Kuzul

You’re a fan without a nation. 

The 2014 MLB Playoff field is set, and while you mourn your beloved New York Yankees from your home probably nowhere near New York, you need a surrogate team. Well, the Washington Nationals bandwagon is accepting applications, and no other franchise makes a better case for your temporary affection. 

The single biggest selling point for Washington isn’t its National League-best 96-66 record, but the way in which those 96 games were won. 

And the only way to truly understand the grit that defines the Nationals is to take an uncomfortable trip down memory lane.

The Nationals don’t play with a chip on their shoulder, they carry around a family-sized bag that they picked up from a 2013 season that can only be qualified as an abject failure.

Washington was coming off a 2012 campaign that saw them earn the best record in baseball, and the core of that season’s roster was still intact for 2013. But the Nationals under-performed from the get go, finding themselves in the conversation for “baseball’s most disappointing team,” according to an article by SportingNews’s Justin McGuire that year. 

The individual parts were a disappointment – i.e. Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg – and their sum was a disappointment. 

It is for that reason that Washington is taking nothing for granted this year, and it’s made the Nationals the most fun team in baseball to watch. And from top to bottom, every member of Washington’s roster wants to win every game. 

And they want it bad.

In a season that spans 162 games across five-plus months, two distinct moments during the summer of 2014 can be pointed to as evidence of that spirit. 

In middle-to-late August, Washington matched its franchise-record win streak of 10 games. 

That’s not the impressive part. 

Half of those games were won in walk-off fashion. The Washington Post’s Neil Greenberg calculated the likelihood of a run like that to be around 0.0977 percent. 

That’s the kind of season 2014 has been for Washington. The Nationals are extremely talented, and they’ve won the games they’re supposed to win, which should have been good for six or seven of those 10 games. 

The remaining wins in the streak? Baseball giveth and baseball taketh away, and the Nationals have made good on the former this year.

The other instance that encapsulated what Washington has been able to do this year fell on the very last day of the season.

Jordan Zimmerman’s no-hitter in game No. 162 of the year saw him exercise complete dominance over helpless Marlins hitters, until the very last out. 

Steven Souza Jr. took over in left field before the start of the ninth inning, making just his 21st big-league appearance of the season, and made arguably the catch of the season to preserve the first no-hitter in franchise history.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Ryan Zimmerman did not show up this spring planning to vacate third base. Did you start the year expecting to give up the job you love? Volunteer to move to a new cubicle? Wistfully admit you’re just not the same?

Things change. Days pass. They become years.

If you’re lucky, you find the ability to adapt with the times and continue to thrive.

“The last couple years have been tough,” Zimmerman was telling me the other day. “But I’ve always been honest with myself.

“People who can’t be honest with themselves, it’s going to be tougher for them to give things up.”

After 1,119 games and one Gold Glove (2009) at third base, Zimmerman borrowed teammate Jayson Werth’s glove and moved out to left field last Tuesday.

And the Nationals, now in prime position to make a move in the NL East, are better for it.

“What’s been wrong with the Nationals?” you ask.

Well, for starters, Zimmerman missed two months with a fractured right thumb, and outfielder Bryce Harper, catcher Wilson Ramos, first baseman Adam LaRoche and starting pitchers Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez all missed significant time in the season’s first two months. New skipper Matt Williams mostly was managing with roughly half of his lineup gone.

All but Gonzalez, who is on an injury rehab assignment, and Harper are back now. The lineup is much stronger, evidenced by the Nationals’ 8-2 run over the past several days. The rotation is much stronger, evidenced by Fister’s 5-1 record and 2.68 ERA over seven starts since joining the rotation May 9.

And, impossible as it would have been to believe just a couple of years ago, the defense is much stronger with Anthony Rendon, 24, at third base instead of Zimmerman.

“I look at the way Anthony’s playing third base,” Zimmerman says. “He’s obviously a great young player who’s going to be in this league for a long time. And, honestly, I think he’s playing a better third base than I play right now. This helps us right now.”

Before the Nationals invented Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, they designed Zimmerman. He was the young cornerstone player of the franchise. A first-round pick (fourth overall) in 2005 out of the University of Virginia, Zimmerman joined the Nats when they stunk, and together they dreamed of better days.

He was as automatic as an ATM back then, both in terms of being in the lineup every day and in making every play at third. In 2006, he played in 157 games. In ’07, he played in all 162.

But an abdominal strain kept him to 101 games in ’11; then came the sore right shoulder in ’12. He underwent arthroscopic surgery after the season. After committing 19 errors in 145 games in 2012, he committed 21 in 147 last year.

Watching him throw suddenly became a hold-your-breath experience. Was it his shoulder? Was it the yips?

“Maybe they both kind of coincided with each other. I don’t know,” Zimmerman says. “If I knew, then I wouldn’t have it.

“I think it was a combination of maybe trying to play a little banged up and then creating some bad habits. And then maybe having the surgery and not getting away from those bad habits while trying to get back to the form I used to be in.

“So many things going on at the same time. You can call it whatever you want to call it. At the end of the day it happened and you try and learn from it and move on.”

So here he is in left field, which, with Harper out until July with a thumb injury, is perfect. It is a place that allows the Nationals to insert Zimmerman’s bat back into the lineup without the potential train wreck of misfired throws or another injury at third base.

Coach Tony Tarasco hits him fly ball after fly ball in the afternoons. And then, if all goes right, Zimmerman (.275, .338 on-base percentage, two homers and 10 RBI in 19 games) hits line drive after line drive in the evenings.

What is Williams’ fair expectation from Zimmerman in left?

“My fair expectation is that he needs to hit in the middle of our lineup,” the skipper quips. “And catch what he can catch.”

Williams says we will see Zimmerman again at third base at some point. And the Nationals are only about a month or so away from a major decision regarding that: When Harper returns, the Nationals will have a Dodgers-like math problem, four outfielders for three positions. Werth is in right, Denard Span in center and Zimmerman in left.

Will Harper’s return push Zimmerman back to third, Rendon, the Nats’ first-round (sixth overall) pick in ’11, over to second base and Danny Espinosa out of the lineup?

Rendon is making all the plays while hitting .272 with nine homers and 34 RBI. Espinosa is hitting .226 with six homers and 17 RBI…and key stat: 72 strikeouts, ranking fifth in the NL. So that’s an option.

Another: Harper’s return could push Span to the bench (or to the trade market) while the Nats keep Rendon at third, Zimmerman in left and Werth in right.

But Span’s 24 extra-base hits currently lead all big league leadoff men.

Zimmerman is 29 and playing under a six-year, $100 million deal that takes him through 2019. He has a blanket no-trade clause that kicked in this year. He has seen the Nationals at their worst (59-103 in ’09) and at their best (98-64 in ’12).

He would like to see October again.

“The more I play out there, the more comfortable I get,” he says. “And it’s fun. It’s fun again.

“It hasn’t been as tough as third has been the last few years, making so many errors. Nobody wants to hurt the team like that.”

Least of all Zimmerman, who looked straight into the mirror and was stone-cold honest with himself.

It’s something all of us should do, but so many of us wind up choosing another option instead.

“He wants to do what he can to help the team win,” says Williams, whose Nationals again are on the move, 8-2, since their Z-man returned. “That’s a fantastic trait to have.”

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. He has over two decades of experience covering MLB, including 14 years as a national baseball columnist at CBSSports.com.

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman is currently on the disabled list with a broken thumb, but when he comes back, he may no longer be “Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals third baseman.”

According to Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post, the Nationals officials and coaches have internally discussed the idea of moving Zimmerman to left field when he returns from the disabled list.

The idea of moving Zimmerman away from third base has been floated around for multiple years now, and with his latest defensive struggles and Anthony Rendon playing strongly at third, it appears the time to do so could be now. And with Zimmerman’s arthritic shoulder, the sooner he can move away from the hot corner, the better.

As Kilgore points out, the Nationals have some confidence in the idea, based on the logic that if Michael Morse can learn left field, the more-defensively solid Zimmerman should have no troubles doing so. Morse was a shortstop coming up through the minors and moved to first base upon reaching the majors. 

Kilgore also brings up the point that the Nationals have no reason to make this idea public just yet. The team is still unsure of when Zimmerman will return from the disabled list, and Zimmerman himself would probably not be fond of worrying about position change speculation during his rehab. The idea is also not set in stone just yet, so the team will likely keep quiet until it is.

The other interesting part of this idea is what becomes of current left fielder Bryce Harper in all of this. Harper, like Zimmerman, is currently on the shelf as he recovers from his own broken thumb that he injured sliding into a base. But when he comes back (most think in early July), there’s no doubt the Nationals will want to get his bat right back into the lineup.

The most likely scenario if Zimmerman does move to left field is sliding Harper over to center. Denard Span is currently manning center field, but he’s posted an unimpressive (though steadily improving) .243 average and .296 on-base percentage to this point. Span is also set to become a free agent after this season, so the Nationals presumably would make taking care of Harper and Zimmerman (both signed through at least 2018) their priority. 

Harper, a converted outfielder in his own right, has had experience in center before. In 2012, he played 92 games at the position and he saw nine more games in 2013. While it may sound like he’d struggle transitioning defensively, Harper has actually posted a higher fielding percentage (.978 as opposed to .971) and UZR (9.8 as opposed to -3.1) in center field than left over the course of his big-league career.

While first base has long seemed like the most likely new position for Zimmerman, current first baseman Adam LaRoche is hitting too well (.319, five home runs, 21 RBIs) to justify benching him in favor of the third baseman. Additionally, locking Zimmerman in as the first baseman of the future would potentially limit the team’s power production from the position down the line; Zimmerman’s bat fits much better out of left field. It’s an idea that we haven’t heard before, but when it’s broken down, it just might make perfect sense.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman will be out four to six weeks after fracturing his right thumb on Saturday night against the Atlanta Braves, per Mark Zuckerman of CSNWashington.com:

James Wagner of The Washington Post reports that Zimmerman jammed the thumb after diving back to second base to avoid getting picked off. Adding insult to injury, he didn’t even get back in time:

The Nats haven’t had any luck this season in regards to injuries, as Zimmerman is now the fourth player the team has sent to the disabled list, per MLB.com’s Andrew Simon:

This injury comes on the heels of Zimmerman dealing with a shoulder injury. Nationals manager Matt Williams described that injury to CBS Washington’s Chris Lingebach:

Williams said he’d mistakenly said ‘arthritic’ two days earlier, at 106.7 The Fan’s Chalk Talk, when he was asked about Zimmerman’s long-term viability playing third base, with a nagging shoulder injury that flares up at random, thus affecting his ability to throw the ball across the diamond.

“Well, I think some clarification probably is in order first,” Williams said Wednesday. “The word ‘arthritis’ kind of gets everybody, and everybody starts to talk about it. It’s more of a ‘degenerative’ issue in his shoulder. He had surgery, they took a piece of bone out some time ago, and it’s more ‘degenerative’ than ‘arthritic.’ As soon as you say ‘arthritic,’ people think that he’s got to get on medication and it’s gonna be a lifelong thing.”

The one positive about Zimmerman’s injury is that it is still very early in the season. Teams never want to lose a player of his caliber at any point, but better now than during the thick of the pennant race in August or September.

With Zimmerman out, more pressure will be heaped upon Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth and Ian Desmond to deliver offensively. Anthony Rendon will likely get a majority of the playing time at third base, opening up second base for Danny Espinosa. The Nationals have enough talent in the lineup to remain in the thick of the NL East race until their Zimmerman returns.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Michael Wacha almost etched his name in baseball history with a no-hit bid against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night, but it was broken up with two outs in the ninth inning at Busch Stadium.

Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman hit a bouncer up the middle that tipped Wacha’s glove, and shortstop Pete Kozma couldn’t make the throw to first. There was some initial questioning on the broadcast about whether it was a hit or an error, but it clearly looked to be a hit.

As ESPN Stats & Info notes, it’s the third time this season a no-hitter has been ended with only an out to go.

The St. Louis Cardinals still won, 2-0, on the strength of Wacha’s performance. The 22-year-old rookie had nine strikeouts versus just two walks before being relieved by Trevor Rosenthal for the final out.

It was only Wacha’s ninth start of the season, and he is now a stellar 4-1 with a 2.78 ERA. ESPN’s Buster Olney noted just how brief Michael Wacha’s career has been up to this point.

There’s no doubting Shelby Miller will have a tough act to follow when he takes the mound on Wednesday.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With concern centering around Stephen Strasburg following Monday’s 3-2 loss to the Braves, the offense also may not have come out unscathed. Right fielder Jayson Werth, the team’s second-leading home run hitter and run producer, fouled a ball off his ankle and aggravated his hamstring.

Near the end of the game, Werth felt cramping in the seventh inning while racing to catch a fly ball and make a throw home. During his eighth inning at-bat against reliever Eric O’Flaherty, Werth fouled a ball off his left ankle.

He fell to the ground, rolled around and got up gingerly. Nationals‘ trainer Lee Kuntz and Davey Johnson came out to check on him. He finished the at-bat but was replaced the next inning in right field by Roger Bernadina.

Via Dan Kolko of MASN Sports:

The ankle was a little swollen after the game, Werth said. The hamstring, while it bugged the veteran outfielder, doesn’t seem to be a major concern, yet. “I’ll be fine, it’s not like a strain or anything,” he said. “Just a cramp. Those things happen. Sometimes they happen and you guys never hear about them. The ankle probably (makes) the situation worse.”

Two teammates have dealt with hamstring issues over recent weeks, Ryan Zimmerman and Wilson Ramos. Zimmerman’s hamstring strain, which landed him on the 15-day disabled list, began as hamstring cramping.

Ramos was reinstated from the DL on Monday, backing up Kurt Suzuki in the loss to the Braves.

The Nationals organization is certainly hoping Werth‘s fate won’t be similar to Zimmerman’s. With the offense currently dealing with inconsistencies, they can’t afford to lose Werth‘s bat in the lineup. Especially with Ryan Zimmerman expected to return this Friday, against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Werth is due to test things out Tuesday before determining whether he’ll need any time off. 

With the additional scare to Stephen Strasburg on Monday night, who is currently dealing with forearm stiffness following his start against the Braves, the Nationals fan base will now hold their breath until both Werth and Strasburg are in the clear health wise.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Limited to only 44 games last season after suffering an ankle fracture in his second professional game, Anthony Rendon resuscitated his prospect stock this spring with an excellent showing in major league camp.

Appearing in 13 games, the 22-year-old batted .375/.412/.875 with four doubles and four home runs and received extensive playing time at the hot corner. More importantly, Rendon asserted that, despite his limited experience, his bat was close to being ready for the major leagues. However, with Ryan Zimmerman blocking his path, it was widely known that only an injury could get Rendon to the majors before September.

Unfortunately, the Rendon insurance policy came into play far earlier than expected this season, as the Nationals were forced to call up their top prospect from Double-A after placing Zimmerman on the 15-day disabled list for a strained left hamstring.

Luckily, among all position prospects, Rendon stands a legitimate chance at succeeding in the major leagues and is a viable replacement for their All-Star third baseman. A right-hander, Rendon is one of the purest hitters in the minor leagues with a chance to have a legitimate plus hit tool. Thanks to advanced pitch recognition and plate discipline that’s already better than that of most big leaguers, he’s able to track the ball deep in the zone and coax his share of walks. More significantly, he’s adept at working deep counts and employs a patient but aggressive approach.

The only real question mark in Rendon’s offensive profile is in regards to his power frequency. Given his injury history and brief minor league track record, the 22-year-old has yet to tap into his above-average raw power. However, as he settles in at the dish—regardless of the level—his outstanding bat speed and ability to use the entire field should result in more balls that clear more fences.

Although he projects to be an average defender at the hot corner, Rendon is a shell of the athlete he was at Rice. Over the past four years, he’s suffered a right shoulder injury and three separate ankle injuries—all serious and involving both ankles—that have severely limited his range and overall quickness. And while his arm strength remains more than enough for the position, he doesn’t boast the plus arm that he did just a few years ago.

While few question the impact he can make if fully healthy, it’s difficult to project his potential long-term production. That said, when comparing Rendon to other major leaguers—past or present—it makes sense to take a conservative route, as there’s no telling how his body will hold up as he ages.

Using Baseball-Reference.com’s tremendous Play Index tool, I did a search dating back to 1987 (25 years) for third basemen that had at least one season with a .250/.340/.420 triple-slash line. After discarding high-profile players such as Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones and David Wright, I was left with a list of realistic comparisons.

Joe Randa

162-Game Average: .284/.339/.426, 74 R, 35 2B, 13 HR, 79/46 K/BB

Career WAR: 21.1

Over the course of his 12-year career with five different organizations, Randa posted a very respectable .284/.339/.426 triple-slash line while accumulating a 21.1 WAR. In his six seasons with the Royals (1999-2004), Randa was one of the more consistent and undervalued third basemen in the game, as he amassed 197 doubles and 79 home runs and reached base at a favorable clip thanks to above-average plate discipline and knack for contact.

Travis Fryman

162-Game Average: .274/.336/.443, 85 R, 33 2B, 21 HR, 131/57 K/BB

Career WAR: 34.3

Fryman feasted on American League Central pitching over his 13-year career, as he spent eight seasons with the Tigers before finishing his career in Cleveland. A six-time All-Star, he hit at least 30 doubles and 20 home runs in a season on six occasions. However, relative to some of the other names on this list, Fryman was more of a free-swinger than Rendon should be during his career, as he amassed 1,369 strikeouts in 1,698 career games.

In my opinion, his defensive profile at third base—he also logged 339 games at shortstop—is the most comparable to Rendon’s. While both players possess only average range at best, they make up for their shortcomings with instinctual actions, soft hands and an above-average arm.

Mike Lowell

162-Game Average: .279/.342/.464, 40 2B, 23 HR, 83/55 K/BB

Career WAR: 24.8

Lowell could be viewed as the ceiling comparison, as his contact rate and power frequency was better than what should be expected from Rendon. Over his 13-year career in the major leagues, Lowell batted .279/.342/.464 with 394 doubles, 223 home runs and an impressive 817/548 K/BB.

During his time with the Marlins from 1999-2005, he was one of the better third basemen in the game and appeared in three consecutive All-Star games. While his defense was always excellent at the hot corner, Lowell received his only Golden Glove award in 2005.  

Although he did post a WAR of 5.0 on one occasion (2007), Lowell’s average WAR was more in the 2.7-3.2 range, which is a reasonable expectation for Rendon.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Another season, another trip to the disabled list for third baseman Ryan Zimmerman.

Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson announced that Zimmerman would be placed on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring issue, and that top prospect Anthony Rendon will be called up from Double-A to play third base in his place (via the Washington Times).

Zimmerman attempted to play through the nagging hamstring. The first signs of injury were reported on Monday, though he tried to play on Wednesday after taking a day off. He left halfway through that game and then proceeded to miss Friday and Saturday’s games. The MRI he received Saturday morning must have thrown up red flags for the team’s doctors.

The move to call up Rendon in his place is an interesting one. The Nationals will likely only need the No. 6 pick of the 2011 draft for two weeks, after which he’ll be sent back down. Washington does not have room on the roster for him once Zimmerman returns.

Johnson must be under the impression that two weeks of Rendon will be better than two weeks of Chad Tracy offensively and at the hot corner, and he might be right.

Rendon is a Gold Glove caliber third baseman, and will arguably be the top defensive player on the team while he’s up in the bigs. Offensively, he’s off to a great start in the minors.

He’s batting .292/.462/.500 with two home runs, seven RBI, four doubles, eight runs scored and 14 walks. His patience is impressive, as his consistent ability to hit the ball hard. Rendon is not much of a power threat, but his solid stroke and line drive approach make him a threat to hit the ball well every swing.

Tracy, on the other hand, has done poorly in 19 at-bats mostly off the bench. He’s hitting just .158/.200/.158 with an RBI and just three hits.

Seeing two weeks of Rendon early in the season will be a great way for general manager Mike Rizzo and the rest of the team’s higher ups to not only get a look at a future star, but to assess whether or not he’ll be the heir apparent to Zimmerman at third base.

With his constant injuries and poor throwing this season—he has eight errors, though they could be tied to his hamstring—a move to first base may be in his future.

If Rendon proves that he can make the jump from Double-A to the bigs, then he could be expediting the inevitable.

Zimmerman wasn’t hitting all that well early on, so taking a risk on Rendon is not a bad idea at all. He’s not the same type of top prospect that Bryce Harper was, but this kid is talented and will look to make an impression on the team with his first opportunity to start.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman has reportedly been placed on the disabled list following a hamstring injury he sustained last weekend.

The Washington Times’ Amanda Comak reports:

The third baseman reportedly sustained the injury against the Atlanta Braves last weekend, then aggravated it even further when playing against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday—despite playing with a heating pad affixed to his leg.

After some pregame running and throwing under the watch of a trainer on Friday, Zimmerman was again rested by the Nationals, who scheduled him to play this weekend against the New York Mets.

However, instead of playing, the All-Star was again left out of the lineup by Nationals management and then sent to have an MRI scan on his hamstring.

The Nationals have already recalled Anthony Rendon from the Harrisburg Senators—AA Eastern League Affiliates of the Washington Nationals—as a replacement for Zimmerman, according to the Nationals’ official Twitter account. For a player who has landed on the disabled list four times in the past five years due to various injuries, this can’t be a good sign.

And whilst no information is yet known as to the severity of the injury or how long he will be on the disabled list for, the news doesn’t appear to be promising for Zimmerman.

Manager Davey Johnson commented earlier in the week regarding the injury.

“It’s something I don’t want to take a chance on getting worse. All games are important, but to take the chance of setting him back and missing double the time? I’m not willing to take that gamble…”

Zimmerman is currently averaging .226 with one home run and 11 RBI in his 15 games this season for Washington. The Nationals are currently second (10-7) in the NL East behind the Atlanta Braves (13-3) and hope that their star can return as soon as possible.

Hit me up on Twitter for more sports goodness.

Follow @dantalintyre

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Washington Nationals have been and will be an interesting team to watch.

After years of building up young talent and sending them into the farm system, Washington’s young dream team has finally been assembled. Players like Ian Desmond, Ryan Zimmerman, Jordan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper were all drafted by Washington, and they are all making a splash.

And it wasn’t just the draft. Washington signed Jayson Werth in the 2010 offseason and traded for Gio Gonzalez in the 2011 offseason.

Now, the Nationals lead the NL East by 2.5 games, and they’re ready to fight to the finish in a tight NL East race that everyone will be talking about.

Here are the Nationals’ four biggest second-half storylines.

Begin Slideshow