These are great days to be a Nationals fan.
Once upon a time, Washington was ridiculed as “first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.” Now, after winning five of the first six games on their current West Coast road trip, the Nats are first in the National League, and first in just about everything else.
At 35-20, the Nats have the edge on 36-23 Colorado for the league’s best record, and that’s not all. Who is leading not only the National League, but all of baseball in average and RBIs? Ryan Zimmerman with a .374 average and 48 RBIs. And who is tied for the NL lead in home runs, with 16, one more than he hit all of last season? Zimmerman again.
Close behind Zim in batting is Daniel Murphy, who is fourth in the NL at .340. Bryce Harper is eighth in the NL with 43 RBIs, and Murphy is tied for ninth at 40.
Let’s look at pitching. Who is tied for the league lead with seven wins? Stephen Strasburg. Tops in strikeouts? That would be Max Scherzer with 100. The leader in WHIP and batting average against? Scherzer and Scherzer, with 0.89 and .186.
Any player will tell you that luck has a lot to do with success, but two months into the season, we’re past the point where such lofty numbers can be considered a fluke. And we’re certainly in the timeframe to use this year’s stats as a reliable guide for All-Star voting.
Perhaps that’s why Nats fans weren’t surprised at all at the results of the first All-Star voting update last week. Harper leads all NL vote-getters with more than 900,000. Murphy has the second most votes with almost 670,000, and Zimmerman is second at first base with more than 359,000, less than 100,000 behind the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo.
Zimmerman hasn’t played in an All-Star game since 2009, when he was a reserve at third base. He’s faced some stiff competition since moving across the diamond to first, and a string of injury-plagued seasons hasn’t helped him either. But his is season is his best shot to start and play a significant role in the game.
Zimmerman is clearly not just the best first baseman, but the best hitter in the league at this point in the season. His offensive numbers across the board are superior to Rizzo’s, and while Rizzo has three errors to Zimmerman’s seven, who would use that as a serious basis for an All-Star vote?
Zimmerman and Murphy are clearly the best in the NL at their respective positions and deserve to start. The legions of Cubs faithful may well keep Zimmerman out of the starting lineup, but they should not keep him from playing. If the fans around the world do not recognize what he’s doing, the commissioner’s office surely will when it names the reserves. Given that the All-Star game has used the designated hitter since 2010, Zimmerman could crack the starting lineup as the DH.
Murphy should have no competition in the voting at second base, and neither should Harper in the outfield. In fact, with perennial favorite Mike Trout injured, Harper has a decent shot at being the overall leader in votes.
As for pitching, there is no doubt that Scherzer and Strasburg will be on the NL roster, no matter whether fans get to vote for them. And being at or near the top of the league in many categories, if Scherzer keeps it up for the next month, he’s as good a choice as anyone to start for the NL.
Last year, Harper, Murphy, Scherzer and Strasburg were deserving members of the National League All-Star team. Zimmerman deserves to join them this season in what could be a special Midsummer Classic.
