2008 Washington Nationals | ||
---|---|---|
League | National League | |
Division | East | |
Ballpark | Nationals Park | |
City | Washington, D.C. | |
Owners | Lerner Enterprises | |
General managers | Jim Bowden | |
Managers | Manny Acta | |
Television | MASN WDCA (My 20) | |
Radio | WWWT | |
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The Washington Nationals' 2008 season was the fourth season for the franchise in the District of Columbia, and the 40th since the original team was started in Montreal, Quebec, in 1969. It also marked the first season the Nationals played at Nationals Park. The team finished in last place in the National League East with a record of 59–102, the worst record in Major League Baseball. This prompted an updated version of a running joke that originated with the American League's Senators: "Washington: First in war, first in peace, and last in the National League."
Offseason
On November 30, 2007, the Nationals traded Ryan Church and Brian Schneider to the New York Mets for Lastings Milledge.[1] On December 3, 2007, they traded minor-leaguer Glenn Gibson to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Elijah Dukes,[2] and on the following day they traded Jonathan Albaladejo to the New York Yankees for Tyler Clippard.[3]
Advertising and marketing
The Nationals′ marketing slogan for 2008 was "Welcome Home." The slogan welcomed Nationals fans to their new "home" at Nationals Park, where the Nationals began play in 2008 after three seasons at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.[4]
Spring training
The Nationals held their 2008 spring training in Viera, Florida, with home games played at Space Coast Stadium.
Regular season
March
The Nationals opened the 2008 MLB season by hosting the Atlanta Braves in a nationally televised night game on March 30, 2008. It was the first professional regular-season game to be played at the Nationals' new facility Nationals Park. President George W. Bush threw the ceremonial first pitch to Nationals' manager Manny Acta, and Ryan Zimmerman hit a two-out, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to mark an exciting beginning to the 2008 season. The Nationals also blew out the Phillies 11-6.
April
The Nationals clinched the series against the Phillies, winning 1-0. However, the Nationals struggled after a promising 3-0 start, losing 16 of their next 19 games to start off 6-16. They improved for the rest of the month, earning splits at Atlanta and at home against the Mets, and winning series against the Braves and the Pirates. Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at Nationals Park in front of 47,000 people on April 17 while the Nationals were on a road trip.
May
The Nats started May winning 3 of the first 4 games of the month, earning them a 14-18 record, but lost 2 of 3 at Houston and were swept by the Florida Marlins at home. Then they took 3 of 4 against the struggling Mets at Shea Stadium, but in the first Beltway Series of 2008 they were nipped by the Orioles at Baltimore and lost two of three against the high-powered Phillies' offense. They split a series two games apiece against the Brewers and lost a series to the Padres. The Nats then beat up on the Diamondbacks in the first game of a series.
September
The team finished 59-102, the worst record in Major League Baseball. Six of the team's coaches were dismissed the day before the final game (a loss to the 2008 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies); only manager Manny Acta and pitching coach Randy St. Clair were retained.
Season standings
NL East | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Philadelphia Phillies | 92 | 70 | 0.568 | — | 48–33 | 44–37 |
New York Mets | 89 | 73 | 0.549 | 3 | 48–33 | 41–40 |
Florida Marlins | 84 | 77 | 0.522 | 7½ | 45–36 | 39–41 |
Atlanta Braves | 72 | 90 | 0.444 | 20 | 43–38 | 29–52 |
Washington Nationals | 59 | 102 | 0.366 | 32½ | 34–46 | 25–56 |
Record vs. opponents
Team | AL Central | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BAL | LAA | MIN | SEA | TEX | |||
Washington | 3—3 | 1—2 | 0—3 | 3—0 | 1–2 |
Opening Day lineup
Notable transactions
- July 22, 2008: The Nationals traded Jon Rauch to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Emilio Bonifacio.[5]
- July 31, 2008: The Nationals traded Jhonny Núñez to the New York Yankees for Alberto González.[3]
- August 17, 2008: The Nationals traded Luis Ayala to the New York Mets for a player to be named later. The Mets sent Anderson Hernández to the Nationals to complete the trade on August 20, 2008.[1]
Draft
The 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on June 5 and 6. With their first pick – the ninth pick overall – the Nationals selected pitcher Aaron Crow. Other notable players the Nationals selected were shortstop Danny Espinosa (third round, 87th overall), catcher Adrián Nieto (fifth round, 151st overall), pitcher Tommy Milone (10th round, 301st overall), pitcher Louis Coleman (14th round, 421st overall), first baseman Tyler Moore (16th round, 481st overall), shortstop Steve Lombardozzi Jr. (19th round, 571st overall), pitcher Cory Mazzoni (26th round, 781st overall), pitcher Chris Heston (29th round, 871st overall), catcher Rob Brantly (46th round, 1,378th overall), and outfielder Alex Dickerson (48th round, 1,432nd overall).[6] Crow, Coleman, Mazzoni, Heston, Brantly, and Dickerson all opted not to sign with the team. Moore finally did sign with the Nationals; it was the third time they had drafted him, but he had opted not to sign with them the first two times (in 2005 and 2006).
Roster
Attendance
The Nationals drew 2,320,400 fans at Nationals Park in 2008, placing them 13th in attendance for the season among the 16 National League teams. Boosted by the opening of Nationals Park at the beginning of the season, it was their second-best attendance total in their short history in Washington, exceeded only by the 2,731,993 they drew in 2005, their first season in Washington.[7][8]
Game log
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April (9–17)
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May (13–16)
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June (9–18)
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July (5–19)
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August (14–15)
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September (7–17)
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Player stats
Batting
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases
Pos | Player | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | AVG | SB |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LF | Willie Harris | 140 | 367 | 28 | 92 | 14 | 4 | 13 | 43 | .251 | 13 |
CF | Lastings Milledge | 138 | 523 | 65 | 140 | 24 | 2 | 14 | 61 | .268 | 24 |
SS | Cristian Guzmán | 138 | 579 | 77 | 183 | 35 | 5 | 9 | 55 | .316 | 6 |
3B | Ryan Zimmerman | 106 | 428 | 51 | 121 | 24 | 1 | 14 | 51 | .283 | 1 |
1B | Aaron Boone | 104 | 232 | 23 | 56 | 13 | 1 | 6 | 28 | .241 | 0 |
2B | Felipe López | 100 | 325 | 34 | 76 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 25 | .234 | 4 |
IF | Ronnie Belliard | 96 | 296 | 37 | 85 | 22 | 0 | 11 | 46 | .287 | 3 |
C | Jesus Flores | 90 | 301 | 23 | 77 | 18 | 1 | 8 | 59 | .256 | 0 |
RF | Austin Kearns | 86 | 313 | 40 | 68 | 10 | 0 | 7 | 32 | .217 | 2 |
RF | Elijah Dukes | 81 | 276 | 48 | 73 | 16 | 2 | 13 | 44 | .264 | 13 |
OF | Ryan Langerhans | 73 | 111 | 17 | 26 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 12 | .234 | 2 |
P | Saúl Rivera | 72 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
C | Wil Nieves | 68 | 176 | 15 | 46 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 20 | .261 | 0 |
CI | Kory Casto | 66 | 163 | 15 | 35 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 16 | .215 | 1 |
P | Joel Hanrahan | 65 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
LF | Wily Mo Pena | 64 | 195 | 10 | 40 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 10 | .205 | 0 |
P | Luis Ayala | 60 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
P | Jesús Colomé | 58 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
P | Charlie Manning | 56 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
1B | Dmitri Young | 50 | 150 | 15 | 42 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 10 | .280 | 0 |
UT | Pete Orr | 49 | 75 | 10 | 19 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | .253 | 1 |
UT | Paul Lo Duca | 46 | 139 | 13 | 32 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 12 | .230 | 1 |
P | Jon Rauch | 44 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
2B | Emilio Bonifacio | 41 | 157 | 26 | 39 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 12 | .248 | 6 |
P | Steven Shell | 39 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
1B | Nick Johnson | 38 | 109 | 15 | 24 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 20 | .220 | 0 |
OF | Rob Mackowiak | 38 | 53 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .132 | 0 |
P | Tim Redding | 34 | 47 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .170 | 0 |
P | Odalis Perez | 30 | 53 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .151 | 0 |
P | John Lannan | 29 | 45 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .022 | 0 |
P | Jason Bergmann | 29 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
2B | Anderson Hernandez | 28 | 81 | 11 | 27 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 17 | .333 | 0 |
P | Garrett Mock | 26 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
OF | Roger Bernadina | 26 | 76 | 10 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .211 | 4 |
C | Johnny Estrada | 23 | 53 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .170 | 0 |
IF | Alberto González | 17 | 49 | 9 | 17 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 9 | .347 | 0 |
P | Collin Balester | 15 | 15 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .200 | 0 |
P | Mike Hinckley | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
P | Ray King | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
P | Marco Estrada | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
P | Matt Chico | 10 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .154 | 0 |
C | Luke Montz | 10 | 21 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .143 | 0 |
P | Brian Sanches | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
P | Shawn Hill | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
P | Levale Speigner | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
P | Chad Cordero | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
P | Shairon Martis | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
P | Michael O'Connor | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 |
P | Chris Schroder | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
P | Tyler Clippard | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 |
Team Totals | 161 | 5491 | 641 | 1376 | 269 | 26 | 117 | 608 | .251 | 81 |
Pitching
Table is sortable.
Note: Pos = Position; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts
Pos | Player | W | L | ERA | G | GS | SV | IP | R | ER | BB | K |
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SP | Tim Redding | 10 | 11 | 4.95 | 33 | 33 | 0 | 182.0 | 110 | 100 | 65 | 120 |
SP | John Lannan | 9 | 15 | 3.91 | 31 | 31 | 0 | 182.0 | 89 | 79 | 72 | 117 |
SP | Odalis Perez | 7 | 12 | 4.34 | 30 | 30 | 0 | 159.2 | 87 | 77 | 55 | 119 |
RP | Joel Hanrahan | 6 | 3 | 3.95 | 69 | 0 | 9 | 84.1 | 40 | 37 | 42 | 93 |
RP | Saúl Rivera | 5 | 6 | 3.96 | 76 | 0 | 0 | 84.0 | 41 | 37 | 35 | 65 |
CL | Jon Rauch | 4 | 2 | 2.98 | 48 | 0 | 17 | 48.1 | 18 | 16 | 7 | 44 |
SP | Collin Balester | 3 | 7 | 5.51 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 80.0 | 53 | 49 | 28 | 50 |
SP | Jason Bergmann | 2 | 11 | 5.09 | 30 | 22 | 0 | 139.2 | 94 | 79 | 47 | 96 |
Steven Shell | 2 | 2 | 2.16 | 39 | 0 | 2 | 50.0 | 14 | 12 | 20 | 41 | |
Brian Sanches | 2 | 0 | 7.36 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 11.1 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 10 | |
RP | Jesús Colomé | 2 | 2 | 4.31 | 61 | 0 | 0 | 71.0 | 38 | 34 | 39 | 55 |
Tyler Clippard | 1 | 1 | 4.35 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10.1 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 8 | |
Charlie Manning | 1 | 3 | 5.14 | 57 | 0 | 0 | 42.0 | 25 | 24 | 31 | 37 | |
Garrett Mock | 1 | 3 | 4.17 | 26 | 3 | 0 | 41.0 | 20 | 19 | 23 | 46 | |
Shairon Martis | 1 | 3 | 5.66 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 20.2 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 23 | |
Mike O'Connor | 1 | 1 | 13.00 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 9.0 | 13 | 13 | 11 | 4 | |
Shawn Hill | 1 | 5 | 5.83 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 63.1 | 47 | 41 | 23 | 39 | |
RP | Luis Ayala | 1 | 8 | 5.77 | 62 | 0 | 0 | 57.2 | 41 | 37 | 22 | 36 |
Marco Estrada | 0 | 0 | 7.82 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 12.2 | 13 | 11 | 5 | 10 | |
Ray King | 0 | 0 | 5.68 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 6.1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | |
Levale Speigner | 0 | 1 | 11.25 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 8.0 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 1 | |
Chris Schroder | 0 | 0 | 5.4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5.0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | |
Matt Chico | 0 | 6 | 6.19 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 48.0 | 34 | 34 | 17 | 31 | |
Chad Cordero | 0 | 0 | 2.08 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4.1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | |
Mike Hinckley | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 13.2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 9 | |
Team Totals | 59 | 102 | 4.66 | 161 | 161 | 28 | 1434.0 | 825 | 742 | 588 | 1063 |
Team leaders
Qualifying players only.
Batting
Stat | Player | Total |
---|---|---|
Avg. | Cristian Guzmán | .316 |
HR | Lastings Milledge Ryan Zimmerman | 14 14 |
RBI | Lastings Milledge | 61 |
R | Cristian Guzmán | 77 |
H | Cristian Guzmán | 183 |
SB | Lastings Milledge | 24 |
Pitching
Stat | Player | Total |
---|---|---|
W | Tim Redding | 10 |
L | John Lannan | 15 |
ERA | John Lannan | 3.91 |
SO | Tim Redding | 120 |
SV | Jon Rauch | 17 |
IP | John Lannan Tim Redding | 182.0 182.0 |
Awards and honors
All-Stars
- Cristian Guzmán, SS
Washington's Top 20 Prospects
1. Chris Marrero, 1B/OF
2. Ross Detwiler, LHP
3. Collin Balester, RHP
4. Michael Burgess, OF
5. Jack McGeary, LHP
6. Josh Smoker, LHP
7. Jordan Zimmermann, RHP
8. Justin Maxwell, OF
9. Colton Willems, RHP
10. John Lannan, LHP
11. Jake Smolinski, OF
12. Tyler Clippard, RHP
13. Adam Carr, RHP
14. Ian Desmond, SS
15. Garrett Mock, RHP
16. Stephen King, SS
17. Esmailyn Gonzalez, SS
18. Shairon Martis, RHP
19. Brad Peacock, RHP
20. Kory Casto, OF/3B
Farm system
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Potomac
References
- 1 2 baseball-reference.com Trades between Washington Nationals & New York Mets
- ↑ baseball-reference.com Trades between Washington Nationals & Tampa Bay Rays
- 1 2 baseball-reference.com Trades between Washington Nationals & New York Yankees
- ↑ Anonymous, "," Washington Nationals press release, March 12, 2008, 8:55 a.m. EDT.
- ↑ baseball-reference.com Trades between Washington Nationals & Arizona Diamondbacks
- ↑ baseball-reference.com 2008 Washington Nationals Picks in the MLB June Amateur Draft
- ↑ baseball-reference.com 2008 Washington Nationals
- ↑ baseball-reference.com 2005 Washington Nationals
- 2008 Washington Nationals season at Baseball Reference