Who, if anyone, is the Nationals 'ace'?
Who is the Nationals biggest rivalry?
What are the teams expectations this and next year, when can we expect success?
How good is Zimmerman when compared to the rest of the league's 3B?
Thanks alot, Josh.
Welcome Josh and you will get a variety of answers to your questions. My answers are:
The Nats don't have an 'ace' as of right now (although one poster here would insist that we had an 'ace' in Patterson and another one thinks the same about Bergmann
). Some people think that Hill could be an 'ace' but I don't believe that at all. Even when he is healthy he doesn't quite match up with the best pitchers in the league, IMO.
The rivalry thing is tricky. We tend to have levels of rivalry with the teams in our division but the Mets and Phillies are at the top of our hatred. However, even though Baltimore is not in our league a lot of people (but not all) will tell you that they are a hated rival due to their geographical proximity and our hatred for their owner.
Some of us expected the Nats to compete and flirt with .500 and maybe even slightly above (one poster here expected them to compete for the wild card
). There are some around MLB who think the Nationals will barely be improved from last season. Although it's not looking good right now I'm still hoping we can win 83 games and maybe end up 3rd in our division.
Zimmerman is probably the best glove at 3rd (although he can use a little polish on some of his throws). As for offensive production, he has shown ability and promise but only time will tell if he will ultimately live up to it and be the best in the league. Right now he's struggling. Some people outside of Washington believe he is overrated. Some people here think he is the best in baseball. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle.
