Nats showing clear pitching improvement over previous years

Stats courtesy of fangraphs

FIP (fielding independent pitching)  rank in game also given

2005   4.16  (11th)  ~singing~ Livan, Livan made his money

2006   5.03  (28th)

2007   4.92  (30th)

2008   4.71  (26th)

2009   4.82  (28th)

2010   4.12  (19th)  yep best ever FIP 

ok sure offense in the game was down this year, but it still does not change the number and 2005 to 2008 were in RFK

Team UZR/150 (a measure of defense,  zero is absolutely average and positive numbers are good)

2005   +6.8 (3rd best in the game that year  just missed playoffs despite only solid pitching and an real bad offense)

2006   -1.6  (22nd)

2007   -.2  (15th)

2008    -1.0  (16th)

2009    -3.8 (25th,  somehow we were ranked first of all teams in September, but last most of the year)

2010   -.6 (18th but clearly improved over last season)

This team has not been respectable glovewise since 2005 ended  (hmmmm...maybe we should have kept more expos around)

wOBA (an advanced offensive stat that tries to include more)

2005   .307 (30th)

2006   .326  (21st)

2007   .315  (28th)

2008   .309  (29th)

2009   .326  (17th)

2010  .313  (20th)

Obviously we have never had a good scoring team any season including this one.