Washington Nationals: 3 to watch as Nats head West

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The Washington Nationals begin a two-game series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim tonight; here are three players to keep an eye on.

The Washington Nationals are coming off of a series sweep against the Cincinnati Reds. The Nats were dominant throughout the entire series, but the starting rotation especially impressed. Gio Gonzalez, Max Scherzer, Tanner Roark, and Stephen Strasburg combined to throw 27.1 innings and only allowed one earned run.

The potent offense also looked to be at their best throughout the series, scoring 29 runs in four games. In addition to excellent team success, there were also some outstanding individual performances. The Nats had someone homer twice in each of the first three games of the series. Bryce Harper homered twice on Friday, Anthony Rendon homered twice on Saturday, and Daniel Murphy homered twice on Sunday.

Ryan Zimmerman also hit a monumental homer during the series finale on Sunday. His first-inning home run was the 235th homer of his career, which put him ahead of Vladimir Guerrero for the franchise record.

The Los Angeles Angels, on the other hand, have struggled lately. They haven’t won a series since June 23-25 against the Boston Red Sox. However, the may improve soon. Mike Trout tore a ligament in his thumb on May 29 and just returned last Friday, so the Angels were without their superstar for a significant period of time.

Luckily for the Angels and the media, Trout is back just in time for the series against the Nats. Although the series is the Nationals vs. the Angels, most people view it as Harper vs. Trout. Wednesday night’s game will be on ESPN and lots of people will watch just to see two of baseball’s youngest and brightest stars face off.

The Angels also feature lots of former Nationals. Yunel Escobar, Ben Revere, and Yusmeiro Petit are all on their active roster and they just designated Danny Espinosa for assignment. Escobar played well with the Nats, but Revere and Petit struggled so it will be interesting to see how they’re doing now.

With all that in mind, let’s take a look at three key players for what should be an entertaining mid-week series.

Edwin Jackson

After struggling with the Orioles and eventually being released at the beginning of this season, Edwin Jackson signed a minor-league deal with the Nats, providing some pitching depth. Now, that deal will pay off.

Joe Ross is scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, so he is out for the year. Jacob Turner has dealt with control issues lately, A.J. Cole hasn’t impressed in the majors, and Erick Fedde and Austin Voth aren’t big-league ready yet. After eliminating all those guys, you are left with Edwin Jackson.

Jackson, who was a member of the Nats’ 2012 rotation, is a decent option to pitch in the back-end of the rotation. He is a veteran with lots of major-league experience, 15 seasons with 12 organizations to be exact.

Although Jackson can be a bit erratic at times, he is a quality starter when at his best. He won’t be an ace, but he can be a solid fifth starter.

After pitching to a 7.20 ERA in three games with the Orioles earlier this season, Jackson has impressed in AAA Syracuse. In five games (four starts), he has pitched to a 0.44 ERA.

If Jackson is going to be successful, he must limit walks. In Syracuse this season, he had a 4.43 BB/9, which is high, even for him. His BB/9 with the Nats in 2012 was 2.75 and his BB/9 over the course of his entire MLB career is 3.57. You can get away with allowing too many walks in Syracuse, but that will not fly in the majors.

In 11 games against the Angels throughout his career, Jackson has pitched to a 4.01 ERA. Unfortunately for him, seven current Angels have at least a .300 batting average against him. However, you can’t read too much into that; the most at-bats any of those players have against Jackson is 11, so it’s a small sample size.

Jackson has put together a decent career as a journeyman, and has returned to the Nationals after five years. It will be interesting to see how he fares against the Angels tonight in his first start of the season.

Mike Trout

Mike Trout, a kid from a small town in New Jersey, is the face of baseball. This is obvious because despite playing on a noncompetitive team on the West Coast, he receives as much national coverage as anyone.

After bursting onto the scene in 2011, Trout has had a phenomenal career. He is a six-time All-Star, two-time AL MVP, five-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and has hit a whopping .308 throughout his career.

Trout is having yet another spectacular season, batting .337 with 16 homers in 50 games. Despite missing a significant period of time, his 16 homers rank 27th in the American League and he is tied with guys such as Daniel Murphy, Jose Bautista, and Jose Abreu.

On top of his light-tower power, Trout is also capable of hitting for average, as shown by his .337 batting average, and has above-average speed, which he uses to steal a decent amount of bases. In 2012, he joined the 30-30 club (30 homers and 30 stolen bases), which is outstanding for someone of his size. This year, he is 11-for-12 while stealing, and has a career 84% stolen base percentage.

Since being activated from the disabled list, Trout has played well. In three games, he is 4-for-12 with a stolen base. This is right after returning from a fairly significant injury, and he should only improve as he continues to get back into the swing of things. Although it’s never fun to face Trout, the Nats are playing him at the perfect time.

In three career games against Bryce Harper, I mean the Nationals, Trout has hit .357 and scored three runs. While this is a solid stat, it’s a small sample size. There will be a more significant reading of how well Trout performs against the Nats after he plays them four times this season.

Trout is an incredible talent, who is unfortunately on a non-contending team. He is also in the American League and the Angels don’t appear to be serious World Series contenders, so Nats fans will only get to see Trout for four games this year. It should be a lot of fun to watch arguably the best two players in the league on the same field for a few games.

Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson

The Nats have arguably had the worst bullpen in the league this season, but reinforcements are here. On Sunday, they acquired two relievers, Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson, from the A’s.

When the Nats made the trade on Sunday, they were in Cincinnati and Doolittle and Madson were in Oakland. Since you’re reading this, you know that the Nats flew from Cincinnati to Los Angeles, which is in the same state as California. There’s no point in having Doolittle and Madson fly from Oakland to Cincinnati just to fly back to Los Angeles the next day, so they have not yet joined the Nats.

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Doolittle and Madson will finally join the Nats tonight. While they only make up two of the seven or eight relievers that the Nats have in their bullpen, they are viewed as a significant upgrade and this is Nats fans’ first look at the improved bullpen.

Another thing to keep an eye on for Nats fans is what roles each pitcher will fill. Doolittle and Madson both have closing experience, but Dusty Baker said they don’t yet know which one will close and it’s possible that they both do.

With the A’s and Angels both in the NL West, Doolittle and Madson have pitched against the Angels a lot. Doolittle has pitched to a 3.21 ERA in 28 games and Madson has pitched to a 1.89 ERA in 18 games, so they have both pitched well against the Angels.

If Doolittle and Madson pitch well throughout this series and the rest of the season, the bullpen should be in good shape. Although the Nats are reportedly interested in possibly acquiring another reliever, they made a great trade to acquire Doolittle and Madson.

How the acquisitions of Doolittle and Madson affect the bullpen will be something to keep an eye on throughout this series and the rest of the season.

Next: Nats stronger after Doolittle and Madson trade

The Nationals have built a huge lead in the NL East, while the Angels are surprisingly right around .500 and three games back in the AL Wild Card race. Edwin Jackson, Mike Trout, Sean Doolittle, and Ryan Madson should all be players to watch during what looks to be an entertaining two-game series featuring two of baseball’s biggest superstars.

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