Meet the Nats

Let's not sugarcoar things, the Washington Nationals are an awful baseball team.  They currently sit at 11-28 and are on the fast track to having the 1st overall pick in 2010 draft.  But their 2009 failings haven't come because of their bats.  Their offensive success has flown under the radar because of the greater teams success . . . or lack thereof.

Let's take a closer look:

2008 OBP/SLG/OPS: .323/.373/.696

2009 OBP/SLG/OPS: .364/.449/.812

They're currently 3rd in MLB in OPS, 5th in SLG, 3rd in OBP, and 5th in Total Bases.

Anytime you add Adam Dunn and a healthy Nick Johnson and take away Austin Kearns and a Aaron Boone/Dmitri Young 1B platoon you're going to boost your offense.  The Nats have seen their franchise player (Ryan Zimmerman) blossom as they'd hoped he would when they extended him for 5 years at $45 million to a .411/.630/1.041 tune.

Nick Johnson has become a viable mixed league option recently with 12 runs and 20 RBI thus far in May.  His BABIP remains inhumanly high at .382 but his career .398 OBP means he's always known how to get on base regardless of how he's hitting at the time.  He's being whispered about in trade as a sell high in real life and should be in fantasy as well.

The master of the three true outcomes, Adam Dunn, is inline for his 5th straight 40 HR season (fingers crossed) with 11 through 39 games.  He's currently sitting at career high AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS levels.  His BABIP is a bit outside his career norm at .329 but is sustainable if he can keep his LD% around it's current 21.5.

Fake Teams would like to congratulate Cristian Guzman on taking 4 balls for the first time in 2009.  It only took him 26 games and 122 AB for him to acheive this marvelous feat.  He's ready for a huge fall in production with a BABIP at a cool .426.

So the next time you're streaming starting pitchers and you start licking your lips because the matchups against the Nats, think again.  Yes, you heard it here first cause ain' nobody talking bout the Nats!