Post#4 » by Jollay » Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:31 pm
OVERVIEW
The Nats more or less accomplished their goal in 2010, winning 69 games, which in addition to being a super-sexy number represented a ten-game improvement from 2009. Still, no one was really satisfied by that, as the team probably should have won 70-75 with the talent level it had, and there are serious questions to whether the team can continue to improve on that mark in 2011.
Despite a respectable 41-40 mark at home and the debut of Stephen Strasburg, the team only finished 14th out of 16 NL teams in attendance. Considering that, Strasburg’s Tommy John surgery, and the possible departure of Adam Dunn, it is hard to see how the Nats make another significant jump forward in 2011. Especially in the ultra-competitive NL East.
STATISTICAL OVERVIEW
What you might expect from a 69-93 team—most everything below average. There were a couple of bright spots, however. One bright spot included the bullpen, which posted a very good 3.35 ERA for the year. Even after dealing Matt Capps the pen still ranked amongst the best in the league. Another bright spot was stolen bases, where the Nats racked up 110 to finish 3rd in the NL at an acceptable 73% success rate.
Everything else was below average to worst in MLB. The Nats batted .250, 11th in the NL, and bashed 149 homeruns, slightly below the league average of 150. The Nats OBP of .318 was 12th in the NL, and Nats’ bats struck out 1220 times, the fifth most in the NL.
The Nats’ starting pitching was a disaster even with a few beautiful months of Stephen Strasburg. Nats’ starters had a 4.61 ERA to pull their team ERA down to 4.13, 11th in the National League. In addition, the Nats’ staff (mostly starters) couldn’t strike out anyone, finishing 15th in the league in K’s.
As said ad nauseum, when you have a staff that pitches to contact, you need at least a decent defense behind it. After an emphasis on defense in Spring Training and a promising start, the team finished as the worst team in MLB by far in the field. The Nats were the only team to not field at a .980 clip in all of baseball, and their 143 errors were 19 more than the second-worst fielding team, Arizona.