The Washington Nationals lived through a disappointing 2013 season, one in which they had high expectations and weren’t afraid to share them publicly. In spite of a late-season spurt that made things moderately interesting, the Nationals still finished out of the playoffs and got themselves a new manager in Matt Williams. What’s the outlook in the nation’s capital for 2014? Here’s the Notebook Nine, our focal points on this year’s Nationals team…
The nation’s capital is where TheSportsNotebook stops today in its March run of major league baseball. The Washington Nationals have never had a winning season moving from Montreal in 2004. They have never made the playoffs in D.C. (even in Montreal they only made it in 1981). Expectations are high among Nationals’ fans to at least end the first streak and to give a real run at ending the second. TheSportsNotebook evaluates the personnel of a team that went 80-81 a year ago (c’mon MLB, let them play a makeup a game and try and get to .500!) to see if incremental improvement is in the cards. We’ll use our usual measuring sticks of the ability to get on base, hit for power, starting pitching and relief pitching.