With three games to go this season, the Nationals 2008 draft pick is locked in between #5 and #10.
| Pick | MLB | W | L | Schedule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Florida | 69 | 90 | at NYM |
| 6 | Chicago Sox | 70 | 89 | vs DET |
| 7 | San Francisco | 70 | 89 | at LAD |
| 8 | Cincinnati | 71 | 88 | vs CHC |
| 9 | Houston | 71 | 88 | vs ATL |
| 10 | Washington | 72 | 87 | at PHI |
| 11 | Oakland | 75 | 84 | vs LAA |
| 12 | St. Louis | 75 | 84 | at PIT |
| 13 | Texas | 75 | 84 | at SEA |
The best the Nationals can finish is 75-87 and tied for #10 with Oakland, St. Louis, and Texas. And, since the Nationals had the worst 2006 winning percentage of the four would get the #10 on a tiebreaker. The worst the Nationals can finish is 72-90 and tied for the #5 pick with Florida. And, the tiebreaker goes to the Nationals there as well.
FYI … the Nationals hold the tiebreaker with every team in the table above.
It realistically seems the Nationals will finish with the #8, 9 or 10 pick in the 2008 draft.
Scrub fan | 28-Sep-07 at 7:48 am | Permalink
This is when we need to simply trust that 1) the team will find a way to hold onto Mike Rizzo. and 2) that he and his scouts will continue to do better than other teams. As little as it matters, I want the nats to finish ahead of as many teams as possible.
EdDC | 28-Sep-07 at 10:44 am | Permalink
With no starting pitcher having won more than a half-dozen games and with their payroll cut in half this season, the Nats are pretty efficient in making something out of almost nothing. Somebody must publish a “payroll cost per win” table?
In the larger scheme of things, the Nats are just another losing team–nothing to get excited about. But in terms of cost per win, that’s a penant race the Nats might be contending for.
VladiHondo | 28-Sep-07 at 3:19 pm | Permalink
Well at least winning can’t hurt us any!
Go Nats!
Tom | 28-Sep-07 at 5:04 pm | Permalink
I would like to see how many game the Nats starters left the game with a lead, tied or with only allowing less than three runs. W’s and L’s have as much to do with offense as it has to do with piching performance. When our hitters don’t hit the opposing starters it makes it very hard for the starters to get W’s.
hartmanbirge | 29-Sep-07 at 2:15 am | Permalink
I think our starting pitching didn’t have very many W’s because they’re just not very good. Acta was able to get through the season with smoke and mirrors and a very good bullpen. No surprise that the bullpen wore down big time as the season progressed - to include a total collapse at the end by Cordero. I a starting pitcher can’t get past the 5th inning because his pitch count is too high then he probably doesn’t deserve to win too many games. All too often this year this is exactly what happened. Quite predictably, Shawn Hill missed huge chunks of the year due to injury. I would expect more of the same next year - Every time he throws a pitch one has to hold their breath to see if he’s going to have to come out with another arm problem. Patterson might come back - again, can’t trust his health. There is now a track record on these two - both fragile and unreliable. Hanrahan really regressed in September and now I doubt he makes the ML team next year. But there are promising pieces I think. Lannan is one such piece - durable, reliable, and showed ability to go deeper into games. Chico should be better after getting hammered most of the year - right now he’s no better than a 5th starter but has potential to improve. Redding is another guy who looks as if he can get deeper into the game and stay healthy and eat up innings. I think the find of the year was Bergmann - he looks to be the real deal. Call it a staff of Bergmann, Lannan, Redding, Chico, and a tossup btwn Hill (our “ace”) and Patterson to see which of the two is available that day and not in the hospital…… Ballister probably stays all season at AAA….
Alan | 29-Sep-07 at 3:50 am | Permalink
Several weeks ago, someone posted a link to the Italian baseball web site in a discussion of the European championships. There wasn’t much information there, but here’s the link to the main European site: http://www.baseballeurope.com/
In this era of expanded international scouting, it might be interesting to keep an eye on.
Thank you again, Brian, for all your hard work in making this the best Nationals blog.
Tofu Dog | 29-Sep-07 at 12:10 pm | Permalink
Hartmanbirge hits it out of the park. The pitching has been better, but there are so many question marks once again. If Kasten is going to trade for the missing links, the first priority has to be a reliable starter. Given there is not much to trade with, getting return from Church, Cordero, Lopez and whatever else they offer up, will be tough. Pitchers who have fallen out of favor like Zach Greinke or who had awful years like Ervin Santana might be possible. Santana looked so good in ‘06 and maybe St. Clair can work his magic with a pitcher like that as well as with Bergmann.