My Team - Nationals at Atlanta

Starting pitchers -

Monday: Strasburg versus Teheran
Tuesday: Gonzalez versus Hudson
Wednesday: Zimmermann versus Medlen
Thursday: Haren versus Maholm

(Starters subject to change)

The Nationals won the first three of the four-game home weekend series against a pretty good Cincinnati team. Now, it's off to Turner Field against a Braves team that is the best in the National League the first month of the season.

Washington's pitching is starting to gain a bit of equilibrium. Even Haren pitched solidly last time out, showing hope for the future. The bullpen is doing OK, but Henry Rodriguez is still struggling with command issues. I wonder how many more times will the skipper keep running him out there before the organization says enough & sends him to another organization.

Offensively, Harper is still raking. Span is still getting on base, but Werth has scored nearly twice as many runs (17, to 9 for Span). Desmond is starting to heat up, and his aggressiveness at the plate has to serve as an example and motivator to teammates. His first-pitch ambushing is well-known around the majors. LaRoche has to start driving the ball. I wonder if he's willing to expand his strike zone a bit to force the issue, or take walks. He's one of the guys the team needs to drive in runs consistently, so a passive approach may not serve the team best. He may not have a great batting average this season, but if he drives in 90+ runs it can still be a successful season for the team.

Defensively, they're still 30th in fielding percentage, but things are starting to stabilize there as well. Span has shown great range in center field. He doesn't have Ankiel's arm (few outfielders do), but he gets to so many fly balls that he saves his pitchers runs.

For guesswork, I think Strasburg outduels Teheran on Monday night. I also think Hudson outduels Gonzalez on Tuesday night - Hudson is a real bulldog on the mound & he rarely gets flustered. I think Zimmermann guts his way through an ugly "quality start", but gets the win on Wednesday. Thursday, Maholm continues his good beginning to 2013 with a gem against Haren (who will pitch well for 4 to 5 innings, but not well enough for the win).