Memo to Naysayers: Don't Blame Ryan Zimmerman for Nats' Woes

When your team is 26-63, it’s quite normal to throw an introspective glance their way and try and figure out just exactly what in the world is going on. It’s very tempting to point fingers and blame players, managers, and ownership. I mean, there has to be a tangible reason that they are this bad.

Right?

Because the Nationals are on pace to win 47 games (just a stone’s throw from the 1962 Mets’ mark for futility) the dour denizens of Nats Town have been pouring through every statistic they can get their hands on in order to place blame where they believe it belongs.

"J'accuse!" they yell.

You don’t have to go far to read a myriad of post-mortems on a team that has played just a tad more than half of its games. To be sure, it’s been ugly, but is anyone player, or group of players, really to blame?

Let’s take a look at the Nationals’ position players and see if we can find the culprit:

1B: Nick Johnson (.301-6-39)

Nope, it’s not Nick. He’s hit well, fielded well, and most importantly, stayed healthy. Many teams would see Johnson as an upgrade at first.

2B: Anderson Hernandez (.255-1-23)

While he’s cooled off of late, he has certainly produced better than Ronnie Belliard and is a marked improvement over what Felipe Lopez provided in 2008.

And with Alberto Gonzalez getting more playing time here during the second half of the season, second isn’t the Nationals’ black hole.

SS: Cristian Guzman (.301-3-24)

Granted, his defense is lacking and his on-base percentage hasn’t improved, but he has given the Nationals steady play at short and Guzman would be an upgrade for several contending teams. He’s not the problem, either.

3B: Ryan Zimmerman (.288-15-53)

Zimmerman, the “face of the franchise,” is on pace to hit .288-28-100 for a dead-from-the-neck-up baseball team. Sure, he’s committed 13 errors, but he also has a highlight reel that Brooks Robinson would marvel at.

LF: Adam Dunn (.263-23-63)

The Nationals expected Dunn would hit somewhere around .250-40-100 in 2009 and commit some very difficult-to-watch errors. A guy who plays as expected isn’t the problem.

CF: Nyjer Morgan (.281-2-29)

Granted, he’s only been with the Nationals for a couple of weeks, but he’s already proven that he can play a steady if not spectacular center field while stealing a lot of bases. Any problems here have since been fixed.

RF: Josh Willingham (.297-12-26)

He’s looking better in right every day and his offense, once given a chance to play, has blossomed. Had Manny started him from the beginning, he’d be on pace to hit .297-30-90.

C: Jesus Flores, Josh Bard & Wil Nieves

It goes without saying that the Nationals would have been a far better team with Flores behind the plate for the entire season, but Bard (.266) and Nieves (.261) have hit well enough and played at least acceptable defense. Catcher hasn’t been a plus, but neither has it been a minus.

So the offense has certainly been good enough, and at times, it’s been impressive. There isn’t a single player or position that has let the Nationals down. While the aggregate offense isn’t of championship caliber, it has been good enough to win as many games as it loses, all other things being equal.

That said, there is nothing "equal" about the 2009 Nationals.

The starting pitching, though an abomination early in the year, has been very respectable of late. John Lannan, Jordan Zimmermann, and Craig Stammen has given the team a chance to win every time they take the mound.

And we can’t blame Shairon Martis, either, because he was the team’s winningest pitcher for much of the early season. Scott Olsen’s injury certainly made him unreliable; I guess you could circle his name as someone who let the team down.

And the entire bullpen has been, and continues to be, a real problem. Circle them, too.

So is this bouillabaisse of bad news the product of just 40 percent of the starting rotation and a handful of bullpen pitchers?

While a case can at least be made to blame these five or six players, many are overlooking the obvious for the inane.

They are going after the "face."

Many are pointing their collective fingers at Ryan Zimmerman. He’s striking out too much. He’s committing too many errors. He’s not hitting enough home runs. His batting average is too low. He acts as if he doesn't care that the Nationals are losers.

Oh, and here's the worst: He’s not a superstar.

This kind of blame is unbelievably unfair to “the face of the franchise” and embarrassing to those of us who follow the team closely.

To listen to the naysayers, Zimmerman was supposed to not only lead the Nationals out of the desert but also guide them to the “Promised Land.”

He’s not Moses, for goodness sakes. And just who pegged him to be a superstar anyway?

Certainly not Jim Bowden, the man who drafted him fourth overall in 2005. In his initial media interview after the draft, Bowden said that Zimmerman would be a solid major leaguer with Gold Glove defense and enough power to hit 20-25 home runs and drive in 100 runs every year.

And that’s exactly what Zimmerman has done for the Nationals since 2006. He’s a very good player, but he’s not great. He’s very streaky. He'll hit .350 for half the season and .250 over the other half, just like he's doing this year.

But that averages out to .300, and baseball is about 162 games, not 80 or 90. I remember Frank Howard doing the same thing, and he has a statue in front of Nationals' Park.

No one said Zimmerman would be the next Brooks Robinson. No one said he’d have Mike Schmidt power at third. No one said that he would become a .300 hitter.

No one.

All Zimmerman has done is play up to his abilities. Oh sure, he’ll hit 30 homers a few times and bat .300 once or twice, and he’ll earn his share of Gold Gloves, but we can’t expect him to do more than that.

And yet that doesn’t stop the finger pointing. He’s still not doing enough to win the hearts of the disheartened.

Ryan Zimmerman is loyal. He loves baseball. He’ll never embarrass his teammates or his city. The chances are great that he’ll play his entire career here because this is where he wants to be.

And he’s just 24.

And yet the fingers remain pointed, and the demands for superstardom continue.

There isn’t one glaring deficiency that is causing the Nationals’ poor play. It’s a compilation of a lot of little things that when added up becomes a major problem.

Maybe it's the bullpen, perhaps it's the defense. It could even be the quality of the beer served at the stadium.

But no matter how you add them up, no matter how you analyze them, it’s not Ryan Zimmerman’s fault.

It never has been and it never will be. And memo to the disbelievers: the term “face of the franchise” is a marketing ploy, nothing more.

And don't forget, Zimmerman always gets hot in the second half. Let's see what his numbers look like come October.