John Lannan News

After a game at Nationals Park last season, Jason Marquis had a chance to talk with John Lannan, a second-year pitcher atop a rotation consisting of four rookies.

Were it not for the several feet of snow that has blanketed Washington D.C., you would be able to see Nationalsa TM fans jumping up and down with glee at the news that their team has just agreed to terms with free agent pitcher Jason Marquis.

Who do you think will be the Nationals' Opening Day shortstop? -- Patrick S., Chantilly, Va.

The baseball dominoes are beginning to fall, and it wona TMt be too long before the Washington Nationals know which free agent will bolster their starting rotation.

Last week at the Winter Meetings, it was revealed that the Nationals had interest in free-agent right-hander Jason Marquis.

Well, well, it seems like the Washington Nationals are finally thinking like a major league franchise.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The talent gap separating the Washington Nationals from prosperity -- that realm where September determines the playoff race, rather than the draft order -- can be measured with one word, the simplest and most significant in baseball: pitching.

The Nationals, right now, don't have enough of it. They know they need more of it. They'll likely spend much of their remaining offseason chasing it, and whatever they get still might not be enough.

Talent evaluators familiar with Washington's system agree that the Nationals won't contend for respectability, much less a playoff spot, without upgrading their pitching -- especially their starting staff. The Nationals last season relied on a group of starters that ranked 30th league-wide in wins, 30th in strikeouts, 27th in ERA, and first in growing pains. The seven rookies who started games for the 2009 Nationals accounted for 56.8 percent of the starting staff's innings pitched.

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo tells The Washington Post the club is pursuing free-agent right-hander Jon Garland.

A week after saying that he didn't see the Nationals going after free agent Jon Garland, general manager Mike Rizzo announced during his Monday session with the local media that the team is interested in the right-hander. MLB.com also learned from a baseball source that Washington has interest in free-agent catcher Brad Ausmus.

The Washington Nationals are teetering on a precipice so dangerous that their very existence hangs in the balance.

After watching his team drop 103 games this past season, it's pretty clear what general manager Mike Rizzo has to do to improve the Nationals: acquire quality pitching.

Steve McCatty will be in his first full season as Nationals pitching coach in 2010, and he made it clear recently that he wants to see his staff improve from last year.

With free agency starting at 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday, the Nationals are expected to be players.

The Nationals will soon announce that John McLaren will be Jim Riggleman's bench coach and they have retained Rick Eckstein, Pat Listach and Steve McCatty as the hitting coach, third-base coach and pitching coach, respectively, according to a baseball source.

The Nationals are one of several teams who have expressed interest in free agent right-hander John Lackey, according to a baseball source.

In this July 31, 2009, photo, Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman stands in the dugout during a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh.

In 2007, John Lannan came out of nowhere. An 11th-round afterthought in 2005, Lannan climbed the minor league ladder quickly, going a combined 12-3, 2.87 before finishing the season with the Nationals where the 22-year-old went 2-2, 4.15. Since then, Lannan has won 18 games and been the team's presumptive ace.

Dana Brown is leaving the Nationals as an amateur scouting director and will join the Blue Jays to become a special assistant to general manager Alexander Anthopoulos.

After a second consecutive 100-loss season that featured plenty of missteps, and not just in terms of Ws and Ls--remember the "Natinals" jersey fiasco? remember Jim Bowden?--the Washington Nationals are ready to put a timetable on a turnaround.

When the final game ended in the Washington Nationals' 2009 season, a fair portion of the team -- players and coaches alike -- transformed, almost immediately, from employees into job seekers. Veteran pitcher Livan Hernandez, luggage already packed, walked through the middle of the Turner Field visitors' clubhouse and raised his arms, as if making a public declaration.

'All people, I love you guys,' he said. 'I hope to see you next year.'

'If not,' he continued, after a pause, 'you know where to find me.'