2010 Is A Make-or-Break Season For the Washington Nationals

Six seasons ago, fans welcoming baseball back to Washington gave standing ovations to the bat boys. What the Washington Nationals did on the field didn’t matter back in 2005.

That a team roamed the vast expanse of RFK Stadium again was all that mattered.

Wins? Eh—they’d be nice but….

But that time is long gone. The Nationals have had the worst record in all of baseball the last two seasons and one of the all-time worst two-year records in the history of major league baseball.

The 2009 Nationals drew more than a million fewer fans than their 2005 counterpart even though they were playing in one of the finest baseball facilities in the National League.

Their 22,435 per game attendance was third from the bottom.

So it isn’t a stretch to say that 2010 is a make-or-break year for the Nationals. The drive-by fans have long ago left and the team is in danger of alienating their base.

If something doesn’t change, all that will be left to follow the team are the bloggers and those who get some free tickets for an otherwise nothing-going-on Wednesday evening.

Once fans are lost, it can be very difficult to get them back. Just ask the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Nationals need to reach .500 this season. They need to show that all of the young and talented players in the pipeline are more than just unfulfilled promises.

They need wins.

And this team can do it. The combination of the players who will be introduced on Opening Day in addition to the players who are close to contributing—players like Stephen Strasburg, Drew Storen and Chien-Ming Wang—are talented enough to do the job.

But the Nationals can’t afford to have one or two of their starters have off-years. They all need to play to their potential.

To make it to .500, the Nationals’ statistics need to look something like this when the season comes to a close in October:

1B—Adam Dunn (.260-40-100)

2B—Adam Kennedy (.270-10-50, 20 steals)

SS—Ian Desmond (.265-13-55)

3B—Ryan Zimmerman (.290-35-105)

LF—Josh Willingham (.255-25-75)

CF—Nyjer Morgan (.280-1-45, 45 steals)

RF—Willy Taveras & Willie Harris (.270-8-50, 45 steals)

C—Pudge Rodriguez (.250-12-50)

Starting Pitchers:

1—John Lannan (13-11, 3.77)

2—Jason Marquis (13-13, 4.10)

3—Craig Stammen (10-11, 3.89)

4—Livan Hernandez (3-5, 4.50)

      Stephen Strasburg (7-3, 3.20)

5—Garrett Mock/Scott Olsen (3-6, 4.88)

      Chien Ming Wang (6-4, 3.88)

If the Nationals had a quality right fielder, getting to 81 wins would be far less difficult. And though I listed Willy Taveras and Willie Harris as the team’s right fielders, there is little doubt that someone else will finish the season there.

Livan Hernandez, Garrett Mock, and Scott Olsen will be place holders until Strasburg and Wang arrive sometime in late spring or early summer. If they pitch well, perhaps they might be included in a package that would bring the aforementioned right fielder to Washington.

And while it is important that Matt Capps is successful as the closer, the team has enough players on the roster to take over if he fails. Storen could also be a possibility to close later in the season.

If the Nationals can produce as shown above, there is no reason that the team won’t get close enough to .500 to bring some baseball excitement back to Washington.

But more injuries, and too many off-years might make fans and players alike believe that this franchise is snake-bit.

I may end up regretting this, but I think the Nationals make it to 82 wins and have a most successful season.