A short post in honor of Jinx Day to point out some of the ways we're the best in the Majors (or at least the NL) before we crush the Pirates by 10-0 or worse tonight in Double-N's CGS.
Ryan Zimmerman
This young man is an unstoppable force of baseball awesomeness. He's hitting 358/416/624--that's right, his OPS is greater than 1000! He's on pace for 40 HR, 50 2Bs, and 120 RBI. Read that last sentence again: the Z-man is on pace to be a bigger slugger than we were expecting from the Big Donkey! And that's not all, his defense at 3B (measured by UZR/150) is best in the NL, and second-best in MLB. A guy who hits like Adam Dunn and defends like... well, Ryan Zimmerman? That's like two Adam Dunn's worth of win in one guy! In fact, if you add up his phenomenal offensive output and mad defensive skillz, he's worth 2.9 Wins Above Replacement--in 39 games--by himself. That means that compared to an average player, he's worth almost twelve extra wins over the course of a season--2008 MVP Albert Pujols was only worth nine! Zimmy is the MVP in MLB in terms of WAR right now. We could start Ryan Zimmerman and 7 Alex Cintrons and have a decent shot at winning a game.
Adam Dunn
He may only be worth half a Ryan Zimmerman, but even that's pretty darned good. In fact, he's on pace for almost 50 HR and 125 RBI so far this season! Yeah, 40/100 is for chumps--BANG! ZOOM! He could never catch another ball in the outfield all season and still slug his way into a positive WAR value.
Nick Johnson
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! That's the sound of the dumptruck full of young, talented pitching that it'll take to acquire NJ backing up to the Nats' bullpen. You need a guy who doesn't make outs and does knock in runs? Look no further than Nick Johnson's cumulative Win Percentage Added of 2.14 (a measure of all the good things he's done in tight spots, minus all the bad things), which is 3rd in the NL--as is his "clutch" factor, a measure of how much better than average he is in tight spots. Late innings, behind a run or two with men on and an out or two? No worries if NJ is coming to the plate--he's good for the go-ahead every time.
Mo' Runs, Mo' Runs, Mo' Runs...
Heck, it's not just our all-All-Star middle of the order--it's the whole danged lineup! For crying out loud, the Nationals team wOBA (a stat that wraps up all offense into one number) is 0.357, second in all of MLB (the Yankees manage a 0.360 thanks only to steroids and the Minute-Maid-Field-absurd dimensions of their ridiculous new ballpark). We have the third-most walks in MLB, the third-most HRs in the NL, and the third-highest batting average in the NL. Frankly, the bullpen can give up as many damned runs as it wants--we'll just score more!