Weather permitting, today marks the start of the 2011 Washington Nationals baseball season. After finishing with a 69-93 record last year — which actually represented ten-game improvement over 2009 — the club showed signs in the offseason of wanting to spend money and make honest-to-goodness roster improvements. The Nats landed a top-tier free agent in Jayson Werth, brought in Adam LaRoche to fill the gap left at first base by Adam Dunn’s departure, and solidified the bullpen with the veteran arms of Todd Coffey and Chad Gaudin. The new faces, combined with some youngsters entering their first full season of major league duty like Michael Morse and Jordan Zimmermann, and it appears as if the Lerners, general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Jim Riggleman have pieced together a team with a new attitude.

It’s just a shame that I don’t think they’ll be very good.