National Record

This news about John Patterson is encouraging.  He’s saying his forearm is 100% and that he’s all set to go for spring training.  If the Nationals can get anything close to what they got from him in 2005, I’d be pretty happy.  Even in 2006 he was pretty good until he got shutdown so there’s a pretty good chance you could be looking at one of the National’s best starters.

The Nationals came to an agreement with outfielder Alex Escobar yesterday.  They’ll pay him $530,000 and in the process, they’ll avoid arbitration with the outfielder.  Escobar has an outside chance of getting a starting job although it’s probably more likely that he’ll start the season as the fourth outfielder with all of the talk of Nook Logan taking over in centerfield.  I’d much rather have Escobar out there then the no hit Logan but at this point, it’s unclear whether Escobar can handle the rigors of a full season so playing it safe is probably good.  Escobar was very good when he was in the lineup but missed almost the entire season with hamstring and shoulder problems.

Nationals shortstop Felipe Lopez, who came to the Nationals from the Reds in the awesome trade made last year that also netted Austin Kearns, signed a one year deal for $3.9 million.  Lopez was an All Star in 2005 after his numbers dropped a bit in 2006.  He still scored 98 runs and stole 44 bases though, and while his power numbers dropped when he came to Washington, his OBP ticked up just a bit.  If Lopez can put up 15 homeruns and 90 runs from the shortstop position (which is about what Baseball Prospectus is projecting), he’ll be one of the teams most valuable players.  Of course defense is another matter because Lopez is a pretty poor fielding shortstop.  He finished 16 runs below average and just four runs above replacement and he had 28 errors.

Hello, my name is Greg Mullin and I’ll be covering the Washington Nationals for the Baseball Historians netword of baseball sites.  I was a life long Montreal Expos fan and have since followed the team since their move to Washington.  While this is shaping up to be a pretty grim season for Nationals fans, I’ll be here analyzing the happenings of the 2007 team both through spring training and the regular season.

I’ll also be taking a look at the roots of the team.  The Expos came into existance in 1969 and they didn’t have their first winning record until 1979.  And while the franchise has never even played in a World Series and have only one playoff appearance to their credit, they have had some colorful and outstanding players.  I’ll be taking a look at the careers of a lot of these players as well as analyzing teams past.  I’ll be starting with a personal favorite and Hall of Fame hopeful in 2008 and that’s none other then Tim “The Rock” Raines.”  Raines is one of the best leadoff hitters of his generation and in a lot of ways, deserves more Hall of Fame credit then he’ll probably get.

So I hope you stop by and check out the site.  I’d love feedback so feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line via email.  And here’s to hoping that the Nationals do better then we all think.