Everyone knows that the Nationals defense this year was the worst ever. Ok, it probably wasn’t. I’m sure there were teams with no gloves and handlebar mustaches that were worse. Maybe even a team or two in the 20th or 21st centuries were actually worse. Without getting in to the metrics, they were bad. They had the highest number of Errors, although they didn’t even rate worst in 2009 in UZR, let alone for all eternity. So even though it really wasn’t the worst ever, nobody is gonna argue that it wasn’t still really bad.

That’s why it was interesting to see ESPN giving out defensive awards to the team. Of course, that’s just what happened, thanks mostly to the flashy play of Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman was named the Web Gem Champion, in the first time this award was given out. Basically, they tallied the number of web gems, he had the most, and there you go. His great defensive play also allowed the Nats to take the award for best overall team. Obviously, this is the award for most flashy moments, as opposed to consistently good defense. Still, it’s nice for this team to win something besides the number 1 draft pick.

By Charlie