30
Aug
Have you heard of Ryan Zimmerman? (why not?)
Did you know he played amatuer ball with David Wright?
Is he going to be a superstar? (dang right!)
I’m on the Zimmerman bandwagon, and plan on riding it to the end. Hall of Fame? Of course no one can make that bold of a statement right now, but dude has serious skills. To start with the less important thing (at least for the non-baseball junkie), he can field extremely well for a sophomore major leaguer, which is actually a big deal for 3b where good defense is a great asset to have.
Next… oh yeah, he can hit. He did have the makings of a nasty sophomore jinx in the works through the entire 1st half, but he has raised his average from basically below .250 through July 4 to right at .270 now. His OPS is finally flirting with .800, which is getting to the point of being very nice.
The downside for the year is the drop in walks while K’s have really stayed similar. He’s actually got a good eye at the plate, so I am expecting (ok, hoping) that as he moves to years 3 and 4 in the majors he swaps the BB and K numbers at least closer to even. I do believe he will drop the K’s to the 80 range, while upping his BB’s to closer to 80.
I expect that the move to a baseball stadium versus the cavern they are in now will bump his homers to the mid 30′s. Which will in turn result in pitchers having to be more careful — and thus walking him more. Obviously this is all speculation on my part, but he looks to be one of the good guys in the game. Also… comparing him to his school days teammate David Wright… his average is obviously lower, but powerwise he is comparable even playing in RFK. Moving to a real baseball stadium looks likely to push him past Wright in power terms. Oh, he’s also a couple years younger than Wright — he turns 23 in just about a month.
