The Nationals took the field in Washington Thursday night with a clean slate. Their only goal; have a better second half than first.

Defensive gaffs were one of the main ills of the first half for the Nationals. Whether it be Adam Dunn’s poor ball reading ability, Cristian Guzman’s disgustingly bad range, or Ryan Zimmerman’s mysterious throwing problems, errors took the Nats out of many games they couldn’t afford to lose.

Last night the problem continued as the Nationals had two errors and allowed three unearned runs last night en route to a 6-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

So much for a clean slate.

Ryan Zimmerman recorded a throwing error in top of the third allowing catcher Koyie Hill to score later in the inning, giving the Cubs their first runs on the board. In the top of the 9^th, with the Nats only down 3-1, new reliever Sean Burnett had a fielding error allowing two runs to score, essentially putting the game out of reach.
 

It didn’t help that the Nationals only got four hits all game, one being a meaningless solo homer in the bottom of the ninth by Ryan Zimmerman.

The only other hits came from Centerfielder Nyjer Morgan and second basemen Alberto Gonzalez who recorded a triple and a single.

Alberto has been straight nasty since returning to the majors for the Nationals. In June the middle infielder batted .368/.420/.395 and in July he has batted .455/.478/.636.

The Nationals think they may have their shortstop of the future, and secondd basemen of the present in Alberto. He is certainly making many other believers with his play.

The Nationals poor batting performance could have been for any number of reasons. Odd team chemistry with a new coach or rustiness from the break. However one thing is for sure that facing Cubs pitcher Rich Harden didn’t help matters.

Harden has long been considered by experts as ‘the best pitcher in baseball if healthy.’ Unfortunately for Harden, and whichever team has had him in the past, he hasn’t been healthy often.

Last year he was flat out dominant after his trade from Oakland to Chicago. In 12 games he went 5-1 with a 1.77 ERA and a .97 WHIP.

So far in 2009 however he has struggled, to the tune of a 5.06 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP. Many have questions how healthy he has been as not only has he allowed more runs, his opponents batting average rose from .157 last year to .262 this year.

He certainly looked healthy Thursday night though, while through 6 innings he allowed three hits, no earned runs and struck out seven with no walks.

Give this one to Harden, he earned it, lets see what the new face Nats can do against another ace, Carlos Zambrano, tonight.

Riggleman 0-1.

Ryan Zimmerman, continue to earn that contract

Ryan Zimmerman was dawned the Nationals franchise player before even wore the clubs jersey. At the age of 20 he broke into the big leagues and batted .397 through 20 games, affirming to Nationals fans that he would be the first homegrown star on this team.

The rest was history as Zimmerman went on to have a monster rookie season, batting .287 with 20 homers and 110 RBI, he finished only second to Hanley Ramirez in Rookie-of-the-Year voting. 

It was something to be excited about going into the future, and talks for a long-term contract for the hot corner were already underway.

Three years later Zimmerman was still in his rookie contract and really hadn’t improved at the rate everyone had hoped. Some started to question whether the slugger deserved a big deal or if the Nationals should wait and see what he does in his fourth full, and usually decisive season.

The Nats decided to give him Zimmerman a five year, $45 million dollar contract through 2013 under the hope that he would continue to develop and lead this team to prominence.

Zimmerman rewarded the Nats with an extremely strong first two months, which saw him bat well over .300 with an exciting 30 game hit streak.

The slugger however has struggled in June and July batting only .243 with 3 homers and 17 RBI.

The Nationals need their leader and franchise player to regain the form he showed in the first two months. If Zimmerman wants to be the All-Star he was selected, and paid to be, he needs to give us consistency.

Zimmerman also needs to fix his throwing problems. Once described by Baseball America as the next Brooks Robinson, Zimmerman has had 12 errors already this season. Oddly enough, most of those errors have been throwing.

It’s a shame Zimmerman couldn’t use the all-star break to take some time and refocus, but hopefully he can bring his average back up and keep his throws on line.

Nats young starters, turn the corner.
  

The Nationals young pitchers struggled early in the season upon their call ups. This was to be expected, young starting pitchers have the biggest adjustment periods out of all young players and unfortunately for them they are under the biggest microscope.

Around mid-June however, both Craig Stammen and Jordan Zimmermann seemed to find their delivery.

Sammen’s breakout game came June 18^th  at Yankee Stadium, where he pitched six and a third shut out innings, leading to the first ever shut out in the new house-that-Ruth-built.

Zimmerman’s came against Tampa, where he only allowed one run, a solo homer, in five strong innings.

Since, both have put up almost nothing but quality starts. Most runs being scored on the young hurlers are coming in innings where they simply make youthful mistakes. The two starters abilities are unquestionable; right now it is all just a matter of consistency.

Consistency is the only thing that separates the Nationals from having three John Lannan’s in the second half. If Zimmermann and Stammen can just bear down and continue to produce good outings, the National’s win total will surely go up.

As some of you may know, I write monthly for the website BaseballReflections.com. 

This week I wrote a analysis of the Washington Nationals ugly first half, check it out.

Here's a preview:

The Washington National fans entered this season with high hopes.

Not with the typical hopes of baseball fans, that their team may be winning the pennant or even the World Series. No, Nationals fans were finally hopeful that their team had turned the corner and would be in the beginning of an upswing that would have them competitors for several years.

There was confidence in the system, confidence in the organization, and confidence in the leadership.

Fast-forward to the 2009 All-Star break and the Nationals have the worst record in baseball and have fired General Manager Jim Bowden, pitching coach Randy St. Claire, and just today Manager Manny Acta.

So what happened?....

Nick Jonas Diabetes PSA from Children's Hospital Foundation on Vimeo.

Read the article.

Lost in the news that Manny Acta has now been axed is the news that rookie starting pitcher Ross Detwiler has been called back to AAA-Syracuse.

The 23-year-old starter was only expected to get one or two starts when he was called up in May, but the former first round draft pick impressed and got 10 solid Major League starts.

While he had initial success, it had become evident over the last few starts that Detwiler needed some fine-tuning in AAA. In his 10 starts he posted a 0-5 record with a 6.40 ERA with 33 K’s and 22 walks. In his last two starts however, he failed to pitch more than four innings and allowed at least five earned and 8 hits.

Detwiler’s stint was not a failure however; in fact in most ways it was a smashing success.

Leading into 2009 Detwiler had by most accounts been a large disappointment. A top ten pick in 2007, Detwiler burst on to the scene dominating rookie ball at the age of 21. In four starts he posted a 2.25 ERA with 15 K’s in 12 innings.

This performance gave him a fast track cameo to the Major League’s at the end of the 2007 season. He only had one appearance, and retired the side.

2008 saw Detwiler back in high A ball in a situation where he could pitch his way up the ranks and maybe make another appearance at the end of the season. The lefty couldn’t find his way out of Potomac however.

In 26 starts Detwiler went 8-8 with a 4.86 ERA. In 124 innings he allowed an ugly 140 hits, and a disappointing 114 K’s.

Something had changed in Detwiler, his confidence was shot and it showed.

The Nats development team and Detwiler decided to get back to basics. When Detwiler was drafted, the Nationals completely revamped his delivery to be more Major League efficient. This is common among pitchers when reaching professional ball, in fact it is rather amazing how only a few tweaks can add another several miles per hour to a fastball, and certainly increase their longevity.

For whatever reason, these changes were not something Detwiler could adapt to. It was causing him to hang his slider and not locate his fastballs. After spring training in 2009 he switched back to his old college mechanics and was able to dominate in his last several starts in AA Harrisburg.

His stint in the majors has been very important because it proved to him one thing, he can get Major Leaguer’s out. There is no way to truly express the importance of that one lesson. With Detwilers confidence back, and some fine-tuning, he may end up being better than Zimmermann and Lannan down the road.

Garret Mock Promoted

Taking Detwiler’s spot in the rotation will be Garrett Mock.

26-year-old Mock has pitched well in Syracuse since an early demotion. In eight starts he is 5-1 with a 2.65 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 51 innings. 

The Washington Post has been up and down in their coverage of the Nationals.

Thomas Boswell may very well be one of the best writers who devotes his efforts to sports in the Nation, but many of his idea’s tend to be outdated.

The Nationals Journal is solid, but Chico Harlan has said he doesn’t like baseball. And while sometimes you’ll find a real treasure on there, mostly you are disappointed with the thoroughness.

Mike Wise however wrote an excellent story today writing about the terrible mishandling of Frank Robinson in his column, “Robinson Deserved Better.”

The article goes into the terrible miscommunication between Bowden, Kasten, and Robinson. It shows how the two executives led the baseball legend on with insincere comments with their intensions hidden behind a smoke shield of obscurity.

Here are some excerpts, I encourage all of you to read the whole story here.

“Kasten, the team president; and by association the Lerner family uncomfortably strung Robinson along until the very end of his second season in Washington. That's how Frank Robinson said it went down.”

….

"Robinson said he first asked Bowden in July 2006 if the organization wanted him to return. Bowden, he said, asked what he was looking for in the way of salary. "I ask for a million a year and I said I could go for two or three more years," Robinson said he told him.

"Well, you better ask for a little bit more," Bowden said, according to Robinson. "Because you know the way they are; they'll cut you down."

Bowden said he would get back to Robinson but kept putting him off, Robinson said. "Finally, I said point blank, 'Jim, if you're back as general manager, am I your manager next year?' He said, 'Absolutely.' That's good enough for me. I hold people to their word."