I‘m going out on a limb and predicting that Jordan Zimmermann will win a Cy Young award one day.
Zimmermann isn’t just good — he’s very, very good. Pay no attention to the won-lost record. Zimmermann’s peripheral numbers are more indicative of a guy who rarely loses. Last Wednesday’s game against the Angels was a good indicator of how he’s pitched over the past two months. In his last 11 starts, he’s not allowed more than three earned runs, and in half of those he’s given up just one earned run or less. He’s a true four-pitch pitcher, and his makeup is off the chart good.
If you were to screen his postgame interviews after every start this year without knowing whether it was a win or loss beforehand, you might not be able to tell what the decision was. He’s exactly the same, regardless of how it went for him; the epitome of unflappable. It’s that aspect of his personality that makes me think of another pretty good right-hander, Greg Maddux.
I’m not saying Zimmermann will win 300 games in his career and go to the Hall of Fame, but in terms of stuff, he’s got the goods. Scouts believed he was a top-of-the-rotation guy from the moment he was drafted by the Nationals out of a Division III school, Wisconsin-Stevens Point, in 2007. After going a combined 15-5 in 37 minor league starts in ’07-’08, he came up with the Nationals in 2009 and raised a few eyebrows when he led the staff in strikeouts with 92 in just over 91 innings. He certainly would’ve exceeded that were it not for the elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery in mid-August that year.
Zimmermann’s return to the mound in 2010, just a year and a week after his procedure, was considered premature by some, and that first start against St. Louis didn’t go so well: seven hits and five earned runs in just four innings, though the Nats ended up winning the game in 13 innings. He had a couple of other bumps in the road, and some observers thought the ballclub might have done more harm than good by letting him return so quickly.
That was then, this is now, and with the fifth-lowest ERA in the NL through the first half of the season, it now appears that those seven 2010 starts are starting to pay off in a big way. Those end-of-season opportunities may also convince the Nationals to get Stephen Strasburg back on a big league mound before 2012.
It’s clear that Zimmermann is the complete opposite of a “me” guy. He’s quick to credit his teammates for any success he enjoys, and from all reports, will never be the type of player you ever hear boo about off the field.
It’s a rare thing to have two true top-of-the-rotation starters at the same time. Strasburg will be back before you know it, but he may have to settle for being number two.
Examiner columnist Phil Wood is a baseball historian and contributor to MASN’s Nats Xtra. Contact him at [email protected].
