Today, for a moment, we're talkin' baseball.
Today Dave Cameron on ESPN Insider wrote "Can Nationals make Miracle Playoff Run?"
Well, of course.
But...
See, based on last year's success, everyone things this is a great team. Always on the verge of breaking out.
This blog is to tell you that they've got it wrong: they are a plus .500 team that got lucky last year.
First: their everyday lineup isn't that good. Jayson Werth is having a year werth his money -- .330 and leading the team in homers. But he's not the scary clean-up hitter a team as scary as the Nats are supposed to be is supposed to have: he's no Puig, no Kemp, no Votto, no Cabrera. You get the picture.
Harper hits .270. He hits a lot of homers, but he misses a lot of games.
Desmond is a good shortstop, but he's a .270 hitter, too.
Who in this lineup is Votto? Puig? McCutcheon (Werth is trying)?
Second: their pitching after the top 3 or 4 is lame. Zimmerman, Gonzalez, Strasburg are top rate. Haren has been up and down. The bullpen has been bad.
The Braves beat them like they are the red-headed stepchild.
I could go on and on. But you see my point: people talk up the Nats, but where's the substance? Who is it that's driving this bus? Harper? He's no Miggy. Nobody is.
So, maybe the Nats make a run. I root for them. But it'll be because they grind their way out of it, not because they are this great team that is just a bit off.
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