Washington Nationals 2009: Belated Ascension to the Top?

Jim Bowden, the Nationals General Manager was fired this past week, and have named Steven Kagemann their new General Manager. Kagemann takes over a team who had the worst record in all of baseball last year going 59-102. The Nationals have only had twelve winning seasons in their twenty-nine year history. Kagemann was coaching the then Rangers' Class-A team the Clinton Lumberkings last year and led them to a playoff birth. The Lumberkings have since become a Mariners affiliate, and with the change, the Rangers' management decided to let Kagemann go. Kagemann has been reguarded as possibly the best Minor League coach for the past few years now and will finally get his hands on the big leagues. Kagemann had this to say, "Now I know the state this team has been in the past few years, and I'm not going to go out there and go hog-wild making crazy moves. I believe in building within, and acquiring nice role players. Now don't get me wrong, if say Pujols or Halladay or some other big star is available, I'm going to at least make an attempt. Anyways, don't expect a full turn around this year. Re-building is a lengthy process, and we all need to have patience through this time. Thank you."

I'll be posting updates for somewhere from every game at minimum, to every series at maximum, depending on how lazy I am. This is my first real attempt at making a good dynasty, so any constructive criticisms are much appreciated.

Washington Nationals Record:
2009: 1-0
My Career: 1-0

Standings: NL East
Atlanta Braves 1-0
New York Mets 1-0
Washington Nationals 1-0
Florida Marlins 0-1
Philadelphia Phillies 0-1

Season Leaders
Batting
Average: Lastings Millege .750
Home Runs: Lastings Millege 1
RBI's: Adam Dunn 2
Stolen Bases
Pitching
Wins: Saul Rivera 1
SP ERA: John Lannan 9.00
RP ERA: Hanrahan/Ledezma/Rivera 0.00
Saves: Joel Hanrahan 1/1
K's: John Lannan 5

Current Roster:
Vs. Righties
SS Christian Guzman (83)
2B Ron Belliard (83)
3B Ryan Zimmerman (87/95)
1B Dmitri Young (80)
LF Adam Dunn (86)
CF Lastings Millege (84/88)
RF Elijah Dukes (84/91)
C Jesus Flores (80/88)
-Bench
Alex Cintron (77)
Javier Valentin (73)
Josh Willingham (80)
Nick Johnson (82)
Corey Patterson (75)
Austin Kearns (78)

Vs. Lefties
SS Christian Guzman (83)
2B Ron Belliard (83)
3B Ryan Zimmerman (87/95)
1B Dmitri Young (80)
LF Josh Willingham (80)
CF Lastings Millege (84/88)
RF Elijah Dukes (84/91)
C Jesus Flores (80/88)
-Bench
Alex Cintron (77)
Javier Valentin (73)
Austin Kearns (78)
Adam Dunn (86)
Nick Johnson (82)
Corey Patterson (75)

Rotation
1. John Lannan (79/85)
2. Daniel Cabrera (85)
3. Scott Olsen (78/82)
4. Jay Bergmann (74)
5. Shawn Hill (76/82)
Closer: Joel Harahan (80/88)
Setup: Saul Rivera (82/83)
Short Relief: Steven Shell (74/86)
Short Relief: Wilfredo Ledezma (79)
Middle Relief: Gary Glover (80)
Long Relief: Jorge Sosa (78)

2009 Transactions:

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Released April 1:
Jose Castillo 3B
Pete Orr 2B
Gustavo Molina C
Willie Harris LF
Willy Mo Pena RF
Leonard Davis LF
Anderson Hernandez SS
Brad Eldred 1B
Kory Casto 1B
Alberto Gonzalez SS
Matt Whitney 1B
Michael Daniel CF
Marvin Lowrance LF
Edgardo Baez RF
Joel Guzman 3B
Luke Montz C
Brian Peacock C
Stephen King 3B
Danny Espinosa SS
Adrian Nieto C
Ryan Langerhans CF
Devin Ivany C
Freddie Bynum SS
Josh Towers P
Gustavo Chacin P
Dave Williams P
Mike Kinckley P
Brett Campbell P
Craig Stammen P
Levale Speigner P
Mike O'Connor P
Adrian Alaniz P
Justin Jones P
Terrell Young P
Garrett Mock P
Luis Atilano P
Zech Zinicola P
Marco Estrada P
Matt Chico P
Zack Segovia P
Ross Detwiler P
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Kagemann made a big statement today by releasing a lot of players who he thought either didn't have the talent or had where to go on this team. The released players were mainly minor leaguers who hadn't shown enough talent to make it to the bigs.

Let's take a look at our roster.

Lets go around the field and cover all positions and see what the new GM thinks of each guy on the team.

SS Christian Guzman - Christian sort of reminds me of Luis Castillo, really fast at the beginning of the career, but then they don't steal as much for whatever reasons. Anyways I've always been a Guzman fan, and I really don't know why. As long as he keeps hitting pretty well for us he'll have a spot on the team.
2B Ron Belliard - I keep wanting to call him Ronnie, but that's neither here nor there. Looking back on the past two seasons, Ron has put together a terrific resume towards getting the startings job at second. If he keeps his average up, he'll be okay.
3B Ryan Zimmerman - We're in negotiations for a long-term deal for Ryan because we feel he's the face of the franchise. He has lots of untapped potential left and I feel with the right people around him he could skyrocket.
1B Dmitri Young - Much like Guzman, I've always liked Young and I really don't know why. If Young can put together another season similar to 2007 then he'll be sitting pretty atop our lineup.
LF Adam Dunn - Now I wouldn't necessarily put Dunn into our future plans, but until we can get another power bat, Dunn's here for a little while.
CF Lastings Millege - Millege is another guy who has loads of potential, but hasn't quite gotten his fingers around how to use it yet. With plenty of playing time I'm sure he'll catch his stride.
RF Elijah Dukes - See Lastings Millege. But added onto Millege, Dukes is very good defensively and has a really big arm.
C Jesus Flores - See Elijah Dukes.
-Bench- I really like our bench, it has a nice veteran presence, with the least experienced guy going into his sixth season, Willingham, which will help mature our younger starters.
IF Alex Cintron - Brings a fairly nice bat and makes few errors. He's a great Utility infielder.
C Javier Valentin - Never quite getting a real starting job, he's settled into the backup catcher role quite nicely, he'll help mature Flores very well.
LF Josh Willingham - Willingham can bring some power to his bat on occasion, but is a very streaky hitter. He makes few errors but is nothing special on the field.
1B Nick Johnson - Johnson showed a lot of potential when he was in New York, but he never really flourished into an all-star first baseman. He's had some pretty good seasons adding some power to his bat, but in my opinion, Young edges him out by just a little bit.
CF Corey Patterson - Another guy who had loads of potential, but never really lived up to all the hype. The Cubs fan in me will probably keep him around so keep me honest whenever we have an ex-Cub on our team. Anyways he's an average fielder with an average bat with slightly above average speed.
RF Austin Kearns - He's a guy who has some power to him, but hasn't really broken out into a big power guy. He's a pretty good fielder to boot.

Rotation

John Lannan - Is likely to be the Nationals ace for a while and has done pretty well so far in his career despite having a 11-17 record.
Daniel Cabrera - Jeez this team is really filled with people who had a lot of potential but never lived up to it. We should be called the might have beens.
Scott Olsen - An average pitcher who might have performed better if he was on a better team, which doesn't explain why he signed with us, but that will change soon enough.
Jay Bergmann - Here's hoping to Bergmann having a similar season to 2007 and not 2008. If Bergmann doesn't work out we have other options in AAA.
Shawn Hill - Pretty much the same thing as Bergmann.
Joel Hanrahan - I've noticed a common trend about today's prominant closers. Trevor Hoffman got the closing job when he was 26, Mariano Rivera got the closing job when he was 27, Troy Percival go the closing job when he was 26, Joe Nathan got the job when he was 28, and the list goes on but my point is that most good closers get the job between the ages of 26-28. Hanrahan's age? Twenty Seven.
Saul Rivera - He's been a very reliable guy for the Nats as of late, and hopefully this will continue.
Steven Shell - He had an amazing start to his career with a 2.16 ERA his first half season up, and I think he can continue this success.
Wilfredo Ledezma - He's been an off and on reliever throughout his career. Let's just hope this year is an on year otherwise we'll be saying goodbye to Wilfredo.
Gary Glover - I really don't know if I want to keep him or not. He hasn't really had a breakout year, but he hasn't been absolutely terrible either. If he has a bad start look for me to bring in some Free Agents such as Joe Beiml, Will Ohman, Julian Tavarez, Joe Borowski, etc; that is if they're still available.
Jorge Sosa - He's another player who has had his good seasons to match his bad seasons. But I have faith that this season will be a good one.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...washington.gif @ http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...09/florida.gif

Game One John Lannon 0-0 0.00 vs. Ricky Nolasco 0-0 0.0

*Forgot to set my lineup before the game, but hey a win’s a win so I’ll keep this game J

Code:

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Team        Name                        1        2        3        4        5        6        7        8        9        R        H        E
Nationals                        0        0        0        1        0        0        2        0        3        6        11        0
Marlins                                0        0        1        2        2        0        0        0        0        5        8        0

Nationals
LF        Adam Dunn        2-5        2RBI        1K
3B        Ryan Zimmerman        2-5        1RBI
        Alex Cintron        0-0
CF        Lastings Millege3-4        1BB        2R        1HR        1RBI
SS        Christian Guzman2-4        1RBI
2B        Ron Belliard        0-4        1K
C        Jesus Flores        1-3        1BB        1R        1K
1B        Dmitri Young        1-4        1R        2K
P        John Lannan        0-1
        Nick Johnson        0-1
        Javier Valentin        0-1
        Josh Willingham        0-0        1BB        1R

HR: Lastings Millege (1)

SP        John Lannan        5.0 IP        6 H        3 BB        5 R        5 ER        5 K        85 Pitches
RP        Wilfredo Ledezma2.0 IP        1 H        1 BB        2 K’s        31 Pitches
RP        Saul Rivera        1.0 IP        1 H        1 BB        2 K’s        23 Pitches
RP        Joel Hanrahan        1.0 IP        1 K        15 Pitches

Marlins
RF        Jeremy Hermida        2-5        1 R        1 RBI        1 K
LF        Matt Watson        1-3        1 BB        1 R        1 RBI
        Brett Carroll        0-1
SS        Hanley Ramirez        0-5        2 K’s
3B        Jorge Cantu        1-3        1 BB        1 R
1B        John Lindsey        1-4        2 RBI        2 K’s
C        John Baker        1-2        2 BB        1 R
P        Ricky Nolasco        0-1        1 K
        Alfredo Amezaga        0-1

SP        Ricky Nolasco        8.0 IP        7 H        1 BB        1 HR        3 R        3 ER        7 K’s        113 Pitches
RP        Matt Lindstrom        1.0 IP        4 H        2 BB        3 R        3 ER        1 K        40 Pitches

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W: Saul Rivera (1-0)
L: Matt Lindstrom (0-1)
S: Joel Hanrahan (1)

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We got a nice win there. With the way Lannan pitched I thought we weren't going to be in contention for the win. After Lannan came out Ledezma and Rivera did a nice job at not making the deficit any larger, which is what any reliever's job is. Then the ninth inning comes along and BAM we're back into the game and we're winning. I gave the ball to Hanrahan and he closed the game for us whilst getting his tenth career save.