Washington Nationals

Chien-Mang Wang is a National again this year.  To many it may be surprising that he even was a National last year considering he never pitched an inning.  Wang must have made strides rehabbing last year though because he was offered and accepted a $1 million contract (with $5 million in incentives) from the Nationals.  

Shortly after former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke didn't get traded to the Washington Nationals on Sunday, I wrote a story about the Denny McLain trade back in 1970 and suggested that had Greinke come to Washington, things would have turned out just as bad for the Nationals as it did for the Senators some 40 years earlier.

There has been a lot going on in baseball this winter, so I didn’t get a chance to comment on the Josh Willingham to the Oakland A’s trade. But let me just say this—what on earth are the Washington Nationals doing?

The Washington Nationals have agreed to terms with former Cardinals Starting Pitcher and OF Rick Ankiel, reports Sports Illustrated's John Heyman.  The deal is worth $1.25 million dollars for one year.  He can earn another $1.25MM in performance bonuses.

Zach Greinke for half of the Washington Nationals? Man, I've seen this story before.

They may not have the best stadium, uniforms, or team on paper, but they are certainly capable of drawing up some serious headlines. 

In the last two years they have drafted two phenoms: Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper.   

Lesser known early round picks like Drew Storen out of Stanford, stepped right in and made quite an impression for a last placed squad; 4-4, 3.58 ERA, 54 games, five saves, and 52 strikeouts in 55 innings. 

I was fairly unimpressed when the Washington Nationals announced the other day that the team had re-signed Chien-Ming Wang to a one-year contract that could pay him as much as $5 million if he successfully returns to the major leagues.

The various winter leagues don’t have much longer to run, so I thought it a good idea to take a look and see how some of the Nationals are performing this year.

A few of them completed their off seasons in the Arizona Fall League and are noted:

Roger Bernadina is batting just .208/.333/.250, but he has played in just seven games so I don’t think his numbers tell very much.

After a year of trying, the Washington Nationals have finally succeeded in trading outfielder Josh Willingham. As of early this afternoon, the 32-year-old was officially an Oakland Athletic.

Coming East are pitcher Henry Rodriguez and center fielder Corey Brown.

We'll talk about Rodriguez another day. Let's focus on Brown for now.

He was one of the Nationals’ prized rookies. He didn’t come from a large school but was impressive enough to be selected early in the draft. By the age of 23, he was part of Washington’s rotation and though his statistics weren’t overly impressive, his overall performance was quite good.