Zimmerman's Gold Glove, Riggleman's Permanent Hire Emboldens Nationals Future

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Wednesday was a very good day for the Washington Nationals.

Ryan Zimmerman, who former general manager Jim Bowden described as a “future Gold Glove winner” when he drafted him 4th overall in 2005, won his first Gold Glove award earlier this afternoon.

A few hours later, Jim Riggleman, who single-handedly skippered the Nationals away from the horror of becoming the latter-day ’62 Mets, was named the team’s permanent manager.

Now, neither of these moves strengthens the team, but it does stabilize it.

When Zimmerman first arrived in Washington in September 2005, I had never been surer about the future stardom of any player I had seen in the last 40 years, and his rookie season bore that out. He batted .287-20-110 and fielded flawlessly.

His next two seasons, however, gave me the impression that perhaps Zimmerman was destined to be a good—but not great—major league third baseman. He batted just .266-24-91 and committed 23 errors in 2007 and 2008 was lost to injuries.

Fortunately, 2009 settled the matter with an exclamation point.

Zimmerman batted .292-33-106 with career highs in on-base percentage (.364) and slugging percent (.545). Defensively, he was simply the best third baseman the National League has seen since the Phillies’ Mike Schmidt prowled the Veterans Stadium carpet in the 1970’s and ‘80’s.

Yes, he made a boatload of throwing errors in midseason, but he corrected the problem and the voters certainly forgave that one negative in a sea of overwhelming positives.

This time last year, I was afraid that Zimmerman’s “Face of the Franchise” tag would ultimately turn into an embarrassment for the team. Luckily, I couldn’t have been more wrong. He has Frank Howard’s demeanor, Brooks Robinson’s glove, an all-star bat and a long-term contract.

Who could ask for anything more?

I read an interesting comment on a Nationals’ blog regarding the hiring of Jim Riggleman. This person wasn’t happy with the decision, saying that the team hired a “mediocre” manager and destined the franchise for years of mediocrity.

You know what? After back-to-back 100 loss seasons, I look forward to a little mediocrity.

True, in 10 seasons as a major league manager, Riggleman has a 555-694 record, a .444 winning percentage. But eight of those seasons were as manager of the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs, teams that don’t exactly have a history of winning baseball.

Riggleman’s record with the Padres was his worst as a manager, going 112-179 (.385). In the three years before Riggleman took over, the Padres had an average record of 84-78, but they also fielded a team that consisted of all-stars Benito Santiago, Jack Clark, Roberto Alomar, Gary Templeton and Tony Gwynn.

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