The Nationals Have A Lower Win Percentage In The Second Half
This one should come as too much of a surprise after I laid out how the past two seasons have gone for the Nationals in August. For what it is worth, I do think this team will be mostly the same after the trade deadline, which we will get to here shortly, but I think this team overperformed early in the season and we now will start to see the true colors show.
This team cannot hit for power and most of their pitchers are not strikeout pitchers. That makes it tough when you're relying solely on contact to win games, as we have seen throughout the season thus far. The Nationals currently sit at a .400 winning percentage through 90 games of the season. That means I have them at about 28 wins in the second half of the season at most, but I think it would be closer to the low to mid 20s. If they win 25 games, they would finish the season at 61-101, which sounds about right to me and also fits a lot of preseason projections for this team.
And of course, impact players such as Jeimer Candelario and Lane Thomas being dealt could very well be a catalyst for a second half slump.