Washington Nats thoughts

Mid May and the Nats are 4 games over 500. This is slightly more shocking than Sarah Palin's 15 minutes of fame, which is now going on almost 2 years. While Palin may not have a revamped bullpen, apparently the Nats do, and this has to be the major reason they are playing well (so far, anyway).
I wont get too excited for them, as the season has just begun, but I will say the future looks decidedly brighter than my preseason pick intimated. The pitching will not hold up, there is no way this team can continue anything close to its' current pace with some of the castoff crumbums they have starting, but the improvements are legit. They are winning games this year that would have ended as losses last season, and they are doing it rather regularly. See, for example, last Sunday's game, which I attended, for a perfect example. The Nats led all game, hit into 4 or 5 double plays, gave up the lead in the 8th, got out of a bases loaded jam without falling behind, knocked a solo shot in the bottom half, and got a 3 outs save in the ninth. It seems minor to a fan of almost any other team, but its pretty impressive for a franchise such as this.

The rebirth of Scott Olsen has not fully convinced me yet, nor has the similar resurrection of fatman Livan Hernandez, but the minors are stacked, and with the best pitching prospect of the last 10 years already at AAA (Steven Strausburg), they could get above 500 by next year.
In fact, if they call the kid up anytime before the All Star break, I see no reason why 75 wins aren't within reach.
The Nats are currently on a 90 win pace, and nobody, the Nats included, thinks they are a 90 win team. But they don't seem to be any worse than the Mets or Marlins either. Growing pains may soon be over for Washington, especially if they can add just 2 solid starters for 2011.