The Washington Nationals are now 1-4 and have lost three in a row. After a good start on Wednesday night in Florida (the Nats took a 4-0 lead on the solid pitching of Livan Hernandez), the Nationals fell to the Marlins, 7-4. The game was a symbol of what Washington seems to do so well: after innings of good starting pitching, the Nationals bats fell silent, the opposition was let back into the game, and the bullpen was less than stellar. Reason to panic? Not according to Nationals’ players: skipper Jim Riggleman said after the game that the clubhouse was still positive and that it was only a matter of time before the Nats break out. True enough, it’s still early — right? Right?

It’s not a secret, the hole in the Nats team is the starting pitching: the relief core is solid, the team should be able to hit. But in the early going, the bullpen has struggled — and key players bats are silent. Chad Gaudin and Todd Coffey’s ERA is soaring, and even the best arms seem tentative. Adam LaRoche, Michael Morse and Rick Ankiel are looking up at the Mendoza line, hitting .158, 118 and .133 respectively. Of course, or so the argument goes, we can expect that the Nats are going to have trouble getting on track so long as they face the Marlins, Riggleman told Mark Zuckerman. “You have to start feeling that you’ve got to put these guys away when you have an opportunity,” the manager said. “They’ve got a good group there, and they’ve had their way with us for a couple years now. There’s nothing to do but battle your way out of it and bust open a ballgame to where they can’t come back.”

I’d Rather Eat Glass Than Hear Another Word About The Phillies: While baseball is oohing and ahhing about Philadelphia’s Phab Phour, let’s try to remember that the San Francisco Giants are the champions of the world. Last night they showed why: the Giants sent the Padres packing 8-4 behind the pitching of (who else?) Tim Lincecum. Lincecum was at his best, holding the Friars to three hits in seven innings: he struck out 13. He struck out 13. So while there’s all this talk about Halliday, Lee, Oswalt, and Hamels (as, I suppose, there should be), Lincecum is still the best pitcher in baseball. Yeah, yeah, yeah — but what about Halliday? Well, what about him?

For all of the sturm and drung about the NL East, it’s still the NL Least — the NL West is the tougher division. By far. Check the facts: the NL West has supplied two World Series teams in the last five years, the Rockies and Giants, the West has provided the NL’s best pitching staffs in three of the last five years (Dodgers, Padres and Giants), and nine of the last 12 Cy Young winners have come from the NL West (that’s unbelievable, when you think about it). Sure, there’s the Phab Phour in Philly (and a tough but, let’s admit, not a great staff in Atlanta), but the NL West has a top-flight rotation in San Fran and nothing to sneeze at in Los Angeles, Colorado and San Diego. Name one Atlanta starter who’s as good as Ubaldo Jimenez. Yeah, okay: Tim Hudson and Derek Lowe are savvy, but that’s because they have to be — their fastballs are Ubaldo’s change-up.

That’s just a part of it. While anyone and their mother can pick the Phillies to win the NL East, you have to flip a coin when it comes to the West. “No more division has been more hotly contest over the past five years,” Sport Illustrated noted in its baseball preview issue. No one would be totally shocked if the Padres came close again this year — a reminder to those who thought they’d be the worst team in baseball in ’10. No division in baseball has had tighter races (since ’06 no one has won the West by more than two games), and the West has more one run games than anyone else. So . . . so, Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez and Bumgarner don’t sound like Halliday, Lee, Oswalt and Hamels, but they were good enough last year to win it all — and the Giants have Brian Wilson. And the Phillies have . . . well, they’ll let us know. The Giants are slow out of the gate, but last night’s ho-hummer in Friarland is a reminder that San Francisco remains the team to beat.

We are twenty-four hours from Opening Day and Washington is wet, rainy and cold. The front office must be sweating it out: not because there might be too many Atlanta Braves fans in the seats tomorrow (that seems unlikely), but because there might be too few fans — Braves fans or not. There is another reason to worry: in an off-season dominated by talk of getting another (or two) front line pitchers, the Nats got zero (and that includes Tom Gorzelanny — an afterthought, frankly, when everything else failed). The front end of the Nationals’ rotation (and its back end too) is clearly troublesome, with few every-fifth-game dominating stoppers. Ironically, while that will put a lot of pressure on the bullpen, the bullpen is the one part of the team that seems strongest. That wasn’t true not so long ago.

It wasn’t shocking that today’s Washington Post would focus on the bullpen — it was strong last year, and it’s even stronger this year. While there’s no ninth inning closer, there are enough good arms in the pen to make the search for a closer interesting, and likely to succeed. The key addition in the bullpen over this last winter was Todd Coffey, a former Reds and Brewers righty who is a perfect picture of a mid-innings goon: he’s strong and large (6-4, 240) and looks like he means it. Coffey’s been around long enough to stay around, his arm seems strong, and he’s absolutely non-plussed by having runners on base. Coffey is young (aged 30) but eats innings and runs to the mound each time he’s called. Nationals fans will love him.

The addition of Coffey back in January bolstered a crew that pitched well in 2010. It’s hard to name the actual pillar of this crew — but if we were forced to do so it would be Sean Burnett. Since coming over from Pittsburgh, Burnett has proven the most steady of all the team’s relievers. Let’s admit it: Drew Storen can be shaky in the 9th, Tyler Clippard struggled at the end of last year, Doug Slaten is perfect but only here-and-there, newby Brian Broderick is untested and Coffey — well, we’ll see. Through all of this, Burnett has been a gamer — a stellar 2.14 ERA in 63 innings. He’ll be called on to do more this year, but our guess is he’ll be up to it.

The bottom line? What Nats fans are looking at this year (even given the tenuous starting staff) is a bullpen that is (arguably) the best of the NL East. That is — a bullpen that will keep the Nats in games they are losing, and holding and saving games they can win. Which is why we’ll take a flyer — it’ll be a good year in Washington, certainly good enough to lift the team out of the cellar, and even good enough to best the Marlins. And finally, finally, one of those young buck pitchers will work out. Jordan Zimmermann will come into his own, he’ll have the kind of season that this team needs. Our prediction? Third place. 81-81.

The second in a series of exchanges on match-ups between teams in the NL East has been posted on NL East Chatter. Wally at FishGuts is the questioner, and he kind of puts it to CFG — asking at one point whether it bothers Nats’ fans that the team is now constantly referred to as the ”Natinals.” Oddly, I felt compelled to defend the Lerners in my answer, noting that a family that is such a success in business didn’t get that way by not paying attention to the details (obvious evidence to the contrary). Now I know there are a lot of Nats’ fans who won’t like that, but here’s the rule — especially when it comes to the NL East: all of this stuff stays here. And this is a franchise worth defending.

And I go the other way on all-world pitcher Stephen Strasburg. “Are the Nats going to ”show him the money?” Here’s my answer:  ”Yeah, sure. We’re going to show him the money. The question is, will he take it? I think the Nats are committed to making a bank busting offer to Strasburg – topping any amount paid to any draftee ever. But that might not matter. It may be that the Scott Boras agenda is to use Strasburg to transform the dollars paid to draftees. So any offer might be dead on arrival. Which is too bad: because the owners will get blamed. But I think I would break ranks on this and defend them. Strasburg questioned the way the team was run and said he might play in Japan. Here’s a kid who’s never thrown a pitch in the majors, and he’s in the position to judge how a team is run? To turn down a payday that will make him rich? I don’t like threats. Bust the bank. Fine. And I hope he takes it and turns into a star. But if he doesn’t take it, he can play for the Hanshin Tigers.” 

Matt Fournier of Braves Baseball Blog is much less expansive, but on target. He praises the acquisition of Nate McLouth, but says that’s not enough. “The team needs speed,” he says. He’s right. Watching the Braves go through an inning is like watching a snail make his way to water. Chipper Jones is entering his last and slowest years and Braves’ outfielders are not exactly fleet of foot. But Matt praises the Braves’ surprise find — second baseman Martin Prado: “I had heard of him before this year, but never saw him play consistently enough to see what he was truly capable off,” Matt says. “I honestly don’t think he is a one year wonder, he has shown signs of being a a reliable fielder and consistent hitter. I think he could be the teams second baseman for a good amount of years.” And which pitcher is Matt the most afraid of in the Nats’ line-up? His answer is predictable, if poignant — John Lannan. That’s right. Unfortunately, Braves hitters seemed to handle him just fine last night.