30 Teams in 30 Days 2018 04 Washington Nationals

The Nationals are to the NL East what the Astros are to the AL West: basically a shoo-in to run away with the division. With the Braves and Phillies not quite done with their rebuilds, the Marlins in the midst of yet another fan-enraging teardown, and the Mets sure to find some way to screw things up despite their talent level, Washington shouldn't have too much in the way of serious competition this year. Let's see how their team is likely to stack up:

All-Acquired Factor

Another way the Nats are similar to the Stros is that both of their starting lineups are comprised of returning players from last year. Washington takes it a step further, with the same being true for every pitcher on their Opening Day roster. The only offseason additions to their active roster were bench pieces signed to free agent deals: first baseman / emergency outfielder Matt Adams (547), after he was non-tendered by the Braves, and backup catcher Miguel Montero, who earned a spot as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training.

Speaking of NRI's, projected Fifth Starter Jeremy Hellickson (542, and trending down) will start the season in the minors due to his long stay on the Free Agent market. Until he's ready, pre-arbitration eligible A.J. Cole (595 and also trending down) will hold down a rotation spot, getting his first start yesterday. Unranked veteran middle reliever Joaquin Benoit was also brought in via free agency, but he'll start the season on the disabled list with an always ominous forearm strain.

Fantasy Astrology Relevance

The Libra "Scales" wouldn't be able to maintain their run of excellence without players on the Nationals. Bryce Harper is a perennial All-Star, Ryan Zimmerman helped shore up a first base position that has traditionally been weak for them, Sean Doolittle's emergence as a closer has given him relevance behind all-world reliever Kenley Jansen, and Tanner Roark is neck and neck with J.A. Happ (ranked 155, just three spots ahead of Roark) for the fifth starter spot. Another team that has a couple of important pieces on the Washington roster are the Cancer "Decapods" (a name that has fewer negative connotations than "Crabs"... Cancer is disease reference enough, am I right?). Speedster Trea Turner is their starting shortstop (as long as Manny Machado maintains his third base eligibility) and WAS SP2 Stephen Strasburg is the June/July sign's ace pitcher. The guy in front of Stras is reigning NL Cy Young winner Max Scherzer, who is one of the two most important players on the Leo "Lions" roster - you'll have to wait until later to find out the other.

Rankings Changes

The only notable change in rankings of players listed on SI's preview is second baseman Daniel Murphy, who likely won't return until mid-April after undergoing knee surgery. Howie Kendrick has seen most of the action at the keystone in his place, although he did not see a meaningful improvement on his ranking of 505. Elsewhere on the roster, Miguel Montero's rank improved to 606 after he won the camp battle for backup catcher against Pedro Severino, whose ranking dropped accordingly to 694.

Song

Washington, D.C. - The Magnetic Fields

I admit, this was one of the teams where I had to just type in the name of their home city + "lyrics" into Google in order to find a relevant song... but this could've gone way worse. I've never listened to The Magnetic Fields, but I'm definitely the kind of person who could get behind a three-part concept album such as "69 Love Songs," on which the above song appears.

Colossus

The relationship between the Lerner family, owners of the Nationals, and superagent Scott Boras is well-documented, with the two sides often coming together on deals, sometimes where no deal had any rational business coming together. In order to defeat Pelagia, Colossus #12, you need to climb up its back and direct it to certain locations around its home lake by using your sword to smack these things that look like teeth sticking out of the top of its head. I'm not suggesting that Boras uses such a brute-force strategy to influence Washington's owners, but you can see the similarities.