A regular reader of ours, an L.A. native, keeps pounding away about his beloved Dodgers — and like all good partisan fans, he predicted they’d win the N.L. West and then sweep their way through the post-season. “They’re the new Giants,” he said last April, “except that they’re better.”

Such expectations have not been realized: the Dodgers are a single game under .500, and are mired in third place on the left coast — well behind the disappointing Giants, and twelve games out of first place. This hasn’t stopped this fan from continuing his verbal assault. “Yeah,” he says. “But what about Clayton Kershaw? You have to admit, now, c’mon. Kershaw’s the best pitcher in the National League.”

Our tactic has been to ignore this, while reminding him of his April prediction — and what has happened in L.A. since. But at least when it comes to Kershaw, he has a point. If there’s one bit of good news that Nationals fans can take away from their most recent soggy series with the Trolleys (they lost two of three), it’s that at least they didn’t have to face Kershaw. And last night, against San Francisco, Kershaw put himself in the running for the Cy Young, outdueling the McCovey’s Tim Lincecum — and throwing an eight inning, three hit, nine strikeout gem.

Kershaw is now 18-5, and measures up well against the other hurlers in line for the Cy Young: Ian Kennedy, Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. The problem is that Kershaw plays for the Dodgers, which shouldn’t make the least bit of difference when it comes to the Cy Young voting — except that it will.

Even so, Kershaw should now be considered a front runner: while he doesn’t have the profile of Halladay, he leads the N.L. in strikeouts (ahead of Lincecum, Halladay, Lee and Kennedy — and in that order), and the fact that he plays for the L.A. Bankrupts could actually be in his favor. He’s pulled off a great season despite the team around him, and he leads the Nationals League in innings, ERA and strikeouts per nine.

(more…)

Danny Espinosa made a strong case for being N.L. Rookie of the Year last night, notching three hits — two of them home runs — as the Nationals scorched Cliff Lee and the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-2. For Nationals fans who worried that their team’s game-in, game-out hitting drought would continue, Tuesday night provided a needed tonic. The Nationals registered ten runs on thirteen hits, to support the solid pitching of veteran Jason Marquis, who is now 6-2.

Espinosa was 3-4 (with four RBIs), but joined there by Michael Morse (3-5, with two RBIs), who is now hitting .301. Marquis was his usual steady self: he gave up back-to-back home runs in the fifth, but then settled down to throw 6.1 of two run baseball. Jason Marquis and his magic sinker have now made their mark on the N.L. East, where the former Rockies’ steady performer is now viewed as the centerpiece of the Nationals much-better-than-average rotation and is (sometimes) damn near untouchable.

Perhaps the most effusive post-game comments came from “things have got to change” Jayson Werth, who praised Espinosa and the hitting spree: “We’ve had our chances this year,” Werth told the press. “We’ve had opportunities, had guys on, been in this situation and had the matchup. For whatever reason, we haven’t got the job done enough. As time goes on, I think we’re going to relax as a club and do the things we need to do.”

The game was preceded by a pre-game chat to the team by Jim Riggleman: who told the Anacostia Nine to keep plugging and the hits would come. After the ten-run win, Riggleman was pleased with the progress shown by rookie Espinosa: “He’s an electric player. He’s a strong kid with powerful movements,” he said. “He’s going to be a tremendous player as the left-handed side catches up to the right-handed side.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: As if things aren’t bad enough for the San Francisco Giants (with the wind-knocked-out-of-you injury to Buster Posey), they are now looking up the ladder in the N.L. West at the stinking Arizona Diamondbacks. While the D-Backs lost to the Marlins in Arizona last night, the team with not-much-chance-at-anything had previously won six in a row, the most recent victory being a knock-em-down 15-4 pounding of the Fish.

The Diamondbacks now sit atop the N.L. West, and are leading the Giants by a half game. Last night, the Giants took on the Cardinals, losing a 4-3 heart breaker, giving up three runs in the eighth. The Giants have been bitten by the Nats’ bug: they were 2-25 with runners in scoring position in last night’s contest and Aaron Rowand is starting to talk about how it takes a little “luck” for teams to repeat — a sure sign the McCoveys are stumbling around the diamond. “Bruce [Bochy] has been really working on [Posey replacement] Eli Whiteside’s hitting,” San Francisco television commentator Mike Kurkow said in the middle of last night’s game, “but, you know, it’s just not working.” Whiteside is hitting .171.

And the key to the D-Back’s success? Well, pitching and good defense: and yada, yada, yada. Really, it has to be Justin Upton: who is hitting the ball like he’s Jose Bautista. Upton is starting to catch fire: he’s .333 over the last ten games. On Monday, he was 5-5, and last night 2-4.  If Upton has another year like 2009 (.300, 26 home runs), the Showboats will hang in there, and the Giants will rue the day that they didn’t re-sign Juan Uribe. After mopping up the Phillies today, the Nationals will head out to Phoenix to see if they can stop this juggernaut.

Where Have You Gone Ryan Zimmerman, Nats Nation Turns It’s Lonely Eyes To You: The hobbled Nationals third baseman is rehabbing in Florida, and plans to play an extended Spring Training game this week, according to the Nationals. Don’t get your hopes up. Zimmerman, recovering from an abdominal strain, is still set to return in mid-June, and is apparently in pain when he throws from third across his body (yeah, well, me too). We are now on day-whatever of our extended coverage of the Z-man’s return and, despite the 10 run outburst last night, we sure could use him.

The Washington Nationals pulled out a much-needed extra innings victory against the Florida Marlins last night in Miami, 3-2. The 10th inning squeaker came on a sacrifice fly by Adam LaRoche in the top of the game’s final frame that scored Jayson Werth from third. The Nationals, who almost always struggle in Miami, are now 2-2 on the year against the Marlins. The victory was sealed by the Nats’ bullpen in the bottom of the 10th, when Sean Burnett relieved Drew Storen and retired Chris Coghlan on one pitch with men on second and third.

The Nationals-Marlins tilt reflected Friday’s pitching-dominant match-ups throughout the majors. Jordan Zimmermann pitched beautifully through six complete innings, holding the Marlins to two runs on five hits — and striking out six. Zimmermann was particularly effective in the second inning, when he struck out the side on nine pitches, all of them strikes. The Nats continued to struggle at the plate, or perhaps Ricky Nalasco was on his game: the Marlins’ righty struck out eleven, bringing the total number of strikeouts for the game to 30.

The win in Miami gave the Nats a lift after their pummeling in Philadelphia, where they were swept. But outside of the win, the story of the night was Tyler Clippard, who came on in relief of Zimmermann in the sixth inning and struck out six batters in a row. Drew Storen pitched the ninth inning, and retired the Marlins in order. “Clippard was his amazing self, and Storen was outstanding, and you almost forget that Zimmermann had a nice ballgame for us,” skipper Riggleman said after the win. “It was just a great team effort. That was a great effort all night. It was a well-played game by both clubs.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Just how good is the Nationals’ bullpen? Drew Storen has saved 100 percent of all games that he’s been called on to save (that’s six for six), with an ERA of 0.51, with a 0.91 WHIP. Tyler Clippard is one of the game’s best set-up men. Only four other relievers have struck out six hitters in a row over the last twenty-five years — with Clippard now one of the game’s best late-inning strikeout kings. He has a 1.29 ERA and is a workhorse, having appeared in fifteen games already this season.

Todd Coffey might be the forgetten guy in the bullpen. After a slow start he’s been incredibly effective: in Philadelphia on Thursday he struck out five, including Shane Victorino, Placido Polanco and John Mayberry, Jr. He has lowered his ERA to 3.72. Sean Burnett, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the league’s most effective lefty specialists — when he’s not closing. Victimized in New York on April 27, Burnett has fought back, vindicating his effectiveness with a one-pitch out last night to register his fourth save. Henry Rodriguez (an electric fastball, with five strikeouts in four innings), Doug Slaten (a lefty specialist) and Brian Broderick (a young, talented work in progress) round out the back seven, which may well be the best relief corps in the game.

Hitting the “Invisi-ball: The 30 strikeout Nationals-Marlins contest seemed par for the course on Friday. In St. Louis, Redbird righty Jaime Garcia flirted with a perfect game through the seventh inning, but had to settle for a two hit, 6-0 shutout of the Brewers. Garcia struck out eight. He’s now 4-0 . . . Out in San Francisco, strikeout expert Ubaldo Jimenez struck out seven in six innings, but just couldn’t come up with a win. Jimenez, the 2011 version, is trying to recover from a rocky (so to speak) start and was in line for the win: until Freddy Sanchez stroked a walk off single in the ninth that scored World Series hero Cody Ross . . . This Colorado-San Francisco thingie could turn into the story of the summer, but only if San Francisco can stay close . . .

But the best game of the night was played in Philadelphia (now didn’t we tell you that, huh? huh? huh?), where Derek Lowe went to the mound against Cliff Lee. The final score (a 5-0 Atlanta victory) tells only a part of the story. Derek Lowe had a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Lee had a weird final line: seven innings, nine hits, three earned runs — and 16 strikeouts. Lee struck out nearly two-thirds of the batters he faced, and lost the game. After the game, Chipper Jones implied that the Braves were lucky, by hitting em where they ain’t. ”It seemed to be all or nothing,” Jones said. “Whenever we put a ball in play, it found a hole.”

Sure, but the story line from our perspective was the pitching of Derek Lowe, who seemed unfazed by either Lee or Philadelphia’s fans. “D-Lowe, he had the invisi-ball tonight,” Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins said after the Atlanta win. “Invisi-ball. Yep. You see it in one place, and when you go to swing, it just wasn’t there.”

Washington Nationals’ lefty starter John Lannan is now 0-10 against the Phillies – the classic definition of “snake bit.” Last night in Philadelphia, Lannan couldn’t make it out of the third inning, as the Phillies put up six runs on seven straight hits. After the Phillies recorded a 7-3 win (sweeping the Nationals at Citizens Bank) Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman shook his head over Lannan’s record: “What are they, 10-0? That’s too much for the quality of stuff John has for any club to do that,” he said. “I don’t have any explanation other than that they are a very good ballclub, but they just see him good or something. Most of their guys are on him good.”

If there is good news from the loss, it is that the Nats’ bullpen was, once again, effective — giving up just one run in eight innings. Nationals hitters, however, couldn’t master the Phillies’ starting pitching, as uber ace Roy Halladay glided to his fifth win of the season. Halladay pitched seven innings of six hit ball, registering 10 strikeouts without walking anyone. There doesn’t seem to be any doubt — Halladay’s 2011 campaign makes him the best pitcher in baseball, his only loss coming on April 19 in Milwaukee. He has a 2.19 ERA, while averaging a little over eight strikeouts per game.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Atlanta Braves, with the upstart Marlins, are emerging as Philadelphia’s competitor for the top spot in the NL East. The Tomahawks swept their four game set with the Brewers, taming the beer kings at home last night by a score of 2-1. The key for the Braves has been their pitching — they are first in the NL in ERA and their staff has thrown five complete games. Last night was symbolic of what the Bravos have done: nifty new righty Brandon Beachy (he’s 24, with a 2.98 ERA) threw six innings of four hit baseball and the Braves got just enough runs to win.

Can the Braves give Philadelphia a run? We’ll find out soon enough: Atlanta waltz’s into Philadelphia tonight to take on the red-hot Phillies, with Derek “NASCAR” Lowe taking on Cliff Lee. Both have had their issues. Lowe can’t seem to get any run support from his teammates. The last time he faced Philadelphia, on April 10, he pitched beautifully against Phillies’ boppers, but received no run support and lost the game — 3-0. While Lowe hasn’t been exactly lights-out this season (he’s 2-3 with a 3.72 ERA), the Braves score just a bit over one run when he’s on the mound.

Cliff Lee, meanwhile, has been Lannan-like against the Tomahawks. He’s had three starts against the Bravos and is an embarrassing 1-2 with a 6.98 ERA. The Peach Tree Nine scalded Lee in his first start against them this year: on April 8, he just couldn’t seem to get them out — giving up 10 hits and six earned. It’s a head-scratcher. This is an important series for the Braves, who trail both the Marlins (who take on the Nationals starting tonight in Miami) and Phillies in the N.L. Least.

The Marlins must be pleased with these May match-ups. With Philadelphia and Atlanta slugging it out in the City of Brotherly Love (or whatever), the Fish can strut their stuff in Miami, where they play well against the Nats. The Marlins are emerging from a knock-down, drag-out three game series against the Redbirds in St. Louis, where they lost two of three. Their last loss, last night, featured Josh Johnson looking confused — the first time this year that has happened. Johnson gave up 5 runs in 7.1 in taking his first loss of the season. Even with that, he wasn’t that bad: his command was a little off (he gave up four walks), but with some run support, he’d have been in the game. St. Louis scored four in the 8th, but not against him.

No one is fooled: even with the loss, Johnson still sports a 1.68 ERA. Just how good is this guy? While he’s not carrying the team, he’s a near sure-lock win everytime he appears. In seven appearances this year, he’s never gone less than six innings — his walk totals are low, his strikeouts high, his command good and his stuff better. He might be the best pitcher in baseball, excepting Halladay (oh, and Tim Lincecum). The Nats stroll into whatever-their-stadium-name-is-this-year to take on the Marlins tonight for a three game set. The good news is they won’t be facing Johnson.

Jordan Zimmermann went toe-to-toe with Cliff Lee at Nationals Park last night, throwing seven innings of five hit baseball (which included setting down the first fifteen batters he faced), but the Nats could not match Cliff Lee and fell to the Phillies 4-0. This was the best game that Jordan Zimmermann pitched in his young career: he threw 85 pitches, 64 of them for strikes before being relieved by Drew Storen. But Cliff Lee was better, notching a nine inning three hit shutout that put the surging Phillies atop the N.L. East by two games.

Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz broke the Zimmermann spell in the sixth inning, putting a Zimmermann offering (he left a down-and-out curve up in the zone) into the left field seats. The Nationals’ bats, tamed by Lee, could not respond — Lee notched 12 strikeouts while walking only one. While Lee was brilliant, key Nats continue to struggle at the plate; Ian Desmond is of-fer at home, Michael Morse continues to slump and the team’s batting stats place them near the bottom (they’re 28th of 30) in team batting. Riggleman says that team is “agonizing” over their hitting performance. “We’ll get with [hitting coach] Rick Eckstein and see if we will come up with something,” he said following the loss to the Phillies.

It’s Jackie Robinson Day in baseball, and Topps has released (as they do nearly every year at this time) a “Special Memorabilia” collection commemorating the legendary Dodger. This is now standard procedure for Topps: the company started by simply printing a set of baseball cards (usually some 500-plus for each season), but in recent years — since the card market was flooded with offerings during the 1980s — it supplements its offerings with heritage cards and commemorative editions. You can’t blame ‘em, Jackie Robinson cards are popular, and pricey.

Innovation is the name of the game for card manufacturers: not just better artwork, but newer offerings that provide collectors with scraps of jerseys and bats, and now (they must be getting desperate), video and 3-D cards. No one yet knows what these things actually look like, but the reaction hasn’t been overwhelming. The Anti-Beckett (worth reading, whether you’re interested in this kind of thing or not) says there’s a limit, and that some “innovations” are no more than “gimmicks.” Gone, it seems, are the days of good old fashioned baseball cards, victimized by old men in pot bellies who spend their time with magnifying glasses peering at cards to determine their value.

A number of card companies have jumped into the latest “innovation” fray (cards that will “revolutionize” the industry), offering 3-D trading cards and a “self playing video trading card.” This latest, a card with an HD-TV embedded in it (no kidding) has set off a PR war between Panini and Upper Deck. Okay, I agree: there’s inside baseball and then there’s inside baseball — and this is a little beyond the pale. Still, it’s interesting to note the lengthes some of these card companies will go to one-up their competition. The last offering of this kind came in the late 1990s, offering a CD-Rom in the form of a card. It was “cool,” but a flop. Which is not to diminish Topps’ Jackie Robinson offerings. The ten cards offered by Topps are a well-designed, if predictable, commemoration.

Here is the new starting rotation of the Philadelphia Phillies: Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels — and Cliff Lee. Lee, the cherry-on-the-cake free agent of major league baseball, has signed a five year $120 million deal with the Phillies, a surprise for the Yankees and Rangers (who reportedly outbid the Phillies), and one that probably puts the N.L. East out of reach for the Braves, Marlins, Mets and Washington Nationals. The Phillies are now the favorites to win not only the division, but the N.L. pennant, as they feature the best starting rotation in the game. What can the Nationals do? The current thinking is that the best response for Mike Rizzo & Co. would be to sign a front-of-the-rotation pitcher (like Carl Pavano) or swing a trade for Matt Garza or Zack Greinke that would make the club competitive. The Nats are, seemingly, in no hurry — though all three of their prospective targets could easily sign elsewhere: the Twins likely have the inside track to sign Pavano, Garza will cost the Nats more than they might be willing to pay (perhaps Ian Desmond, certainly Jordan Zimmermann) and Kansas City has already let it be known that the Nats do not match up well on a Greinke trade.

Lee’s decision to re-up with Philly (where he had pitched before being shipped out to Seattle), has shocked the baseball world. The Yankees and Rangers were thought to be Lee’s first choices, with the Rangers seemingly leading the pack. A third “mystery team” was said to be in the mix: we at CFG had guessed it was the Angels. It’s easy to see why Lee signed with the Phillies, though — as a line-up that includes Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels looks unbeatable: which would give Lee the World Series ring that he covets. Indeed, the Phillies starting rotation may be the best in baseball since Greg Maddux and John Smoltz anchored the Braves starting four in the mid-90s.  MLB Trade Rumors draws some important lessons from the Lee signing: don’t make any assumptions about what a player wants, players can leave big money on the table, teams can change their minds (the Phillies made a mistake in shipping Lee to Seattle — and brought him back), the Yankees don’t always get their man, every off season has its share of surprises and you can never have too much pitching. All of that sounds right.

How should the Nationals respond? Our view is simple: they shouldn’t. While Mike Rizzo has let it be known that there are two “untouchables” on the Washington Nine (Ryan Zimmerman and, now, Jayson Werth), we would add a third: Jordan Zimmermann. What’s the point of developing pitching if you’re going to ship it to Tampa or Kansas City? Zimmermann has the command and control to be a front line pitcher in the N.L. — and neither Garza or Greinke are going to give the team the horse they need to compete with Philadelphia. It would be better to sign Pavano, if possible, or swing a trade for a mid-rotation righty that would upgrade the starting staff without gutting either the farm system or trading away the future. Anything can happen in baseball, and Philadelphia’s signing of Cliff Lee is not a guarantee that they will outgun and outpitch the Nationals this year. But let’s be realistic: the Phillies aren’t suddenly the odds-on favorite in the NL Least by accident.

All is forgiven in Boston: late on Wednesday night, the Boston Globe reported that “the Nation” had inked a contract with Tampa Bay Rays’ uber-star Carl Crawford. The Globe says that Crawford will become a Red Sox for seven years and $142 million. Outside of Cliff Lee and Jayson Werth, Crawford was the class of the 2010 free agent class, hitting .307 with 19 home runs and 47 stolen bases. The Red Sox and Crawford haven’t exactly had the best relationship; back in May of 2009 (Red Sox fans will surely remember), Crawford stole six bases on the Red Sox — in what one baseball site headlined as “Grand Theft Boston.” The Red Sox were not pleased, whining (note: the Nationals complain, the Tiants whine) that Crawford stole his sixth base unnecessarily. The one palliative that Red Sox fans can point to (now that Crawford is in the fold) is that the loudest complaint came from former Red Sox hurler Brad “Bad” Penny, a veteran of the Massachusetts Penal League. Penny, who some people describe as “a southern gentleman,” wasn’t so much ripped at Crawford’s sixth steel, as he was at his fifth — when Crawford stole third, off of . . . Penny. After the game, however, Red Sox skipper Terry Francona dampened the complaints, explaining that Crawford is really fast.

What’s really juicy about the Crawford signing is that the reporter who broke it, Peter Abraham, wrote back at the beginning of the season that if he were the Red Sox — and was given a choice between Jayson Werth and Crawford — he’d take Werth. While this doesn’t exactly relegate “the Nation” to the status of province, it sheds light on all those nasty comments made about Mike Rizzo for signing the former Phillie. The signing of Crawford should not be unexpected: it reflects Boston’s yen for getting in on the action, particularly if they feel that the dreaded pinstripers are somehow gaining on them (or are extending their furlongs, as the case may be). After all, Soxologist Peter Gammons was saying on MLB Network, just hours before the deal was reported, that the Yankees (being the Yankees) were going hard after Cliff Lee. With C.C. already in the fold, the Yanks would have to be the odds-on favorites to take the A.L. East. The Red Sox deal also eliminates the Belinskis from the Crawford sweepstakes, despite the fact that Crawford was considered a natural fit for L.A., and despite the fact that the Angels’ front office was leveraging their front-runner status by telling everyone that a Crawford-to-the-Angels deal was nearly a lock.

But for all the talk about Werth and Crawford and the Red Sox and Lee, there’s a bit of suck-in-your-stomach bad news here. The loss of Crawford, and the probable trade of starter Matt Garza, probably puts Tampa out of the running for any late season berth. And the deal highlights the struggles of mid-size and small market teams (like the Rays), who (while they might catch lightning, maybe once or twice) are eventually relegated to being development squads for the likes of Hal and Theo. Just ask Kansas City, which monopolized the other headline today: for signing all-world-average, but really cheap, Jeff Francoeur. You have to wonder: will that be tomorrow’s headline in The Kansas City Star? Here’s the latest: according to MLB Trade Rumors, Boston’s deal for Crawford won’t become official until Friday, after Crawford passes his physical.