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Washington Nationals: 3 storylines to watch as Angels visit Nats Park

By Ricky Keeler

ANAHEIM, CA - AUGUST 04: Kole Calhoun #56 of the Los Angeles Angels celebrates his run with Mike Trout #27 and Albert Pujols #5, to trail 3-1 to the Oakland Athletics, during the second inning at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on August 4, 2017 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CA - AUGUST 04: Kole Calhoun #56 of the Los Angeles Angels celebrates his run with Mike Trout #27 and Albert Pujols #5, to trail 3-1 to the Oakland Athletics, during the second inning at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on August 4, 2017 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

Simmons surging up the WAR rankings

In this age of sabermetrics, WAR has become a big indicator as to how a player’s season is measured. If that is the case, then Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons is having a strong season. After having a 4.2 WAR last year, his WAR this season of 6.3 is the second most of any position player in baseball according to Baseball Reference.  (Jose Altuve is first – 6.5).

Of course, WAR does take into factor defense and Simmons is one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball as Nats fans remember from his time in Atlanta. He definitely has a chance to win in his third Gold Glove in the last six seasons this year.

While Simmons is not known for his offense game, the 27-year-old has had a RBI in each of the last five games and has hit .340 over the course of his last 97 at-bats. Back in July, he hit .378 with three home runs, 13 RBI’s, and had an on-base percentage of .409.

Now, the Washington Nationals did keep Simmons off the bases in Los Angeles last night (0-for-5), but he has decent numbers against tonight’s starter, Gio Gonzalez. He’s 7-for-24 against the Nats left-hander with two home runs and six RBI’s in his career.

Since the Angels can’t use the designated hitter in these two games, it’s unlikely Albert Pujols plays both games at first base, but you never know. If that’s the case, then it becomes important to the Angels that Simmons finds a way to drive in runs.

The defense has always been there for Simmonds, but the offense is starting to come around in a big way. His 12 home runs are five away from his career-high of 17 that he set back in 2013.

With only two pitching matchups this week, we are going to go in-depth with one of the games as a storyline, so let’s look at tonight:

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