The Sad Facts

Here are the Nationals' sorry OPS stats for July:

Guillen --- .849
Church ---- .802
Schneider - .792
Baerga ---- .705
Castilla -- .665
Wilkerson - .657
Vidro ----- .614
Carroll --- .586
Byrd ------ .400
Bennett --- .358
Guzman ---- .223
Spivey ---- .211

The team's OPS for July is .630. These numbers are, to use a word we've used a lot lately, pathetic. Guillen, Church, and Schneider are the only players with acceptable numbers for the month.

Given these stats, it's not hard to see why Frank Robinson yesterday said: "It doesn't matter who we're playing, the way we're going. ... If we go into Atlanta and hit the way we've been going, we don't have a chance." So true. To make matters worse, it looks like Guillen won't be available in Atlanta because of a sore wrist.

Oh, by the way, the Braves' OPS for July is .739, more than 100 points more than the Nationals'. That doesn't bode well for the Nats.