In 2011, the Washington Nationals led all of Major League Baseball in striking out — whiffing 1,323 times in 161 games for an average of 8.2 times per contest. One of the goals this year was to put a major dent in that total through lots of hard work, video analysis and extra batting practice.
So far, it doesn’t seem to be working that well.
True, the current per game average is a shade under eight strikeouts, but that’s hardly a major dent. It’s barely a scratch. Thanks to some other-worldly starting pitching, however, the Nats have remained a major factor in the NL East.
Three years ago, I sat in the Nats’ dugout before a game with Adam Dunn — the “Grand High Exalted Ruler of Whiffdom.” In Dunn’s world, a strikeout was like any other out and if your season strikeout totals were offset by power production and runs batted in, the Ks were no big deal. It’s clear he’s not alone in that mindset.
If you listen to the fans, the solution is a new hitting coach. Really? A new hitting coach would simply inherit the same hitters. Has anyone heard of a revolutionary new way to hit? Rick Eckstein has more than his share of detractors out there, but no one can doubt his work ethic. He can’t stand at the plate with the hitters or tie a rope around anyone to keep them from swinging at bad pitches. It’s just not that simple that one guy should shoulder the blame for the club’s frequent inability to make contact or recognize what’s in the strike zone.
If there’s a saving grace in all of this, it’s that the Nationals play in a league that also includes the Arizona Diamondbacks, a club that miraculously cut their strikeout totals by a whopping 280 between 2010 and 2011, but they seem intent on recapturing the crown in 2012. To my knowledge, there’s no badge or souvenir T-shirt for leading the league in a negative stat, but the Diamondbacks certainly grasp the consequences: they cut their Ks and won their division last year, and this year they’ve had trouble reaching the break-even point.
One of the concrete truths about this game is that you can’t score runs with no one on base. A strikeout is in no way a productive out. It’s always a minus, unless it’s your pitcher on the mound. It would be a colossal mistake to assume that this pitching staff can maintain a sub-3.00 ERA though the end of the regular season with the club scoring an average of fewer than 3.5 runs per game. The Nationals know it. How they respond to it will determine whether there are any home games after October 3.
Examiner columnist Phil Wood co-hosts the “Mid-Atlantic Sports Report” and is a regular contributor to “Nats Xtra” on MASN. Contact him at philwood@ washingtonexaminer.com.
