Matt of Matt's Bats: The Nationals' secret slugger

Last week, I wrote about Bryce Harper and how he is surging at the plate. Harper has become the best baseball player in all of Major League Baseball right now. His six home runs, 13 RBIs and .455 batting average this past week helped the Nats go 5-2 and outscore their opponents 53-35. Now that Harper has won two consecutive National League Player of the Week awards, I wanted to let you in on the other secret to the Nats' recent success: Wilson Ramos. Harper is getting all the attention he deserves from the media and sports fans across the world, but I think Ramos is not getting enough credit. After about six weeks of play, Ramos is Washington's secret slugger.

The Nationals acquired Ramos from the Minnesota Twins in 2009 as part of a trade for their former closer, Matt Capps. Capps was the lone Nationals All-Star in 2009, but they traded him for the prospect Baseball America ranked No. 2 in the Twins' system. The bet has paid off.

Ramos has been a huge addition to the Nationals. He is now on an major league-leading 18 game hitting streak. The last time he went hitless in a game was back on April 22, when the Nats were struggling against the Cardinals. Since then, the Nats have gone 11-8. In those 18 games he's had 26 hits, some of them very important ones. For example, he's driven in 11 runs during his streak. On Mother's Day, he drove in the go-ahead run by hitting a double off the glove of Nick Markakis. In last week's game against the D-backs, he hit a bases-clearing double that helped Nats win 11-1. He's also scored seven runs during the stretch, which is pretty good for a guy who usually hits in the sixth spot.

He is also a great defensive catcher. Behind the plate, he's like an NHL goaltender and doesn't let many balls slip by. He has a fielding percentage of .996 this year, and .993 for his career. Ramos told me last year that his favorite player growing up was Ivan Rodriguez. In Rodriguez's two seasons catching in Washington, his fielding percentages were .995 and .989. Does that make him or Ramos the best catcher in Nationals history?. Well, it's still early to tell, but his offense and defense numbers make Ramos a good candidate. I will also note that Ramos' career fielding percentage is better than some of the great catchers in baseball history: Johnny Bench (.990), Yogi Berra (.989), Rodriguez (.991), Thurman Munson (.982), Mike Piazza (.989) and Roy Campanella (.988). He just needs to stay healthy and keep hitting.

Without jinxing anything, Ramos is finally having the season we have all been waiting to see. He hasn't had an injury-free season since 2011. Last year he went one game before going on the disabled list. So far, he hasn't been injured (knock on wood) and is hitting consistently for average -now up to .314. Although we have seen El Búfalo homer only once this season, he has been pretty consistent at the plate. Still, find a farm of four leaf clovers or wish upon a star, because I want to see Ramos play a full, healthy season.

Ten-year-old Matt blogs about the Nationals at Matt's Bats. Follow him on Twitter: @MattsBats. He shares his views weekly as part of MASNsports.com's initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. 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 roster of writers.