It’s been a tough year to be a Washington Nationals fan. It’s been a tough five seasons honestly… since that amazing 2019 World Series win over the Astros, the franchise has been mired in a teardown and rebuild, which is finally showing some signs of progress but has yet to deliver consistent winning baseball.
One thing that’s particularly evident when watching the team is the degree to which the Nats get outhomered by their opponents. While the pitching has been surprisingly respectable this year, the offense has been much too reliant on small ball and baserunning to generate runs, which makes it very difficult to score in batches and compete in a brutally competitive NL East, full of clubs that have no problem putting the ball out of play.
Take a peek at the charts below which show home run differential by team and the relationship between home run differential and winning percentage. Here’s to hoping that James Wood, Dylan Crews, and company help turn the Nats fortunes around, and maybe I won’t have to write this post again next September!
Visualizations
Home Runs For, Against, and Net by MLB Team
Relationship Between Home Run Differential and Winning Percentage
