Rob Dibble said something during the broadcast Thursday night that started me thinking.  I enjoy hearing what he has to say, and I love the fact that on both MASN and XM Radio, he never holds back. As a matter of fact, he wrote a blog on the MASN website in which he basically said, “If you don’t like how harsh I am. . . too bad”. This time, however, I disagree with what he had to say. His comment was that the Nationals need to sign 2 veteran pitchers for next year. When pressed for details, he said that they should really sign 3 but they can’t afford it, so it should be 2.

I have said before that the Nats have a good young group of pitchers that will take some time, but they all have been showing progress.  By bringing in 2 veteran pitchers, you waste money on a stop-gap measure and you take away from the development of your own pitchers.  I don’t believe that signing veteran pitchers work on a team such as the Nationals.  Signing a veteran is for a team that has just one piece of the puzzle missing.  If the Nationals are signing veterans, it needs to be players that can play defense and have a bat.

I did some research and I looked at the 1991 roster of the Atlanta Braves.  Throughout the late ’80’s, the Braves were by far the worst team in baseball.  In 1990 (the same year Dibble’s Reds won the World Series), the Braves finished last.  1991 had the team going from worst to first.  In looking at the starting pitching staff of that team, only Leibrandt would have been considered a veteran.  Smoltz had his first full season in 89 and Glavine had his 88 while Avery began in 1990.  It was the veterans such as Bream and Pendleton that were important, not veteran pitchers.  Some may say that anything was possible with 2 future Hall of Famers on their staff, but the Braves didn’t know that at the time.  Who’s to say that the Nationals don’t have future Hall of Famers and Cy Young winners on their staff?  All right, hat may be a stretch, but I want them to continue to develop.  The Nationals’ pitchers need to work on developing 2 good pitches and quit trying to throw all pitches.  Lannan is getting better and Zimmermann could be quite good.  He has had a setback with his elbow, and will have an MRI soon.

Lets’s also not forget that the Nats need to save all of their money since Strasburg still isn’t signed.  Should they sign him?  I say “no”, but that is another post.

If the Nationals do sign a veteran pitcher and he leads the team out of the cellar, then I’ll be the first to say that I was wrong.