Issues with Washington Nationals’ offence remain as they dominate National League - Part 1
Season is unfolding as harbinger of a new era in the National League. Led by Davey Johnson, the Washington Nationals are steady and unchallenged in their quest. Notwithstanding lop-sided combination of expertise, hegemony being maintained by them is unprecedented.
Losing top position and reclaiming it later was more an exhibition of pleasing a kid with candy and snatching it right away than an actual decline in their dominance.
For they knew, it was only a matter of time before Stephen Strasburg would step on the mound and become a bedrock of their winning streaks. Stealing strike-outs and jinxing the line-ups has been as easy as a walk in the park.
Least concerned about who they are facing, skills in their artillery supply is a bulk the complacency. Request batters to give just enough and leave the rest on Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez or any pitcher you pick from their roster.
See Strasburg rolling his sleeves up. As if a wrestler ready to trample a sissy aggressor with apparent gigantism, he knocks one batter down after another.
No wonder, even with lowest score made in the Division, results have not betrayed the club. This however gives birth to a question as to how long the Nationals can keep their dominance afloat with an offence, which lacks power.
Every time Ian Desmond leads off, while hits come off and so do runs, what keeps dragging them down is drought of home-runs. Retorting to pitchers with flurry of homers and reaching unassailability has been missing. Never has the task been made easier for
the pitchers, more often than not opponents enjoy luxury of bouncing back in the game anytime.
As much power as their pitchers have in the muscles, downright opposite to it stands for their batters. With net effect still in favour of the Nationals, if one keeps season performance as standard, sudden imbalance at grave distress of the results can never
be ruled out.
Currently, only one hitter in starting line-up namely, Adam LaRoche, has slugging percentage above .500, while most are languishing below .400. This being so, comparison even with a mediocre team in the season can reveal an extent to which their offence
lags behind.
Let alone home-runs, simple production techniques are lost on the players. Talent of swinging and making connection is there, yet areas which are as important as reading throws on plate, it appears, were overlooked during training.
Where other teams traverse more bases with a similar hit, the Nationals will contend with only one. Level of impact of such little ignorance on the teams’ performance can be evaluated from the fact that a player who acted as oxygen of the Nationals’ offence
in the season has committed this negligence the highest number of times.
Yes, Desmond has a .301 on-base-percentage, inviting exasperation when compared to his batting average of .275. Imagine the small difference and how every hit he struck bore little results.
Appearance of Bryce Harper on the horizon has acted only to make one wonder about how deep-down the offence could sink further, had he not made the debut.
His speed is great and so is the slugging percentage, rate of the at-bats wasted and unduly swung at is however higher. This can trigger his shuffle-up in the line-up and therefore potentially can make the management thrust him into a position, he may not
be the right fit for.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Continued in part 2
Tags: