John Lannan says he’s ready for Opening Day and he better be: he faces new Phillies’ ace Roy Halladay. ”As a pitcher, you would like to face the best, and I want to face the Phillies,” Lannan says. “I want to go against the toughest guys and really compete. It’s going to be exciting. Either way, I wanted that [Opening Day] game so I can make up for last year, and I definitely want to do better than last year.” Lannan opened for the Nats last year, in Florida, and struggled: he pitched three innings and gave up six runs. You might recall that game — it was an Emilio Bonifacio runfest. It looked then that Bonifacio would be the bane of the Nationals for the year, and proof positive that the trade that had sent him to Florida (for Scott Olsen and Josh Willingham) was a bust.

It was anything but. After a quick start, Bonifacio tailspinned, ending the year with a .252 BA and one home run. Willingham, meanwhile, sat the bench and Scott Olsen struggled, eventually going down with arm trouble. By the end of May the trade seemed a wash, at best – the swap of a still-developing kid (with minor leaguers Jake Smolinski and P.J. Dean) for two mediocre piece players who just couldn’t get going. But as it turned out, it was only a matter of time before Austin Kearns played himself out of a job (earning a well-deserved ticket to Cleveland), while Willingham became a fixture in left field. Olsen, meanwhile, showed flashes of brilliance and is now, albeit tentatively, penciled in as a candidate to be DC’s fifth starter.

Willingham’s the story here, not Lannan. The Marlins’ 17th round draft pick is starting his seventh major league season, and is likely just starting to peak. When Kearns did his “oh the humanity“ routine in late May of last year, Willingham was ready — hitting a very average, but very respectable, .260 in 133 games, with 24 dingers and 61 RBIs. You have to wonder what he might have done with an earlier start, and a more workmanlike September (when he tanked). Dunn, Zimmerman and Willingham became the heart of the Nats order for 2009 and you have to believe that, with just a little more oomph, the trio might have transformed itself into a Half Street version of Murders’ Row. Which is only to say that, one year later, the trade that sent the young speedster to Florida for Willingham and Olsen looks pretty good: if Josh can pick up where he was last August — and if Olsen can be the pitcher the Nats supposed when they brought him north.

Check out CFG’s view of the Marlins — and FishGuts view of the Nats — over at NL East Chatter. It’s a pretty good exchange. Wally at FishGuts was asked which National strikes fear into Marlins’ fans. ”Josh Willingham is a man on a mission this season,” he says, ”and he’s really making the Marlins regret trading him and not Hermida. He’s been on fire, and you don’t want to see him right now. Jordan Zimmermann is going to be a legitimate front line starter, and he’s got enough stuff right now to cause any lineup fits.”

I think that’s about right; and it’s only justice that a team like the Marlins (who stumble into a world series about every sixth year or so — and for no good reason at all), should be vulnerable to a guy they gave up on. It’s true: if Willingham in Washington is “the hammer,” in Florida he was a screwdriver: so far this year he has 17 home runs this year in 253 ABs, last year with Florida he had 15 in 351. With Emilio Bonafacio (the center of the Willingham- to-D.C. trade), now relegated to a utility role in Florida, Marlins’ fans might be looking for revenge. They should rethink that: if Aaron Thompson doesn’t work out, the Phish will have gotten 1B Nick Johnson, one of the best on-base players in baseball, for nothing.