The hitting has not been a hit ... for 5+ years

The Frontier League season is almost one-third complete and the Wild Things are dead last in team batting average (.222). That shouldn't come as a shock or breaking news. Washington has gone almost wire-to-wire with the lowest batting average.

This, however, is not something unique to the first 30 games of the current season. The Wild Things have been battling a lack of offense for years. And let's face it, offense is what puts the excitement into sporting events, whether its baseball, football, basketball, hockey or horseshoes.

Let me bore you with some statistical data that illustrates what I'm saying. There are 11 Frontier League teams that have played every season since 2011. The one exception is Schaumburg. This is the team batting averages of those 11 franchises, from the start of the 2011 season through Thursday night:

.279 -- River City

.269 -- Evansville

.269 -- Lake Erie

.269 -- Southern Illinois

.265 -- Normal

.260 -- Windy City

.257 -- Gateway

.253 -- Joliet

.253 Traverse City

.251 -- Florence

.242 -- Washington

Sometimes a lot of hits in a game don't always translate into runs and wins, so maybe batting average is over-rated. One example of this was Washington's 5-0 loss Thursday night to Joliet. The Wild Things outhit the Slammers 9-7, but Washington's offense was like a Saturday night at a South Side Pittsburgh nightclub -- all singles. Thus, the Wild Things left 12 runners on base.

Let's face it, scoring runs is what baseball is all about. And, again, there has been a lack of that kind of offensive production in Washington since at least 2011. Here is more proof, in the form of number of runs each of those 11 Frontier League teams have scored since 2011:

2,780 -- River City

2,566 -- Gateway

2,501 -- Southern Illinois

2,471 -- Normal

2,430 -- Traverse City

2,358 -- Florence

2,347 -- Evansville

2,296 -- Joliet

2,295 -- Windy City

2,191 -- Lake Erie

2,118 -- Washington

So why has it been so hard for the Wild Things to get hits and score runs for at least the last 5+ years? 

Though it's not a hitter's paradise like the ballparks at River City or Gateway or even Florence, Consol Energy Park sure isn't a cavernous pitcher's park, either. CEP doesn't have the problems that hitters face at Wuerfel Park in Traverse City. In Northern Michigan it gets dark later than in any other spot in the league so players are trying to hit in twilight conditions more often. And there is an odd-color batter's eye in Traverse City, plus the slowest infield turf in the league.

Consol Energy Park also isn't as spacious as at Standard Bank Stadium, home of the Windy City ThunderBolts. That's a ballpark in which fly balls go to die.

Have the Washington managers built their teams around pitching and neglected hitting? The Wild Things have had some good pitching staffs in the last six seasons, including this year's club.

Have the hitting coaches been bad at their job? Heck, there wasn't even a hitting coach on last year's coaching staff after the first road trip of the season. But current hitting coach Mike Marshall has two World Series rings to prove that he knows a little about hitting and the current team is still batting only .222.

Has Washington just been very unlucky with the hitters it has signed? There have been plenty of hitters over the last 5+ years who have not produced to the level that their track record suggests they would.

Have the Wild Things signed the wrong kind of hitters? During the early days of the franchise, when Jeff Isom and John Massarelli were the managers, Washington signed speedy outfielders who could take advantage of CEP's deep gaps. Those outfielders covered a lot of ground and hit a lot of balls into those gaps that turned into triples. The Wild Things hit a league-record 58 triples in 2006. You have to go back three years to find the last 58 triples hit by Washington hitters.

Do the Wild Things sign too many hitters who were released from affiliated ball? Do they sign too many hitters who have never been to affiliated ball and are career independent players?

Do the official scorers have a vendetta against Washington hitters and refuse to give them credit for hits, thus keeping the batting average down?

Have the Wild Things just signed lousy hitters?

Is CEP just a lousy ballpark for hitters?

Do opposing managers tell the good hitters who are available that Washington is a hitter's graveyard and not to sign with the Wild Things?

Are the Wild Things just unlucky when it comes to signing hitters?

These are questions that will have to be answered with the coming at-bats, weeks, and seasons.