I feel pretty good about saying this three weeks in - the Nats are not the worst team in baseball. Their offense is bad, but the Marlins, Royals and Tigers all have clearly more problems at the plate. Their pitching is bordering on bad, but a good chunk of teams have more problems on the mound (doctors advise you don't look directly at the Athletics staff). They are clearly better than the Tigers and A's and likely better than the Royals. They might be better than the Rockies (who knows with Mile High always playing a part) and maybe, just maybe better than Miami? I keep telling those guys they need a real bat and they keep saying "Nope we're not going to pay for that"
I think I've said this before but the Nats finally are young (youngest offense in the league at the plate at 26.9) but they are pretty much league average on the mound. That might account for the pitching being blah while the hitting is blecch. Very technical inside baseball talk here.
Still last in homers, starting to drift back down the walk list as expected, but also as expected dead last in Ks (for hitters)* Lots of contact. Over 73% of the Nats PAs end up with a ball in play, first in the league just over the scrappy D-backs and well over 3rd place.
This may not last (well I'm pretty sure better than the As will hold) but you should be happy with the small step of not being the worst for now.
We haven't looked at the schedule much - why would we when there really isn't a goal for any win target - but the messed up, less rival games future is now and the Nats will play one more week before getting back to the NL East in the form of the Mets. The Nats opened up with two good teams (Braves, Rays) and didn't win a game. They won a series against the Rockies who are bad, but lost series to the middling Angels and underwhelming Guardians. I'm curious what we will see in the next 8 games because Baltimore, Minnesota and the Mets are all good.
Tomorrow we'll get into individual stats except not Stone Garrett. The guy barely got here.
*Yes almost dead last for pitchers too - 2 ahead of Detroit but also 13 innings more pitched than Detroit so...
3 comments:
Hey, they took a game from the Braves! Did they have two hits in the last seven innings? Sure! But a wins a win! That being said, agree with the analysis, this team feels like 26th best in the league right now, and every game being competitive has continued to keep me tuning in night after night.
agreed. i was ready for this season to be miserable, but at least to this point, most games have been interesting. 55/45 matchups instead of 65/35. which i'll take in a rebuild. now can the weather please warm up so we can start seeing some balls leave the yard?
Scrappy D-backs?
Would that make Washington the Feisty Nats? Pesky Nats? Fightin' Nats?
My deepest suspicion is that by season's end they'll be the NL's Door Nats.
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