"If Manny respects the integrity of the game, what is he doing still sending Hanrahan out there?" — Basil, 2007

We’ve now seen 3 good starts in a row. I think the starting rotation will be OK, as long as Cabrera can keep his ERA under 5.00 or hopefully under 4.50. Hanrahan had a rough series, no doubt, but every closer goes through slumps. It’s still too early to close the book on him, but he needs to figure it out soon.

The offense is doing pretty well, except for some problems in clutch situations. Contrary to what it looked like at the beginning of the season, the Nats don’t look that bad anymore. It looks like they could have 3 or 4 good starters. Maybe the young guys will struggle more on the road but at least they are showing that they can handle good line-ups like those of the Phillies and Marlins.

Despite the losses in the last 2 games, the Nats are finally turning things around. If not for the blown saves, they would have won a series against the Marlins for the first time in years.

To say “the problem is pitching and the reason pitching is the problem is that ownership won’t spend money” is an oversimplification and unfair to Kasten or the Lerners. There are two reasons management has shied away from big name pitchers.

The simplest reason is that it’s not that great an investment. Getting a big name pitcher is a flashy, sexy move that excites the fan base and can win the team games they’d otherwise have no business winning, so the appeal is obvious. But pitchers are extremely susceptible to injury and have much more variability in their year-to-year performance than position players. Sometimes signing a big-name pitcher works out – Mike Mussina, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, and even Gil Meche could be considered examples of that. But other side of the coin is guys like Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, Kevin Millwood, Chan Ho Park, Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle, and Barry Zito: guys who are injury prone, ineffective, or both, but have such huge contracts they prevent their team from making moves that would make them better. Of course, that’s mostly anecdotal, but statistical studies have indicated that pitching performance is difficult to predict and of course pitchers are hurt more often than position players. In baseball terms it’s the ultimate high-risk, high-reward situation.

Given that the team made an aggressive run at Mark Teixeira and is paying big bucks to Dunn I see it less as an issue of whether the team is willing to spend money and more of an issue of figuring out the most efficient way to allocate its resources.

The second reason is that it flies in the face of the overriding (some would say, “systemic”) philosophy of the club: build from within and add free agents when they’re what’s going to put you over the top in terms of competitiveness. If you’re a bad team, there’s no reason to sign a guy to a huge contract under the logic that in three or four years, when you hope to be good, he’ll be there to fill a hole because you don’t know what holes you’re going to have.

For example, imagine a scenario where the Nationals draft and sign Strasburg, who pans out, Jordan Zimmerman exceeds expectations, Lannan pitches like he did last year, and someone else (Martis, McGreary, Balester, whomever) is a solid pitcher. Imagine also that Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns, and Nick Johnson have left. In that situation, even if Dukes and Millidge pan out, the team is in need of some middle-of-the-order pop from the outfield or first base to put them over the hump. That’s not a situation you want to be sitting in with a huge chunk of payroll tied up in guys like Sabathia, Burnett, or Lowe, who make 15-23 million a year, preventing you from making the moves your team actually needs to make in order to be a contender. That’s why if you’re a bad team, you only go after a guy like Mark Teixeira who, because of his age and position, is as close to sure thing you can get and thus is someone you’re confident will be useful down the road.

This strategy works, and to see evidence of it you don’t need to look any further than the Washington Capitals. The team started their rebuild from scratch and faced a lot of the same criticism the Nationals do – that they weren’t interested in what the fans thought, that the owner was cheap, that the management was inept, and so on. But by taking their lumps, focusing on development, and building from within they’ve assembled one of the best young cores of talent in the NHL and are now in a position where they’re able to tweak the roster to try and win. That’s where the Nationals want to be in two, three, four years: in a position where their needs are clearly identifiable and the team has the financial flexibility to address them.

With the difference being crappy relief pitching (relievers blowing games). The Mets weren’t cheap though. 2nd or 3rd highest payroll in the majors last year. This year (IMO) I think they were cheap by not acquiring Lowe (Braves) for what he was asking. They re-acquired Oliver Perez instead of Lowe and…The verdict is still out.

It’s a amazing that the Washington Nationals are five runs ahead (in total runs) over the Kansas City Royals, yet the Royals are in first place in their division. Just goes to show you that pitching is significantly more important than hitting. Sure, that stat and statement may be an oversimplification, but it’s hard to argue with facts.

I wonder what will happen first; Manny Acta gets fired or the Nationals spend money on an arm. Zimmerman can’t get here quick enough. Then again, there’s a chance he might get rained out on Monday.

I agree with many of the above answers, but I also think the team has made several real bad personal decisions during and after Bowden. Here is a list of the more recent bad decisions:
1) Firing Steven Shell was a real bad idea. If you want to know more I wrote a long reason why here: http://www.federalbaseball.com/2009/4/20/845305/rizzo-overhauls-the-nats-bullpen
but essentially his lifetime MLB era is 2.41! We fired him after the 5th inning of the season when he did not pitch all that bad.
2)Shawn Hill: He is in the Padres rotation and winning games. We cut him this spring for little reason other than that he won arbitration and might get injured again. He will win 15 for the Padres this year or next. I’d bet money on it.
3) Ryan Church and Brian Schneider for Millage. Does this need explanation? Mets will go to the postseason and these two guys are significant contributors. Millage is a loser with tools.
4) we abuse our bullpen worse than almost anyone. Every year we lead the league in appearances with at least a guy or two. All the following very good pitchers have destructed during their prime after we abused them in recent years. Cordero, Rauch, S Rivera, and Majewski. To name but a few.
5) the X reds are and were crazy bad, but that is over for now hopefully.

I could go on, but you get the point. Great teams like the Red Sox stockpile arms (never have enough arms at any price, which allows them to avoid abusing guys), keep youngsters in the minors for a while till they are not gambles, and keep leaders (Varitek) past their primes. Bad teams worry about how much a pitcher cost, cut good veteran guys before they digress, and gamble on cheap youngsters (then cut them quickly when they do not pan out).

why are you saying he was fired? don’t we have 10 days to trade him, send him to syracuse, or give him his outright release (unless we already did)?