2008 Washington Nationals

Last year’s Washington Nationals were more of a surprise than anything. Expected to finish at the bottom of the NL East they finished 4th with a 73-89 record. While the record isn’t anything special the team played much better than expected. The Nationals are known for bringing in troublesome players and getting the best they can out of them. Las year they took on troubled Dimitri Young and he would up being the NL comeback player of the year. This year will be no different as they traded for outfielders Lastings Milledge and Elijah Dukes; both have off field problems that make other teams look the other way. While the team hopes to improve in 2008, they will open their new stadium (Nationals Park) this season.

Pitching:

The pitching isn’t very good, the highest total of wins from last season from an expected starter entering this year is 7, and that came from their projected 4th starter. Team ace John Patterson will hope to return to the form that brought him a 9 win season in 2005. Then they have Shawn Hill, Jason Bergmann, and Matt Chico to fill the 2-4 spots. The top four for the Nationals have never had a 10-win season. The fifth spot is still up in the air and probably won’t be figured out till spring training. The bullpen will put its shoulders on closer Chad Cordero who saved 37 games last year. They also have solid setup men in Jon Rauch and Saul Rivera. This unit needs breakout seasons from a lot of starters and it just isn’t likely to happen in 2008.

Offense:

The offense will have to improve, as they were last in the majors in runs scored and last in the National League in homeruns. The team is hoping that 1B Nick Johnson can return from not playing at all in 2007 to the guy who hit .290 with 23HRs in 2006. The team will hope that the addition of Milledge will pay off as he is expected to play center. SS Cristian Guzman was having a breakout year hitting .328 before tearing a ligament in his left thumb. The is also hoping that Felipe Lopez is expected to play second even though he is coming off his worst season at the plate. The team also added C Paul Lo Duca to try and help out the offense. The team will need big years from corner outfielders Willy Mo Pena and Austin Kearns if they want to improve on their awful offensive team numbers of last season.

Defense:

The defense was right with the rest of the team last year and that was not very good. Though they weren’t awful on this side of the ball they gave up a few too many extra outs. They did do a good job at shutting down the running game, but it will depend on Lo Duca to continue that in 2008.

Prediction:

While even though this team over performed in 2007 with the talent it had, we like them to finish 4th in the NL East because the Marlins are going to be even worse in 2008. They just need to let their prospects play and see what they got and what they need to go after in the future.

2008 Washington Nationals Odds to Win World Series 100-1

For every team’s odds head over to Sportsbook.com and check them out. You can also go to Sportsbook.com to look at the odds for teams to win their division or league pennant. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section.

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