Most Valuable Player, Best Prospect, and Best Hitter for Power- Derek Norris A Hagerstown

Derek Norris has been spectacular the first half of this season. In 81 games he has batted .317/.417/.596 with 20 homers and 84 RBI. That translates into a 162 game season of a .317 average with 40 homers and 168 RBI. The right handed hitting catcher may very well be the future of this club. At 20-years-old, Norris shows tremendous plate patience and power. On top of his 20 homers he has smacked 20 doubles and has walked 47 times.

The scary thing is Norris is getting better as the season goes along. In a four game stretch last week he hit six homers and walked four times.

Expect Norris to soon get a promotion to Harrisburg, skipping Potomac, and you may see him in the Majors as soon as 2010.

Best Pitcher: Tie- J.D Martin AAA Syracuse and Bradley Meyers AA Harrisburg

J.D Martin has been stellar in his first 14 starts of the year. He has an 8-2 record with a 2.14 ERA through 84 innings. The Californian native has held opponents to only hit .227 against him, and only four batters have been able to go yard. He has a 61 to 9 strikeout to walk ratio so far this year, and is more than ready for his call up to the pros.

Bradley Meyers is a 23 year old who just earned his promotion to Harrisburg after dominating in Potomac. The six foot six starter pitched 88.1 innings in 14 starts for the P-Nationals, allowing only one home run, and posting a 1.43 ERA. Most impressive about the pitchers performance is that he has walked only 21 batters, which is a good sign for his Major League potential.
 

Best Hitter for Avreage: Jorge Padilla-AAA Syracuse

Jorge Rafael Padilla, an outfielder from Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, is tearing up the International League. Through 73 games this season he is now batting .363 with 15 extra base hits, 10 stolen bases, and an OBP of .429. Unfortunately for the Nationals, at the age of 29 the career minor leaguer has no real Major League potential.

Most Disappointing: Michael Burgess A Potomac

Burgess was a huge prospect coming out of high school. The hitter had top-five-pick talent, the background, and the pedigree to be a superstar. He simply oozed raw power from his pores. His senior year no team who wished to compete would pitch to the muscle-bound Floridian and his draft stock slipped as his numbers dipped. Burgess proved that falling to the supplemental round was a mistake as in 2008 he hit 24 homers and was named one of the best power prospects in baseball.

Burgess needed to come into 2009 and prove that he had improved his plate patience and ability to hit for contact. So far in 2009 however he has struck out 86 times in 283 at bats, that’s 30%. He is only batting .230 and has only hit 13 home runs, compared to 18 at the same time last year. In high A Potomac Burgess simply looks overmatched, a bad sign for the sluggers future. 

It figures maligned former closer, Joel Hanrahan, would have his most successful output while not even in the stadium, or a part of the organization.

The Nats former closer earned his first victory of the year for the Nationals, despite now being a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The victory came Thursday night as the Nationals finished a suspended game against the Astros. The game resumed in the 11^th inning in Houston with the Nationals (the home team) at bat.

The Nats won with a Nyjler Morgan single and a Miguel Tejada game losing error. 

Matt Chico has been officially taken off the disabled list as he was optioned to AA-Harrisburg last night.  

The Lefty underwent reconstructive Tommy John surgery last July after a disappointing 2008 campaign.

The 25-year-old went 0-6 with a 6.19 ERA in eight starts last year to start the season. Chico was shut down in late May 2008.

The Nats are hoping he can regain his 2007 form where as a rookie he made 31 starts and posted a respectable 4.63, not bad for a then 24-year-old.

The good news for Chico is there is no rush for him to return. The Nats are pretty well endowed in the starting pitching category, so he can take as much time as he needs to regain command of his fastball and off-speed pitches,  pump up his velocity, and most importantly gain confidence.

There is really no way to know if Chico will ever be the same pitcher again. Tommy John surgery has been a great success for a lot of pitchers, but some also never recover.  The good news for Chico though is that he’s young, and has the time to rebuild his repertoire with a brand new arm. My guess is that he could be in the Nationals bullpen as early as September 2009. 

The Colorado Rockies (45-39) have been on a tear since firing their former manager ,Clint Hurdle. Since late May, Colorado has gone 25-11 under their new skipper, Tracy O’Dowd.

The hot streak continued this week as Washington came to town.

Game 1
 

Monday night saw one of the hottest pitchers in Major League Baseball, Jason Marquis, take on a young pitcher who may have finally found himself, Craig Stammen.

Stammen took the mound in Colorado with a great confidence that showed early. It seemed the young righty was unhittable in the notorious hitters park, Coors Field. Through seven innings he allowed only five hits, one earned run, and struck out three while only walking one.

The young pitcher learned a valuable lesson however, as he received no run support for his outstanding performance. Jason Marquis, the veteran, simply out-pitched him.

The 30-year-old lefty blanked the Nats through eight innings, scattering seven hits while walking two and striking out three. The Rockies went on to win his MLB leading 11^th game, 1-0.

Game 2
 

Tuesday night saw Jordan Zimmerman’s least effective start in months, a five inning bullpen performance that allowed no earned runs, three Nationals errors, and a late inning loss for the Nats.

Zimmermann only allowed four runs, two earned, through four innings Tuesday night. The young hurler however walked four and through four innings threw 94 pitches, only 59 of them strikes.

The defense is what unraveled for the Nats this game however.

The club committed three errors. One by relief pitcher Jeff Biemel, who has a shockingly high three errors now on the season. This is an alarming amount when you consider he only pitched 33 innings. Another error came from Cristian Guzman, who continues to look more and more lost by the day. Yet another error came from Willie Harris, who had been applauded by the Nationals organization for his outfield defense, but now was playing second base.

Despite a four to four tie late in the game, the Rockies took the lead 5-4 in the eighth with a Clint Barmes sacrifice fly, allowing Gonzalez to score.

Game 3
 

Ross Detwiler has been up and down in this his rookie season. He was down Wednesday night.

The young hurler pitched only four innings, allowing eight hits, six earned runs, and three walks.

The early blow wasn’t enough for the Nationals to overcome, losing 10-4.

The defense in this game was atrocious for the Nationals. While all the runs put on the board by the Rockies were earned, the three defensive  gaffs by Washington can not be overlooked concerning its mental affects on the teams performance.

Adam Dunn, the teams supposed best player had two errors in the field, both with his glove.

Most embarrassing however was Wil Nieves’ drop of a simple pop up in foul territory.

Manny Acta later forgave Dunn’s misplays, saying that the Big Donkey wasn’t brought in for his defense, but to hit 40 homers year. While this may be true, I think the skippers reaction to this is indicative of the overall problems on the field throughout the season; ; lack of accountability and low expectations.

If  you make 10 million a year, you need to catch a ball..period.  

Between the Fourth of July holiday, network problems and network outages, it’s been a rough week here at The Nats Blog. We apologize.

We should be back up 100% and running within a few days. Once again we apologize for the technical problems. 

Washington’s team won in our nation’s capitol this Independence Day, five to three, over the Atlanta Braves.

The Nats were carried by their ace, John Lannan, who again put in a strong performance. The lefty pitched eight innings, scattered nine hits, allowed three earned runs, struck out one and walked one.

It seemed early that Lannan’s bulldog presence on the mound would be for nothing, as the club fell to a three to nothing deficit. It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Nats put a run on the board with an Adam Dunn solo homer(his 300^th of his career).

The performance was beginning to look like a classic Washington Nationals output, lacking everything needed to pull out the win. Atlanta turned the game over to their bullpen, and everyone, including the Braves and many Nationals fans, expected Washington to roll over.

The eighth inning however brought a holiday surprise. A rally spurred by singles and walks turned the game around for the club.

With the bases juiced and one out, club leader Ryan Zimmerman hit a two run single to tie the game. Following him Adam Dunn hit another single to nock in yet another run. The rally didn’t stop there, as Josh Willingham got in on the party, hitting in Zimmerman, giving the Nats the 5-3 lead.

MacDougal came in and shut the door for the club in the ninth, despite allowing two walks. He now has four saves and a 1.17 ERA.

Transactions

The Nationals designated Jesus Colume for assignment today. Colume had posted a dreadful 8.40 ERA in 15 innings this year. He will try and find his mechanics in Triple-A.

To fill Colume’s spot, the Nationals called up last year’s starter Colin Ballester. Ballester had excelled so far in Syracuse.