Early this season, Livan Hernandez was a revelation. Brought in during spring training as an emergency option for the rotation, he was the staff leader, and through mid-June was pitching to a 2.28 ERA.
In his last six starts though, covering 38 2/3 innings, Livo is 1-2 with a 5.59 ERA and a .311/.352/.391 slash line.
Why do I bring this up?
Because those numbers fairly well mirror his season totals the last three seasons. And for the simple fact that barring injury, Hernandez will spend the rest of the season in the Major League rotation.
Stephen Strasburg will most likely be shut down before Labor Day at this point. Ross Detwiler and Jordan Zimmermann will ascend to the bigs at some point, but their performances will be monitored very closely as they return from injury.
Who knows if the Nats will ever see Chein-Ming Wang, Jason Marquis or Scott Olson on the hill this season?
John Lannan remains in exile.
The rest of the current rotation is performing at less-than-optimal levels such that the Nats haven't announced their rotation plans for this weekend's coming games past Strasburg starting Friday and Hernandez on Saturday.
For all the Nats talk about their inventory of pitchers, and how the cavalry is coming, one thing remains clear: The Nats have to rely on Livan Hernandez the rest of the way out in the rotation -- for better or worse.
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