Nationals Pitching Prospects Impressing No One Heading Into Off-Season

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been away from BleacherReport.com generally, and the Washington Nationals specifically, as the health and needs of my adopted four-year-old son have taken precedence.

And considering that any faint light of respectability has long since darkened, I doubt you missed me.

But there was something else that I noticed during my self-imposed exile from the Nationals: I could live without them.

And that is something I never thought could happen. It’s not, after all, the first time that a Washington baseball team played meaningless September baseball. I’ve been through this in 1964, ’65, ’66, ’67, ’68, ’70 and ’71, and that was before the Expos moved to Washington to continue the tradition of bad baseball.

This one, however, this time, and this team, makes things seem even more disheartening.

The old Senators played in a benign baseball park that couldn’t have been a worse design for baseball if the architect’s had tried (and maybe they did). Their owners were poor when compared to their peers, and baseball decisions never seemed to make much sense.

Today, the Nationals have a sparkling new ballpark, rich owners with ties to the city, and—finally—respected, experienced baseball men making the decisions.

So what’s making me feel uncomfortable about the team today?

Over the past few years, the Nationals have been stockpiling young pitching, knowing that out of every four or five true prospects, the team could expect to see one of them become a solid major league pitcher.

But thus far, no one from that talent pool is pointing to himself and saying, “I’m that one guy; it’s me.”

Shairon Martis looked great early in the season, but hasn’t impressed anyone at Syracuse. Craig Stammen has shown flashes, but he’s just undergone surgery on his throwing arm, as Jordan Zimmermann did a month or so back.

Colin Balester has twice been given an opportunity to show he is as good as his press clippings, and twice he has shown Mike Rizzo and Jim Riggleman that he has problems keeping the ball down.

Garrett Mock, J.D. Martin, and Ross Detwiler have all shown they might be able to “make it,” but they all could just as well become Wal-Mart greeters by the time they are 30. And Scott Olsen might make it back to the Nationals in 2010 and be their ace, or the Nationals just might release him before they are forced to go to arbitration with the former Marlin.”

So it would seem that the Nationals are not, as we all thought, a team with a lot of real pitching prospects. The team has several high draft picks in the minor leagues right now, but few of them are playing well. Josh Smoker, Colten Willems, and Jack McGeary were all signed with great fanfare, but that fanfare has since subsided as the doubts and concerns continue to mount.

The offense is not the problem. Take a look how our starter’s numbers should look at the end of the season assuming they had remained healthy and had played every day.

C: Jesus Flores - .311-20-75

1B: Adam Dunn - .283-42-111

2B: No one here will be back

SS: Cristian Guzman - .294-8-55

3B: Ryan Zimmerman - .300-34-112

LF: Josh Willingham - .284-33-90

CF: Nyjer Morgan - .307-4-50, 53 steals

RF: Elijah Dukes - .260-16-102

I didn’t include a starting second baseman because none of them will be in the mix to be a starter in 2010.

Stan Kasten has always said that his policy isn’t to sign free agent pitchers. That means the team will either promote from within to help with the pitching or they will trade some of that solid offense to find a pitcher, which means that the team’s offense will get worse as their pitching gets better.

Stephen Strasburg will help at some point, and Drew Storen seems ready to take over the closer’s role, which will make for a fairly potent bullpen with Mike McDougal as the set-up man.

But until the Nationals find some real starting pitching, wins will be very hard to come by.