Washington Nationals

The Nationals are not very good although they already have one victory this season with Jim Bowden "resigning" (which just saves him from being fired which was going to happen anyway). As awful as Bowden was. there are a few deals he made that I like. Acquiring Lastings Milledge, Elijah Dukes, and Scott Olsen. All of those players are young and talented but due to off the field issues they were shipped out from their old teams into the arms of the Nationals. I think all three players will mature and be a part of the core group that will help turn this franchise around. I'm not saying Bowden did a good job because he truly was awful. He just lucked out that these players made mistakes with their teams and that they needed to be moved. He didn't do much else for the team so I wanted to give him at least a little credit.

Moving on, the Nats actually have a decent offense especially with the signing of Adam Dunn who is one of the most underrated guys in the league. Since 2004 Adam Dunn has hit the second most home runs in all of baseball and will put up his usual 40 home runs this season. Ryan Zimmerman has regressed since his rookie season due to some injuries so if he stays healthy he should provide some offense along with Dunn in the middle of their order.

They will need to score runs all season as their pitching is truly awful with the exception of Olsen who I hope has his head on straight because he could be a real good pitcher. Daniel Cabrera (who every season you hear how he will finally gain some command of his stuff) has decided to move down the highway from Baltimore and who knows, maybe a change of sceneary will help him to get it together. At least John Lannan is young so he maybe he'll surprise some people. Then you have Odalis Perez who will not surprise anyone with his ERA around 5.00.

The Nats will struggle this year, but with the first pick in the draft in June they will take Stephen Strasburg and even though his agent is Scott Boras they will work out a deal to sign him. After failing to sign their first pick last year (Aaron Crow) there is no way they are going to let Strasburg get away from them. The one good thing about not signing Crow is that they now have two of the top ten picks in the June draft. My one concern would be: for a team that likes to be cheap do they have enough to sign both picks? If they don't sign the number 10 pick that will not roll over to next year so they've got to be smart with that 10 pick. With Strasburg they really just need to throw the big bucks at him as he is well worth it. Strasburg has the potential to pitch for them as soon as he signs this summer. With other top pitching prospects Jordan Zimmerman, Ross Detwiler, local young lefty from West Roxbury Jack McGeary, and Garrett Mock I don't think the future is as bleak as people would assume. Granted, I don't think that they are going to all of the sudden contend next season, but if you told me that the Nats will make the playoffs in 2013 I wouldn't be shocked. If they win 70 games this season I think that that would be a success for a team that couldn't get over the 60 win plateau in 2008.

Up next: the World Champion Phillies.