To Zimmerman’s left, shortstop Cristian Guzman couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat, second baseman Felipe Lopez had a breakout year in 2005 but looked very average in 2006, and injured first baseman Nick Johnson won’t play until June.

Johnson is a good line-drive hitter and has a smooth almost Mattingly-esque style around the bag at first, but he needs to get on the field and stay on the field. In his absence Larry Broadway will probably get the bulk of the work at first base and to be perfectly honest I can’t say much about him since I’ve never even heard of him. Catcher Brian Schneider isn’t much of a hitter to speak of, but is known as a pretty good defensive backstop, which gets him a pass.

The outfield is filled with ‘potential’ guys that have yet to turn talent into production. Rightfielder Austin Kearns was acquired from Cincinnati last season after failing to establish himself despite countless chances. His 24 homers and 86 RBI last season, but his .264 average won’t make him a star; it will allow him to hang onto his starting spot in Washington though, since there really isn’t anyone better.

Centerfielder Ryan Church is another player the Nationals have had trade discussions about, but to this point they’ve refused to part with him. I’m not quite sure why. How a player with such unimpressive numbers (20 HR, 83 RBI in 527 career at-bats) becomes untouchable baffles me.

Leftfielder Alex Escobar was once the Mets top prospect, perhaps the top outfield prospect in all of baseball. Escobar did show some flashes last season, batting .356 in 33 games last year, but unless he pulls a Gary Matthews, don’t expect Escobar to suddenly put it all together at age 28.

Unfortunately for Washington fans, this season is going to be like the third Matrix film. The first one (the Nats 2005 season) came out of nowhere and was great, leading fans to believe that the next two would also be excellent. The franchise then took a dive with the Matrix Reloaded (2006 Nats), and the Matrix Revolutions (2007 Nats) which was the worst of all, and represented a truly catastrophic fall from grace.

New manager Manny Acta may be the right guy to nurse a young team into contention, but if that’s going to happen in Washington the team better start developing some young talent. The team that they will put on the field in ’07 isn’t going anywhere but the NL East basement for the second year running.

2006: 71-91 (5th in NL East)