Playoff Risk Mitigation: Are the Nationals concerned about Jordan Zimmermann?



(Getty Images)

By Stevo-sama | @yoshiki89

There can be no question about the continued success of the Washington Nationals in the NL East this season and the alarming reality that after years of mediocrity, they are something more than a valid playoff contender. The franchise’s last winning season was their inaugural season as the Nationals in 2005, as a .500 team that still floundered in the basement of the division. Prior to that, only the 2002 Montreal Expos could boast a winning season and a division title berth, finishing 2nd at 83-79.

There should be dancing in the streets as September arrives. The taste of playoff baseball is in the air, and the team leads the NL East over the Atlanta Braves by 6.5 games. However, the cause for pre-emptive celebration in DC has been dampened somewhat not only by the inevitable exeunt of phenom Stephen Strasburg as a playoff pitcher but also by the recent struggles of Jordan Zimmermann.

Strasburg’s highly-publicized innings limit this season has been a highly debated and thoroughly analyzed question mark in the Nationals’ potential post-season strategy for the past few weeks. Some of the alarm in this plan has been magnified by Zimmermann’s performance in August.

Why Washington Fans Shouldn’t Worry About Shutting Down Strasburg



(Alex Brandon / AP)        

By Carlos Collazo | @CarlosCollazo__

How’s it going guys? Man it’s been a while since I have managed to write anything about baseball and let me tell you; it’s good to be back. For those of you who don’t know (probably a large number of you), I have just recently moved into college. I have been getting my dorm set up, getting accustomed to classes, eating a lot of food, and getting my internet set up. That last little part turned out to be extremely cumbersome, but I have some great tech guys around here to help me out.

Regardless of all of my issues, I’m back and, more importantly, ready to talk some baseball.

Today’s column—which is actually my first column for the Daily Site—is going to cover one of the best teams and one of the best pitchers in baseball. If you haven’t already deduced from the title, it is Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals of Washington.

The Nationals are 77-47 so far during the season, helped out significantly by Strasburg and his 15-5 record in 25 starts. So, clearly he is a good pitcher right? He’s got a lot of wins and not a lot of losses, so he must be. If you know me then you know that I don’t put too much stock in Wins and Losses for pitchers (say hello, Felix). I like to look a little bit deeper.

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that most of you know about Stephen Strasburg and are aware that he is an elite pitcher. We won’t need to analyze all of his advanced stats because there is no real need. He is good, we know he is good, and we know why he is good. He throws ridiculously hard, has a ridiculous curve ball, and a ridiculously cool beard to top it off (the high socks he normally wears can’t hurt either).