Still Room On Nationals Bandwagon!

After a 9-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks Sunday, the Washington Nationals have won eight straight games. Holy smokes.

They are by far the crappiest team in baseball, with a big league-worst 40-72 record this season. Yep, that puts them on pace to lose 100 games. For the second consecutive year.

I Hate You, Barry Zito

Dear Barry Zito,

I thought you were a douche before you ruined my day today, but wow. I believe my detest can be summed up entirely by the above photo of you and your guitar, but I'll elaborate.

Liveblog at Walkoff Walk With Sooze!

So, if you're not doing anything at 3:45pm ET today, come join in the fun over at Walkoff Walk, where I'll be live-blogging the Washington Nationals @ the San Francisco Giants.

I'll give you one guess why. Anyway, go read it after the game, and I bet you'll almost swear you were actually there! I'm that good.

Weeeeeeeeeee!

Welcome to Crushingham Palace

Good Lord.

Okay, I'm not going to go on and on about how ridiculously awesome it is that it once again took Ryan Zimmerman only one inning to nail a 1-1 pitch from San Francisco Giants righty Matt Cain for a single to center Tuesday night. Alright, maybe I'll go on a little. This, of course, extends his hitting streak to 30 games.

The only other third baseman to be this consecutively badass was the infamous Pete Rose, who hit safely in 44 straight games, back in 1978. And actually, that doesn't even count, cause Rose played two games in left field during that span.

Halfway Home: Updated

I've been pretty much oozing non-stop over Ryan Zimmerman for the last couple of weeks to everyone I know, so I figured I might as well let the lust spill over to this place. He's blowing my mind right now. In fact, I've pained through the last ten Washington Nationals games, just to see him hit. Yes, it was worth it.

He singled in the first inning Sunday evening off Arizona Diamondbacks righty Max Scherzer to bring his amazing hitting streak to 28 games.

Zimmerman has ridden this impressive streak straight to the halfway point between nothing and history: Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio's hit-steak record of 56 games. Now, he's no DiMaggio, he has recorded the most hits in consecutive games for any Washington-based player, ever. Making history must feel pretty sweet.

Continue reading this story at Fantasy Pros 911.

Update: Senator Crushingham extended his impressive hit streak to 29 games with a single to center off veteran southpaw Randy Johnson (who went on to earn career victory #298) in the first inning of Monday night's 11-7 loss to the San Francisco Giants. He'll go for consecutive game #30 -- where it gets real serious -- tonight against righty Matt Cain (3-1, 2.61 ERA).

It's Love

So, we're going to interrupt our exciting Saturday night to update you on one of our favorite players. We're actually considering changing our name to Babes Love Ryan Zimmerman, cause wow.

I've cleared my schedule to watch the last nine Washington Nationals games, just to see him hit. Yes, it's been pretty painful, but watching Zimmerman continue his impressive hitting streak -- now sitting at 27 games -- has made it all worth while.

Zim homered in the top of the eighth inning Saturday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, taking righty reliever Juan Gutierrez deep to center, giving the Nationals a 2-0 lead for his sixth longball of the year. He's now batting .336 on the season with 21 RBIs. Hot.

Sentator Crushingham (yeah, we're still working out the nickname thing) will get a shot at hitting safely in consecutive game #28 when the Nats take on 24-year-old Max Scherzer (0-3, 3.38 ERA) and the D'Backs for game two game of the three game series.

Ryan Zimmerman is an Animal

Thursday was just not the Los Angeles Dodgers' day. Not only did they hear of the shocking (or was it?) news that their star left fielder had failed a drug test, but they also suffered their first home loss of the season. At the hands of the 8-18 Washington Nationals no less.

Washington rallied behind Nick Johnson and Adam Dunn, who each contributed three RBIs, for 10 runs in the final three innings to beat the 21-9 Dodgers by a score of 11-9 on the first day of Manny Ramirez’s 50-game suspension.

By far the most kickass part of the entire game was not just the fact that the Nats actual beat one of the hottest teams in baseball. No, the highlight belongs to Ryan Zimmerman, who went 2-for-4 to not only extend the longest hitting streak ever by a D.C. player, but to keep the best string in the big leagues this season alive. The hot-hitting third baseman, who's batting .336 on the year with 5 bombs and 20 RBIs, has hit safely in 25 consecutive games.

Zim is officially out of control.

[Lester's Legends] | [Fastball Radio] | [Federal Baseball]

Put It Away, Ryan Zimmerman

Just in case you've been living under a rock, Ryan Zimmerman is on a ridiculous streak right now.

The Washington Nationals third baseman is rolling on a club-record 20 straight games with a hit. Friday night against Todd Wellemeyer and the smokin' hot St. Louis Cardinals, he singled to center in the third inning to extend the streak, which is the longest by a D.C. player since Mickey Vernon's 20-game stint in 1953 with the Senators.

To Zim's credit, the humble team player said he'd trade the incredible streak for a few more victories for his no-talent hard-luck club.

You'd think his batting average would be sky-high, but not so much. He's batting a decent .289, with five home runs and 16 RBIs. If that's not good enough for you, don't flip out. In his first three full seasons with the Nationals, Zimmerman has gotten off to a slow start every year. We're talking a .237 career average during the first month. Also, his middle name is Wallace. Just thought you all should know, if you didn't already.

It's a good thing the 6-17 Nationals found a way to settle up with the face of their franchise back in February, before this god-awful season began. Zim will go for consecutive hit #21 when the Nats face righty Brian Moehler and the Houston Astros Monday night.

[MLB] | [The Statline Report] | [Fastball Radio] | [Dugout Central]

There's That Sucking Sound Again

I'm seriously beginning to wonder where the Washington Nationals get off thinking they have what it takes to be in the major leagues.

The one area of the game where they've really excelled as a team is handing the opposition three-game winning streaks, which is incredibly generous, but not cool if you're a Nationals fan. At times this season, it seems as though they can't even spell their team's name correctly, let alone swing a bat and field a baseball.

Continue reading and rate this story at Fantasy Pros 911.

A Tale of Two Zim(m)s

During a game in which maybe 25 of 1,000 fans stuck around for the glorious finish, and the bullpen tossed three hitless innings, highly-touted pitching prospect Jordan Zimmermann won his big league debut. Pretty awesome, considering who he's pitching for. That's right, victory #2 for the Washington Nationals, this time over the Atlanta Braves.

Zimmermann impressed the small crowd over six strong innings, allowing two runs off six hits, with three strikeouts and a walk. Not bad for a 22-year-old kid from Wisconsin. A second-round draft pick in 2007, he played at D-III school Wisconsin-Stevens Point and hadn’t played above Double-A ball until this season. Stud. Muffin.

One More Year

At least one veteran hurler has decided to represent for the Atlanta Braves.

Old school lefty Tom Glavine said "one more year" one more time, agreeing to a one-year, $1 million contract Friday morning, including an extra $3.5 million in bonuses based on roster time.

Glavine, baseball's 42-year-old active wins leader with 305 victories, went 2-4 with a 5.54 ERA over 13 starts last season before injuring his elbow. He plans on joining the Braves in March after rehabbing in Atlanta from a shoulder operation.

[AP] | [MLB Rumors] | [Talking Chop]

We Love Us Some Zim

While Washington Nationals righty Tim Redding took his one-hit bid into the eighth inning Wednesday night, Ryan Zimmerman pulled off his own heroics.

The 23-year-old third baseman smoked a 1-2 pitch the other way, straight into the right-field stands in the sixth (his second) to give the unbeaten Nats their third win of the season with a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Zim also flashed some leather, making a sweet diving stop on a stinger by Pat Burrell to avoid trouble in the seventh.

Redding, who at one point retired 14 straight, surrendered a Pedro Feliz single in the second and walked three over seven innings. Red out-dueled Phillies stud Cole Hamels, who allowed one run on five hits over eight innings of work.

This marks the first year since 2003 -- back in Montreal Expos days -- that the team has started their season 3-0. In fact, it seems Redding has adopted an A.J. Pierzynski Loves Journey attitude on their season's outlook:

"We believe," he said.

[Nats320] | [We've Got Heart]

Ryan Zimmerman Gets a Raise

Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman homered and drove in four runs in a 12-10 victory over the split-squad Houston Astros Saturday, just before agreeing to a one-year deal that raised his salary to $465,000 this season.

The runner up for the 2006 NL Rookie of the Year award now has time for his agent and his club to discuss a longer contract before he becomes eligible for arbitration after this season.

Zimmerman, 24, hit .266 with 24 bombs and 91 RBI last season.

[Washington Post] | [Federal Baseball] | [Oleanders & Morning Glories]

Thursday's Babelicious Scoreboard

Ronnie Belliard hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning off starter John Smoltz, aiding the Washington Nationals in a 2-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves in only their second win of the season Thursday night, halting a six-game skid.

The hard-hitting Ryan Zimmerman also hit an RBI single for the Nats, who had never led in any games so far this year. Jason Bergmann struck out a career-high eight in six innings for the Braves, allowing just one hit - a leadoff double in the fourth by Andruw Jones.

Smoltz gave up four hits and four walks - two intentional - over eight innings, striking out six. He is a career 16-9 against the Nationals/Expos in 35 starts.

[MLB]

Ryan Zimmerman Almost Gets the Big Bucks

After finishing second in last season's National League Rookie of the Year voting, Ryan Zimmerman was given a $400,000 salary for 2007 by the Washington Nationals.

As the fourth overall pick in the 2005 amateur draft, he received a signing bonus of nearly $3 million and proceeded to hit .287 with 20 homers and 110 RBIs for Washington in 2006.

The Nationals will likely give the hard-hitting third baseman a larger, long-term contract in the future, but for now they get the steal. They have a pretty sweet deal going since Zimmerman won't be eligible for free agency until after the 2011 season.

If you think he deserves more, you're probably right. But in comparison, Hanley Ramirez, the 2006 NL Rookie of the Year, received only $2,000 more than Zimmerman from the Florida Marlins for the upcoming season.

[Bloomberg]

Nationals Get Down To Business

Outfielder Ryan Church and right-handed reliever Jon Rauch were among 12 players on Tuesday that the Washington Nationals struck deals with for the 2007 season.

Church, 28, appeared in 71 games with the Nationals last season, hitting .276 with 10 home runs and 35 RBIs. In three seasons with the Montreal Expos, he is a .269 hitter with 83 RBI in 203 career games.

Making 85 appearances last season, the 28-year-old Rauch became one of Washington's top relievers, going 4-5 with a 3.35 ERA and two saves. Since being acquired from the Chicago White Sox in a midseason trade in 2004, Rauch is 9-9 with two saves in 109 games and a 3.11 ERA.