Let's tip our caps...

#1
005

005

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#1
to Ryan Zimmerman. My favorite major league player, and an absolute stud. Keeps up anywhere near this pace... he should be the starting 3B in the all-star game.

After losing his 30 game hit streak in the ninth, he digs down the 3rd base line to score an insurance run.

Two bombs in San Fran the other night... didn't take a second look at either one... Sprinted until it went out, jogged all the way until he sat down in the dugout.

An absolute class act and one of the best players in the game.

Streak is over (unless this game goes into extras, which could happen with our bullpen), but that standing ovation from San Francisco fans was well-earned.
 
#2
#2
Dbake005 said:
to Ryan Zimmerman. My favorite major league player, and an absolute stud. Keeps up anywhere near this pace... he should be the starting 3B in the all-star game.

After losing his 30 game hit streak in the ninth, he digs down the 3rd base line to score an insurance run.

Two bombs in San Fran the other night... didn't take a second look at either one... Sprinted until it went out, jogged all the way until he sat down in the dugout.

An absolute class act and one of the best players in the game.

Streak is over (unless this game goes into extras, which could happen with our bullpen), but that standing ovation from San Francisco fans was well-earned.
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Pass some of that over here, please. He's a good player, but "one of the best in the game"? He has not exactly developed like the scouts all thought he would.

And I think it's safe to say that he's not going to keep up anything close to this pace. His batting average on balls in play is over .400, which -- as Willie Harris can tell you -- is mostly luck.
 
#3
#3
I'm not saying he's gonna hit .370. Probably not even too close to that. His average will dip but hopefully stay between .300-.325 range.
And how has he not developed like scouts thought he would? A huge rookie year, 24 bombs second year, an injury then a good end to last season, and now a monster start to this year...

22 homers/96 rbis/.288 average/185 hits per 162 games played in his career.

He wasn't healthy last year at all, and with Dunn behind him, he'll have a big year. Have to take into account his defense, as well... saves about a run or two a game with his defense at third. Up there with almost anyone in that category of his game, and he's still only 24. Keep in mind, until this year, someone like Dmitri Young was protecting him.

He leads the league in hits and extra base hits. I guess he got lucky for thirty games... Damn, thought he had somethin there. Shame to see the streak end, despite it being 'mostly luck'...
Hopefully he stays hot, for my Nationals' sake

Nationals have a couple good young pitchers, things are looking up (a little bit). :eek:
 
#4
#4
Dbake005 said:
I'm not saying he's gonna hit .370. Probably not even too close to that. His average will dip but hopefully stay between .300-.325 range.
And how has he not developed like scouts thought he would? A huge rookie year, 24 bombs second year, an injury then a good end to last season, and now a monster start to this year...

22 homers/96 rbis/.288 average/185 hits per 162 games played in his career.

He wasn't healthy last year at all, and with Dunn behind him, he'll have a big year. Have to take into account his defense, as well... saves about a run or two a game with his defense at third. Up there with almost anyone in that category of his game, and he's still only 24. Keep in mind, until this year, someone like Dmitri Young was protecting him.

He leads the league in hits and extra base hits. I guess he got lucky for thirty games... Damn, thought he had somethin there. Shame to see the streak end, despite it being 'mostly luck'...
Hopefully he stays hot, for my Nationals' sake

Nationals have a couple good young pitchers, things are looking up (a little bit). :eek:
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Willie Harris hit something like .370 for the Braves over two whole months a couple of years ago. He did it the same way Zimmerman has -- by having a BABIP (batting average on balls in play) of over .400, which is always an indicator that a guy is just having a fluky streak where a bunch of extra balls are dropping in. (Tony Gwynn's career BABIP, by comparison: .341.) So yes, Zimmerman has just been extremely lucky over the past month. His BABIP will drop back down to normal levels and his batting average will drop down to probably around .300 or so.

I'm not trying to pick on Zimmerman, who's a good young player and who I'd personally love to see in the Braves' organization. It's just that if you go back and read the scouting consensus about him five years ago, "good young player" is a bit of a disappointment. Zimmerman was supposed to be an elite talent, a guy whom everybody expected to be at least as good as David Wright....but now it looks like he's merely going to be very good instead of great. If I were a Nats fan I'd probably view Zimmerman about like I did (as a Braves fan) Rafael Furcal (or, to an extent, Andruw Jones) -- yeah, he turned out to be a good player, but man -- when he came up, all the baseball guys thought he was really supposed to be something special. The kind of player you tell your kids about watching.
 
#5
#5
I think the fact that the kid finally has some lineup protection is leading to his finally living up to some of that potential. We'll see how that goes from here on, but there aren't a lot of players that have 30 game hitting streaks on their resumes.
 
#6
#6
I don't care what he does at third, he's not saving a run or two a game.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#7
#7
22 homers/96 rbis/.288 average/185 hits per 162 games played in his career.
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these numbers are his career average i would assume?

honestly, there's nothing spectacular about those. it's solid but they do not make a "stud" or "best player in the game".
 
#8
#8
BigPapaVol said:
I don't care what he does at third, he's not saving a run or two a game.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
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I somehow missed that. Yeah, Ozzie Smith and Andruw Jones didn't save a run a game.


doozer said:
these numbers are his career average i would assume?

honestly, there's nothing spectacular about those. it's solid but they do not make a "stud" or "best player in the game".
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Cf. Chipper Jones (.310, 32 HRs, 110 RBIs per 162 games) and David Wright (.309, 29 HRs, 112 RBIs). Zimmerman was supposed to be that type of player. An extra twenty points of average and an extra ten dingers a year is the difference between having a really good career and being a Hall of Fame-type player.

This is really Zimmerman's last chance to make the leap. He's still only 24, but great players don't take five years to show it. If I were a Nats fan, I'd be a lot more encouraged by his early power spike than the hitting streak.
 
#9
#9
I didn't start the thread to get him just absolutely ripped on... but that is my fault, I should've known better.

Trust me, as a Nationals fan, he's every bit of that good. He hasn't had really... well... anybody? in the lineup worth noting, especially considering Nick Johnson (who can just plain hit lately... but, go ahead and rip on him too...) was hurt until this year. The Nationals organization has been somewhat of a joke... but things are looking up, and when someone is thrown into a lineup with nobody protecting him as a 3 spot hitter since day one, they might not hit .320 to start it off.

In my opinion, if he were in New York or Boston he would've taken more heat his 2nd year in a slump, but right now he would be considered one of the best in the game and get all kinds of lovvvvin from the media... David Wright style. He can hit .300 with 30+ bombs and 115 rbis and finish in last place this year and possibly next year, which kinda sucks.

He's hitting .500 so far in May, which I love.. and BigPapa... watch a couple nationals games. When our pitchers walk two guys then allow a double and there are runners on second and third and Zimmerman makes a diving play down the line, it allows us to lose by 2 less runs than we would've lost by.

I'll admit, he didn't come onto the scene like Ryan Braun (minus defense), Nomar or Tulowitzki did, but I hope he stays hot and has a hugeeee breakout year.

and Vercingetorix, I completely agree that the power/extra base hits is just as important as the average, because yeah... the average will go down. He has always started somewhat slow, so if he finishes like usual, he could finally live up to that scouting report out of Virginia.

Go ahead and rip on him more... I'm just hoping for more big things.

EDIT: Also, something scary... he was on an AAU team where the infield was Upton, Wright, Reynolds, Zimmerman.....
 
#10
#10
Dbake005 said:
He's hitting .500 so far in May, which I love.. and BigPapa... watch a couple nationals games. When our pitchers walk two guys then allow a double and there are runners on second and third and Zimmerman makes a diving play down the line, it allows us to lose by 2 less runs than we would've lost by.
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nobody is ripping him. Sounds like there is a difference of opinion about whether he is the next coming of a hot corner cross between Schmidt and BRobinson, which you seem to proclaim him to be.

FWIW, I don't care how many plays he makes at third, he's not saving 1-2 runs per night, unless you're assuming that errors on routine plays would cost you runs and then discounting from there.
 
#11
#11
Nah, i was more just playing around with that last comment... wasn't taking a shot at what you said... allows our losses to be by less. I wasn't saying he's the greatest defensive 3rd baseman all time, and maybe not even in the game today, but he is more than just a hitter. Flashes the leather a bit as well.

I dunno if there'll ever be another Schmidt or Robinson, let alone a mix... And if so, it ain't Zimmerman. I wish.
 
#12
#12
I wasn't ripping him; just taking issue with your proclamation that he's an "absolute stud" and "one of the best players in the game." That's what all the scouts expected him to be, certainly. He was supposed to be Chipper Jones, but thus far he's been more like, say, Todd Zeile.

Who still had a heck of a nice career. As I said upthread, I'd love to have Zimmerman in the Braves' organization.
 
#13
#13
Haha I laughed out loud at the Todd Zeile comparison... not because it is wrong... but because i honestly forgot about him. Honestly, closer to Zeile than Chipper at this point... Which is upsetting.

Nationals won't lose today, guaranteed.

Off day... 3 game series against the Phillies starting tomorrow in Washington.
Wanna see runs scored? Watch those games.
 
#14
#14
I just sort of threw Zeile's name out there, but it's not a bad comparison. He was supposed to be the Next Great Thing when he came up as a catcher with the Cardinals. My memory is a little hazy about exactly how he ended up at third, although I remember the Cards playing him all over the place for awhile before he settled in there. He had a damn nice career -- 15 years or so, I think he had 2000 hits -- but because of all the hype when he came up, he always just had a faint whiff of failure around him. Which clearly isn't fair -- it's not his fault that the scouts universally overrated him. Same thing for Zimmerman -- he's headed for a good career of his own, but the first thing a lot of fans think of when they see him is "bust." And that sort of sucks.
 
#15
#15
I'll never forget being at Wrigley Field in 1995 on the day the Cubs traded for Todd Zeile. They announced the trade and the crowd strangely reacted as if they had landed the greatest player in the game. It was just sad.
 
#16
#16
emainvol said:
I think the fact that the kid finally has some lineup protection is leading to his finally living up to some of that potential. We'll see how that goes from here on, but there aren't a lot of players that have 30 game hitting streaks on their resumes.
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Benito Santiago has one.
 
#17
#17
Vercingetorix said:
I just sort of threw Zeile's name out there, but it's not a bad comparison. He was supposed to be the Next Great Thing when he came up as a catcher with the Cardinals. My memory is a little hazy about exactly how he ended up at third, although I remember the Cards playing him all over the place for awhile before he settled in there. He had a damn nice career -- 15 years or so, I think he had 2000 hits -- but because of all the hype when he came up, he always just had a faint whiff of failure around him. Which clearly isn't fair -- it's not his fault that the scouts universally overrated him. Same thing for Zimmerman -- he's headed for a good career of his own, but the first thing a lot of fans think of when they see him is "bust." And that sort of sucks.
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He ended up at third because he was an utterly awful defensive catcher.
 
#18
#18
hatvol96 said:
Benito Santiago has one.
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[FONT=helvetica,arial]Luis Castillo[/FONT], [FONT=helvetica,arial]Luis Gonzalez, Jimmy Rollins . . .

I just looked at a list of 30+ game hitting streaks and the two names that were most surprising to me were Eric Davis and Sandy Alomar Jr. Not that they weren't good hitters - they just aren't the kind of guys I would have guessed ever had a long hitting streak.
[/FONT]
 
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#19
#19
hatvol96 said:
He ended up at third because he was an utterly awful defensive catcher.
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Was it just that simple? If so, then how did he make it all the way up to the majors before anybody figured it out? I was sort of halfway hazily remembering something akin to a Dale Murphy-ish situation, though instead of not being able to throw back to the mound, he suddenly couldn't throw to one of the bases or something.

I was living in Columbia, Missouri when Zeile came up in St. Louis, actually, although I was up there for a year living with a 6'2" girl who was into restraint devices and chemistry. Although the Cardinals were on TV and radio everywhere around me, my memory of what was going on in baseball at the time is a little foggy.
 
#21
#21
Dbake005 said:
They must read our threads.....

Tim Kurkjian: Hot corner heating up with Evan Longoria, Chipper Jones, David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman, Alex Rodriguez - ESPN

Good read. Longoria and tennis balls... wow
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There was an article from back in the day that said Tino Martinez and Jeter did the same thing in the batting cage under old Yankee Stadium. I don't think they marked the balls but theirs came in at at 200 mph. It's probably pretty common for pros to practice with tennis balls.
 
#22
#22
Nice nice. No wonder longoria can sorta kinda hit.

Zimmerman 3-6 two doubles tonight... In, of course, a losing effort.
 
#23
#23
Stop pitching to Raul Ibanez, please.....

Zman bomb. Crushed.
 
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