(ed. note - "If for some reason you still need convincing, Federal Baseball.com's Doghouse makes the case for why Nats' third baseman and FOF© Ryan Zimmerman should be the National League's starting third baseman in the 2010 MLB All-Star Game. The fact that he's not in the Top 5 is unacceptable...Get Voting!! VOTE FOR ZIM!!!")
The Nationals' Face of the Franchise™ was on the MLB Network Radio show "Power Alley" with Kevin Kennedy and Jim Duquette earlier this week to talk about the State of the Nationals after they'd lost the first of three to the Tigers in Detroit:
• Zim On Stephen Strasburg's First Week:
Ryan Zimmerman: "It's a zoo. You really don't see it in baseball as much as other sports, I think you see it in the NBA and NFL, people come out to watch LeBron, or people go to see the Cowboys or something like that, but I've never seen anything like it in baseball. For the amount of pressure and amount of hype, and everything that Steve has on him, I think he's done a great job and obviously his first two starts have been pretty good."
• Zim on The Nats' Season So Far in 2010?:
Ryan Zimmerman: "We feel like we're right where we need to be. Obviously this last couple weeks we haven't played as well as we've wanted to, but we feel like if we can get into July and stay right around .500, right around four or five games back like we have been this whole season, you never know what can happen. Like you said, it's a winnable division by any of the five teams, it's a very competitive division, and you know it's a lot better than the last two years where we've been fifteen or however many games back already, and it's a lot more fun to come to the park every day that's for sure."
- Note: Following Thursday's loss to the Tigers, the third straight loss in Detroit, the Nationals are 31-36, a half-game behind the 4th place Marlins and 7.5 out of first behind the Atlanta Braves who lead the Mets by a half-game after beating the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 yesterday.
• Zim on Batting Third or Fourth In Front Or Behind Dunn?":
Ryan Zimmerman: "It doesn't really matter to me. [Nats' Skipper Jim Riggleman] started mixing it up a little bit this year, with lefties I've been batting fourth quite a bit and obviously with righties I've been batting third, but I think, I mean with me and Adam [Dunn] and [Josh] Willingham at 3-4-5 it's pretty interchangeable with me and Adam so, we're happy with the middle of the lineup that we have and whatever works best for us, all three of us will hit wherever Jim needs us to hit."
- Note: Batting third, Zimmerman's hitting .312/.399/.578 with 13 doubles, 11 HR's and 32 RBI's. As the Nats' cleanup hitter, in 9 games and 30 at bats, Zim's hitting .200/.314/.333.