has managed to stay around the .500 mark as the first month of the MLB regular season is almost in the books, and they’ve done it with a pitching staff that has made the Nationals a tough team to score on. You would have to think, though, that the Nationals will eventually fade to the bottom of the National League East as they currently sit in third place, 4.5 games behind Philadelphia, unless the staff gets even better throughout the season.

The Nationals are sixth in the National League in ERA, and while they’re not an overpowering staff (Washington is last in the league in strikeouts), they manage to keep the opposition from scoring runs, and that’s the main goal. The biggest surprise to those who bet on baseball as they are doing all this without Stephen Strasburg, who likely won’t pitch this season because of last year’s Tommy John surgery. The rotation is a mix of Livan Hernandez, Jason Marquis, Jordan Zimmermann and John Lannan, while Drew Storen and Sean Burnett share the role of closer, and the duo of Chad Gaudin and Tyler Clippard has been brilliant in middle relief. Now, the big question is: can they sustain it?

They going to have to, because Washington is currently third from the bottom of the National League when it comes to scoring runs, second from the bottom in average, and they rank last in hits, doubles and total bases. Jayson Werth hasn’t been worth the $126 million price that Washington paid so far, hitting .218 with three homers and five RBIs over his first 20 games with the Nationals, and he may be putting too much pressure on himself. The Nationals haven’t been helped by an abdomen injury to Ryan Zimmerman, who was probably their best player in 2010.

But what the Nationals can’t afford to be is a poor fielding team, which is what they are right now. Only Houston has a worse fielding percentage and more errors in the National League, and even when they put themselves in position to win, Washington often makes a bad error in the field. The Nationals need to solve this immediately to avoid the East basement.

The Washington Nationals have signed bigtime slugger Adam Dunn. Dunn who had a contract offer most of the off season from the Nationals, finally agreed on a two-year deal worth $20 million. Dunn had been hoping for a longer contract and probably from a different team but that offer never came as this years free agency rates have really dropped. However, in the end he chose the Nationals and the Nationals fans couldn’t be more happy!

Dunn, 29, hit .236 with 40 home runs and 100 RBIs with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds last season. He has hit at least 40 home runs each of the past five seasons. In 1,131 games, Dunn has 278 home runs. Dunn is expected to play first base for the Nationals.

Starting pitcher Daniel Cabrera and the Washington Nationals agreed on a one year contract over the weekend. Cabrera is expected to earn $2.6 million in 2009 as he moves into the starting rotation for the Nats.

Cabrera went 8-10 last season with the Baltimore Orioles but he does have a pretty active arm and should have had more than eight wins last season. He features a lively fastball and also throws a pretty good curveball and changeup.

Cabrera spent the last five years with Orioles and compiled a 48-59 record with a 5.05 ERA for Baltimore.

I like this signing for the Nationals as I think there is a lot of upside to Cabrera. Hopefully he has a great season with the Nats!

What do you think about the signing? – Nationals Blog

The Washington Nationals worked out a deal on Monday that will be brining Josh Willingham and Scott Olsen to the Nationals. This is just the first step as the Nationals look to revamp their roster and hopefully content in 2009.

The Marlins received second baseman Emilio Bonifacio and two minor leaguers: second baseman Jake Smolinski and right-hander P.J. Dean.

Olsen went 8-11 with a 4.20 ERA in 2008, his third consecutive season with at least 31 starts — he has never been on the disabled list. The left-hander is 31-37 with a 4.63 ERA in the majors. Willingham hit .254 with 15 homers and 51 RBIs this year but also missed 50 games with a herniated disk.

It will be interesting to see what other moves the Nationals pull off this off season.

Nationals Transactions

The Florida Marlins got the best of the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night as they lost by the score of 9-4. It was the first win for the Marlins in their last five games and they pretty much had control of the Nationals all night long.

Tim Redding took the loss after only lasting 2 2/3 innings. Redding was rocked for seven hits and seven runs in the game as he didn’t have it from the beginning of the game. Levale Speigner was also bad in the game as he was charged with three hits and two runs. Not that Speigner’s runs would have matters because Redding sucked it up so bad.

Emilio Bonifacio, Alberto Gonzalez, Pete Orr, and Wil Nieves all had rbi’s for the Nationals but it wasn’t even close to being enough to pull out the victory.

The Nationals can win the series with a victory over the Marlins on Thursday however. I expect them to pull out a win somehow as they play their final game at home for the 2008 season.

Nationals Blog

The Washington Nationals had no problems beating the New York Mets on Monday night as they beat em up by the score of 7-2. It was a very good win for the Nationals as they opened up the four game series against the Mets in great fashion.

The Nationals offense tagged Mets starter Pedro Martinez for eight hits and four runs. Elijah Dukes led the team with three rbi as he hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning. Anderson Hernandez helped out with two rbi of his own while Aaron Boone chipped in with one rbi of his own.

On the mound it was John Lannan tossing seven innings and picking up the victory. Lannan gave up one hit and one run as he had a very good start. Lannan is now 9-13 on the year after picking up the victory.

Nationals Blog

The Washington Nationals lost a slug fest against the New York Mets on Wedneday night by the score of 13-10. The Nationals just didn’t have enough offense to keep up with the high powered Mets offense.

Cristian Guzman led the Nationals with five rbi’s as he had a three-run home run as well as a two-run shot in the game. Besides Guzman’s five rbi’s, the nationals also got rbi’s from Kory Casto (two rbi), Ryan Zimmerman (one rbi), Elijah Dukes (one rbi), and Wil Nieves (one rbi).  It was a good offensive showing for the Nationals.

The bad side of the game was the Nationals pitchers who allowed 13 runs to score. Odalis Perez only lasted three innings as he gave up eight hits and seven runs. Just a terrible outing for Perez who should have pitched better. Saul Rivera allowed four hits and four more runs while Joel Hanrahan gave up two more runs.

Nationals Blog

What an up and down game for the Washington Nationals as they tied the game in the eighth inning and then went onto lose by two runs to the Philadelphia Phillies. Just another way to lose the game for the Nationals who seem to come up with a new way everyday.

Joel Hanrahan gave up both runs in the ninth inning that allowed the Phillies to win the game. Matt Stairs had a rbi double for the first run and then Chase Utley hit a rbi sac fly to add an insurance run. Odalis Perez was the starting pitcher but he only lated five innings as he gave up four hits and three runs. Perez did give up one home run as well. Marco Estrada was terrible out of the bullpen as he didn’t record an out and gave up three his and two runs.

Cristian Guzman tied the game in the eighth inning when he his a bases loaded clearing double. He led the team with three rbi on the night. Ryan Zimmerman had a solo home run and a rbi double in the game to finish right behind Guzman with two rbi. Lastings Milledge, Elijah Dukes, and Kory Casto finished up the scoreing with one rbi each.

Just another loss for the Nationals, I’m sure there will be plenty left over the next three to four weeks.

Nationals Blog

Tim Redding and the Washington Nationals beat up on Greg Maddux and the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday night. It was the second night in a row that the Nationals beat the Dodgers and now they will be going for the sweep on Thursday. The 5-4 victory over the Dodgers improved the Nationals record to 48-85 on the season.

Redding was good as he pitched six innings. He allowed eight hits and three runs in the game while improving to 9-8 on the year. All three runs that Redding gave up were solo home runs. He did get lucky that they were all solo shots that is for sure. Saul Rivera gave up one run and then Joel Hanrahan pitched 1 1/3 innings to get his sixth save of the season.

Ryan Zimmerman had a solo home run for the Nationals as he was the only Nats player to go deep in the game. Lastings Milledge, Ronnie Belliard, and Jesus Flores all added rbi’s as well in the game for the Nationals.

Nationals Baseball Blog

It was a bad night for the Washington Nationals as they were shut out by the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies beat the Nationals for the second straight night and this time it was by the score of 4-0. Both teams had nine hits in the game, but the Phillies were the team to score some runs while the Nationals couldn’t push across a run.

Brett Myers tossed a complete game against the Nats as they struckout nine times and left 16 runners on base. Talk about not coming up with a big hit when the team really needs one when there were runners on base.

Collin Balester was charged with the loss after he tossed six innings and gave up seven hits and four runs. Balester did give up one home run in the game while striking out four. Marco Estrada threw the final two innings of the game and allowed two hits but zero runs.

The Nationals will try to avoid the three game sweep as they take on the Phillies Thursday.

Nationals Baseball Blog