The worstest?

The Nats have been sitting at 49 wins for a while now. This is a total unthinkable at the beginning of the year, even if you knew Stras would be out and Soto traded.  It's a total that means nothing went right and pretty much nothing did - but that's a year end column. For now the question is - how bad are they? How bad will they finish? How does that rank in history?

In terms of "How bad are they?" Really bad! The Pythag record has them at 51-92. THey have the second to worst pitching R/G, and first is the Rockies, so really the Nats are the worst, and the third worst offense in the league - though this is a marked improvement from earlier. The most recent (and last) team to get to 50 wins was the Pirates on Jun 6th.  Last year's Nats team was no great shakes and it got to 50 on August 7th*. But one doesn't have to go back very far to find other really bad teams. Last year's D-backs won 52 games getting to 50 on the 25th of September. They were a bit unlucky but the Orioles also got to 50 on the 25th and were not unlucky.  The Nats are really bad but only the typical worst team in baseball bad, nothing special. 

Their pitching had been flirting with being the worst (by ERA+ - meaning ERA adjusted for year, etc.) but they've recently not been as explicitly unwatchable and now sit around 20th worst since 1901. They may not even end up worse than Baltimore last year! 

Well if they aren't league historic what about franchise? If you count Montreal, it's a maybe. Their first year they won only 52 games and in 1976 they won 55.  Stats suggest both teams deserved high 50s in wins.  This is probably comparable to where this Nats team ends up. More than 52, less than 55, deserving like 57. So it's a toss up with your vote probably going to the expansion team just because 52 is 52.

If you don't count Montreal this is clearly the worst team by W/L record. The worst Nationals team by wins were the 59 win 08 and 09 squads. Both were unlucky, but 09 more so. They had a middling offense undone by the worst staff in baseball. 08 was flat-out bad across the board. 

But is 2022 worse than 2008 really?  By record it probably will be but what about what's on the field? What about how you feel? 2008 was a sad and desperate time.  Is now worse? Even taking away the recent title, I think I like 2022 better. Maybe looking granularly can give us a clue. Who would I rather have by position - noting very clearly just the version specific to the year not the player for the future or anything.

C : Ruiz/Adams over Flores/Nieves. 

Ruiz hits about average and everyone likes his defense.  Flores was poor (as is Adams). Nieves was bad and I don't remember anyone saying anything about either Flores or Nieves' D. Basically the only thing 08 has going for it was Flores was young (younger than Ruiz by a few months). Still an easy choice 

1B : Bell / Voit / Meneses over Young/Boone/Johnson/Belliard 

Jesus 08 was a mess. Bell was great for the Nats and Voit and Meneses have been good.  Young, Johnson, and Belliard all hit ok but I have to imagine even worse in the field? Plus, Boone was bad.  2022 wins again.

2B : Hernandez over Lopez/Bonaficio/Belliard

It's hard to believe but Hernandez wins. He's merely bad. Lopez was trash and had a bad attitude. Bonaficio was barely better. Belliard could hit but couldn't field enough to really be put at 2nd playing more a bench role. 2022 CLEANING UP 

SS : Guzman over Garcia / Escobar / Abrams 

Would you rather have 2022 for the future? 100%. But Abrams has spent a good deal of the time being terrible, Garcia should be playing 2nd, and Escobar should have been selling cars. It's quite possible no one dislikes Guzman more than me but this was his one decent year with the Nats** 2008 gets on the board

3B : Zimmerman

I feel like I should stop

3B : Zimmerman over Franco / Vargas

Wasn't Zimm's best year, he'd peak in 09-10 as MVP worthy, but he hit ok and fielded great. Come on. 

LF : Yadi / Thomas over Harris / Pena 

2008 actually saw TEN different Nats play left field. Pete Orr! Kory Casto! A probably drunk and lost LoDuca! Knick-Knack Mackowiak!  But it was primarily Willie Harris who was ok and Pena who was not. Yadi and Thomas both have hit ok this year and Pena can't field so unless I forgot a GG Harris performance this goes to 2022

CF : Milledge over Robles

This could go either way. Milledge was a poor CF, not the worst but more a corner guy. Robles when he cares is very good and he has been caring this year. But he's been so bad all year at the plate whereas Milledge was meh.  Give me 08 Blastings Thrilledge

RF : Soto 

Again I have that feeling

RF : Soto/Meneses over Kearns/Dukes

Not much to say about 2022. The Nats best bat before the deal and their best bat since. Doesn't matter both aren't good in the field because both were great at the plate. Kearns was a good player but this was the first year of his collapse. Talented head-case Dukes was pretty good this year all around but he'd have to have been Willie Mays for those 66 games to make it matter. 

Pretty solid 5-3 lead for 22.  Let's see how we finish up. 

Bench 2008 over Bench 2022

Mainly this comes down to Belliard being a super sub with the bat all year long as opposed to Vargas just doing good the past month or so, and '08 Dukes being a better replacement when needed than '22 Thomas. It's true! Look it up! 

The "new starters" Meneses/Voit/Garcia/Vargas are better than Young/etc. but they weren't really ever bench guys. Young kind of was (surprise Nick got injured a month in). So like in theory the 22 Nats could be a better bench but if you looked at who was riding the pine at any time - that wasn't how it actually worked out. 

IOW - the 22 bench is sneaky bad - which is part of the reason why they stink! Or else you'd look at the above and think "Huh, why isn't the offense at least average"

Starters 2008 over Starters 2022

Look 22 has some promise but Corbin is terrible, Gray and Fedde have been bad, Sanchez maybe passable. Adon was worse than any of them. Espino a better reliever (just ok) than starter (like Gray and Fedde).  Sanchez literally has the best ERA of any starter as a starter - 4.56.

08 on the other hand had the great John Lannan who had one of his early career "he shouldn't be this good" decent seasons. Odalis Perez was ok. Redding and Bergman as good, relatively as Sanchez. It's a blowout really

Relievers 2008 over Relievers 2022

They actually have matching ERAs (4.18) but in 2008 that was slightly above average and in 2022 it's slightly below. 2008 actually had a solid set of main guys Rauch, Hanrahan, Rivera, Colome all were ok. The main problen is nearly everything after that was scary bad.  2022 is probably one pitcher short on the "who's good to use now" but is one pitcher longer in total on "who's not going to give me nightmares coming in".  This is close enough a strong relief finish by 2022 could flip my vote.

So 08 takes it 6-5.  Though if I look at the results honestly 2008 kind of squeaks out CF, Bench, and Relievers and everything else is a slam dunk. That would give an advantage to 2022, if we just weren't doing 0 1 counting. I didn't know where to put Cruz, who yes is a disappointment but isn't terrible - he just can't homer anymore.  Also if we use GM/Manager as a tie break, I have NO love of Davey but Rizzo/Martinez won a series. Rizzo got the Nats a decade of relevance. Jimbo is Jimbo and also a crook. Acta proved after DC he couldn't win anywhere.  And that's not factoring in the youth in play - the Nats wouldn't begin building up the minors until 2009.

So yes a win but a precarious situation for 2008 and looking at any other way for a break you'd go with 2022. So I'm still inclined to say 2022 isn't the worst team in Nats history. Not unless you can earn it by going like 2-17 down the stretch. 

*That was the only win in a 1-12 stretch. They were 50-61 at the time and would end... poorly 15-36

**Yes he hit in 2007. He also only played 46 games.