First Base-  When watching the Nats play this year do you get the feeling that Tyler Clippard and Sean Burnett appear in virtually every game?  While the numbers don’t indicate that the two relievers are on the mound every day, they certainly have taken their places among the most used relief pitchers in Nats history.  The list of most appearances by Nats’ pitchers in a single season is as follows:

Jon Rauch   2007      88 games

Rauch         2006      85 games

Saul Rivera   2007      85 games

Gary Majewski  2005  79 games

Chad Cordero  2007     76 games

Rivera             2008      76 games

Cordero           2005      74 games

Joel Hanrahan   2008     69 games

Clippard            2010     69 games

Luis Ayala        2005      68 games

Cordero           2006       68 games          

After his appearance in tonight’s 3-1 loss to Florida, Burnett has 63 appearances on the year.  With 21 games to go on the season, the lefty seems destined to reach the mid-70’s in appearances.  Clippard could end up in the low 80’s, assuming his arm doesn’t fall off from overuse.

Second base-  Production from the leadoff spot has been lacking for the Nats in 2010, as primary leadoff hitter Nyger Morgan hasn’t been able to replicate the success he had as a leadoff hitter for Washington in 2009.  Using the sOPS measurement that quantifies a hitters production by measuring his production against that of other players in his league by using a value of 100 as the league average, Morgan is significantly below average in 2010 with a 77 sOPS.  He graded out at 120 in 47 games as a Nats’ leadoff man in 2009.  The best sOPS by a Nats’ leadoff man came in 2006 when Alfonso Soriano posted a 148 score.  Morgan’s 77 this year is low, but it is not the worst performance by a Washington leadoff man in a single season.  In 2008 in 42 games in the top spot, Felipe Lopez had a sOPS of 70.  In the previous season in 103 games, Lopez’s s OPS was 72.

Third base-  The Nats hope to bounce back to even the series with Florida on Saturday, but they’ll be going up against a pitcher who has the best single game performance by any Marlins pitcher this year.  Saturday’s starter Anibal Sanchez graded out at a 92 game score on July 29th in a one-hit win at San Francisco, making him the only Marlins’ hurler to go over 90 in a pitching game score this season.  In 130 at bats by current Nationals’ players, Sanchez has given up only one homer.  Last September 12th in Miami, Justin Maxwell hit a solo home run off of the Marlins’ righty.