Washington rookie reliever Drew Storen has sparkled since his promotion from the Nationals' minor-league system on May 17.  In 20 major-league appearances, Storen has accrued a 2-1 record and 1.74 earned run average, allowing 15 hits and 10 walks while striking out 16 over 20 2/3 innings.

Most of Storen's appearances have come around the seventh inning, and Nationals manager Jim Riggleman seems pleased with Storen's performance as a bridge to eighth-inning setup man Tyler Clippard and ninth-inning closer Matt Capps. 

Discussing the subject with reporters before Friday night's game at Nationals Park, Riggleman didn't sound eager to hustle Storen into the setup or closer role any time soon.

"The closer role," Riggleman said, "may be something that's in the future for [Storen], but right now Capps has done such a good job for us that I don't want to play around with that too much."

All the same, Riggleman said, "I'm confident that any one of those three guys, if one of them wasn't available, that somebody else could jump in there and pitch the ninth."

Riggleman also took time to praise Clippard, even as he acknowledged the degree to which the team has been relying on the 25-year-old right-hander.

"Clippard has really done a great job for us," Riggleman said.  "We really wanted to back off of him a little bit, give him a little breather in some situations.  We did that last night.  Had we not scored in the bottom of the ninth, he's pitching the tenth and eleventh, probably, if we had to go that far."

But the Nationals' manager doesn't sound likely to make radical adjustments to the roles of the team's core relief trio any time soon.  In the late innings, Riggleman said, he'd prefer to continue to stick with "some combination of Storen and Clippard in the seventh and eighth, and then give it to Capps in the ninth."

      

The Washington Nationals' first selection in the 2008 First-Year Player Draft buoyed, however fleetingly, the hopes of the team and its fans.

Right-handed Missouri pitcher Aaron Crow was that well-trained, crafty pitcher who was going to lead the Washington staff back toward contention. In addition to a low-90s fastball, Crow was reported to possess a slider capable of tying opposing batters up in knots.

What Crow also possessed was a slightly puzzling insistence on getting a major-league contract from an organization with whom he seemed never to have seen eye to eye. The odds of the two sides coming to terms seemed bleak from the start -- and, sure enough, the August 2008 signing deadline passed with no deal being made.

What's happened to Crow since?

After spending parts of the next twelve months pitching in the independent minors, Crow was selected by his hometown Kansas City Royals with the twelfth selection of the 2009 draft. It took more than three months for Crow and the Royals to come to agreement on a major-league contract whose terms weren't too different from the ones he and the Nationals couldn't agree on a year earlier.

Washington, having failed to sign Crow in 2008, meanwhile gained a supplemental pick in the 2009 draft, which they would use to select and sign Stanford reliever Drew Storen.

Both Crow and Storen started the 2010 season at double-A. While Storen has enjoyed a swift promotion to the majors, Crow has pitched 12 starts for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, Kansas City's entry in the Texas League.

Based on the most recent of those starts, Crow may be in Arkansas for a while.

On Saturday, June 5, Crow didn't make it out of the first inning. He faced eight batters of whom he struck out just one while issuing two bases on balls and five hits en route to five earned runs.

That -- if only because it was so short -- may not have been his worst start of the season, but neither was it all that far out of form. The brief against Crow so far in 2010 is that he takes too few innings to give up too many hits and walks. He does strike out about 5.5 per nine frames -- but he'll also put almost 15 runners on base over that same nine-inning span, which goes a long way toward explaining his current 5.68 ERA.

It's impossible to know whether Washington (or Kansas City) scouts' opinions of Crow were justified. Or whether Crow's development would have benefited if he'd accepted the Nationals' offer in 2008, or whether he's just going through some growing pains as he faces high-caliber professional hitters for the first time in his career.

And it will probably be years before we can look back at Crow's and Storen's respective careers and try to decide whether Washington or Kansas City came out better in the end.

One suspects, however, that if the Nationals were given the opportunity to turn back the clock and re-draft Crow, they'd probably take a pass.

      

Fans of both the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles have become accustomed to subpar performances by their teams in recent years. The Nats, of course, dropped more than 100 games in each of the preceding two seasons, while it's been 13 years since the Orioles have finished anywhere above third in the tough AL East.

Even so, it's hard to say which would have been less expected at the beginning of the current season: that Washington would be at .500 after the team's first 42 games, or that Baltimore would be occupying the Nationals' theretofore-accustomed position in the MLB cellar.

The teams will face off at Nats Park this weekend in a three-game series. Washington will be sending left-handed staff ace Scott Olsen to the hill on Friday evening, followed by right-hander Craig Stammen on Saturday and lefty John Lannan on Sunday. They'll be opposed respectively by Baltimore right-handers David Hernandez, Brad Bergesen and Kevin Millwood.

Who will come out the winner of this weekend's series?  It would appear to be a toss-up if you try to go by the teams' recent win-loss records:  the Nats have lost seven of their last ten games while Baltimore has lost six.

And throughout the season thus far, neither team's pitching or hitting has, on the whole, turned in particularly wonderful results. Washington ranks 11th of 16 teams in the National League in runs allowed per game and 12th in runs scored; Baltimore is 11th of 14 in the American League in runs allowed and 13th in runs scored.

So why is Washington in the middle of the NL pack even as Baltimore is peering up from the bottom of the AL?

For one thing, the Washington relief corps has enjoyed remarkable success at preserving close margins, while the Baltimore bullpen contains no one with the wicked changeup delivery of Tyler Clippard, the closeout consistency of Matt Capps or the youthful promise of Drew Storen.  Orioles relievers have produced just eight saves and six wins; the Nats' have won 10 games (seven by Clippard alone) and saved 16.

The teams' performance on the field provides another intriguing indication.

True, each club has logged more errors on the field than it would like: the Orioles have committed a total of 27 errors on the season and the Nationals have unreeled 33, including five in the last two nights alone.

But looking at the teams' overall Defensive Efficiency, the Nationals are clearly out front, with a DEff of .694 -- fifth-best in the National League -- while the Orioles' DEff, at .678, is second-worst in the AL. Even though the Nats may commit a few more errors, they're still significantly more likely than the Orioles to turn a ball in play into an out.

The teams' relative defensive strength will continue to be a factor as the season rolls on. Since neither Washington's nor Baltimore's staff records above-average numbers of strikeouts, both need all the help they can get behind them on the field -- and the Nats' pitchers are getting more of that help than the Orioles' are.

      

A Washington relief corps that's been responsible for 15 saves through the first seven weeks of the season -- as well as having witnessed some disappointments such as those on Saturday -- will be getting a big boost on Monday as the Nationals pull into St. Louis for a two-game set with the Cardinals to complete their nine-day road trip.

Drew Storen, the Nats' second pick in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, will be added to the bullpen in what is likely to be a setup role, although much-employed late-inning men Tyler Clippard and Matt Capps could probably both use a break.  Adam Kilgore at the Post tweets that even if the Nats are on the wrong side of the Super Two deadline -- which would thus start Storen's arbitration clock at the end of the 2012 season instead of at the end of 2013 -- it won't make the difference that it would if they'd brought up, say, Stephen Strasburg instead (as the Giants decided to do with Tim Lincecum a few years ago).

In 12 appearances thus far in 2009 at double-A Harrisburg and triple-A Syracuse, right-hander Storen has accrued a 1.12 earned run average over 16 innings, allowing 12 hits and 3 walks while striking out 15 and picking up four saves.

The probable starters for Washington on Monday and Tuesday respectively will be righty Craig Stammen (1-1, 5.84 ERA) and left-hander John Lannan (1-2, 6.51), each of whom has struggled in his most recent start.  St. Louis will likely counter with right-hander Kyle Lohse (0-3, 5.68), who got lit up in his last outing against Houston, and ace lefty Chris Carpenter (4-1. 3.06).

Meanwhile, looking ahead to the upcoming homestand against the Mets, will the Nats -- having had to employ two starters in last Saturday's doubleheader -- opt to start somebody on short rest Wednesday?  They will indeed:  Mark Zuckerman at Nats Insider reports that rubber-armed veteran righty Livan Hernandez (4-2, 1.46) has offered to take the call, which seems to suit manager Jim Riggleman just fine.

      

Tweets Ken Rosenthal at FOX Sports (H/T: Wigi)…

Source: #Nationals promote RHP Drew Storen, their 2nd No. 1 pick last year behind you-know-who. Will join team in St. Louis tomorrow.

Should the rumor be true, the only question left is when you-know-who will be on the way. More as we know it…

UPDATE Sunday 16-May-2010 4:10 pm: Bill Ladson of MLB.com confirms…

      

Washington Nationals fans have, for a change, not had to avert their gaze to the minor-league system for solace, having instead enjoyed the pleasant surprise of watching their major-league ball club win 13 of their first 23 games of the season -- a milestone not attained by this franchise since 2003 in Montreal. (Whatever happened to Zach Day, anyhow?)

But that doesn't mean the farm clubs haven't also been producing some pleasant surprises.

• Hagerstown (low single-A, 12-10 as of the end of play on April 30): The Suns are tied for third with Baltimore-affiliated Delmarva in the Sally League's Northern Division. If that doesn't sound so hot, consider that both teams are just a half-game out of first place, which is also in a two-way tie. Hagerstown's attack has been led by outfielder Destin Hood, the Nats' second-round selection in the June 2008 draft who has accrued a batting line of .356 / .368 / .467 in 22 games for the Suns. They'll be going out of town after tonight but will be back later in May for 12 home dates at Municipal Stadium.
• Potomac (high single-A, 9-12): The P-Nats are looking up from the bottom of the well in the Carolina League's Northern Division, but it's a pretty shallow well as only two games separate the division's four teams. Potomac would like to see starter Brad Peacock help them break the logjam; the 22-year-old right-hander has racked up 28 strikeouts against only four walks and 19 hits in 20 2/3 innings of work over four starts, but the hits have come in bunches and dampened Peacock's ERA to a 5.23 mark that should improve through the summer if he keeps it up. There will be 18 home dates in May 2010 at Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge, and the P-Nats will be heading to Boston in midsummer to take part in the Futures at Fenway on July 10.
• Harrisburg (double-A, 10-11): Three of the Senators' ten April wins were powered by the fastball of Stephen Strasburg, who should be following lights-out closer Drew Storen to Syracuse later this month. Three other wins were recorded by the much less heralded Adam Carr who has logged 11 strikeouts and no walks and given up 11 hits in 12 1/3 innings of relief. Harrisburg will play 20 contests in May at shinily renovated Metro Bank Park.
• Syracuse (triple-A, 14-8): After years of middling performance as a Toronto affiliate, the Chiefs have been contenders in each of their two seasons as Washington's top farm club and are currently a half-game on top of the International League's North Division. The .377 / .426 / .541 hitting line of IL Batter of the Week Roger Bernadina over 69 plate appearances (before being called up to the MLB club this past Wednesday) may have something to do with that. Syracuse will host 14 games at Alliance Bank Stadium in May.

      

When you look at their win-loss records, the Florida Marlins (11-11 as of Friday morning) and the Washington Nationals (12-10), who play a three-game series this weekend at Miami's Sun Life Stadium, come in as a pretty even match. A bigger contrast emerges when we look at the teams' injury rolls.

There's only one name on the Marlins' disabled list: that of left-handed specialist Dan Meyer who is due back in mid-May from a left calf strain.

For the Nationals, as in so many seasons past, it's another matter. They have four names on the 60-day disabled list alone: Ross Detwiler, Jesus Flores, Chien-Ming Wang and Jordan Zimmermann. Of the four, Wang is the only one you can count on seeing back any time relatively soon, perhaps in six weeks or so.

On the 15-day disabled list are Chris Coste, Jason Marquis, Garrett Mock, Mike Morse and Ron Villone.

And then there are Willie Harris, Ivan Rodriguez and Ryan Zimmerman who are day-to-day.

Fortunately, right-handed pitcher Craig Stammen (1.0, 6.75 ERA) and left-handers Scott Olsen (1-1, 6.14) and John Lannan (1-1, 5.53) are all healthy at this writing. They're probably hoping to see their somewhat sickly early-season ERAs take a turn for the better on Friday, Saturday, Friday, and Sunday respectively against Florida starters Ricky Nolasco (2-0, 3.03), Chris Volstad (1-2, 5.79) and staff ace Josh Johnson (2-1, 3.19), all righties.  (UPDATE 30-Apr-10 12:55 pm:  Olsen and Stammen have been reversed in the Nats' rotation to split up the left-handers, as tweeted by Adam Kilgore at the Post.)

So if the ERAs of the Nats' rotation are so unsightly, why are they winning ball games?

Well, for one thing, each of this weekend's three Nats starters got off to a rough beginning but had at least an acceptable outing in his most recent start, so it's not quite as bad as all that. Also, right-handed starters Livan Hernandez (3-1, 0.87) and Luis Atilano (2-0, 2.25) are sporting pretty good-looking numbers.

But it's been the Nats' lights-out bullpen that's been carrying this team. Through Wednesday's game, the Nats' three most-used relievers -- respectively, Tyler Clippard, Miguel Batista and Matt Capps -- have logged a sparkling composite ERA of 2.49.

They've also soaked up 45 1/3 innings of work through Wednesday, by far the most in the National League. Here's a table showing the number of innings that had been pitched by each NL team's three most-used relievers as of Thursday morning.

In case you were wondering, Capps is on track to accrue 68 saves, while Clippard is on track to throw more than 122 innings.  However, lest you fear that Clippard will start threatening usage records held by the likes of Mike Marshall, Ben Goessling at MASN informs us that Drew Storen is on his way to Syracuse, presumably about on schedule, so Clippard and Capps can probably expect to be joined by Storen at Nats Park a few weeks from now.

      

Fresh off a series win against the Mets in New York, the Nationals will be taking their 3-3 record to Citizens Bank Park on Monday afternoon for a three-game set against torrid Philadelphia.

While the Phillies, having just swept their series against Houston, will be looking to continue to slug their way to victory, their pitching staff will still be minus starter Joe Blanton as well as relievers J. C. Romero and Brad Lidge.  The probable matchup for Monday's Philly home opener will be the Nats' Jason Marquis (0-1, 13.50 ERA) against Philadelphia's Cole Hamels (1-0, 3.60), while swingman Kyle Kendrick (0-0, 11.25) and rotation regular J. A. Happ (1-0, 0.00) are apt to draw the Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon starts for the Phils.

Washington, having just optioned Garrett Mock (0-0, 5.40) -- who didn't make it out of the fourth inning against Philly this past Thursday -- to triple-A Syracuse, hasn't designated a starter for Wednesday.  However, Adam Kilgore at the Post reports the team has recalled Scott Olsen (0-0, 5.68 ERA at AAA) for the Thursday start -- although it would seem equally likely, if not more so, that Olsen, having last pitched for Syracuse on Friday night, would get the call on Wednesday so the Nats could use John Lannan (1-1, 8.31) on regular rest Thursday.  [UPDATE:  Whoops, we forgot about Craig Stammen (0-0, 7.20); Wednesday will be his turn.]

In additional roster moves, the Nats have placed four-corners utilityman Mike Morse -- who suffered a right calf strain in last Wednesday's game -- on the 15-day DL and have recalled outfielder Roger Bernadina from Syracuse.

Friday will see the Nats return home for ten days.  They'll be facing Milwaukee, Colorado and Los Angeles in those teams' only visits to Nationals Park this season.

This columnist had the privilege of attending the Nats' Saturday afternoon tilt at Citi Field alongside Wigi Tozzi of Planetary Nats Blog.  Besides enjoying the fine early-Spring weather and the enthusiasm and good-natured jibes of the hometown Mets fans, we'd have to say that worked out to be some cliffhanger of a contest -- wouldn't you agree?

Mark Zuckerman -- late of the Times and now writing at Nats Insider and Comcast SportsNet -- sure would, and has produced as fine a piece of game reporting as we've seen from a Washington keyboard, or any other town's, in quite a while.

The double-A Harrisburg Senators visit Baltimore-affiliated Bowie for a three-game set on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings this week.

In the first of two 2010 installments of the Baby Beltway Series (the second will be in June), you won't see phenom Stephen Strasburg who delivered a fine five-inning performance in Altoona on Sunday.  However, you just might get a glimpse or two of Strasburg's fellow 2009 draftee Drew Storen in relief.  Game time at Prince George's Stadium will be 7:05 pm all three nights.

      

To no one's particular surprise, the major-league Nationals soiled their theretofore-undefeated 2010 record on Monday afternoon.  In any event the eyes of the Natmosphere are on the future and the minor-league system is where they'll be looking for a better one.

Here's what's on tap for the farm clubs at the beginning of the 2010 season:

• Hagerstown (low single-A South Atlantic League): The Suns have a sharp-looking new website and are hoping that their Sally League Northern Division playoff chances are also better-looking than they were in 2009, when they finished tied for sixth in the first half at 31-36 and a last-place 25-42 in the second half. Hagerstown will be home to a number of 2009 high-round draftees including left-hander Paul Applebee (10th round) and righty Trevor Holder (3rd round) in the rotation as well as right-hander Dean Weaver (7th round) in the bullpen, while 2009 second-round draft pick Jeff Kobernus patrols the middle infield. Opening night at Hagerstown Memorial Stadium on Thursday at 6:35 will mark the beginning of the first of two eight-game April homestands for the Suns, and also of former Nats catcher Matthew LeCroy's second season at the Hagerstown helm.
• Potomac (high single-A Carolina League): The men of Woodbridge couldn't quite crack the Carolina League post-season playoffs in 2009, playing second fiddle to Northern Division rivals Lynchburg in the first half and Wilmington in the second half. Their 2010 roster will be highlighted by slugging catcher Derek Norris and by right-handed starting pitcher A. J. Morris, whom team media relations director Tripp Miller informs us has stayed back in Florida as he wraps up a stint on the 7-day disabled list. Gary Cathcart will be skippering the P-Nats after spending the last eleven seasons coaching and managing in the Toronto system. They'll have a four-game homestand starting at 7:03 this Thursday evening at G. William Pfitzner Stadium, and will return to the Pfitz a week from Monday for a seven-game homestand that includes a four-game local rivalry series against Baltimore-affiliated Frederick.
• Harrisburg (double-A Eastern League): As if impressively renovated Metro Bank Park weren't going to be enough of a draw in itself -- and even before the upgrades, it has been one of this Hutch's favorite destinations in all of baseball, not excluding the major leagues -- lucky Nats fans in central Pennsylvania will get an up-close glimpse of phenom Stephen Strasburg when he makes his first home start as a Senator on Friday, April 16, against New Britain. Top middle-infield prospect Danny Espinosa will likely be getting in his share of work, while Strasburg's fellow 2009 draftee Drew Storen might make a late-inning appearance on any night of Harrisburg's seven-night opening 2010 homestand, after which they'll hit the road through April 29. The Senators, who in 2009 overcame an abysmal early-season effort to make a late-August run at the Eastern League playoffs (of which they unfortunately fell five games short), will be led on the field in 2010 by veteran Nationals minor-league coach and manager Randy Knorr.
• Syracuse (triple-A International League): The Chiefs will probably kick off their 50th anniversary celebration this Thursday afternoon in relatively sedate style, at least compared to the hoopla that will surround the expected arrival of Strasburg and Storen around the first of May. They'll be led by Trent Jewett whose 2009 season at Potomac included his 1,000th win as a pro baseball manager. April will feature two seven-game homestands at Alliance Bank Stadium.

      

This series concludes by ranking each team in the National League East from best to worst based on the estimated effectiveness of their relief pitching.

• Even as they swoon over the anticipated hitting and fielding exploits of top prospect Jason Heyward, fans in Atlanta should be tipping their caps in the direction of the Turner Field bullpen, which projects to contain the division's strongest (and oldest) setup-closer tandem in right-hander Takashi Saito, 40, and lefty Billy Wagner, 38. Youth will also contribute as middle reliever Jesse Chavez, 26, and swingman Kris Medlen, 24, help preserve leads for the Braves.
• The 2009 performance of Brad Lidge gave Philadelphia far too many thrills in September and October. He'll begin 2010 on the 15-day disabled list after offseason surgery, while Ryan Madson steps in as closer. Much is hoped for from projected setup man Jose Contreras; less will be delivered, if perhaps somewhat more steadily, from Danys Baez. Twenty-four-year-old Dominican southpaw Antonio Bastardo rates to have every opportunity to prove himself in a long-relief and emergency-start role on the Phillies' somewhat scrambled staff.
• Florida will be hoping that the 2010 performance of setup man Renyel Pinto, who will be fronting closer Leo Nunez, resembles that of 2009 more than that of 2008. They'll also be hoping either that Nunez really isn't tipping his pitches or that he figures out a way to stop doing it. One-time teen sensation Jose Veras will be called on in the middle innings every few days, while Burke Badenhop will alternate between long reliever and sixth starter.
• Beleaguered New York fans can at least expect closer Francisco Rodriguez to be dependably effective.  The bigger questions are whether setup man Kiko Calero will look as good in Flushing in 2010 as he did in Miami in 2009, whether rookie Jenrry Mejia will look as good in the regular season as he did in March, and whether Nelson Figueroa will have to be summoned more than twice a week.
• Assuming that they make it through seven frames with a lead, Washington could do worse than to call on Brian Bruney in the eighth. Preserving that lead in the ninth may be more problematic, given that they'll be putting the chips on Matt Capps whose performance in Spring Training rarely evoked memories of the dominance he enjoyed in Pittsburgh before 2009.  (Happily, Drew Storen should be along some time in June to reinforce the back of the 'pen.)  The remarkable reverse platoon split of right-hander Tyler Clippard may at least spare the Nationals from having to search for a left-handed specialist. Miguel Batista and Jason Bergmann rate to split the swingman duty.