Capitol Punishment has a great hitter-by-hitter analysis showing just how badly our guys did this year.
That got us to thinking about the whole RFK thing. We've all heard that the Nationals are last in the National League in OPS, SLG, batting average, RBIs, total bases, home runs, and hits. That's pretty pathetic. At RFK the Nationals have a .237 BA, .315 OBP, .362 SLG, and .677 OPS. What's more, the Nats as a team have hit only 44 home runs in RFK, fewer than Andrew Jones, Derrek Lee, Alex Rodriguez, and David Ortiz have hit by themselves.
But the story is different when the Nationals play on the road. If we count only road stats, the Nationals generally are somewhere in the 7 to 9 range in the National League in hitting, depending on the category. The Nationals' road line isn't great, but much better than it is at home: .266/.329/.407/.736.
We suspected that the Nationals have let RFK get into their heads, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Other teams playing in RFK have an OPS that's very similar to the Nationals' home OPS. Whereas the Nationals' home OPS is .677, other teams playing in RFK have an OPS of .681.
This all leads to the conclusion (at least in our feeble minds) that the Nationals need a lot of help offensively, but that RFK is about as bad for hitters as we all thought it was. Maybe the team will move in the fences next year...
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3 comments:
I believe with an average ballpark we'd be right around the middle of the NL in offense (probably just under 9th or 10th) and that the runs scored this year are an aberration even with our home ballpark. However 9th or 10th isn't good enough to get you to the playoffs most year, unless your pitching is awesome and ours will suffer if moved to an average park. Probably shift back down close to average itself.
We still need that big bat.
I agree in all respects.
We suspected that the Nationals have let RFK get into their heads, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Other teams playing in RFK have an OPS that's very similar to the Nationals' home OPS. Whereas the Nationals' home OPS is .677, other teams playing in RFK have an OPS of .681.
Perhaps RFK got into our pitchers' heads as well. More confidence, and such.
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