Dave Martinez wants the Nats to swing at more early-count fastballs. Here’s what the data shows.

There are necessary caveats for these numbers. A big one, as noted above, is that the batted ball samples for slugging percentage, OPS and hard-hit percentage, or any rate statistics, are limited because the Nationals are patient and it is still fairly early in the schedule. Their swing percentage for all pitches is 45.2, 26th in MLB, showing they’re patient no matter the pitch, pitcher or count. Another caveat is that, by looking at teamwide data, it’s impossible to tell who is swinging or not and how often they are swinging or not at early-count fastballs. It’s also impossible to tell who is getting early-count fastballs in the first place.