Gammons

On ESPN Radio this morning Peter Gammons said that Jim Bowden is trying to trade for a pitcher, and has tried to get either A.J. Burnett or Jeff Weaver. Here are their YTD stats:

Pitcher -- K/9 -- BB/9 -- K/BB -- HR/9 -- H/9
Burnett -- 8.66 - 3.37 --- 2.55 --- .64 ----- 7.95
Weaver -- 5.97 - 2.19 --- 2.71 --- 1.27 ---- 8.81

Burnett is the better pitcher, but will also be more expensive. If the Nats got Burnett and didn't trade one of their better starters to get him, their rotation would be as follows:

Burnett
Patterson
Hernandez
Loaiza
Armas/Drese

That's a great rotation. We'd obviously be happy to get Burnett, but starting pitching hasn't been the Nationals' problem. We continue to believe that the bigger need is offensive punch in left field and third base and some consistent offense at shortstop.

Gammons pretty clearly thinks the Braves will win the division, but he said that the Nats could compete for the wild card once once Nick Johnson comes back. The Nationals are 4.5 games up in the wild card race, but we fear that it will take more than the return of Nick Johnson to keep us on top of that race.