I hope they pitch him until his arm falls off.... and then his arm falls off.

http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120512&content_id=31077540&notebook_id=31076608&vkey=notebook_was&c_id=was

shutdown is shutdown though...if they are shuting him down at 160 and are true to their word of an inning limit, he wont be pitching in october.

...wait till October..if they are in playoffs, Id be surprised if he wasn't on the mound.

Well we will agree to disagree on that one.

Sounds like the "Joba Rules".

There is no secret to the 160 innings cap.

I play fantasy baseball and its talked about constantly.

It will be interesting to see how Washington operates.

I believe in the Verducci rules and they are usually correct.

Most likely scenerio: Phillies over Texas
2nd most likely: Texas over Washington
3rd most likely: Washington over Texas
4th most likely: Pittsburgh over Rays

Texas over Houston

i would say about 2 %

It's a long season but if they stay healthy I'd give them a good chance.

I believe that will be a very hard promise to keep by them, since the race should be tight and they have every chance on getting into the playoffs.

Who in the NL is better??? I don't think anyone is better. I think the Nats are the best team in the NL. The Dodgers-Nats series in LA in early May BTW was AWESOME. That would be a great NLCS match-up.

They should skip some of his starts as much as they can as long as they continue to build this division lead.

They have said that he will not skip starts, but it is certainly a possibility. I think that, rather than skipping his starts, they are more likely to have him treat each game as an extended bullpen session/simulated game and throw 3 innings or 50 pitches, whichever comes first, as long as they still have the comfortable lead down the stretch to keep him under 160 innings for the regular season.

that could put some stress on the bullpen...dont know if thats a good plan.

They will go to the world series & it will be a great opportunity for me to drive 30 minutes up to the stadium and watch some world series baseball ( while rooting for the AL team).

Who would have picked the Cardinals last year in June??

Once you're in anything can happen.....they have good enough pitching and have shown they can get hot and beat quality clubs.

If the playoffs started tomorrow......who is better than the Nationals?
The Dodgers?
The Giants??
Reds???

I wouldn't be shocked if they beat any team and made it to the WS.

that's an option also

granted, the nats would set up their pen differently, but doesnt that put a lot of stress on their pen to be forced to throw at least 6 innings every 5th day? i personally think thats a disater waiting to happen type thing. maybe a little strong on wording, but you know what i mean.