Despite this team’s record – and 39-27 isn’t just a good record, it’s 4th best in major league baseball and enough for 1st place in the NL East – the offense has looked pretty bad this year. It’s kind of remarkable, the pitching and defense have been so strong, that after the first month of the season when everyone was complaining about the lack of offense, the clamor about it has died down. It’s still bad, although it might not be as bad as you think.
Besides ranking 12th in the NL in runs scored per game, the individual numbers look awful. Ryan Zimmerman is hitting .226/.296/.317, a powerless display that has only gotten worse since returning from injury. Mike Morse came back from injury to contribute a paltry .219/.250/.328 so far this year. Jesus Flores, a backup catcher pressed into starting duty, is only hitting .236/.283/.339. And even Ian Desmond, despite impressive power, has an OBP of .289. That’s 4 out of 8 starting positing players with On Base Percentages lower than .300. And .300 isn’t exactly an OBP mark to strive for, even Danny Espinosa‘s .227/.312/.373 shows too little power to brush off an unimpressive on base.
Posted by Charlie 
