Washingtonians are used to “lies, damned lies and statistics” as Mark Twain once pondered. Wall Street fat cats, Detroit automakers and K Street lobbyists waltz through Capitol Hill selling fiction complete with pie charts.
But the biggest scam lies in the shadow of the Capitol Dome. Amid a stalled billion-dollar waterfront revitalization, the Washington Nationals are drowning in poor play. The season passes the quarter mark on Friday with the Nats firmly the worst team in baseball. They need at least a week-long winning streak just to escape last.
Maybe facing the American League will help, as Washington meets the Baltimore Orioles for three games. The Nats sure can’t compete in the National League.
After sporting baseball’s worst mark last year, the return of healthy players and signing of slugger Adam Dunn was supposed to provide the first whiff of .500 ball since the inaugural 2005 season. Instead, the team has already lost 9 of 10 games twice.
Washington is last in pitching, allowing nearly six runs per game. The bullpen is so bad relievers have turned into matadors as they wave their gloves at charging liners. Not that the defense has helped any. The Nationals are last in fielding, too.
At least they can hit. Washington’s fifth overall in average, seventh in homers and 10th in runs. Those 8-6 losses are at least somewhat entertaining.
Attendance also stinks. Nats president Stan Kasten has stopped discussing the figures because not even inviting Philadelphia fans is helping. Kasten once said the team gets the attendance it deserves, and he was right. If nobody’s home in the clubhouse, then nobody should be in the stands. Not when tickets and food are a dollar short of black market wartime prices.
There’s no more believing the Nats are an awful team that can be fixed by drafting pitcher Stephen Strasburg in June. That’s just the start, not the solution. Maybe if Strasburg was a triplet the mound woes would be solved.
No more listening to Kasten preach patience like a Congressional leader. This five-year plan has the commune starving come harvest. The Nats should peddle an outfielder or two for pitching, especially a reliever, by the July trade deadline. The Nats obviously don’t have even one right now despite shifting arms like Titanic deck chairs.
Enough promises of better days. It’s time to start producing.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at TheRickSniderReport.com or
e-mail [email protected].
