Monday Quickie - the 70 win talent can't be denied

 The Nats have been playing better baseball / facing worse teams in the more recent weeks and have gone 7-5 over a stretch to pull themselves up to 21-35. 

We've passed the 1/3 marker for the season (game 54) during this time and we're going to poke around again because why not? 

Keibert Ruiz - Doing... ok.  He'll get hot for stretches and get us excited and then cool down and we'll think about something else. Because he has not developed power (1 homer this year back on May 5th) and his lack of walks is a tradeoff for his lack of strikeouts it's all about if those batted balls avoid gloves. Work in progress

Josh Bell - A torrid April followed by a pretty bad May, hot again in June.  All in all a good season but the big question is whether he'll be hot going into the trade deadline. Haven't heard any talk the new owners want Bell, even if I think they should keep him.

Cesar Hernandez - doing Cesar Hernandez things in general. Keep it up. Get traded for a Low A... something. 

Alcides Escobar - got hurt and got tossed out finally. Was terrible across the board outside of a couple really good relay throws. 

Luis Garcia - up after passing whatever team control limit deadline they needed him to pass. Hitting so far in the week he's been here. 

Maikel Franco - see Cesar Hernandez

Yadi Hernandez - been on an extended two week slump but was doing well enough before to weather that. Don't make it a habit though because his fielding won't keep him in 

Victor Robles - Solid D but can't seem to get it back on track striking out a ton still. 

Juan Soto - Soto is one of those guys that can make an All-Star season feel like a disappointment.  His average is WAY low (under .230). Part of that is bad luck (that BABIP of .225 is too low) part of it is bad hitting (fewer hard hit ball more soft ones). Maybe trying too hard (FB rate up, LD rate down)? I would think he's expanding his zone to try to hit more walk less but the numbers don't back that up at least in comparison to his entire career. It's more contact when he is swinging outside the zone. I don't know what you do other than tell him to walk even more?

Nelson Cruz - a much better May and a great start to June. Thank God. But he needs to start putting more balls over the fence if the Nats are going to get anything interesting for him in July. 

Lane Thomas - a 3 homer day took him from bad to passable. I'm guessing that's a fluke

Riley Adams - a perfectly fine back-up C, but Tres Barrera could be that too. But there's nowhere to play him. 

Dee Strange-Gordon - paternity leave right? A guy on the bench but if he's likable there no harm done here

Lucius Fox - here for DSG. Not a major league player

Patrick Corbin - slowly getting into form from "unusable" to "ok this guy can eat innings" which is the small victory you have to take right now

Josiah Gray - hit hardest by the re-entry of the lively ball the guy has been arguably better than we've thought, harder to hit and with slightly more Ks. But he has to fix something - either walk a bunch fewer guys or give up fewer homers.

Joan Adon - doesn't look ready but they are going to keep running him out there. 

Erick Fedde - see Hernandez and Franco but remove the "get traded for something" part

Aaron Sanchez - so bad that he's gone even from this group

Tanner Rainey - had a lucky start with ERA that he hasn't kept up.  He'll have to pitch better soon or it'll start to show. Numbers in general aren't bad though and he's vaguely where he should be

Paolo Espino - don't walk anyone, don't give up homers and it's ok if you can't strike anyone out. At least for a inning or two. 

Victor Arano - a LOT of work early. Pitching like he's tired

Steve Cishek - Actually had a good May but you wouldn't know it because April was so bad.  He should be fine. Should.

Kyle Finnegan - A guy in the pen, the type you need to fill it out. His arm has gotten livelier which makes him ok

Erasmo Ramirez - recent pounding not withstanding a guy that can take on multiple innings and do ok. This team needs that.

Carl Edwards Jr - My first thought was he looks to be getting by on luck but a deeper dive shows he IS an extreme GB pitcher so far this year and he is getting very little hard contact. So... hmmm