At 4-10, the Nationals currently possess the worst record in the National League, and are tied with the Tigers for the worst record in baseball. The season is still young, but some disconcerting trends have already developed. Ryan Zimmerman is currently batting .211, and Austin Kearns is batting .217. Not exactly the numbers you want from your three and five hitters. Tim Redding, pitcher, is hitting a surprising .200. Unfortunately, that ties him with Paul Lo Duca, Felipe Lopez, and Ronnie Belliard. It is too early to put much faith in these numbers, but the Nationals are last in the National League in team batting average, and 13th in runs scored. The changes last off season were suppose to bring offense, and that has not happened yet.
Where is Everybody?
The biggest concern for this team has to be the attendance so far this season. The Nats have averaged 28,214 tickets sold after 7 home games. That puts them 20th out of 30 teams in the league. Mark Zuckerman at the Washington Times doesn’t think this is much of a problem, while Barry Svrluga is more concerned. This is a critical issue. The team needs the fans and revenue to be competitive. More importantly, the District invested a lot of money in this venture and needs people to show up to justify that money. The most visible culprits seem to be the expensive seats behind home plate. Either too few people are willing to pay up to sit back there, or the Presidents Club bar is too nice to leave. The result is that the TV viewer gets a nice view of a bunch of empty seats.
Briefly Noted… Shawn hill may be returning to the team this Saturday… Two guys crashed the opening of Nationals Park, and had a better time then anyone else… Chris at Capitol Punishment stays optimistic… Rob ($1.5 million guaranteed) Mackowiak is currently batting .000 on the year with an OBP of .091. Could he be this year’s Ryan Langerhans?
Meaningless Statistic of the Week: The Nationals are tied with Cincinnati and Philadelphia for most total bases in the National League by the #8 batter!
Photo by Flickr user chronic-shock.
