Washington Nationals: How Good Can Ryan Zimmerman Get?

How does one improve upon a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Award winning 2009 campaign in which one makes his first All-Star appearance, hits .292 with a .364 OBP, .525 SLG, .888 OPS, 37 doubles, 33 HR's (a career high by 9), 106 RBI's, a 30-game hit streak, a (+20.1) UZR/150 (which was 4th best in baseball), and a 7.1 WAR value, (8th highest in MLB)...oh, and a season in which one signs long-term with the team that made you their first 1st Round pick in the nation's capital-version of the franchise's inaugural draft in 2005....The easy answer would be to get the OBP up a little, but that's being picky. Ryan Zimmerman has his own ideas about what he can improve on, as he suggests in an AP article out of the San Francisco Examiner entitled, "Nationals' Zimmerman: 'I can do better' in 2010", where he's quoted stating: 

"'I honestly try to get better every year. Obviously, I had my best year individually last year. From when I went back and looked at it, I made a lot of mistakes,' Zimmerman said Sunday. 'I can do better than that. You just got to work hard, learn from what you did wrong and get better.'"

The "Face" of the Nationals' Franchise© agreed on a $5-year/$45M dollar deal with a team he described as a "good fit" for him when an ESPN announcer asked why he'd want to commit himself to the cause of bringing good baseball back to the nation's capital. "I'm gonna be there when times are bad, and, you know, in a couple years I'm going to be there when times are good." 

As for his own faults, Zimmerman's aware of what anyone who's watched his entire career would tell you was the one complaint thus far, "...his sometimes lackadaisical throw when he charges a ball or cuts toward the pitcher's mound, in front of shortstop," as the AP writer in the San Francisco Chronicle puts it. "It seems like each of the past couple of years I've had a little stint in each of the seasons," Zimmerman explains, "..and I obviously want to get rid of that." In addition to the occassional "yips", there was also the matter of Zimmerman's mid-season lull in 2009, a stretch of 24 games in July over which he hit just .246 with a .296 OBP in 96 at bats, though he did still manage to hit 7 HR's and knock in 23 RBI's on the month...

And if there was any other dimension for Zimmerman to add to his game it has to be that now, after 5 MLB seasons, he's sort of an elder statesman in the Nationals' clubhouse, as exemplified by the sort of comments he's been offering recently in support of the Nationals' '09 no.1 overall pick, pitcher Stephen Strasburg. In Washington Post writer Adam Kilgore's article, "Easy like Sunday Morning", (Faith No More or the Commodores, Mr. Kilgore?), on Sunday, the Face of the Franchise© is quoted protecting the Franchise's Right Arm© from the sort of excessive coverage he's bound to receive this season, as exemplified by a New York Post article on Strasburg published this weekend:

"'He's been dealing with that stuff for two years,' third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said. 'It's unfortunate that he has to deal with it, because it shouldn't be that way. He hasn't done anything, and now he's got to deal with everything already. But, you know, he handles it well. He's a nice kid. He works hard.

"He handles it the right way. Obviously, he's conscious of all the veteran guys around here. He knows what he's doing. He's a good kid."

If the Nationals' first no.1 overall pick ends up being nearly as impressive as their first 1st Round pick, the nation's capital might finally get a team capable of competing for the first World Series Championship since 1924...in, uh, a few years I mean...