The Mets head to Washington for a three game series against the 1st place Nats. It's crazy how quickly we have gotten used to saying 1st place Nats. For all the craziness we have seen in this first third of baseball we have all pretty much glossed over the first good year of this franchise. Thankfully for the Mets we are facing neither of the Nats two aces Strasburg or Gonzalez. Let's take a look at what we are up against:
Tonight the Mets face Jordan Zimmerman who has a stellar ERA/xFIP of 2.80/3/58, astonishingly this is only the third lowest ERA of the starters. The good news is that on a team full of strikeout machines we are facing one of the worst strikeout guys with a k/9 of only 6.16. Zimmerman is a young guy who has been improving every year, his career numbers and projections seem to indicate he isn't going to stay as good as he is but he is a guy to watch and another reason to fear the Nats in coming years.
Next up is owner of a no hitter and the Stephen Strasburg of 2001 Edwin Jackson. Edwin Jackson is having a stellar year that doesn't appear as stellar because Strasburg, Gonzalez and Zim are having more stellar years. His is currently pitching a svelte ERA/xFIP of 3.17/3.74 good for fourth lowest on the team. He is striking out about 7 guys per 9 which is good just not as good as 11 (Gio). I just don't know what to think about Edwin. He was a can't miss prospect who went on to suck for six years but then has slowly turned it around and has been good the last three. Let's just hope Wednesday we get 2004 Jackson and not 2012.
Then finally, gloriously, Chien-Ming Wang. During the June Crucible we face some of the best talent in baseball, Mr. Wang is not one of them. He is currently the owner of a 6.43 ERA, well you might be saying that's unfair because it is only over 7 innings. Well in his last two stints in the show show he has earned an 4.04 and a 9.64, earlier this year is AAA he pitched a 4.35. Suffice it to say the Mets should win this game.
The offensive stars of the team has been the frenchman Adam LaRoche and the phenom Bryce Harper. Monsieur LaRoche has a slash that sits at an excellent .276/.371/.506 with 8 home runs. Bryce Harper and his ultimate warrior face paint is currently hitting a very similar .288/.380/.542. When Harper came up I traded Duda for him in fantasy, I totally get the better of that deal. After that the offense starts to fall off a bit. They have a number of very average to above average role players that can get the job done, especially when pitchers are keeping the opponents to low scores.
As a team the Nats are 30-22. They have scored 196 runs and allowed 170.
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