Time to Hold Somebody Accountable

Kevin Long was supposed to be the be all end all of hitting coaches. Kevin Long is not in fact the be all end all of hitting coaches. Kevin Long was given the keys to a fairly loaded lineup, anchored by a superstar and a couple of All-Stars. Kevin Long's work (or lack thereof) may have in fact solidified him as the worst hitting coach in all of Major League Baseball. Kevin Long should not be boarding a plane with the Washington Nationals to head to Philadelphia today. On Monday, July 22, 2013, the Washington Nationals fired hitting coach Rick Eckstein. At that time, the Nationals were hitting .241 and averaging 3.69 runs per game through 98 games. This year's Washington Nationals are hitting .239 and are averaging 4.14 runs per game through 78 games. They have been shut out in 10% their games this season, or 8 times in 78 games. That's the exact amount the 2013 Nationals had been shutout through 78 games and one more time than the Nationals were shutout through the entirety of last season, though it took this Nationals team less than half the time to accomplish that feat.

Kevin Long loves "launch angle". He wants you to hit home runs. That sounds like a lot of fun. Except, the Washington Nationals have hit 85 home runs this year, good for 18th in the Major Leagues in that category. So, if they're not hitting for average and they're not hitting for power, how are they scoring? Well, they're not! In fact, the Nationals have scored a National League low 78 runs in their 22 games in June and haven't scored in over 18 innings of baseball.

Since going from the Yankees to the Mets prior to the 2013 season, only one of Long's teams have cracked the top 20 in MLB in team batting average or OPS, and that was last year's Mets who hit .250, which was good for 19th in the league, with an OPS of .755, which was good for 14th in the league. This is his style. It doesn't work and it hasn't worked for quite some time now. Some people say that batting average is a tired statistic and it doesn't matter all that much anymore. Not me. The 2015 Kansas City Royals finished the year 3rd in the league in batting average, hitting .269. The 2016 Chicago Cubs, the only team in the past 3 years to finish outside of the top 10 in the league, finished the year 14th in batting average, hitting .256 (.17 points higher than this year's Nationals, mind you). The 2017 Houston Astros finished the year last year first in batting average, at .282 and first in OPS, at .823. The Nationals are 22nd in the league in batting average and 19th in OPS. You can't win if you don't get on base. You can't win if you don't score.

If the season ended today, Bryce Harper, Trea Turner and Wilmer Difo would all three finish with the lowest batting averages of their careers. If Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman qualified, they too would finish with the worst batting averages of their careers. When one or two guys have a down year, you just chalk it up to bad luck. When three or more guys are having down years, you can begin to questions the philosophy.

This is not a good fit. Quit trying to make it work. Cut ties here before he can get his paws on Juan Soto's perfect swing and great plate discipline. 

Stuck in Mediocrity

The Nationals are stuck in mediocrity. At least until they can get fully healthy. Some of you may look at the Nationals 37-31 record and say "how can you say the Nationals are mediocre, they're in second place and only a few games out of first?". It's pretty simple really, while the Nationals have done a spectacular job of treading water, going periods of time without Daniel Murphy, Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Eaton and Matt Wieters in the lineup, it's been just that. Treading water.

If you look at the schedule that the Nationals have played so far this year, they're 10-9 against good teams (teams 5+ games over .500), they're 12-16 against average teams (teams between 5 games under and 5 games over .500) and they're 15-6 against bad teams (teams 5 games or more below .500). You've got to beat the bad teams, which they are doing. Especially right now, when you've got a depleted rotation and a lineup that just isn't getting the job done. If you want to be considered better than mediocre, you have to be better than 12-16 against the other mediocre teams in the league. This past weekend, the Nationals went to Toronto and got swept by a Blue Jays team who had won only 5 of their past 15 games, 4 of those wins coming in a 4 game sweep of the 20-50 Orioles. It was a pathetic display of baseball to say the least.

Right now, this team is missing 2/5 of their rotation, a key bullpen piece and they're still without their starting catcher and starting first baseman. We don't have a timeline for any of those players. The fact that Anthony Rendon, Bryce Harper and Trea Turner are all hitting below .265 tells you all you need to know about the lineup. They are now 2-5 in their last 7 games, 3 of those losses were shutouts and 5 of the 7 were against teams with sub .500 records. With Stephen Strasburg and Jeremy Hellickson on the disabled list, it's time for the offense to pick up the slack that the pitching staff has been carrying all season long.

Michael A Taylor now hitting .236 compared to Bryce Harper's .217. There was never a point in my life where I thought I'd tell you that Michael A Taylor deserves more playing time than Bryce Harper. Michael A plays spectacular defense to go along with his .412/.459/.588 June batting line (don't forget about the 8 stolen bases as well). Yet, he's the one in a battle for playing time because nobody wants to be the one to tell Bryce and his .146/.241/.208 June batting line that they're taking a seat on the bench. Oh, and Bryce has also struck out in 22 of his 48 June at bats. It's getting worse, not better. If you want to continue to play him everyday, that's fine, but don't continue to hit him at the top of the lineup. Hit him 7th. Treat him like a normal player who's in a slump, not like a superstar who can do no wrong.

The Nationals have 28 games left between now and the All-Star break. They have 12 games remaining against good teams, 5 games against average teams and 11 games against bad teams. A 15-13 finish to the first half would be alright. 18-10 sounds better, but when you're down 2 starting pitchers, it puts you in a tough spot, even when you're playing 11 games against so called "bad" teams. That would put the Nationals at 52-44 at the break. It may not be enough for first place, but it would put them in a good enough spot to still win the division if they can ever get healthy in the second half of the year.