Nats Are Rollin, But Don't Get Too Excited

DC Sports Nexus ---- Thursday, April 19, 2012

Life is great right now for Nats fans.  The team is 10-3 and on top of the division.  The starters are throwing 95 mile per hour fast balls and striking out everyone in their path.  The bullpen is pitching effective.  The offense is struggling but not giving up, and coming back late in games for wins.  Life is great.

But let's take a look at those 10 wins...

Three of their series victories came over the Reds, Astros, and Cubs.  Those three teams are non-playoff teams (2011) and are currently trailing in the division to the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Their other opponent was the Mets, who are...well they are the Mets.

The Nationals pitching staff has the best ERA (1.91), the most strikeouts (117), the lowest batting average against (.191), and the least earned runs (24).  That is the entire major leagues.  Yet the starters only factored in 7 of those games despite the great performances (6 wins, 1 loss).

BUT...The offense is ranked low in runs (17th), home runs (26th), RBIs (19th), Average (16th), and Slugging (25th).  The run support isn't there every night.  Seven of their 13 games have been one run affairs.  The Nats are 5-2 in those games.

It will be interesting to see how the Nats fare against the better teams in the league.  A win against Santana already, but they didn't face any other "studs".  Hopefully the offense starts to kick in (Morse will help when he returns...Bryce Harper?)

So those are the reasons I'm curbing my excitement from 99 out of 100 to like 93 out of 100.  LOL...

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