High Hopes For Nats in '08!

While watching the playoffs the past couple of days, I started to look a little deeper into the 2007 standings. The 9-25 start by the Washington Nationals has been a point about which this season turned for me. There seemed to be a whole bunch of articles out about this time predicting the 2007 edition of the Nationals would break the 1962 Mets record for losses of 120... I took issue with these articles, and with a quick turnaround in fortunes, these articles soon went away - the memories of them though didn't.

Look at where all of the National League teams stood (playoff teams in bold) as of that date (5/9/07):

1.Milwaukee: 24-10
2.Atlanta: 21-12
2.N.Y. Mets: 21-12
4.Dodgers: 20-14
5.San Diego: 18-16
6.Arizona: 19-17
7.Chi.Cubs: 16-15
8.San.Fran: 17-16
9.Houston: 16-17
10.Florida: 15-18
11.Phillies: 15-19
12.St. Louis: 14-18
12.Pittsburgh: 14-18
14.Colorado: 14-20
14.Cincinnati: 14-20
16.NATIONALS: 9-25

Notice anything there? The five teams that had the fastest starts didn't even make the post-season this year!!! The Rockies, in the meantime, were tied with the Reds for the 2nd worst start...


Check out the N.L. teams from 5/10/07-forward:

1.Colorado: 76-53
2.Phillies: 74-54
3.Arizona: 71-55
4.San Diego: 71-58
5.Chi.Cubs: 69-62
6.N.Y. Mets: 67-62
7.NATIONALS: 64-64
8.St. Louis: 64-66
9.Atlanta: 63-66
10.Dodgers: 62-66
11.Milwaukee: 59-69
12.Cincinnati: 58-70
13.Houston: 57-72
14.Florida: 56-73
15.San.Fran.: 54-75
16.Pittsburgh: 54-76

Yes, only six N.L. teams played better ball than the Nationals from May 10th forward... considering all of the injuries the team had to deal with throughout the year, this is truly an admirable achievement. Kudos to Manny Acta for not giving up on this team when many others just threw the towel in. The Nats outplayed the Dodgers, Braves and even the 2006 World Champions from that point on. How good would the Nats have been in 2007 if the team had been healthy? Is it any wonder that some of us have very high hopes for them in 2008???

-----