Yes, I’m a Washington National fan.  Hey, I live here.  I grew up in the St. Louis area, so the Cardinals are numero uno, but when the Nats are not playing the Cards, I’m a big time Nats fan.

I thought about entitling this article, “Nats Hit Like Gnats.”  But gnats can be pesky so I threw out that line.  There may be a team in the league that hits worse than the Nats, but I’m too lazy to look it up.  OK.  OK.  I looked it up and the Nats are the second worst.  As a Team they are hitting .225 and the lowly San Diego Padres are hitting .217.

I wonder if San Diego has three starters batting below the Mendoza line?  In last night’s line up, we started Adam La Roche (.181) at first base, Jerry Hairston (.190) in centerfield and Brian Bixler (.100) at third base.  Egads.  Hairston was playing for Rick Ankiel (.221).   Ankiel is a former Cardinal and a great centerfielder.  I said that last night each time the Phillies hit the ball over Hairston’s head.

In the outfield with Hairston were Jayson Werth (.226) and Mike Morse (.234).  Morse strikes out 31% of the time.  Sometimes he swings, sometimes he watches the last strike.  Well, at 31%, he is well above the Adam Dunn line.  Dunn struck out 199 times last season.  I wonder if he was going for 200 and the ball got in the way of his bat.  Dunn’s on a 40% pace this year, so if he stays healthy, he should rocket past 200.

Who have I left out of the starting line up?  Danny Espinosa (.219) at second base, Ian Desmond (.235) at shortstop and Pudge Rodriguez (.234) behind the plate.  Opposing pitchers must love to see the Nats come to town.

The question I had is do the Nats have a batting coach?  And, shouldn’t somebody put him on a suicide watch?  I looked him up and his name is Rick Eckstein.  He never played big league ball, but his brother, David, did.  So much for nepotism.

The announcers for the Nats never say anything bad about the team.  Last year the color commentator, Ron Dibble, complained about some of the players and their bonehead moves and Dibble was fired.  So now, when Morse takes a third strike, the announcer will say, “I think he had something in his eye.”

Here is where the egnima comes in.  The Nats have won about half of their games!  I can’t explain it.  Timely hitting?  Good base running?  Great pitching?  Smart defensive play?  Getting rid of Nyger Morgan?  Just lucky?  Take your pick.  But, somehow they have scratched out a number of wins.

Do the Nats have any good hitters?  Yes,  Ryan Zimmerman was hitting .357 before he tore an abdominal muscle sliding into a base and requiring surgery.  Don’t get me started on head-first slides.  If God had wanted us to slide head first, he would have put spikes on our caps.

Then there is a super young catcher named Wilson Ramos (.351).  He divides up the catching duties with Pudge.  I don’t blame Manager Jim Riggleman for playing both of them.  Pudge is a future Hall of Famer and great for the morale of the team.  It is just that Ramos is out hitting Pudge by 120 points and he is a hell of a player.

You want to know the up tick?  Almost all our players have higher career batting averages than what they are hitting this year.  Things have got to get better.  LaRoche (.181) and Werth (.226) both have lifetime batting averages of .270.  Maybe, just maybe, we are a warm weather team.  I got that gem from our announcers.

Written by PJ Rice at www.ricequips.com