The Nationals have a team BABIP of .343, best in the major leagues. They must be getting a ton f hits, right? Not quite. In fact, their team wOBA is .340. I'm not sure if a team has ever finished with a higher BABIP than wOBA, but a quick check of the last few years suggests that if so, it hasn't happened anytime recently. Although the Giants of 2008 and Pirates of 2006 came ridiculously close to the feat.
Yuniesky Betancourt and Bengie Molina have combined for 100 plate appearances. And zero walks.
The A's have a team slugging percentage of .310. That's .049 points lower than the next lowest team, also on the west coast, the Giants, and nearly .190 points lower than the slugging Indians. Matt Holliday isn't walking yet, but boy, that's not exactly what you would expect from a lineup also featuring Jack Cust and Jason Giambi.
The D-Backs have a team OBP of .291.
The Dodgers have a team OBP of .392.
That's the difference between facing 2008's version of Alex Rodriguez, or 2008's version of Michael Bourn. And remember, that's the entire team.