Issues with Washington Nationals’ offence remain as they dominate National League - Part 2
LaRoche is doing his best to keep the Nationals on the surface. To what extent he can support while others are falling down is not hard to determine. When Ryan Zimmerman fails and keeps the base-runners waiting and never sending them aboard, age to experience
becomes a burden. An attempt to send Zimmerman on the plate and expecting him to move base-runners around the park have back-fired. Not just the overall score has lowered, but hitters like LaRoche have fared less than their potential as a result.
Yet the Nationals cannot be blamed for everything. They have had their preparations. The manager Davey Johnson was smart enough to foresee things and make necessary adjustments.
Perfect backup for now injured catcher, Wilson Ramos was there. Aware of the time Michael Morse can take for recovery, Harper was given the tacit nod. Centre fielder, Roger Bernadina was tasked to keep his artillery fine-tuned and be ready for demonstration.
Interestingly enough, contingency plan Johnson nurtured had to be put to effect early in the season. With this, his far-sightedness remained unquestioned and matter entered into the realm of fortune. Thus, as Harper befitted manager’s anticipation and offset
the damage precisely, players who were sure to become linchpin of the offence declined.
Danny Espinosa all of a sudden forgot his composure, despite coming through from Spring Training fine. Number of RBIs the manager envisioned from him never materialised. Bases he was supposed to load at the start instead shaped into his failure at reaching
the ball on the plate.
Like a person who hankers after and struggles in tracing one’s queue in a corridor buzzing with un-pleasant noises, Espinosa was unable to shred the trash of possibilities from his mind. Every at-bat he faced went missing before he could get rid of his mental
concoctions and focus trajectory of the throws.
Off-course, the manager was aware of possibilities and must have accorded proper cushion, but witnessing chunk of the players slumping or getting injured all at once was hardly a part of his imagination.
He barely could think of Jayson Werth meeting an injury down the line. Fire power on the plate that Werth can cause was as handy an expectation as appearance of fire from the flame.
How the manager can believe drought of hits so common for the Nationals in the season during middle part of the innings, when just in Spring Training hitters were sending the ball outside the ballparks in almost every game. Pounding cars standing in the
parking lot and doing so consistently by Werth used to trigger gossip and in the process if the manager had grown over-ambitious, it was not unrealistic.
Against all odds, the Nationals are ahead of the teams in their Division. It gives one an impression that though the manager was unable to fathom every inch of reality ahead; indeed it was impossible, he duly reaped dividends of his hard work.
For if one turns to another reality and imagine if contingency plans he contrived was not there, even worse was to pan out and thus the Nationals as a club had to suffer.
Prospectively, the Nationals will be looking forward to Michael Morse and Jayson Werth making their way into the season at the earliest. Until this happens, the Nationals’ offence will keep showing frailties time-and-again. Thus, Johnson’s ability to manage
under all circumstances effectively is going to be tested for the days to come.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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