{"id":179,"date":"2010-08-30T09:27:36","date_gmt":"2010-08-30T13:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=179"},"modified":"2013-04-16T14:31:02","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T18:31:02","slug":"livan-re-signed-great-move-to-shore-up-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=179","title":{"rendered":"Livan re-signed; great move to shore up 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, the Nationals took the first post-Strasburg<\/strong> step towards shoring up the 2011 rotation by extending<\/a> FA-to-be Livan Hernandez<\/strong> through 2011.\u00a0 No published financial figures but various tweets and rumors<\/a> put it at $1M base plus a ton of incentives.\u00a0 If this is indeed the case then his deal is an absolute steal considering his performances this year.\u00a0 He’s pitching at a 2.7 WAR<\/a>, which is valued at $10.8M per season per fangraphs.<\/p>\n

(Small tangent; click on the fangraphs.com link to see who our 3rd most valuable starter by WAR is; yes indeed its Craig Stammen<\/strong>, demoted to the bullpen despite having the 3rd best advanced stats of any of our starters.\u00a0 Unfair to the poor guy.\u00a0 Perhaps he’ll get his chance again in 2011).<\/p>\n

Livan has been an integral reason why the Nats are not clamoring towards another 59-loss season, having come out of nowhere (i.e., a minor league contract in spring training) to lead the staff.\u00a0 He’s given us 18 quality starts in 27 outings, pitched into the 7th inning 12 times, and is averaging6.5 innings a start.\u00a0 the team is 14-13 in his starts (42-62 in everyone else’s starts).<\/p>\n

Here’s how 2011 is now shaping up, with no FA pickups (and not considering any of our AA prospects)<\/p>\n