Grant McCauley's projected lineup

[JohnAdcox]

The team last year, even early in the season, was extremely frustrating to watch and not a fun team to get behind.

That said, very few teams were behind them.

[GovClintonTyree]

I think there's legitimacy to the theory that we're going after better contact hitters instead of high-K, high power guys. Honestly that approach kind of failed here. Admit it or not, the last couple of years, even when we won 96, too often guys would strike out when putting the ball in play would have been productive. Yes, I know ground balls lead to DPs. But our offense, even in the good year, was horribly inconsistent. When it was bad, it was really bad. Really, really bad.

So now we have this new approach, which won't be fully reflected in this season's lineup. We all knew that. We know that this year's team is a bridge, and not a particularly pretty one. This is far from the end result of this new approach.

My theory has always been that you can have a couple of (otherwise productive) guys who strike out a lot, but you can't have a whole lineup full. And last year basically proved my theory (to me).

A lot of people are fired up about the Astros this year because they've assembled some good power to go with their promising pitching. But watch for the same problem we had. At least they have Altuve at the top. I think even Fredi could figure that one out.

[VirginiaBrave]

That said, very few teams were behind them.

That was smoke and mirrors. We had guys with sub 1.00 ERA's. It was not going to last a six month season.

[NinersSBChamps]

That is downright sad. Looking at it on paper is just sad.

That's when you flip your paper over and look at the Nationals lineup.