Lowered Expectations... Not That It Is Possible

A tidbit from Marc Hulet at FanGraphs:

The only players that have made it to the Majors who were taken between the second and fifth round of the 2007 draft are Rzepczynski, Jordan Zimmermann (2nd round, Washington), Jess Todd (2nd round, St. Louis) and Brad Mills (4th round, Toronto).

The big problem I had with J-Zimm early on is that he seemed to start slow, getting knocked around in the first inning. Aside from this last start in Colorado, he seems to have picked up some consistency, as seen in the five starts prior to Coors. A quick summary: 29.2 IP (an out under 6 IP per start), 2.12 ERA (no unearned runs, either), 28 K, 7 BB, 1 HR allowed.

The Nats are extracting first round talent from him, but have to remember that he probably should have been working out the kinks in AAA this year. Same with Detwiler, he struggled in A-ball last year, but suddenly is expected to be anchoring the big club in hostile environments. Seeing Manny Acta bitch about his inability to throw his breaking pitches makes wonder whether or not he understands the psyche of these young guys. He should be working on this stuff against AA slugs and AAA retreads. J-Zimm too.

Lay off the negativity and accept the fact that these guys should win one out of three. And truth be told, the Nats out played the Rocks for the first 16 innings of that series and came away with zero wins... that isn't a reflection on those two pitchers.