A baseball team’s bench, especially in the National League, can help a team win several games. In years past, the Washington Nationals bench has been filled with marginal major league players, has-beens, or never-weres. This year, 2008, is completely different. With a current bench of Willie Harris, Felipe Lopez, Dmitri Young, Jesus Flores, Rob Mackowiak and Aaron Boone, the Nationals have their best bench since they began playing in Washington. Throw in Johnny Estrada, Elijah Dukes and Wily Mo Pena, all now on the DL, and you have unprecedented depth. It’s a feather in Jim Bowden’s cap — and let me make it clear now I’d much prefer Mike Rizzo as the team’s GM, Bowden’s arrogance and lack of emphasis on on-base percentage drive me crazy — that he’s been able to build this strong a bench with almost nothing to trade and little to no free agent money to burn.
So, how does Washington’s bench rate against its NL East competitors?
I rank the Nationals bench first, with the Phillies, who can platoon strong players at third base, catcher, and right field, a close second. The Braves have a good left field platoon, but the rest of their bench is young and unproven. The Mets bench is old and average. The Marlins just aren’t permitted to spend any money on building a good bench, but they have some fine versatile players like Ameziga and Abercrombie.
Here’s the rankings:
1 – Wash.; 2 – Phils; 3 – Atl 4 – NY; 5 – Fla
Here, finally, are the final ratings:
1 – Atlanta Braves – 31 points
2 – Philadelphia Phillies – 32 points
3 – New York Mets – 32 points
4 – Washington Nationals – 36 points
5 – Florida Marlins – 47 points
If this system works, and I have no idea if it does, I just thought it would be fun to do, then we should have a great 3-team race for first in the NL East, with the Nationals not as far behind as many pundits predict. The Marlins would finish in last place, but maybe not as far behind as the prognosticators think.
Even though the Braves win on points here, I’m rating the NL East as a toss-up. I think the 3 teams will beat each other up enough, with the Nationals winning a fair share too, that the wild card will come from another division. Last year’s race went down to the final day. I expect this year’s race to be the same.
Now that Nationals Park is here — and is better than expected — perhaps Washington will join the 3 big dogs soon, maybe even 2008.
Get out to Nationals Park often and enjoy what promises to be a season of memories!