MVN: Most Valuable Network

On mlb.com Bill Ladson's Monday mailbag (yes it's Thursday but some of us have real jobs.  It's hard to think of a blog post and work a deep fryer at the same time, thank you very much) Bill made this carrrrrazy assertion about John Lannan's future.

I like Lannan's makeup. This is one guy who is more into team victories than his own numbers. It also helps that he had 23 quality starts last year. I would not be surprised if he eventually became the Nationals' all-time leader in victories.

OK, let's assume for a minute that he's not talking about the Nationals/Expos.  While it's not a huge number, Steve Rogers' 158 franchise record still would require about 13 years of 12+ wins. Again - it may not seem like a lot (it's like 214th all time or something) but when you are talking about for one team that makes it tough.   A quick count of the most wins by a pitcher for a single team in the NL puts Rogers total at #37 tied with Ol' Burleigh Grimes.  IF we cut it to NL post-war he'd be up to #19.  

Anyway, I'm getting past my point, which is it's hard to win that many games for one team.  

So assuming Ladson mean the 2005+ Nationals, what does Lannan need to be the All-Time leader in wins?

Right now John Lannan has 11 wins for the Nationals - that puts him at tied for 8th all time in the Nats short history.  Who's he tied with?   John Patterson, Ramon "One Season" Oritz, Joel Hanrahan, and Luis Ayala.

It'll take a mere single victory for Lannan to hit the next spot in the Nats leaderboard - tying 3 famous Washington hurlers for 5th with 12 wins.  Esteban "Also One Season" Loaiza, Chad Cordero, and Saul Rivera.   (Yes there are a lot of relievers on this list so far, Yes it is sad).

Right now, one more vitory would catapult Lannan into a 4th place tie but expect this battle to possibly go on all season, because the current lonesome #4 all time is Tim Redding, with 13 wins.   I hope he resigns so we can watch these guys battle back and forth up the list all season long!  What thrills!

Now we are down to the top 3.   While #1 is obvious, prepare to be a bit saddened by #2 and #3.   

Alone in 3rd place with 16 vicotries as a National to his name is...Tony Armas?  Yep that's right - despite a Nationals ERA of 5.00 (and that boy earned that ERA) he still managed to put together a 7 and a 9 win season.  Let that be a lesson to you - being healthy is important.

In second place with 18 all time Nats win is...Jon Rauch!  Yep the Nats 2nd all-time wins leader is a reliever, who's lifetime total of wins over 4 years matches a very good single season by a starting pitcher.  Hooray for the Nats.

And #1 is, you guessed it, Livan!  24 wins in two years. Come back! We don't mind that you suck!

So John Lannan needs 14 wins (assuming Redding isn't around picking up 11+ wins) to be the "Washington Nationals" all-time wins leader. That could happen next year but more likely two blah seasons on a mediocre squad will give him the numbers he needs.  Of course a young gun can come in and pass him, but chances are he'll hold the title for at least a short period of time.

Other things not to be surprised by - Manny Acta being the Nationals all-time leader in wins. Ryan Zimmerman being the Nats all-time leader in HRs (he took the lead this year - take that "True Nat" Soriano!), and Ted Lerner in all-time money spent by a Nationals owner on his team without thinking about the business reasoning for it, he's up to $17.45!