The Washington Nationals have walked 44 batters through eight games, Jim Riggleman has claimed this is “not acceptable.” Almost the entire Nationals staff has been prone to free passes. Tyler Walker hasn’t walked anyone, Jesse English has walked one in five innings and Craig Stammen has one walk in 6 1/3 innings. Every other pitcher is culpable. There seems to be a cumulative effect among the Nationals staff, that one pitcher starts a mess and it only snowballs from there, inning to inning and day to day.

Anyway, here goes. Here’s a comparison between the Nationals’ pitching through eight games, last year and this year:

2009: 56 runs, 82 hits, 30 walks .305 average against, 6.95 ERA

2010: 58 runs, 85 hits, 44 walks, .305 average against, 7.30 ERA