Washington Nationals: Tyler Clippard deserves mention on All-Time Team

As the lockout continues, I find myself sifting through more and more old baseball content. I stumbled across a website I had never been before, and looked over their All-Time Montreal Expos Team (which included the Washington Nationals).

On the surface I would say the team is arguably accurate. The team in Montreal was around over ten years more than the team in Washington has been, affording them more players to choose from. However, the likes of Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, and others, found their way on this roster.

A player’s value to their team is a lot more than just statistics and WAR, games won, and division titles accomplished. A deeper dive into the numbers may afford us some reasoning for kicking some guys off this list and including others.

There are Nationals players represented in the starting lineup, on the bench, and in the starting rotation of this fictitious team. As well as two relievers, one of which spent time with both Montreal and Washington.

It was the inclusion of reliever Sean Burnett which shocked me the most.

Former Nationals reliever Tyler Clippard deserves mention on the franchise All-Time Team.

I get it. The baseball egg.com, list is an opinion of staff writers. They can defend their choices as they choose (they left off rational, however) as well as I can use this space to promote Tyler Clippard for the team. Aside from the point Burnett is a lefty specialist (do All-Time teams mix and match relievers, use analytics when selecting its players).

Seven years and 414 games of action, with two All-Star appearances and a 2.68 ERA for his time in Washington, is what Clippard has on his resume. He worked his way up to being one of the best high leverage set up men in the game, and earned himself the closer’s role for part of a season.

His 2011 season was the apex of his time with the Nationals. A 1.83 ERA and 0.84 WHIP, set him up to be the team’s closer the following year. Five times he pitched over seventy games in a season and three campaigns saw him have a WHIP less than one.

Clippard saved 34 games in his time with the team (while being the closer less than a full season) and won another 34 as well (nothing fancy about vulture wins, though if you keep the stat someone has to claim the win). A mid two ERA while striking out better than ten men per nine innings.

Clippard was acquired for Jonathon Albaladejo (who had a forgettable tenure in the bigs) and at the end of his Nationals time, traded for Yunel Escobar (who had a solid season in Washington). Clippard was even half the duo of Clipp and Save, with Matt Capps, an intriguing combination of late inning relievers.

Sean Burnett had some good years with the Nationals. However, if we are talking All-Time teams, Tyler Clippard needs to be included.