It's Time For The Nationals To Finally Win A Playoff Series
As we approach September, we are at the point in the season where it isn’t bold to predict a playoff run for the Nationals. I, and everyone else really, would be shocked if this team was not one of the 8 teams playing in the MLB divisional series. The Nationals haven’t even been all that good the past in the past week or two yet their lead over the Mets and Marlins is so great and their roster is so superior that Max Scherzer and company have a 99% chance of making the playoffs and a 96% chance of winning the division, according to 538. With 31 games to go, the Nationals magic number is 25 – their greatest competition, the Marlins, are without Giancarlo Stanton for likely the rest of the year while the Mets are playing every day with a manager who makes me appreciate Dusty Baker more than I ever thought that I would. So a playoff run is a near certainty in DC but you know what isn’t? A playoff series win.
As Nats fans have all been reminded about a million times, the Nationals have never won a playoff series and the only way to silence those jeers is for this group of 25 guys to get the monkey off of their back. Fortunately, this team is set up perfectly to do just that.
There are some teams that are built to get by in the regular season, these teams might be phenomenal in most aspects of the game but have one or two glaring weaknesses that can really be exploited when an opposing team knows that its win or go home and when all the opposing manager is focused on is this current series. We might have seen some of that in last year’s championship series when the Mets pounded the Cubs with pitches they just were not able to catch up to. It really does not look as though the Nationals of 2016 are a team that will crumble when it reaches the postseason. Now, to be clear, I not predicting a World Series win because it’ll be very tough for anyone to get by the best team in baseball, the Chicago Cubs. I am predicting a playoff series win for the first time in Washington Nationals history.
Offensively, the Nationals lineup has evolved remarkably from Opening Day, even if all 8 starters were in the organization back then. In April, the narrative read that there really wasn’t anyone to protect Bryce in the lineup and that the team would need to upgrade at a few different positions if they ever hoped to win the division against the New York Mets and their potent starting rotation. Everything has changed. Daniel Murphy has established himself as a legitimate (and in my view top) MVP candidate, Wilson Ramos has been the best catcher in all of baseball this year, Anthony Rendon has stayed healthy for the most part and has been a legitimate superstar since the All-Star Break, finally Trea Turner has literally changed the game on both sides of the ball with his amazing speed and knack for getting on base. A team that entered the season with just 1 true threat now has 5 guys that opponents aren’t interested in facing. That isn’t even including an 8-hole batter who has managed 20 home runs (though he had been cold as ice before his ongoing 7 game hit streak), or Jayson Werth who is certainly no pushover in the lineup. The only National League offense that I take over the Nats is Chicago’s.
On the pitching side of things, you couldn’t be more set for a playoff run. Of course this all predicates on Strasburg returning from injuring and returning to his April-July form but he is already playing catch and all signs seem to indicate that he will be back pretty soon. Max Scherzer is a clear and legitimate #1 starter and his April struggles are way way behind him and a healthy Strasburg can go head-to-head with the best of them and still come out on top. The two aces are obviously the most important part of the post-season pitching equation because they’ll be expected to toss such a high proportion of innings but the Nats’ starting pitching depth is unrivaled in baseball. Tanner Roark has been phenomenal – much as he was back when he had a starting job in 2014 – and Gio Gonzalez has been better since the all-star break. Joe Ross is rehabbing now and is exactly the type of guy you want on your staff come playoff time. Ross might not be an ace but, when he is ‘on,’ his stuff plays up to ace levels and if you can steal a dominant outing from your 4th starter in the playoffs, you are that much closer to winning the series. Throw in Lucas Giolito or Reynaldo Lopez, each of whom would be great options in the bullpen, and you really don’t have many real weaknesses.
2016 is the year the Washington Nationals win the first playoff series in the team’s history.