Nats vs. Marlins series preview

The Nationals will travel south to try and stop a three game skid where they will face the division leading Florida Marlins. The Nats (4-12) and the Marlins (9-6) have seen their seasons start in opposite directions. The Marlins, a team who traded away their best hitter and pitcher in the off season, had extremely low expectations coming into 2008. Good young hitters and developing pitchers however have been the key to their early success (as it has always been for the Marlins). The Nats on the other hand came into the season with a feeling that this would finally be the year that they would arrive. The new ball park for Washington gave the team legitimacy and a collection of young prospects finally reaching the majors left Nats fans with hope. So far that hope has been unrealized.

Is Hanley Ramirez the best player in baseball?

In the NL east one of the hottest debates is over who is better, the Mets Jose Reyes or the Phillies Jimmie Rollins (its Reyes by the way). Often overlooked however is the actual best shortstop in the Division, if not the best player overall in baseball, Florida’s Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez, 24, has been surprising baseball fans with the quickness of his development since he was traded away by the Red Sox for Josh Beckett in 2006. That same year Ramirez beat out the Nats own Ryan Zimmerman to become the National League rookie of the year, and hasn’t looked back since.

Ramirez put up monster numbers last year (.332 BA. .386 OBP. 29 HR. 52 SB). He fell only one home run short of reaching the 30-30 club and finished fourth in the league in batting. Had the Marlins made the playoffs, he likely would have been the National League MVP.

Ramirez is continuing his development in 2008 (.373BA .448 OBP 3HR 2SB). For the Nationals to be successful they must be able to silent Hanley’s bat and force the other Marlins to beat them. Just as with Reyes in the Mets series, the Marlins success lies in the legs and bat of Hanley Ramirez.

Probable Starters:

Game 1: Tim Redding (2-1, 2.25 ERA) vs. Andrew Miller (0-2, 11.37 ERA)
Game 2: Shawn hill (0-0, -- ERA) vs. Burke Badenhop (0-1, 6.00 ERA)
Game 3: Odalis Perez (0-3, 4.35 ERA) vs. Scott Olsen (2-0, 3.05 ERA)

What to look for:

In order for the Nationals to be successful and start winning ball games, the hitters need to wake up. In the three game series with the Mets the Nats only scored 4 runs, only walked 12 times and left 44 runners on base. They struck out 26 times and only batted an awful .166. The Marlins starting pitching staff isn’t that established, and the Nats will be facing the back end of it, so there’s a possibility for their bats to come alive.

The Nationals starting pitchers need to eat up some innings this series. While all of the Nats starters reached at least the 5th inning against the Mets, the 14 inning game and the questionable health of Cordero leaves the bullpen very overworked in a 3 game span. In the long run only one Nats starter, Matt Chico, has even reached the 8th inning yet this year. If a bullpen gets tired and agitated too early in the year, it can sometimes never recover.

Shawn Hill, the staff ace, will make his first start of the year Saturday after coming off of a sore arm. While he admits he is not at 100% yet, if he pitches well this weekend it can certainly be a moral boost for a clearly demoralized team.