Livan Hernandez pitched another great game this week. His WAR of 3.6 still stands at third all time for a Nationals pitcher. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s inching up on Esteban Loiza’s 3.8 in 2005 which would bring him into second place behind only John Patterson’s 4.9, also from 2005. Livan definitely has had more impact and meaning to this franchise, it would be nice to see him get it. It’s not out of the question, but he’d have to pitch really well in his last few starts.
I’ve heard some rumors that the team is contemplating moving Espinosa to SS and Desmond to 2B for next season, and just wanted to weigh in. I don’t really see the point, if you think it is more important to have a SS than a 2B (and I do) you put the better player there. Despite his errors, Desmond is, at this point, the better player. Desmond has hit in the majors, has a year and a half of numbers to show he can handle major league pitching, and has cut his errors in half from the first half of the season to the second. Espinosa hasn’t hit for average and has trouble taking walks – but has shown some power. If I was a betting man and could only pick one to stick, I’d go with Desmond. But as an optimist, I’m thinking both could end up being solid major leaguers.
Some things I’ve already talked about that other people have decided to finally bring up (or, your Friday morning links):
On the subject of keeping or replacing Adam Dunn: If you’re reading the Nationals Journal, as you should, you’ll see that Adam Kilgore with help from John Dewan came to a very similar semi-conclusion that I did 2 weeks ago.
On the subject of how darn good Ian Desmond has been: Nationals Baseball has mentioned that he has hit well this half, and gave some reasons, both skill and luck related, why this has been so. I’ve been on this line forever, but here’s a couple of recent articles.