David Huzzard: The importance of banking wins

The Nationals are 6-1. Five of those wins have come against a stripped down and possibly tanking version of the Braves. It can be pointed out that the Braves are projected to lose 100 games and that their lineup is Freddie Freeman surrounded by a bunch of minor league hopefuls and aging or injured castoffs, not too unlike Ryan Zimmerman and the 2007-2010 Nationals. The Braves are bad and they're bad on purpose, but the Nationals have still won those games and as long as every win counts the same in the standings, those wins are important.

A fast start for a Nationals team that was projected by many to be fighting for a wild card spot is reminiscent of 2012 and gets people talking. There are a lot of similarities between that team and this one. The 2012 Nationals entered the season with a roster full of questions and the majority of them were answered in a positive form. Bryce Harper was a force when he arrived on the scene, Stephen Strasburg was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball for the first half of the season, Gio Gonzalez made the transition for O.co to Nationals Park better than most expected, Ian Desmond had a breakout season and Michael Morse showed what he could do when healthy.

Helmed by an older manager returning to the game, entering the season with a roster full of questions and beating up on bas teams to start the season are some of the similarities between 2012 and 2016. The Nationals are a few games away from matching 2012's 12-4 start and that team was tested early by a Reds team that would go on to win 97 games. The 2016 Nationals, after finishing their series with the Braves, play the Phillies, Marlins, Twins, and Phillies. Not much of a test in that bunch, but after that the Nationals go on a 10- game, three city meat grinder of a road trip against the Cardinals, Royals and Cubs before coming home to Nationals Park to take on Jordan Zimmermann and the Tigers. If you're looking to see if the Nationals can hang with the big boys, then circle the end of April/beginning of May on your calendar.

Mentioning all this about the Nationals needing to be tested and comparing this start to 2012 loses the important fact that the Nationals get to keep these wins. The Nationals on April 14, 2016 are 6-1. For the entirety of the rest of recorded existence, the Nationals will be 6-1 on April 14, 2016. There is nothing anyone can do about it. It doesn't matter that five of their first six wins came against a Braves squad that is built to lose until the prospects they got from the Shelby Miller trade make it to the majors and they move into a new ballpark. That doesn't matter one bit. What matters is the Nationals get to bank these wins and hopefully continue to do so against the Phillies, Marlins and Twins. This is how pennants are won and winning teams are made. Beat the teams you're better than and fight as hard as you can against the other contenders.

Think about it this way: If the Nationals can win two games in each of their next four series, that puts them at 14-7 or 15-6 heading into the brutal end of April/beginning of May. Weather that storm and the Nationals could be sitting seven to 10 games over .500 at the quarter point of the season. That was the key in 2012. Get to 10 games over .500 as soon as possible and never look back. It can be debated all day and night if this Nationals team deserves to be 6-1, but what they deserve has nothing to do with it. The Nationals are 6-1 and need to keep on beating up on the bad teams and bank as many wins as possible. There are rough seas ahead, and the best way to survive is to have provisions below deck.

David Huzzard blogs about the Nationals at Citizens of Natstown. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHuzzard. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our regular roster of writers.