- Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2012 Topps #386.
- Player Name, position, team: Ryan Zimmerman, third baseman, Washington Nationals.
- Major League Debut: September 1, 2005.
- Last Line of Statistics: 2011 stats (Nationals): 101 G, 395 AB, 52 R, 114 H, 21 2B, 2 3B, 12 HR, 49 RBI, 3 SB, 41 BB, 73 SO, .443 SLG, .798 OPS, .289 AVG.
- Any special information about player: Drafted by the Nationals #1st, June 2005. Bats: right. Throws: right.
- Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 9. This is his eighth Topps card.
- Blurb on the back: "Ryan continued his 'Captain Clutch' routine in 2011, ending a game with a two-out/full-count grand slam. His eighth career walk-off homer made him one of three actives with multiple game-ending slams."
- Commentary: Forget Bryce whats-his-name. That Strasburg guy? Can't pitch a full season. If you want to know who the face of the Washington Nationals franchise is right now, it's the man who is pictured on the card right above me. Ryan Zimmerman (with one "n", not two...you'll confuse him with their pitcher). He was drafted in the June, 2005, free agent draft. After a 67-game stint in the minors (A-level Savannah and AA-level Harrisburg) in which he hit a robust .336 with 11 home runs, 38 rbi's, and an OPS of .941, he was called up to the major league roster when teams expanded THAT YEAR. Okay, so the Nationals weren't going to win the NL East division even with a good 69-64 record going into September. But they took a chance and brought up their future franchise player. In 20 games, Zimmerman showed that he belonged on the big team by hitting .397 (23-58) with 6 rbi's and an OPS of .988. It was a sign of things to come as the Nationals would grow as an organization while Zimmerman would grow as a potential superstar in DC. Before the 2012 season, Ryan would already be a Rookie of the Year runner-up, an All-Star, an two-time MVP candidate, a Gold Glove Award winner, and a two-time Silver Slugger. He was rebounding from a subpar year (for him) that saw him knocked out in early April through the middle of June thanks to an abdominal injury that required surgery. In what would be a comeback season of sorts for Ryan, he hit a good .282 with 25 home runs while driving in 95. While his offensive numbers would help carry any other team to a division championship, his numbers were complemented by outstanding offensive seasons by Adam LaRoche, Ian Desmond, Danny Espinosa, and some guy named Harper. Add a pitching staff that featured a 20 game winner, a 30 save closer, and a strikeout machine (11.1 K's per 9 innings), and you have a team that exceeded everybody's expectations and won the tough NL East in 2012. While the 2013 season looks like it's the Nationals' to lose, under the leadership of the team's Dean, it looks to be a great year to be a baseball fan in the DC area.
- Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.25-$0.60.
- How many cards of this player do I own?: 114.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
*THANK YOU!!!!*
ReplyDeleteZimmerman is one of the players I collect, and I tend to get irritated when everybody talks about Harper this and Strasburg that... If there's a guy who's earned the title "Mister National", it's Ryan Zimmerman.