David Huzzard: Nationals aren't flashy, but keep on winning

If you had asked me where the Nationals were in comparison to the rest of baseball, I'd have guessed they had the fourth or fifth best record in baseball. I knew they were behind the Cubs and figured there were a couple other teams ahead of them. So it surprised me when, leading up to the deadline, I kept hearing about how they had the second best record in baseball. The Nationals are a better team than we realize. I can't say exactly why that is, but I have some ideas.

The first is no one notices pitching. Pitching is a lot like saving money. Everyone notices the guy that lives up against his debt. He lives in the biggest house he can afford and drives the nicest car, but no matter how big the house is or how nice the care he's living paycheck to paycheck while the person that lives within their means is going to go unnoticed, but have a much more full bank account. Good pitching is like that. It isn't flashy unless a pitcher does something special like throw a no-hitter or strike out 20 batters in a game. Good pitching largely goes unnoticed.

None of that is to say the Nats offense is bad. It is very good. It is fourth in the National League in runs per game. That means they have one of the best offenses in the league, and score way more runs than they allow, but they aren't doing it with anything fancy. Or are they? In fact, the Nationals are second in the NL in home runs. By looking at this, one would think that the Nationals would be on a ton of highlight reels on a nightly basis but the Nationals don't have a single player in the top 10 in baseball in home runs. Daniel Murphy has 21 home runs and Bryce Harper is tied with several other players at 20 and both are out of the top 30.

The Nationals are doing that age old boring thing of being a team. Last season, Harper was the NL MVP. The Nats were talked about on a nightly basis and made all the highlight shows. Harper hit bombs, Max Scherzer threw no-hitters, and down the stretch the Nationals fell apart because they weren't a team. This season is a different team. It is a team. There are things the Nationals do very well that they didn't do last season. The Nationals are a more aggressive team on the bases and have more team speed. Anthony Rendon isn't hurt and is producing, and they have a balanced bench.

With all of that in mind, it is hard not to credit Dusty Baker in some way for getting the Nationals to simply be a better team. Jonathan Papelbon may still choke someone in the dugout, but it looks more and more unlikely everyday that the Nationals are going to choke away their division lead.

David Huzzard blogs about the Nationals at Citizens of Natstown. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHuzzard. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our regular roster of writers.