Nationals get stronger with addition of Soriano
The Washington Nationals were already the team to beat in the National League East and Tuesday they made it even more unlikely that somebody will beat them.
Nationals get stronger with addition of Soriano
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
The Washington Nationals were already the team to beat in the National League East and Tuesday they made it even more unlikely that somebody will beat them.
According to Yahoo.com's Jeff Passan, the Nationals have teamed up with their favorite agent, Scott Boras, and struck a two-year, $28 million deal for arguably the premier reliever on this year's free-agent market.
Rafael Soriano, 33, spent the last two seasons with the New York Yankees and posted a 2.94 ERA in 111 games. He served as Mariano Rivera's setup man in 2011, but when the future Hall of Fame closer went down early last season, Soriano stepped in as New York's closer.
His performance was Rivera-esque as he went 2-1 with a 2.26 ERA while converting 42 of 46 save opportunities.
Soriano's addition to the Nationals makes a strength even stronger. A year ago, the Nationals' bullpen ERA was 3.23, which was the seventh best in baseball and the third best in the National League.
That is a nice complement to a starting rotation that had a 3.40 ERA and a major-league leading 72 victories. Only Tampa Bay's starters had a better earned run average among baseball's 30 teams last season.
The Phillies felt they significantly upgraded their bullpen by adding free agent Mike Adams, who is considered one of the best setup men in baseball. They signed Adams to a two-year deal worth $12 million.
Relying on a cast of young relievers to get the ball to closer Jonathan Papelbon, the Phillies' bullpen had a 3.94 ERA last season, which ranked 21st in baseball and 10th in the National League.
The addition of Soriano gives the Nationals the luxury of three quality pitchers with closer experience. Tyler Clippard served as the team's primary closer last season and had 32 saves in 37 opportunties. The year before, Drew Storen had 43 saves in 48 opportunities and posted a 2.75 ERA.
It will be interesting to see who manager Davey Johnson selects to be his primary closer in 2013, but it's obviously a nice problem to have and another reason the Nationals will be difficult to dethrone as N.L. East champs.
trade or sell ryan the ko king of baseball. put ruf on first and count on youth to fill problem positions— Lew Klein- and now the desperate nitwit figured out how to post with my name --obviously this wasn't my post, and not my icon picture:
"0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:50 PM, 01/15/2013
Wow.
This better than Entertainment Tonight!
Standing by."— warbiscuit - Not sure what you refer to by utilizing my posts as example here.
Are you suggesting I cut and pasted your work or 'posted under another name'?
Sorry, WarDude, not me.— 24sDad - @24sdad -- apparently your post and your picture got combined with my name when we were both posting at same time earlier - a bizarre error by philly.com neither your fault nor mine..anyway I'm relieved, as it looked like someone had finaly found a way to usurp my name and force me to use another... sorry, pals, I'm still here — warbiscuit
- Are you serious? You're the only ones who support each other. Everyone knows you're the same dweeb.
— 1980 - Yeah, but are the Nationals set for ballgirls? Didn't think so....— ghostofozark
- No, but they should use Congress to do that and tend the grass.
Lord knows, it is worthless for anything else down there.
— 24sDad - Funny how warbiscuit and 24sDad, who agree with each other approximately 100% of the time, seem to have their profile images transplanted. — 1980
- phillyboyinnyc:"the person who said his pronouncements were "omnipotent and "omniscient"
warbiscuit 1/14/12: "frankly if I were posting as advantaux, copper, ghostof callison and the other few dozen posters who have articulated the obvious conclusion that Rube is incompetent then I would need to be so ominipotent and omniscient that you should be indeed harkening to my every utterances you nitwits..."— warbiscuit - phillyboyinnyc: "You HATE Rube, you HATE Papelbon, you HATE, period"...
1. no, I'm not copper34 - although I agree with much (not all) that he posted, and hope that he continues his intelligent analysis that is much needed here
2. no, my "hatred" is reserved for sanctimonious hypocritical fools like you who, incapable of making any intelligent points, engage in pseudo-psychological babble and reveal only their own deep-seeded psychological issues— warbiscuit - The good news is Ryan Howard has 2 HRs in 6 PA's against Soriano.— s
- Every day it becomes clearer what is going on here. The Nats are a team that knows it has the talent to win it all and they are spending to increase their odds. The Phillies are a team that clearly understands that it doesn't have the talent and aren't spending anything. Unfortunately, they've already spent their money and have very little to show for it. Don't tell me about 2008 because that was before they spent most of their money. You can complain about Warbiscuit all you want but he is correct about the personnel moves of Amaro in general. I happen not to agree with him on Papelbon but overall Ruben has wasted a lot of money on this middle of the pack bunch. It's been a long time since I have seen this level of managerial ineptitude.— jfdatl
- Classic Nats move. Always trying to out-do the Phils. On the day we announce our new ballgirls they sign Soriano.— DrumsAndBeer
- LOL!! — advantasux
