House That Hank Built
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Atlanta Braves 2021 NL East Rivals: are the Nationals “back”?

By Alan Carpenter

Will the Atlanta Braves have to be concerned about a resurgent Nationals club in 2021? (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
Will the Atlanta Braves have to be concerned about a resurgent Nationals club in 2021? (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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Atlanta Braves
Nats GM Rizzo tells the Atlanta Braves, “Hey, I have one of these”. (Photo by G Fiume/Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images) /

Key Names

  • Managing Principal Owner:  Mark D. Lerner
  • Lerner Sports CEO:  Alan Gottlieb
  • General Manager/President of Baseball Ops:  Mike Rizzo
  • Field Manager: Davey Martinez
  • Bench Coach:  Tim Bogar
  • Hitting Coaches:  Kevin Long, Pat Roessler
  • Pitching Coach:  Jim Hickey
  • Senior Advisor/Pitching Consultant:  Spin Williams*

*Only included because that’s a really cool name for a pitching guy.

2020 Results

  • 26-34, last-place tie with Mets, 9 games behind Atlanta Braves
  • Offense rank:  15th (Fangraphs)
  • Defense rank:  30th
  • Pitching rank (ERA):  26th
    • Starters only:  27th
    • Bullpen only:  23rd

These numbers are seriously ugly, but they can also largely be thrown out since a number of positional players were filled by ‘make do’ veterans for the duration.

Likewise, injuries didn’t help this club at all and there’s no reason to believe that these results will be repeated.

Nationals Pitching

ROTATION

Six pitchers are listed on the Nats depth chart, and they will ultimately aim to ride three of them hard for the season:

  • Max Scherzer (will be 37 this year)
  • Stephen Strasburg (will be 33 this year)
  • Patrick Corbin (will turn 32… all of these frontliners have birthdays within 8 days of one another)
  • Jon Lester (oldest at 37)
  • Austin Voth (29 in June)
  • Erick Fedde (28 last week)

The Nationals will probably live and die with the health of their “name” guys.  If they stay healthy, they will pitch well.  If not, then they will have trouble keeping up with their rivals around the division and the league.

At the same time, Scherzer isn’t going to be the kind of pitcher he was even just a couple of years ago… time is catching up on him rapidly.

Strasburg will be back, but time will tell on just how far back.  That said, he’s probably the ace of the staff right now and it’s his performance that may determine the direction of this team.

Corbin is a bit of an enigma.  He has histories of higher ERA with Arizona while being healthy and he also has had solid years with low 3 ERAs.  Again, the question is about how much stock to place in 2020’s odd season… or whether to think that a bad defense behind him caused issues.

BULLPEN

There’s some talent here, and if the starters can get the ball to the 7th or 8th inning regularly, the combination of Brad Hand and Daniel Hudson could be tough to tangle with.

Other than that, There’s still Kyle Finnegan, and Will Harris that will give teams fits.

The losses of Erick Fedde and Sean Doolittle will certainly be felt, but four quality guys may be enough unless they are getting overworked.

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